"I think I'm insane. What do you think?"

She sits with her ankles crossed around the bar stool, her fingers grasping a glass of cheap wine for dear life, her other hand lost in a forest of carefully styled curls. Her off-the-shoulder blouse is even more off-the-shoulder than it's supposed to be- but at least her makeup is still immaculate.

The man watches her with a mix of confusion and fascination. He's not quite sure how she, or he himself, for that matter, got here, but he's pretty happy to just sit and listen to her. Better than sitting at home with a girlie magazine and a hand down his trousers- tonight he might actually have sex with a woman instead of his right hand.

He smiles at her strange question- he kind of wants to say yes, just to see her reaction, but, as usual, politeness wins.

"I really couldn't say."

She laughs.

What a complete idiot, she thinks. He's a skinny 30-something creep with a greasy face, sideburns and what looks suspiciously like nose hair, but right now all she needs is someone to listen to her.

"You see, just a few days ago... I was... suspended. I'm a police officer, you see."

"Oh?"

"Yes, but... well, yes, I was suspended."

"Why?"

Her eyes darken and the corners of her mouth curl under.

"Because my DCI's a prick."

Alex knew it was going to be a bad day as soon as she saw the Guv.

He stormed in 10 minutes late, his eyes ablaze. He stepped to the front of them and surveyed them all, a look of obvious disgust on his face. Alex watched him curiously- Gene was a pretty angry man in general, but never this angry. Finally, he spoke.

"All right, you useless pack of tossers, it appears we have a murder on our hands."

There was a murmur around the room. As insensitive as it sounds, they were excited to actually have an exciting case to work on- they'd been doing paperwork all week.

Alex raised her eyebrow. "Really? Since when?"

"Since SOMEONE," he growled, pulling a brown parcel out of his pocket and slapping it down on Alex's desk, "Sent THIS, to ME!"

Alex opened the parcel and gasped in horror.

"What is it? Let us see!", Ray called.

"It's a... it's a finger."

And it was.

It was a ring finger, by the looks of it- white as milk, a disgusting sight to see. Shaz gagged, and delicately put a hand over her lipsticked mouth.

"If it's just a finger, how do we know he's dead?", Ray asked.

"You can tell- there's no blood around it or anything, so they took it off after they killed him."

"Hold on, why "he"?"

"Doesn't it look like a man's finger?"

"ENOUGH!", Gene roared. "All I want to know is whose sodding finger this is and where I can find the bastard who sent it to me!"

"Hang on, he sent this to you? Personally?". Alex's eyes widened. No wonder he was so upset.

"Your powers of deduction still astound me, Bolly."

"That's unusual. Maybe it's someone you knew?"

His gaze bore into hers with intensity. Alex was surprised- it was one of those rare moments where she could actually see human emotion in Gene's face. She realized, then, that this finger hadn't just angered him- it had genuinely scared him, for exactly the reason Alex had just said. He was scared for ...

Alex frowned. She couldn't think of anyone who Gene cared for- at least not anyone who wasn't sitting in CID right now.

She looked back into her Guv's eyes and tried to show him that she understood, that she cared, too.

"Let's just get this done." Gene's voice was low and dangerous.

"Don't worry, Guv. You can count on us."

"Oh, joy," he sneered, and stomped into his office.

"What a charming man," Shaz said, drily.

And so their day began.