Disclaimer I do not own New Tricks. All copyright belongs to BBC Television and Wall to Wall productions. No copyright infringement is intended nor should be inferred. This story follows on from The Letter.

One Punch?

"1999." Sacha stated as Sandra and the rest of the team sat facing the whiteboard. "It's a long time ago. Is anyone really going to talk to us now when they refused to talk to anyone back then?"

"Oh you'd be surprised." Jack smiled slightly. "Memories tend to come back with time in these cases. People feel less threatened after a period of time."

"And less able to conceal their lives." Steve joined in as Sandra nodded.

"Yes, but this is our main focus right now. 31st December 1999."

"New Years' Eve." Danny joined in.

"Yes." Sandra sighed as Sacha rolled her eyes.

"Oh no, not just New Years Eve. The New Years Eve." Brian took his glasses off. "Millenium Eve. People are going to remember where they were. Who they were with."

"Do you? Brian?" Gerry asked.

"Yeah, my first one sober. I was with Esther. We watched the telly before going to watch the fireworks."

"Can we get back to the case?" Sascha snapped.

"Hang on, they will." Sandra smiled. "You just have to let them work their way round to it. I think it's an age thing. Loosing testosterone."

"Male menopause?" Sascha smiled as Sandra bit her lip. She was beginning to enjoy having another woman on the team. Something she would never had imagined just a few months earlier. Still working part time while recovering from her cancer she knew her team was in good hands.

"But this kid." Gerry stated.

"Here we go." Sandra raised an eyebrow.

"What was 'e doing there? I mean. From what we've been told Micky Jones was a good kid."

"He was." Sandra sighed. "A level results had been amazing. He was in his first year at uni. Studying medicine. Such a waste. One punch."

"Paul Sorenson was convicted of manslaugher." Steve stated. "Why is this case even open? A man is in prison."

"Was in prison." Sandra corrected him. "He's dead."

"Sorenson is dead."

"Yeah." Sascha nodded. "Testicular cancer three years ago. Sad really."

All the men in the room fell silent. Brian put his glasses back on. "So? Why reopen the case? We have a convicted killer."

"Yeah, in theory we do. Strickland wants us to look into it."

"Why?" Danny frowned.

"Micky was a popular young man, very intelligent. Not bad looking, had a nice girlfriend, Gail Hughes. Another student. It looked to everyone that Mickey and Paul had a fight over her."

"Hardly a fight though." Jack leant forward.

"One punch." Steve stated. "One punch is often all it takes."

"We are taking this case. We know there have been cases that had to reopened to ensure the conviction is sound. When Sorenson was in prison he was trying to get an appeal. He was trying to get people to believe that wasn't him in the CCTV video. That Gail and another as yet unnamed man had been setting him up all along. He died before the appeal could be heard."

"He was caught on camera."

"No, Gerry. The man who threw the punch is on camera. It was always assumed it was the same man who was convicted. But what if it wasn't?"

"And that is what we are supposed to find out?" Jack got to his feet.

"Yeah. Well, we are detectives." Gerry huffed.

"Exactly, Gerry. So, come on." Sandra stood up. "Was a young man wrongly convicted? If so, where is the real killer?" She watched as the older men began chatting away. Sascha leant next to Sandra and smiled.

"Thanks."

"What for?"

"Not telling them it was my brother."

"If he was wrongly convicted." Sandra sighed. "Then there is a real killer out there, we have to find out if we convicted the right man back then. It will come out that you and Sorenson."

"Yeah I know." She paused "I just need to know if my big brother was the monster the judge said he was or if he went to prison for something he didn't do."

"I know." Sandra agreed. "And we will."

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A/N Worth going on? Please review