Seven Days and Counting 4
Disclaimer:- Don't own them just borrowing!
Episode:- Lots of little things from early series no major spoilers
Pairing:- Sandra / Gerry
Rating:- M
Achieve:- . /group/new_tricksff/
Summary:- Sandra's missing can the boys work out who's taken her and get her back before it's too late.
Author's Note:- Ok let me think, not really sure how to authors note this other than to say it's not the usual thing I write. It's angsty and tense and involves serious character danger and so if you are opening this expecting my usual sort of fluffy sexy smut for the sake of smut STOP NOW. If you don't like to see our fav characters in distress or danger STOP NOW. To be honest I can't think of any other way to warn you so here goes and please review if that's what you're into since this will be as hard for me to write as for you to read lol
Day 2
"Strickland is upstairs with forensics he says he'll be down in twenty minutes to fill us in." Jack said setting the phone back down that had been ringing as they walked into the office.
"Did he say if they'd found anything?" Gerry asked pacing up and down in front of the incident board as Brian put the kettle on before reaching on to the top of the cupboard and bringing down the half empty bottle of scotch and handing it to Jack.
"Pour him a drink will you he might stop pacing long enough to drink it." He said turning his attention back to the kettle and making himself a coffee.
"No he said he just said he'd fill us in when he came down." Jack replied handing Gerry a mug with an inch of the amber liquid in the bottom. "I want to ask you something before he gets here anyway. If you and Sandra are a couple why the hell weren't you worried or jealous even when the flowers arrived not once but twice and the cake or whatever it was she said he sent?"
"Of course I was worried and jealous." Gerry sighed kicking himself internally again for not taking more action as he looked from Jack to Brian and realised they were expecting more of an explanation. "Look when we got home after the first ones arrived here we have a huge row and I mean a stonker of a row. I went off the deep end asking her who sent them, was there someone else who had asked her out or was there something going only I should know about. In the end she convinced me that there wasn't and I convinced her that it was nothing to worry about. I didn't know about the muffins she must have binned them without telling me, and the second flowers only came the day she disappeared and they weren't there when I left her place that morning to go home and change so they must have arrived after that. You know what it's like you two work with her too you see how many guys react to her when she's in the room if I got jealous every time someone else fancied her or asked her out I'd spend my entire life being jealous. She told me that first night when we had the row that if I loved her as much as I said I did then I was going to have to trust her and trust that she loved me and didn't want anyone else."
"Yeah I can imagine how that row would have went." Brian sighed "When we were younger and I was always either working or drinking I used to get paranoid that someone was going to take Esther away from me. We had more rows than I care to remember that ended just like that."
"Perils of being a man with an attractive partner;" Jack agreed "I wasn't saying you did anything wrong I just thought if we talked about it maybe it would jog your memory and you'd remember something that might help."
"Now that you mention it;" Gerry said quietly trying to think back to the previous weekend. "Last weekend I answered the phone at her place and the guy on the other end just said he had the wrong number and hung up. Then she came in and said she'd been down putting the rubbish out and the bin was toppled and the bags ripped open. Not just hers another one as well she said it had happened a few times and the other people in the block thought they had a fox or something."
"Did she say when it started?" Brian asked turning to the incident board and writing phone call? Bin?
"I didn't tell her about the wrong number call. It was right in the middle of the whole stalking case and she was already pretty wound up. I asked about the bins and she said it had happened a couple of times in the previous couple of week's always more than one bin and hers was always one of the one gone through. She even joked that it was because she had a superior standard of left overs to everyone else. I don't see how it could be linked Sandra is the most security conscious person I know she shreds everything there'd not be anything personal in there."
"Yeah but he'd not know that until he looked." Jack sighed "it doesn't explain why he kept coming back though, maybe we're just trying to grasp at straws maybe it was just a fox."
"Or maybe personal documents weren't what he was looking for." Brian added taking his glasses off and rubbing the bridge of his nose before putting them back on again. "We've assumed that whoever this guy is he knew Sandra at least a bit but think about it. Think how many people we meet in passing in this line of work and every one of them she gives her name and rank to. If you were this guy and that was all the information you had what would you do?"
"I'd try to contact her through here." Gerry replied his eyes narrowing as he started to catch up with Brian's train of thought but Jack got there first.
"And after the flowers I'd want to know more about her, make sure I had all the facts before approaching her."
"Exactly" Brian smiled "So you follow her when she leaves here in your black mini, very common car we told her that ourselves so you think you'll be safe."
"Then you find out where she lives." Jack picked up as Gerry nodded and watched as Brian wrote everything on the incident board in the form of one of his famous mind maps. "Then once you have her home address you've no need to contact her here anymore."
"You send all future gifts to her home." Gerry agreed as they all now paced back and forward in different parts of the office. "And you try to find out more about her from her rubbish but you don't just root through one bin that would attract too much attention you make sure to always mess with at least one other so it looks like a fox or something."
"Yeah that's plausible" Jack sighed shaking his head at the information on the board "But it's still tells us bugger all about who was doing all these things."
"Right forensics have some information for us." Strickland said loudly walking into the office before any of them had a chance to talk further. "The bloods on the coat and on the living room floor by the coffee table are both a match for Sandra. The blood in the sink is partially hers but there's another source it doesn't match any on the database."
"So she did manage to injure him?" Gerry replied triumphantly feeling a small amount of relief that she had at least had time to fight back that was quickly replaced by a fresh wave of nausea as he saw the pool of blood on the floor in his mind's eye.
"Yeah." Strickland agreed eyeing the mind map Brian was still adding to. "There was a single recoverable print on the key again no matches to anyone known to us."
"So really it all told us nothing then?" Jack sighed sinking into the chair behind his desk.
"Well it gives us evidence to use when we catch the guy but there's something else." Strickland continued glancing at his feet for a second as all three men looked at him expectantly. "There was a semen sample on some of the…..well more personal items in the bedroom. It matched the unknown blood in the sink which obviously means we have no match for it either."
"So he…" Gerry began not able to finish the sentence as Jack and Brian moved to his side both obviously thinking the same thing.
"No forensics don't think she was sexually assaulted based on that sample they think….." Strickland interrupted shuffling his feet again and obviously trying to choose his words carefully as Jack finally lost his temper feeling his blood run cold in his veins.
"For fuck sake stop skirting around the evidence! Collectively we've over a century of police experience behind us we've heard it all before and right now we are more interested in finding Sandra than in your embarrassment."
"It appears from the spread pattern of the sample and the amount of it there was on the….garment that our abductor had a little time on his hands while he was waiting for Sandra to get home and he decided to use it to ….enjoy himself."
"Fucking bastard!" Gerry shouted as he grabbed his coat digging his cigarettes out of the pocket before storming out of the room.
"One of you should go after him." Strickland said quietly as both of the other men shook their heads.
"He'll be back in a minute he just needs to clear his head." Jack replied
"Yeah and process what we've just heard he'll be back in the time it takes him to smoke his ciggy." Brian added.
"Well what's this on the board is it…." Strickland began before they were interrupted by the arrival of the desk sergeant from upstairs as he walked through the door with a large parcel that all three men looked at like it might be about to explode.
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Opening my eyes I realise there's actually some light in the room being given off by the small lamp he's put on the dressing table. Lifting my head I see the pool of blood on the pillow and feel the swelling on my lip from having been his with such force. My head has the same steel wool feeling that it had when I woke up yesterday and now I know why. He drugged me; he must have done the same thing to get me here. He hasn't cuffed me to the bed again and as I see the small table at the end of the bed I know why. He's left fruit and more water and a note which I pick up with trembling hands.
"Heading for day three Sandra and still no sign of your boys. I wish I could say I'm disappointed but I'd be lying. I'll be back in the morning I suggest you eat something and think carefully about pulling a stunt like that again. Once I can forgive twice and I'll not be responsible for my actions."
I knew it was stupid, I knew it was a risk but I had to try at least that's what I'm telling myself as I lift the bowl of fruit and try to eat something but find it sticking in my throat. I drink one of the bottles of water before crawling up the bed and turning the pillow over as I bury my head in it and feel panic and fear consume me causing me to completely fall apart. My chest tightens and I let the tears I've been holding back for two days overtake me.
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"Gloves everyone and get me a knife or something to open this with." Jack said loudly as Gerry re-joined them his eyes widening as he saw the box and took a set of gloves from Brian.
Watching as the box was opened all four men stepped closer to it staring at the contents before Strickland retrieved some evidence bags from the cupboard at the other side of the room.
"Right one thing at a time." He instructed as Jack dropped the blouse Sandra had been wearing the last time they saw her into the first bag he held out. Five minutes later they all looked at the row of evidence bags in front of them containing Sandra's clothing, shoes, handbag and its contents and the video table and letter now resting in Jack's hands.
"Put the video on." Gerry told Brian as he did as instructed and they watched as the screen as filled with the image of Sandra sitting at the dressing table then a shadow appearing behind her.
"Oh god." Brian gulped as they watched Sandra make an attempt to escape her abductor before he hit her and the screen went blank as he pushed her back onto the bed.
"The letter? Strickland said quietly as Jack looked at Gerry with his head in his hands. He knew watching what had just happened must be killing him even more than it was the rest of them and as he opened the letter in his hands he couldn't see that situation getting any better.
"Gentlemen does this woman even know how to follow simple instruction? She really can be very trying at times. I don't know how you put up with her for so long but given that it's been 48 hours and you are no closer to finding her, nor me for that matter I think it won't be long before I'm ridding you of this particular annoyance. Happy Hunting"
"I'll get this stuff up to forensics I have a core unit up there working on this they know it's sensitive and they're getting through stuff as quick as possible." Strickland said his voice barely audible "You three need to go home, sleep, eat, shower, it's after midnight we're not going to be able to do anything else tonight."
"No way!" Brian snapped
"Go to hell!" Jack added.
"We're going nowhere have you lost your fucking mind?" Gerry concluded as Strickland held up a hand to silence him.
"Do you three really think you are going to be able to work if you don't get some rest?" He said firmly as Brian looked at Gerry concerned that he might be about to blow his top altogether.
"How about this for a compromise;" He intervened before that could happen glancing at Jack to back him up. "We'll go home for an hour, we can all shower and change and then come back here I'll get Esther to make us something to eat that we can heat up here and we can brainstorm while we eat."
"I think that sounds reasonable." Jack replied glancing from Gerry to Strickland and breathing a sigh of relief when both men nodded. "Have forensics finished at Sandra's place?"
"Yeah they got everything they needed." Strickland confirmed "Why?"
"Because Brian is going to get Esther to help us get the place back to normal before Sandra comes back." Gerry replied.
"Ok well there's a uniformed officer on the door round the clock I'll let them know she'll be coming and going over the next couple of days and she'll be safe enough with them there."
"She'd be safe enough anyway." Jack sighed as the three older men left the room "He's got what he wanted from that place, he's got her, he'll not come back there."
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Closing my eyes, feeling exhausted from the tears I feared would never stop I try to think about something other than this, try to sleep and dream of something other than darkness and fear. Suddenly in my mind I'm back at home lying on my sofa with my feet resting on Gerry's lap as he strokes my ankles and tuts loudly at the football match he's watching while I read my book. In spite of the fact I was nervous about what had been happening I never was when he was close, with him I never felt anything but safe.
"Where are you Gerry?" I whisper into the pillow "I love you I miss you, find me please I need you and you promised you'd always be there."
I know he can't hear me and I don't believe in the magical power of love to transport messages through the ether but once, just once I'd like to be proved wrong. Just this once as I speak the same thing over and over in my head I hope he can hear me. And that before long I'll be able to tell him again in person how much I love him and feel his arms around me letting me know I'm safe again.