Lewis and Hathaway were talking while Hobson was in an interrogation room with Chief Superintendent Innocent herself. Lewis had suggested they take a walk outside of the police station. Once clear of the building, he demanded Hathaway's every impression of the crime scene.

"The murder weapon was a dagger. It was found near the body, looked to be wiped clean. Forensics is checking for prints."

"Stop." Laura said there was no weapon. Lewis chose his words carefully. "Was the weapon out of sight? Hard to see in the dark?"

"No, it was obvious. The killer dropped it right next to the body."

Laura wouldn't miss that. "Was it so obvious that you think it may have been planted after the murder?"

"What makes you think it was planted, sir?"

"I'll ask the questions." Lewis snapped.

Hathaway now knew that Lewis was indeed covering something up. "You can trust me, sir."

Lewis regretted his earlier tone. "I do, James. Just don't ask any questions. It's for your own good." For as much as Lewis needed Hathaway to be his eyes, he cared too much about Hathaway to corrupt him outright. He should have known though, that Hathaway was all brains and incapable of naively following along as he himself might have followed Morse long ago. "Could the weapon have been planted after the fact?"

"I suppose it's possible." Hathaway hesitated before speaking again. "I think you should tell me everything, sir. As you yourself have said, together we make a half-way decent detective. And if it weren't for you, I'd have quit policing many times over. So you know where my loyalty lies- not with Jean Innocent."

Robbie grunted a little. "Steady, lad; I need you to stay on her good side. One of us should be."


Hobson sat silently in the interrogation room and waited as she'd been instructed to do. She was quite nervous even though she felt as though she'd acquitted herself well during the interview with Innocent. She'd remained calm and hadn't given anything away. When the Chief Super did return, she told Hobson that she was free to go- but not to leave Oxford. "I'll have uniform drive you home."

"Thanks, but I need to see Inspector Lewis before I leave."

"Inspector Lewis is busy." Innocent said definitively. "I appreciate that you are cooperating with our investigation, but under the circumstances, I can't have you casually hanging around the police station. You need to go home."

Hobson bit her lip and nodded.


When Lewis and Hathaway returned to the station, they were intercepted by Innocent, who pushed Hathaway aside and marshalled Lewis into her office.

"Is Dr Hobson all right?" was his first question.

"She made a full statement and we have sent her home, but she is not to leave Oxford." Innocent took a deep breath. "I apologise Lewis, but while you've been at work this morning, SOCOs have been to your flat and Dr Hobson's house."

"I see. Find anything of interest?"

"It's not your dirty laundry that interests me, but rather the clean laundry. In with your whites is Dr Hobson's scene suit."

"Ah, yes. She decided to stay at me flat but she didn't have anything to wear to bed. So she slept in a scene suit. She keeps a bag in the car, I think, so she's ready for a call-out. Good pyjamas, I'd imagine, quite roomy."

"Are you sassing me, Lewis?"

"No ma'am. I threw it in with me whites in the morning as a courtesy to me guest."

"She was at the scene of the crime, wasn't she, Lewis?"

"No, ma'am, she told us the truth." The twitch above Lewis' eye did not escape Jean Innocent.

"Or she's a better liar than you are."

"Neither one of us has any reason to lie, ma'am."

"You used a copious amount of bleach in your laundry."

"I always bleach me whites. Isn't that normal?" Innocent glared at him, so he continued to ramble. "Don't know the first thing about laundry, me. Me wife always used to take care of that." Lewis silently apologised to Val for dragging her into this.

Clean laundry proves nothing, and they both knew it. "All right, Lewis." Once he played the hapless widower card, she knew that there was little else she could do to badger him. That did not, however, mean that she believed him. On the contrary, she knew he was concealing something and that he would crumble before a jury. She was annoyed with Lewis, but at the same time she was actually quite sympathetic and made one last personal appeal. "Look, Robbie, I sincerely doubt that our lovely Laura murdered anyone, but if she's corrupted the evidence in any way, I need to know that."

"She hasn't, ma'am. You have my word." Jean Innocent flared her nostrils in frustration.