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In the next morning Barbara got up early. After a nice shower and a coffee she grabbed some working gloves she found in her tool box and her heavy walking boots. It would become hot in them, she thought aching to just slip into her light sandals instead. Clad in old cut off jeans and a similarly old T-shirt sprinkled with white and green dots of paint she waited for her colleague Winston while she sipped a second coffee. The weather forecast had announced a hot day and she already regretted having agreed on that stupid idea to help with gardenwork on a day like this. She could as well have stayed in her cool flat and enjoyed soft drinks or maybe later a cold beer and the fact that she already had done all necessary things yesterday. Unfortunately Winston had no mercy and rang her bell almost in time to pick her up.

He was in an unbearably good mood on the way to their boss. Annoying little early bird, Barbara thought. Constantly teasing her for the shabby shorts that revealed her knees and talking all the way from her flat to Belgravia he was on the verge of getting stabbed by her for his annoyance. Barbara only gave little signs that she actually was there in the car with him.

They arrived shortly before 9 o'clock. Lynley was prepared and seemed to have waited behind the curtains to let them in. He was as joyful as Nkata was. He wore a light grey T-shirt with reflecting stripes at the ironed sleeves and brand new work shorts which also looked as if they were bought at the DIY shop yesterday. Barbara almost expected the price tag to be still dangling at its rear pocket. Clean work boots made of leather completed his perfect appearance. While they all exchanged their greetings in the hallway Lynley and Barbara secretly sized each other up and so Winston began to feel slightly uncomfortable and very superfluous. He also thought that Lynley surely had muscular calves and that Barbara certainly had nice knees but he was not staring at them with red ears, was he.

"Okay." he said when the DI had finished thanking them in advance one more time. If there would have been long sleeves at his old shirt Winston would have rolled them up now. "Where's the wasteland, Sir?"

In his opinion they should start as soon as possible to get it done.


Lynley led them onto his veranda where three spades and a pickaxe already waiting for them leant against the balustrade and on the lawn a flashing new wheelbarrow, eagerly shining in the morning sun, looked forward to its first use ever.

"Wow, that's a huge garden, Sir!" the Constable marvelled. He had only ever made it into Lynley's hallway when he had to pick him up one day but he never would have thought that there was such a huge area behind the house. "Barb, you could've said it's the size of a football ground!"

"It isn't anywhere near, Winnie." Barbara rolled her eyes. Nkata grinned and she slightly blushed. It was not that she had not been visiting their boss unusually often in the recent months for a pint or a coffee and even for dinner one time. Although the latter had just happened because they had gone through files in his study one afternoon and had forgotten about the time. It had been extraordinarily cosy though. She never had told him but Winnie apparently knew. Or at least he suspected something. Feeling both men's eyes on her she quickly went on speaking. "But it is huge indeed, all the more without that shrubbery-monster in the back. There's quite a lot of new space over there."

Lynley chuckled. "I'm glad it's gone now. It's already been here when I've bought the house. And that's quite some time ago. You can imagine that there are a lot of roots in the earth by now." In a few words he told his colleagues that during the previous night he had given thought to the strategy for the day. "I'd like to try to save as much topsoil as possible, so please fill that wheelbarrow with what you grub out and bring it here onto the foil. I'll sieve it later. The twigs and branches and roots we'll be going to pile up there. I hope they'll make nice logs when they're completely dried. And-"

"Sir, can I have another coffee, please?" Barbara muttered interruptively and earned a raised eyebrow from her boss before he slightly leant forward.

"As I was about to say, Sergeant Havers..." Tommy grinned and made an invitating gesture towards the small side table on the veranda she had not spotted before. "And if you want coffee you'll find it there. Cold drinks are in the fridge in the kitchen. Feel free to loot it."

"Shouldn't we take care that your expensive parquet flooring won't be damaged by sand or stones from the soles of our boots, Sir?"

"You're quite right, Nkata." For a while Lynley was thinking. "Good. You'll get yourself a coffee and I'll roll out some of that black foil in the living room."


After the delicate wood of his floor was covered and Barbara had drunk another cup of coffee they finally started digging. Although it was quite hard work digging and cutting and ripping roots out of the ground they had a lot of fun together. Four hours went by in no time. The sun had climbed higher and higher on her way towards noon and it turned warm and warmer and so when the doorbell rang at about one o'clock and some posh delivery service brought boxes with cool fresh salad with shrimps and poultry and fruit for dessert it was a very welcomed break for all of them.

Afterwards the amateur gardeners relaxed in the shadow of the huge chestnut tree on the opposite side to a new plot with a rather shredded looking rose plant. Some time during this summer Lynley had carried the teak wood table under the tree and around it the three exhausted people were lounging about on comfortable deck chairs after lunch. Nothing of the mass of vegetables and fruits was left over.

With a sigh the Constable had closed his eyes pretending to take a nap.

In fact Winston had not born anymore to see Lynley and Havers acting so intimately yet so distant. It had been tough to watch all these small sweet moments while they ate. Tommy had refilled her bowl without asking. Barbara had mixed his lemonade with a shot of still water before he could have said anything. He silently had handed her a napkin when she had needed one and she had given him the right salad dressing which he had wanted but he had not had to say a word. And when their fingers had brushed they had looked apologising but then they constantly had shot secret glances at each other, clearly yearning for a repetition of the glorious accidental touch that had made at least Barbara's fingers tremble.

It was really painful to watch them.


After a while Nkata had properly dozed off and he began to snore.

"He's got a new girlfriend." Barbara said fondly watching the sleeping frame of Nkata. "Joanna."

"Oh, really? Lucky man." Tommy briefly gave her a sad look but they looked away from each other quickly. For a while they both watched the grass growing. "He could have brought her here."

"Another pair of hands, huh?" Barbara softly laughed. "Oh, I don't know... She didn't appear to me as if she was the heavy gardening type."

"Well... she could have cared for the rose. It still has to be fixed. And pampered by gentle hands. Although you could as well take care of her later."

Watched by Lynley Barbara dreamily smiled at the haggard plant. "I'm so glad you've kept it."

"How could I've cut it off?" Something in his voice made her look at him.

Their eyes met and locked. After several seconds Barbara had to look away so she faked a yawn. She truly was tired but not too tired to be oblivious to the irritating expression in her boss' face. It was frightening because she read emotions she never would have expected nor would she allow herself to explore it any further. It was for the sake of her own sanity so she lifted her feet onto the seat, leant back and closed her eyes to escape his confusingly intense gaze. She felt as if for a second her barriers involuntarily had crushed down and that would not be of any good.

Barbara yawned, and this time it was in fact real. "Let's have a short rest, Sir."


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