Chapter Three

Author's Note: I have so many unfinished stories. I have new stories I want to write but I suppose I should tie up some loose ends before I set my muse free once more. So here goes!

A week went by without any sight or sound from the mysterious Sinead. Sometimes when he was driving home at night, Jack would catch sight of a huddled-up bundle on the streets and wonder if that was her. He hoped she was safe wherever she was.

Then one day, exactly a month after their first meeting, she appeared in his life again. He had been called in to police custody to take a DNA sample. Jack heard her before he saw her but he recognised the scared tones immediately.

"Get off me!" he heard a voice scream as he signed in at police custody "No! No! Please stop!"

"Feisty one," the custody sergeant grinned

"What's her name?" Jack asked, although he was certain he already knew

"Why do you care. I thought you were just the CSI-bloke?"

"She's scared,"

"She's a prostitute that's what she is,"

" .Name?" Jack said through gritted teeth

"Sinead Murray," the custody sergeant said reluctantly "We've had her in before. Like I said, she's a prostitute nothing more. Well now maybe she's something else, she's a murderer,"

"What?" Jack exclaimed

"We found her pimp dead," the sergeant said and they both turned as they had an ear-piercing scream from the cells "Shame. She's a pretty one. I wonder how much she charges?" he said and grinned at Jack with a lascivious look on his face

Jack swallowed hard, trying to supress his anger "What cell is she in?"

"Number three," the sergeant told him curtly and Jack strode off, hackle's prickling at the sergeant's comments

"Please," the voice begged as he got closer to cell three "Get off me,"

"Stop struggling," Jack heard an officer reply angrily and as he stepped into the cell he saw why Sinead was so scared

She was lying on the floor of the cell being restrained by four police officers, each on a limb. She was red in the face from crying and her Irish inflection was peppered with hoarseness from screaming. She still looked thin and haggard as she did the first time he met her. He could see the tattered remains of her dress underneath his hoodie which was covered in blood

"You forensics?" one of the officers asked looking up and Jack nodded "We're going to need her clothes, DNA and a blood sample. CID want the works. DCIs having a crackdown on prostitutes and drugs at the moment and dear Sinead here fits the bill, don't you?"

Sinead turned her head and spat at the officer "Fuck you!" she screamed

"Right the handcuffs are going back on," the officer said wiping his face "And you can add assaulting an officer to your charges,"

"I didn't do it," she cried as the cuffs dug into her already raw skin

"Well forensics will show us the truth, eh?" the officer said turning to jack who ignored him "We'll hold her down whilst you get the samples,"

"No!" Sinead screamed "Please," she begged "Let me go,"

Jack set his case down and crouched down before her, ignoring the warnings from the officers "Sinead?" he said softly "Remember me?"

She tuned at for first time looked at him "Pizza-man?" she said looking shocked

"Otherwise known as Jack," he smiled softly "Listen to me. I need you to calm down. I can take samples by force by force, but I don't want to,"

"Please, help me," she begged

"Let me help you by letting me take these samples. But you need to stay calm and stop screaming and spitting, okay?"

Another tear fell down her cheek and a runner of snot dripped from her nose as she nodded.

"I'm not taking samples in the cell," Jack told the officers "Take her to the medical room. She'll need examining. That cut on her cheek needs looking at and only a Doctor can take blood,"

"She'll kick off again," the officer retorted

"No, she wont," Jack said firmly to the officer and as a warning to Sinead "Not whilst I'm here,"

Jack had no idea what was going on, not yet anyway. But he was going to try his best to find out. He remembered the skinny runt cowering in the carpark behind his car and sighed. He had a feeling this case would take all the bottle he had.