Usual disclaimer. Don't own the characters. They belong to the great Sally Wainwright and Red Production Company.

A/N Thanks to the people who are following this story. And especially for the comment. I am also biased about Londoners (being one).

Rachel and Janet went out of the loos and upstairs to pick up notebooks before proceeding to the conference room.

"Right. Everyone is here. The potential victim is an unknown IC1 male found unconscious in Catfield Road, Longsight, delivered by ambulance to the Royal Oldham at 5am. He died at 7am. At the moment the death is unexplained." Gill was leading the briefing.

"CSM are at the scene where he was picked up but I don't hold out much hope of anything useful there.

"Post mortem is scheduled for this afternoon conducted by Professor Jackson.

"H/P actions 1. Rob is coordinating door-to-door in Catfield Road. 2. CCTV, Lee can you gather that from Catfield Road and surrounding streets.

"Until we have an ID and a cause of death there is nothing else we can do. Rachel, you're in court tomorrow and, given that you are up against Nick Savage's brother, I want you to take today to prepare."

Later on during a break in the door-to-door Mandy and Janet were talking over a cup of tea.

"Who is Nick Savage?" asked Mandy.

"One of Rachel's exes, now dead. He was married while he was seeing her and tried to have her killed." Janet missed out that Savage had been killed by Rachel's brother.

"Oh? Right! Sounds horrible!" Mandy decided not to push but made a mental note to ask Rachel after the trial.

"Umm anyway, I am thinking of organising a house warming party. How old are your kids? Would you be able to either leave them with someone or bring them? And your partner of course." Mandy asked.

"They're 13 and 16. Could I bring them? I am single at the minute, divorce pending."

"Sorry to hear that." Mandy was trying to avoid the subject of break-ups. "What about the boss? Should I invite her? Or is she one of the 'don't do anything with the troops' types I had in MI5?"

"Gill? She'll feel left out and pissed off big time if you don't! Oh and if you're into match-making invite DSI Julie Dodson as well"

"Gill's on my team?" Mandy was surprised.

"Uhhhh maybe! Last fella was a toyboy from the NPIA but we're trying to get her and Julie to acknowledge their obvious love for each other." Janet then saw Mandy's expression, "Don't look so worried Gill's son thinks the same."

"I didn't know she had a son, but it wasn't that. I have tried this type of match-making before: didn't go well."

"What 'type' is that!?"

"Two girls neither of whom have acknowledged the possibility of being attracted to anything without a phallus; who obviously, on some deep, level fancy each other, but it hasn't reached their conscious brain yet and may never will."

"Point taken. But I wasn't thinking of anything overt. Just have Julie come as, I don't know, my guest?"

"Mmmm. That would be miles too obvious, unless you socialise with Julie a lot."

"Tell you what, I'll ask Sherlock. We could make it a joint invite. We still haven't thanked Julie properly yet for her work when Gill got kidnapped, long story I'll tell you some time when we have something alcoholic in our hands."

"Sherlock? Whose Sherlock?" Mandy had a laugh in her voice.

"Sorry that's Rachel's nickname. It's because she's got this instinct for the core of a case! It's uncanny how she'll pick up some small detail that'll completely blow a case wide open."

"Oh right!" said Mandy with a laugh. "Those kind of nicknames are usually derogatory though!" Then she became thoughtful and after a bit said: "Funny how I had to bang her over the head with my gayness though – you'd have thought the Babe Rainbow plaque and the posters of Martina Navratilova and Audrey Hepburn in the dining room along with the 'artistic' paintings of women in the living room would have been a clue." Mandy wandered why she felt a little defeated. Then thought "O Ohh! Here I go again!"

"Not derogatory in this case. And those are precisely the kind of clues Rachel misses: oddly!"

With that they put they're styrene cups aside and went back to the house-to-house.

Of course everybody who was in had been in bed at 5am except the shift worker who had found the casualty.

In the meantime Rachel was alone in the office looking at her computer screen. She had read through everything at least five times and was getting convinced she'd have a dream about this case tonight!

She heard the door shut. "Funny, no-one came in!" she thought and went and opened the door to see Julie Dodson disappearing down the corridor.

"Ma'am can I help you?" Rachel had to virtually yell as Julie was so far away now.

Julie turned feeling, well what? A bit annoyed certainly, but was there also that school-girl-caught-out-behind-the-bike-sheds feeling?

As she walked she thought about what to say, trying to think up an excuse. "Umm what are you thinking lady, this is Rachel 'Sherlock' bloody Bailey. She'll spot a lie if you told it in the next solar system" said a voice in her head.

"I was looking for DCI Murry and then thought better of it." was the cackhanded version of the truth she came up with. "God Bailey could be intimidating! Love it when she's on my side but this time she's not." thought Julie.

Rachel, of course, picked up on that but decided not to press. "She's at the morgue with Scary Mary Jackson..."

"That's 'Professor Jackson' to you" Julie was glad to be able to assert her authority, the 'naughty schoolgirl' feeling was getting annoying.

"Professor Jackson then, ma'am." Rachel's voice was pancake flat.

Julie took the opportunity to escape, deciding to make an excuse to phone Gill later.

At three o'clock the house-to-house finished. The team returned to base but would be out again at 7 o'clock to follow up on the houses where they got no reply.