Disclaimer: As usual all characters belong to ITV and Colin Dexter, I've just borrowed them. I haven't written in a while so this is something of a tentative toe in the shallow end! Contains spoilers for Old Unhappy Far Off Things.
Guilty Relief
He strides angrily across the boathouse, ignoring the battalion of Scene of Crime Officers that are scurrying around the place like ants, his attention firmly fixed on the crouched figure of Laura Hobson and the slumped blonde body she is examining.
He stands for a moment, saying nothing, unable to speak around the lump in his throat. All he can focus on is those familiar honeyed strands tangled and darkened by mud and blood. He's lost people before, God knows, but someone you've worked with, taught, shared a pint with... that seems to have a special pain all of its own. It scares him a little, because if he feels like this now, what sort of state would he be in if it were Mark or Lyn lying there at the water's edge?
Laura warns him, but he has to know, he owes them that, he has to gather the information he knows he will need to catch the bastard that did this. He listens to her soft voice telling him of the time of death, that they wouldn't have suffered, and he appreciates the sentiment as much as he doesn't really believe it. Slowly he turns away from the body, and stands alone, his thoughts on their last night together at the pub. Just an ordinary night it seemed, an Inspector and his Sergeant having a pint...
"Sir," a familiar steady voice breaks into his conversation, "There's something you should see."
He can't look at Hathaway over the sudden surge of guilt that he feels rising in his throat. Not because he blames James, or even himself really, for Ally's tragic death as she came back here alone last night. But because, for one terrible moment, he can't suppress the relief that the tall and constant shadow of Hathaway is still safely at his side.