Killing Me Softly 22

Broken Heels and a Plan

Her hair was soaking from the rain and tangled from the wind. The make up she'd had so perfectly applied that morning and that she was sure had survived her tears, just, was now smeared across her face. The storm had stopped and left massive puddles all around and a drizzle that was pathetic in comparison to what it had been not even half an hour before. She still hadn't figured out where she was but somewhere in the distance she could hear the noise of drunken students tumbling out of clubs, that's how she knew it was late or early.

She'd planned, the quiet before the clubs closing had allowed her to think in a somewhat normal manner. Unless life threw her anymore unwanted balls to play with, she was sorted, and if that did happen then she was done.

She'd been sat overlooking the large body of water, that she still wasn't sure what was, for hours with only the moon beams seemingly dancing over the ripples the rain had caused for light. Her phone was close to dead and kept alerting her to the fact she was only 20% charge left but it wasn't important as wherever she was seemed to have little or no signal.

Her phone read 03:57 and now Sandra was determined to get back to Gerry's and get a few hours of sleep before she tried again in getting her family home. She began to head towards the noise she could hear because no matter how drunk the people were she was sure that someone would be able to tell her where she was and there was likely to be taxis around.

She hadn't walked far before the heels on her shoes decided they'd had enough of all the walking they'd done in the previous hours and snapped in protest. It wasn't the first time she'd had to deal with a snapped heel but usually she had a spare pair close or could get one, at this time of night though it wasn't likely. Instead she chose to remove her shoes and walked bare foot, to anyone looking on at her they'd have seen someone who was either having a nervous breakdown or had drank too much. Right now nervous breakdown was probably closer to the mark. She'd not been in a physical state like this since her early twenties and it wasn't something she had any desire to return to.

"Are you okay?" A police man asked as he stopped,and his partner carried on running, when he noticed Sandra, she'd wandered down an alley way which was at the back of a housing estate that was maybe slightly familiar.
"Yeah."
"Are you sure?" The friendly police man asked clearly not too convinced by her reply.
"Erm, no. I'm lost and my heels broke and I was caught in the storm. That's why I look a mess."
"I didn't think you'd have anything to do with this burglary." The man laughed.
"No, it wasn't anything to do with me, I used to be a police officer here."
"Sandra Pullman?"
"Yeah, why?"
"You were my boss in murder squad. George Hutchins."
"Ah George, how come you're back in uniform?"
"I asked to, I got bored of a desk job."
"Ah, can you possibly take me home?" Sandra asked not liking that she was having to ask for help.
"Of course, the cars just down here and Mike will be back in a second, sounds like he's lost the suspect anyway." Sandra went to follow him. "Stay there a minute Sandra." His next actions shocked her, he'd picked her up.
"What are you doing?!"
"There's glass on the floor and you're bare footed, I don't want to take you to A&E instead of home."
"Not home, I live in France now a days."
"So where are you you going to?" She was now sat in the back of the police car and told her former colleague Gerry's address as Mike arrived.
"Ah hello, suspect George?" Mike asked smiling at a possible lead as he'd lost his suspect.
"No, this is Sandra she's my former boss and she's lost so I said we'd take her home."
"Ah hello Sandra, course we'll take you home. Anyone who put up with George deserves a medal!"
"I've had worse, you may have heard of UCOS?"
"Yeah, I've only ever heard great things about it."
"I set that up and ran that for 10 years and the boys there were a lot more work, wouldn't have changed them for the world though."
"Isn't Gerry Standing down there?" Mike asked.
"Yeah."
"Then you definitely deserve a medal, my dad and him are great friends."
"That's where we're taking her."
"Ah, I haven't seen him in years. Can you say hello from me?"
"Course I can. Thanks for the lift." Sandra thanked them as the car drew to a stop outside Gerry's flat.
"It was no trouble."

The car stayed where it was for a few minutes while Sandra retrieved the key from where Gerry's said it would be and let herself in.

As promised several lamps throughout the flat were on, she headed first for the kitchen for a glass of water after having dropped her bag and shoes at the front door. There was something odd about being up and about in someone else's house at this time but it was her closest friends house so she didn't mind too much. She tiptoed through to the bathroom in an effort not to wake anyone, and was relieved that the towel she'd gotten out for Olivia was still laying out so she could dry herself off.

Once she was dry and had changed into her pyjamas she quietly walked through to her mum and Olivia, she was taking extra care because her mum was a light sleeper and wouldn't be ecstatic about being woken however she needed to say goodnight to her baby.
"Sandra?" She heard her name whispered from the door. She left the room and followed Gerry back through to his room.

"Is that you only just back in?" Gerry asked sleepily.
"Yeah, sorry for waking you."
"Don't worry about it, I wasn't properly asleep anyway, I was worried about you. Come here and get into bed." She did as she was told, he pulled her into a hug, a friendly hug. At this point a hug from a friend was exactly what she needed.
"It's a mess Gerry." Tears rolled down her face again.
"I'm sure it's not too bad. Tell me about it, a problem shared is a problem halved, so they say anyway."
"You should sleep Gerry, I know how you are when you haven't had much sleep and Sasha won't be best pleased if she has to put up with it."
"Right now I don't care about Sasha or work. I care about you and you clearly need to talk so talk. I've never had to moan at you to speak before and in all honesty you being so quiet is disconcerting." A soft giggle escaped her mouth.
"Fine."