Bodie looked at the stranger with whom he was about to be teamed and a part of him he had ruthlessly buried since he was sixteen years old stole his breath. Doyle was beautiful, cherubic even. The shock of it making him dangerously incoherent.
He tore his gaze from the luminous being suddenly standing in Cowley's office and dropped his head to stare intently at his feet. His fight to quell the turmoil within him absorbing him completely.
Cowley took in the brooding presence in front of him and understood. The man Bodie purported to be would have been outraged by the fay creature to whom he had just been introduced. But if Bodie was the man he purported to be Bodie wouldn't have been in CI5.
The man Bodie actually was masked his near panic by demanding ''I'm going to be teamed with that?''
Cowley bided his tongue; these next few minutes would tell.
The angel in Doyle's guise stopped fiddling with the tie strung uncomfortably round his neck and said ''Problem is it sunbeam?''
Bodie couldn't look at the face which had unexpectedly made five minutes in the inner sanctum of CI5 more terrifying than any African war.
''Well is it Bodie?'' prompted Cowley when Bodie's silence threatened to go on being unbroken.
Bodie suddenly straightened. Head up, shoulders back, eyes fixed. ''I can't work with him sir.'' There was panic and pleading in there if you knew where to look and Cowley knew. Always knew.
But Doyle didn't. Doyle saw what Bodie intended you to see. The soldier. ''Not enough spit and polish is that it?'' he sneered, before turning to Cowley ''Is this your new thinking? 'Cos it looks pretty much like the old thinking from here.'' There was anger in that, restrained and subdued because of Cowley's presence and fuelled by disillusion and bitter resignation.
Cowley said nothing. He'd tolerate a little ill discipline for now. There were rewards which outweighed the cost if his instincts were right and they were rarely wrong these days.
Bodie turned to face his nemesis. More courage than sense Cowley had been told. Death wish had been in the reports, though they were wrong. Sometimes courage was just that. Some men that exceptional. ''I said I couldn't work with you. I'm your problem. If you have something to say about that; I'm the one you say it to.''
''Okay sunshine. What's wrong with me? Which bit of little England did I fail to measure up to?''
Bodie hesitated at that. He didn't want to be remembered by this man as the one dullard who didn't catch the irony in Cowley's lavender and roses speech.
Cowley watched. Doyle was a bright lad. He'd let his anger get in the way of that up until now, but Bodie's hesitation had started the cogs in motion.
''Or is it something else?'' asked Doyle, the detective at work. Scenting a deception, knowing something didn't hang together and probing for the weakness.
''I work better alone'' said Bodie inanely. This wasn't his strength, put a gun in his hand and he knew where he was, but he was an honest man and had no stomach for lying. Though he would if it was necessary. He had the stomach for far worse if it was necessary.
''No that's not it'' said Doyle confidently. They were fighting on his turf now.
Bodie found refuge in anger ''Okay then mate, you tell me. What's my problem?'' It was a mistake, the minute the words left his mouth he knew it was a mistake.
''Oh I don't know darling'' Doyle hissed venomously ''but I think I can guess. Frightened I'll lose the soap are we?''
Bodie blinked; thunderstruck. Doyle was admitting? Knew what he'd assumed? Thought that was the reason? He couldn't let him think that. He could admit nothing himself but he couldn't let him think that. There was only one way out without explaining, without revealing the truth. Only one thing he could do to prove to the man that he wasn't despised.
''I do work well alone. And I keep my soap on a rope. Guess again sunshine. You'll need to do better than that if this is going to work.''
Doyle's eyes narrowed suspiciously. ''Weather suddenly changed did it?''
''I changed, didn't know you swung that way. Leaves more birds for me. Got an incentive now. Not just stuck with some skinny ex-plod.''
''Oh I wouldn't go thinking that sunshine'' said Doyle nastily ''got a taste for the birds too. All round pervert see?''
''Just the way I like them'' said Bodie smugly, he was in familiar territory now, but his heart was still hammering. He wouldn't have to explain. Doyle would get the birds. This beautiful foul tempered heavenly creature would share his bed and understand the birds. Bodie was dizzy with the prospect of unimagined new vistas opening before him.