Car Jacked

You are probably getting fed up of apologies from me, but my plan to update was flawed because 1) my coursework deleted despite my having saved it hundreds of times, 2) we had more guests at Christmas than I had anticipated (19) 3) I have been ill resulting from being hit in the head and 4) I have exams so a million times sorry

Mickey was currently in the passenger seat of a squad car as they raced towards the Jasmine Allen estate. The information they had was murky; they didn't know if they had a hostage situation or if Smithy himself was in trouble.

Jo was listening to the chatter over the radio. She was glad Gina had retired after Smithy's last escapade; she knew the bond between them ran deeper than colleagues. She also knew Gina would have flipped if Smithy was indeed involved in another intricate problem; he would probably never have been allowed to leave the station. She looked up and realised they had reached the estate and were pulling over near the car they had been looking for which was now abandoned. She saw Mickey talking to an officer next to the car and hurried over.

'Any luck?' Mickey asked Jo.

'No, 'fraid not,' she paused, 'Mickey, you don't think Smithy took the kid hostage himself do you?'

'Corse not, what did you say that for? He might be a tad annoying, but he'd never to anything like that. He'd never hurt a kid.' Mickey looked indignantly at her

'Yeah sorry, right well, to work.'

'Yeah, work.'

The three youths pulled back the net curtain and looked down, they could see the Police milling around, knocking on doors of the various levels of the towers. One of them – Jenson – was panting, the result of running up so many flights of stairs (as usual the lifts weren't working).

'They're with the car; we need to clear out, now.'

His mate responded in the negative, 'No, they don't know where we are, or what we look like. You didn't stick your face out did ya?'

A breathless, 'No'.

'Good, then we can just answer the door and they won't know any better.'

Millie turned away from Mickey as Jo exited one of the tower blocks. He grinned at her.

'Good news, Ben has positively ID'd the suspect driving the car, on CCTV the picture wasn't good enough to ID him but Ben is positive it's the guy he was chasing earlier. Pete Hughes. Unfortunately he don't live on the estate, he lives up in Leeds.' Mickey knew they were getting somewhere at last.

'Right well, I'll grab some pictures of Mr. Hughes and see if anyone 'round here recognises his face. Doubt it tho' you know how helpful everyone likes to be.'

Smithy yawned and opened his eyes. At least he'd caught up on some sleep. He gently rolled Hannah off of his arm and stretched. He stopped, from the next room came the sound of a heated argument. He hoped it wouldn't lead to another violent encounter, his ribs ached and in hindsight he shouldn't have stretched so vigorously. A faint breeze tickled the back of his neck and he looked up. Above him the window was slightly ajar. He smiled, brilliant a way out.

However, once Smithy had stood up and gazed out of the window he remembered how high up he was. He sighed and went to sit back down again but froze. Movement in the car park below the towers had caught his eye. He peered down at the figures. Wait, they were Police cars and he wasn't so high up after all, only three floors or so. He turned back to the room. There had to be something he could use.

Mickey grabbed Jo's arm. 'Mickey, what the hell are you doing? Get off.' She exclaimed.

'Look, there's a bit of paper in that window, see it? What does it say?'

'Mickey.'

'Yeah, what?'

'No, it says, Mickey.' Jo rolled her eyes.

'Oh, right, so hang on, is that Smithy waving at us and pointing?'

'Looks like it.'

Smithy had managed to fashion a sign using a scrap of paper and a melted crayon, and at last it had attracted attention. Now was the hard part, talking down three floors without the yobs next door hearing, the paper wasn't big enough to write any more.

He pointed at the room next door and then held his finger to his mouth hoping they would understand. Hannah was looking up at him bemused. Then he remembered the window was unlocked and pushed it open so he was leaning out, hopefully still concealed from the people next door. Mickey was gesturing downwards as if he wanted Smithy to climb out onto the balcony – which was accessed from the next room – and from there climb down. In response he manoeuvred Hannah to the window and shook his head hoping he had understood Mickey and that Mickey had understood him. Footsteps sounded and he dropped his sign pulling the window shut and quickly sat down.

Mickey and Jo were briefing CO19 about the situation; the only thing they didn't know was how many other people were in the flat and if they knew Smithy knew about the Police presence. They hoped they weren't going to make a fuss judging from the lack of ransom or demands made. CO19 approached the building.

Jenson shut the door and went back to the other room.

'Tied him back to the radiator, but I don't think they know the cops are outside.'

The three youths settled down in front of the television attempting to act normal in case they had a visit from the local constabulary. Little did they know what was in store for them.

Hope this sort of made up for the wait. Sorry it's not the best quality. Hope you enjoyed anyway, reviews are welcome