Testing Times

Chapter Three

Close To Home

Smithy and Roger approached the Coal Lane estate preparing to attend to a call out, they were not fully aware of the situation but knew that it appeared it be a domestic. Although Smithy managed to handle most situations with a calm approach situations like this turned his stomach, at times he found it hard to control his anger. Smithy had a hidden pain that few people knew about; for years he suffered at the hands of his abusive father and this was one of the reasons that he objected to having children. He couldn't bear if he inflicted the pain his father inflicted on him onto his own children.

When they reached the flat it was clear that there had been signs of forced entry, as the door appeared to be hanging from its hinges. Entering the flat Roger and Smithy separated, while Roger searched downstairs Smithy took a look upstairs. As he reached the landing various doors stood out, choosing a random one he opened it slowly as not to alarm that may be inside the room. Surprisingly it was not as he expected, huddled in the corner of the room were three children; the older one appeared to be shielding the other two in her arms. Taking back with shock Smithy stood silent as thoughts ran through his mind, acting on impulse he walked over to the children still making no sound. The eldest embraced the other two even tighter in her arms and Smithy could clearly see the fear in his eyes. He knew that it was time to speak, time to calm them down,

"It's Ok, Im Sergeant Dale Smith from Sun Hill I aint' gonna hurt ya" He said comforting them.

The girl was still wary of him but her grip on her siblings loosened, Smithy saw this and called for Roger.

….

Meanwhile Yvonne and Kerry were walking through Canley Park, Yvonne knew that Kerry wouldn't want to talk but she knew that she had a lot on her chest that would not do any good bottled up.

"You know if you want to talk you can Kerry, you want be boring me" Yvonne prompted,

Kerry just shrugged and carried on walking,

"In your time when you feel ready then" Yvonne carried on,

"Yvonne I just don't want to talk OK!" she spat walking further in front before stopping and turning to face Yvonne again,

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap. I have plenty of hormones at the moment let alone my other troubles" Kerry apologised.

"That's Ok" Yvonne smiled, before carrying on,

"You know it can't be doing you two any good being under the same roof why don't you come and stay with me for a while?"

"Thanks Yvonne, but I don't wanna be a burden on you" Kerry said,

"Nah I could do with some company my love life's as good as yours" Yvonne joked,

Kerry found slight humour in it and smiled slightly although the pain was visible.

…

At the station Smithy handed the young girl a soft drink, she thanked him and pulled upon the ring pull. The fizzing noise filled the air as Smithy sat on the chair opposite leaning slightly forward with his hands clasped together. Smithy's change in body language was an obvious difference to his usual slumped back in the chair state. But this time the case was different, as he knew how the girl felt, granted she had not said what had happened but it was clear to see.

"So are you gonna' tell me what happened then." He said smiling searching for something from her,

The girl looked at the floor in response, Smithy knew that this wouldn't be an easy case; physically or mentally.

"Y'know your not alone we've got people you can talk to, like me for instance; all right I'm not your posh counsellor in a suit but I do know what your feeling." He sympathised,

Something Dale said must have registered with the girl as her eye line rose to meet Dale's, after studying him for a while she spoke,

"Where are my brother and sister I need to be with them?" she stated, her tone was not aggressive but docile.

"There with social services for now." He replied,

"Why am I not with them then I don't understand what's going on." She cried.

"It's ok you will be soon we just need to ask you a few questions; your not in trouble though. How did you get those bruises, did someone hurt you?" He implied.

Dale wanted to cut to the chase but in a delicate situation like this he knew that it wouldn't help.

The girl did not reply and her eye line fell to the floor again.

" You see the thing is we can't catch whoever did this to you if you can't tell us. Where was your mum, there was no-one in the house when we came around." The new sensitive side to him was one that shocked even him.

"She's dead. And if your asking who looks after us my dad does and if your asking why he wasn't there its because he went for a walk ok." The girl said bluntly, contracting her whole body in and holding her legs into her chest.

"And do you think that what your dad does is ok" Smithy tried to state it in a way that showed no emotion but it was hard.

Just as the girl appeared to speak there was a knock on the door, Kerry faced Smithy and asked him to pop outside the room.

Thanks For reading guys although this will probably be my last fic for quite some time as the school is going overboard with CW. Im having a word so you never know but for now ta ra! xxxxxxx