Chapter Three - Not a Drop to Drink

If you had seen DS Hathaway leave the office the Friday afternoon before as he left the office and didn't see him again until Monday morning you wouldn't have noticed a difference. The facade was firmly in place. He brought the two cups of coffee into the office he shared with Lewis as casually as he always did.

Lewis had encouraged Hathaway to go for a fag and get the coffee to get him out for a few minutes while he had a snoop around behind his sergeant's back. Sure enough the once almost full bottle of whisky the hid in the filing cabinet that they kept for emergencies, was nearly empty. He looked in Hathaway's backpack and found a hefty off licence receipt from a week ago. It was enough to confirm Lewis' suspicion that Hathaway was in a bad way and drinking too much.

Whilst, like now sitting at their desks, he was in James' company he played along with it all. Not saying anything about what he found, not yet. Lewis knew that confronting him wouldn't do any good. Not pushing James away was the priority now. Making sure no one at work caught wind of it and got them both into trouble, double checking everything Hathaway did for mistakes and correcting them before anyone else saw. Doing all the things someone did for him after Val died and he hit the bottle. Covering for him, watching his back and hoping that Hathaway broke down soon before the house of cards Lewis was building to protect him fell. In the meantime he, along with Hathaway, would pretend to everyone else that everything was fine.

That was the plan anyway. It wasn't until later in the week that the wheels started to off. Lewis knew it couldn't go any further when he had to send James out of an interview room while they were questioning a suspect in one of their ongoing cases. It made Lewis wonder how out of control his colleague was and how far he would go.

Hathaway had, out of the blue, slammed his hand hard on the table between them and the suspect out of frustration at the continued "No comment" responses from the suspect. It was a situation every copper had been through countless times. It happened but Hathaway's reaction left everyone in the room shocked, even Lewis. He didn't really have a choice but to quickly end the interview and send James to their office to stew.

When he returned Hathaway was stood up putting his suit jacket on. Lewis closed the door behind him and drew the blinds.

"Sergeant Hathaway, where the bloody hell do you think you're going?" Lewis said sternly.

"To get a bollocking from Innocent and then presumably back here for more of the same from you!" James shot back.

"Look, I've just about had it up to here with you today so don't you dare come at me with all that sodding cheek cos I'm not having it." Lewis said and then pointed his finger at Hathaway "I'll handle the Super, you can get the hell out of here right now and calm yourself down. I'll see you at home later"

Suddenly Hathaway's face fell, in that moment he'd realised what he'd done. He felt so guilty. He knew he'd let Lewis down, disappointed him and he hated that, he hated himself for that.

"I'm sor-" James started to apologise but Lewis was hearing none of it. James' shoulders shrank and he silently left the office.

Chief Superintendent Innocent was not pleased when DI Lewis and not DS Hathaway came to her office. She half expected it though, the pair of detectives were incredibly loyal to one another and Lewis tended to deal with Hathaway's transgressions on the job himself. Lewis sat down in the chair across the desk from his boss.

"If I wanted Batman, I'd've sent a bat signal. On this occasion I believe I requested the presence of the Boy Wonder." She said flatly "There's been a complaint. He scared the living daylights out of the PC standing at the door. She's not happy and that's not even mentioning the man you were questioning and his brief."

"I know, I know." Lewis said to stop her before she got into her full flow "I've sent him home to calm down. He's been having a rough time of it lately."

"Robbie, I can't just let this go. There were genuine concerns that if you hadn't got him out the room he would've hit someone." She said.

"But I did. Please, let me deal with this one. If anything like it ever happens again you can do what you like to both of us but give me a chance this time." Lewis hadn't meant it to sound like begging but it did.

"Fine but be clear on this, I won't put up with anymore of this behaviour." She said and Lewis breathed a sigh of relief. "Off the record, what on earth is going on with him?"

"He just needs a bit of help. I'll get him back to his usual self soon"

"You're helping him?" She asked

"Not at the moment, no. He just needs to get to the point where he realises that he can't cope on his own."

"And how long is that likely to take, Inspector?"

"From the look on his face as he left I expect it won't be too long now."

Lewis worked late that night and went for drive, stopping off to get himself fish and chips, to put off going home to talk to James. When he walked in the flat the lights were off and his brandy had been drunk. Hathaway was passed out on the sofa. Lewis couldn't cope with it this evening so he had a bath and went to bed.