By ten o'clock Barbara was in the office and was beginning to re-assign their cases now that Lynley was incapacitated when Winston took a call. His face looked serious and Barbara wondered what was wrong. "Well?" she said when he rang off.

"The traffic team don't believe it was an accident. His car was deliberately rammed."

"Do they know who?"

"No, no idea. It must have caught the DI by surprise though. The tyre tracks and some CCTV show he swerved hard at first, they think he might have been attempting to avoid something but they can't see what, and then he must have seen the tree on the footpath in the last seconds and swerved hard the other way to lessen the impact. They are trying to see what distracted him."

Barbara knew the truth but the conclusions the traffic team had drawn sounded plausible. "Ok good, well I hope you told them to keep us posted."

"Of course."

It was then that her phone rang. "Havers," Her face paled. "When? … Was anyone hurt? … Where are they now? … We'll be right over." She disconnected and looked straight at Winston and barked, "Get your coat; someone fired shots into the Inspector's house." With that she was out the door and halfway to the car before Winston caught up to her. "Anyone hurt?" Barbara shook her head but looked distracted and Winston could tell she was worried, so he drove.

"Sir!" she called racing through his front door, "Are you ok?"

"Yes Havers, I'm fine." He came from the kitchen in the back of the house. "But the damned nurse walked out. She said being shot at wasn't part of her nursing duties."

They looked at each other and laughed. Winston was not sure what was so funny but he never really understood them sometimes; they seemed to have a secret language. "I'll track her down Sir, we'll need her statement." He was not sure if they even heard him, they were just looking at each other holding another silent conversation.

Lynley and Havers soon snapped into their detective mode and Tommy insisted that Barbara unwrap the bandages on his right hand. "They are only sprained Havers, and I need my hand. We won't be able to get another nurse now and I'm not having you help me toilet!" Barbara was relieved before she was even concerned; she had not thought about that aspect but she was not letting him out of her sight until whoever was chasing him was caught. The hand was swollen and had large purple bruises but he could flex his fingers slightly and move his wrist.

The nurse was quickly found and she confirmed Lynley's account. She had been helping him dress after his shower when they heard three loud bangs and the glass in the bedroom window shattered into the room. Lynley had knocked her to the floor after the first shot and as soon as he had let her up she had run out screaming that being shot at was not part of her duties. She was embarrassed by that now as it was not his fault, but she still had no intention of returning.

While Tommy and Winston were interviewing the nurse, Barbara had spoken to Hillier. They had agreed to take Tommy to a safe house somewhere. She was concerned that it might be someone in the Met helping whoever was doing this and convinced Hillier to allow her to take him somewhere only Hillier and Winston knew. Hillier agreed, somewhat reluctantly, but only if she took Winston and kept him informed 'somehow'. Barbara knew what that meant. It had to be somewhere she knew but not where anyone would think to look for Lynley. She thought about a few possibilities but then decided she knew somewhere perfect. She grinned slyly. He is not going to be amused.

She despatched Winston to go to four separate department stores and buy cheap mobile phones with pre-paid SIMs and add enough credit to last a week. They would only programme them with those numbers and give one to Hillier. They could leave their normal phones at the office to be monitored. Anyone smart enough to be trying to trace their location would think they were hiding inside the station.

Lynley took convincing. He did not want to be seen to hide. But after they talked it through he agreed that his injuries made him vulnerable and that it would be best to lie low. He hated doing nothing but Barbara assured him they would be working – thinking about potential suspects and trying to go through events of the last weeks to find patterns and clues. Tommy phoned his mother to let her know what had happened. The local police would provide extra patrols around Howenstowe and he did not want her leaving the estate until after this was over. He was not surprised that she seemed unfazed. Typical Mother. He was however very surprised when she asked if Barbara would be with him. "You need her around Tommy. She won't let anything happen to you. Promise me you will let her help you." Of course Havers would be with him, she was his partner after all.

Under his direction Barbara quickly packed a bag for him then added some extra bandages to his arm and head to make him look more injured. They made a public show of getting him into a police car and driving to the station where they went in the front. He was quickly stripped of the extra dressings and put a different coat around his shoulders. He was glad his hand was free to slip through the sleeve. He felt better being semi-respectably dressed. Barbara always kept a small bag in the office with essentials and that would have to do. If they were away too long then she would just have to buy more clothes. Winston had returned with the mobiles and his overnight bag.

After a five minute discussion with Hillier they slipped out into a police van which drove to the Old Bailey. There was nothing unusual in that and unless any one of a few trusted officers was in on it, whoever was trying to get at Lynley would never suspect the van. At the courts they quickly transferred into an old Ford SUV. Winston was driving and Barbara had given him an address. She tossed Lynley a baseball cap which he stared at as if it was from Mars, making Winston and Havers chuckle. "Yes exactly Sir, no one who knows you would ever think you would wear one of those." He pulled it on knowing how foolish he must have looked; a truth confirmed by the way his DS and DC tried hard to conceal their amusement.

At first Winston drove west on the M4 before merging onto the M25 and finally the M3, seemingly heading for Southampton. Lynley had been very quiet sitting in the back with Barbara. "Why Southampton?" he asked as they passed through Winchester. She just shook her head. She could not tell him where they were really going just yet. Winston turned east onto the M27 and Lynley realised they were driving the long way somewhere. He trusted Havers to know what she was doing. They had all been looking for any signs of cars following them and were sure that unless their nemesis, who that had nicknamed "Moriarty" after Sherlock Holmes' enemy, had far greater resources or technologies than the Met, they were alone.

Tommy sank back into his seat and started to doze. He liked Portsmouth or maybe they were going to the Isle of Wight; he had not been there for years. He drifted off to sleep and woke when the car stopped moving.

"Butlins!" he cried out, "We have come to a Butlins Camp?"

"Butlins Bognor Regis, Sir". Barbara was laughing so hard at the shock on his face that she thought she may wet herself. "Tell me who would EVER look for you here?"

"She has a point Sir," Winston chimed in.

Tommy recovered quickly and started to smirk, "Yes Havers I think you're right. This would be the last place anyone who actually knows me would ever look. But please…tell me we are not sharing another caravan."