"DS Turner... you're late!"
Stuart sighed, Manson at his grumpiest. Stuart was not exactly certain if he'd been forgiven for the faulty paperwork incident last week that had left him and Stevie scrambling to get the file into the CPS on time. A drug dealer, however small time, slipping through their fingers wouldn't look good on his record.
"Sorry, guv" he fished around for a suitable excuse, truth was, he'd overslept.
"Overslept... again." The corner of Neil Manson's mouth turned up slightly, and Stuart escaped, relieved, to his desk.
"It must be love." Stevie passed by, winked at Jo who was dropping some more paperwork into Stuart's in tray. They were both looking at him, with that expectant look that spelled trouble. Desperately, he made a sort of non committal noise in the back of his throat, big mistake, Stuart faced the united female front with a sinking feeling. He really didn't like coming off second best. So this was not shaping up to be the best morning ever, and he couldn't think of a single comeback that didn't leave him sounding like an idiot.
"Work...ladies..." he made a vague shooing motion with his hand, hoping that they would just go. Not a chance! Their smiles widened.
"Never mind, Sarge." Stevie winked, "I'm sure there's someone out there for you..."
"Stuart, Stevie, Jo," Manson's voice just behind them made them all jump. "Briefing room now," he raised an eyebrow at the two women, "or would you two prefer to investigate DS Turner's love life further..."
"No...No.. Guv." They scurried to do his bidding, joining Max, Terry and Mickey in the briefing room.
Stuart looked back, and noticed Meadows coming through the door to CID in the company of a man that he didn't recognise. He nudged Jo, "Who's that?".
She looked, and shrugged "No idea. Have the feeling that he's something to do with this, though."
Meadows entered the briefing room, looked round at his expectant team, and sighed inwardly, he didn't like this much, but Heaton was being leaned on by higher up, and DI Cox had been loaned to them specifically to head up this case with Neil Manson, and he really didn't want to think about what else had been wished upon them.
"This is DI Cox. It would appear that Terry and Mickey's little robbery last week set off a number of alarm bells." He looked across at the DI "I'll hand over to DI Cox and I'm sure he'll explain it all to you. But we've been tasked to clear this up."
Mark Cox cleared his throat, "This has all the hallmarks of a fraud, but we're not exactly certain what we're looking at here." He turned to the screen. "This painting turned up in your robbery last week." he looked round at the slightly bored expressions, "it has been authenticated as the work of one Jack Franks. Insurance has already paid out on this one, and approximately fifty others." He pressed the button and a picture appeared on the screen. "Jack Franks. Aged 54. Or he was when..."
"He and his latest show went up in flames at his studio." A pause. "Starting without me, eh Mark."
All eyes swung towards the intrusive voice. She was leaning against the door frame, a study in casual, and they all checked her out. No beauty, built like a truck, dressed in combats, hair a shade of scarlet so bright it was almost painful to look at, strangely attractive in a very odd sort of way and the look of horror on Mark Cox's face spoke volumes. Suddenly this rather boring case looked interesting. A powerful whiff of conflict was in the air. Stuart could smell it. And it was confirmed in the rather hard, almost feral green eyes boring into Mark Cox's face and in Heaton's slightly defeated looking expression.
Cox was speaking, and Stuart dragged his mind back to the present "The insurance companies have hired themselves representation. Ms de Winter is what we like to call an insurance investigator."
"What he's trying to politely say is that I am a bounty hunter. The insurance companies involved have paid me an obscene amount of money to recover their property and where possible their money too." They were all trying to place the accent. She moved to the front and looked round the room. "I'm Arabella de Winter. I'm a freelance solution to higher insurance premiums. To those of you who know me," she inclined her head towards Mark, "I get the job done, no mess, no fuss. To those of you who don't, I'm sure we'll all get along fine as long as you're clear on a couple of points, I don't take prisoners and I always get my man."
Heaton tried to counter, he could feel the tension rise and he was feeling out of control, and Heaton liked to feel in control, "I am sure that you will work within the parameters of your remit. And I am sure that my officers will give you every assistance possible." He was deeply uncomfortable with the thought of a civilian, and this particular civilian having such power and control in an investigation. He caught her cockeyed expression and wished he'd stayed quiet. Her ruthless technique was about keeping people off balance so that they made mistakes, and he'd just made a humdinger. To his relief, she didn't annihilate him, and as the reputation that preceded her from certain quarters was one of ruthlessness he was thankful for that, a fanciful corner of Heaton's brain couldn't shake the idea that he'd just put a piranha in with the goldfish.
Jo was stood next to Stuart's desk when Stevie approached them, Jo looked at the younger woman's eager expression and sighed, Stevie clearly had some momentous gossip to impart, and from the equally eager look on Stuart's face too, he was more than ready to buy into it.
"Got the lowdown on Arabella de Winter..." Stevie's tone was triumphant, she had had to make a few phone calls. She glanced over her shoulder to check to see where the big bounty hunter was. The last thing she wanted to do was attract the wrong kind of attention. If even half of what she'd been told was true, this was the best ever.
She looked at the pad she'd scribbled some stuff on. "She's supposed to be connected, her father was allegedly part of the New Jersey Mob..." she looked at the slightly blank expressions... "y'know, The Sopranos, horses heads' in beds etc...mum's British, she works both sides of the Atlantic ...insurance companies love her, she has a 100 success rate..." Jo's skepticism was now obvious, Stuart was eyeing her with a look which said he was trying to be cool about it, but he was definitely on her wavelength, Stevie looked at Jo "okay, you don't believe it, but she's also known as The Hammer. She's supposed to have crushed some guy's thumb with a lump hammer..."
Jo sighed. "Stevie... get a grip." Stuart started to say something and she cut him off "don't you start... Arabella de Winter is an insurance investigator, or, as she calls herself, a bounty hunter. Her job is to keep people off balance, so that they make mistakes and she can take them down. It's what she does, and by all accounts she is very, very good at it. She's also supposed to be rather good at the Urban Legend stuff, false trails and so on," She looked at them both "the sort of thing that susceptible young officers might just take too seriously..."
Stuart got it, and scowled. He didn't like to be thought of as susceptible.
Stevie got it, and would have scowled but Stuart beat her to it, and if he felt discomfort at being thought of as young and susceptible, Stevie was more than happy to wind him up a bit. She hadn't quite forgotten that "little legs" thing the other day. Besides, it would be good to burst his bubble a bit, Stuart was a good detective, but he was also quite cocky, and it would be quite nice to see him taken down, just a little.
Some devil of mischief occurred in Jo and Stevie at the same time. They looked at each other and an unspoken agreement passed between them. They smiled at each other.
Stuart was looking down so he missed the significance of the sudden silence, and the conspiratorial smile.
End of the day, and Jo walked out into the darkness, crossing the car park, she headed for the darkest corner.
"Well that was alarming."
"It works though."
"Bella, I have a really bad feeling about this."
"It'll be fine, Jo. You did good. Don't lose sight of the fact that we've got a murderer as well as a million dollar fraud in our sights."
"Stuart will go all out to get ahead on this one, so will Stevie. Bella, promise me again that no one will actually get hurt."
"Jo, how long have we known each other..."
"I know, I know... I'm just not comfortable deceiving people. Stu and Stevie, they're not just colleagues, they're friends too, and I would hate anything to happen to either of them."
"Jo, I promise that both of them will be just fine, I will make sure of that."