On Closer Inspection
Makepeace rang the bell for the third time, keeping her finger on the button and listening for evidence of movement inside. Come on, wake up Dempsey! What on earth are you doing?
"Yo! I'm commin'!" could be heard and a disheveled Dempsey opened the door. Makepeace pushed past him to enter the apartment.
"I've been here for fifteen minutes now, didn't you hear the bell?"
He rubbed his hands over his face and stifled a yawn.
"You look dreadful!" she said glancing around the room and taking in the empty whiskey bottle and takeaway cartons on the coffee table.
"Alarm aint gone off," he said looking dazed and confused, "what time is it anyway?"
"Don't worry, its still early but Spikings has been trying to contact you. He wants us in the office ASAP, apparently they are springing a surprise inspection on us today." Dempsey groaned and Makepeace looked at him with a frown.
"Hmm, you look like you could do with another couple of hours in bed!"
He leant backwards against the sofa, moving his eyes over her.
"Good idea, wanna join me?"
She smirked.
"Don't think Spikings would be too pleased."
"Ah, just an office inspection between us then?"
"You know what I mean. Come on, we've got to go and you could do with sobering up!"
She took him by the arm and pushed him towards the next room. He looked backwards at her.
"And so domineering! But I aint goin' nowhere without coffee first. "
He changed direction and made for the kitchen. She followed, watching as he flicked the switch on the kettle. Why is he drinking so much at home on his own? Seems odd.
"Hey you want some?"
"No thanks, just get a move on."
"My head aint workin' properly yet."
Leaning over the counter, he rested his head on a cupboard.
"Hangover Dempsey?"
"Hmm."
He stood up and busied himself making some coffee.
"Wanna grab some aspirin for me Harry, they're in my room somewhere."
Will she take the bait?
Sighing, she left the kitchen and shouted over her shoulder, "Can you be a bit more precise? Where exactly?"
She made her way into his room, tripping over the clothes that were strewn across the floor.
"In the drawer by the bed I think!"
She sat on the bed, opened the drawer and searched inside but saw no sign of the aspirin. Then she glanced at the table on the other side and moved over the bed to look in there. She pushed the items in the drawer aside and finally found a bottle of aspirin. Glancing at the floor, which resembled an obstacle course, she tutted and crawled back across the bed but rushed to get off when she heard him approaching.
"Ha! Gottcha in my room..." he halted at the door when he saw her. "... and reliving a fantasy at the same time!" he said with surprise.
Wow, that's a sight I never thought I'd see! Just then she managed to reach the end of the bed but caught a foot on the bedclothes, flying forward. She slid down the side of the bed and ended up half crouching, half standing, holding on to the bed covers for support. "Well almost..." he said watching her with amusement, "...I'll handle Spikings, lets work on the details."
He reached out and caught her by the arms, pulling her upright and towards him. He smiled slowly as he watched her upturned face fill with colour. Why am I blushing? I never blush! There was a pause but then she shook her head abruptly and untangled herself from him.
"He'll have your guts for garters if you don't get a move on, and you might like to think about tidying up sometime, it's like any army assault course just to get across this room!"
They finally arrived in the office to be confronted with an atmosphere of hushed voices and tension. The staff began to gather in Spikings's office for a briefing and Dempsey poured himself another quick mug of coffee before finding a seat next to Makepeace. "Right if everyone is here, I'll begin. This inspection we've had sprung on us, I want everything to run like clockwork today, am I making myself clear? Our focus for this morning is this recent spate of incidents," he ticked them off on his hand, "burglaries, muggings and a sudden appearance of narcotics which seems to have mysteriously flooded the market lately. As luck would have it I was able to acquire some documents and discs from the department that has so far been dealing with this. The top dog was not too keen to share with us but I used my considerable powers of persuasion and these..." he gestured to files and discs on his desk, "... happened to drop into my lap. Now I don't know how long we will be able to keep them for so use them well. The department's track record for these convictions is excellent and some people may believe that we are treading on toes but nonetheless; we are being pressured from those above us to find out why these offenders keep popping up recently. I want you lot to find out if there are any connections here. I think you would all agree that today would be a good day to get started on this."
He hesitated and then began again in a quieter but more purposeful voice.
"It would be very wise to get results on this pretty sharpish considering that we are going to be poked, prodded and generally hung out to dry today."
He stopped then, scanning his office.
"Dempsey... nothing to add hey… no back talk?"
Dempsey simply shrugged his shoulders and took another sip of his coffee.
"Good, keep it that way. Chas, divide up the cases and allocate."
He paused and then dismissed them with his hand.
"Well...get to it!"