Determined to get his full English breakfast Dave was up early next morning. To his surprise Dempsey was down before him and eating ravenously; he called Dave over.

Dave missed out the self service breakfast bar and grabbing just a coffee went straight to Dempsey fearing another day of hunger. He was met by a broad grin and was completely wrong footed.

"Hey, you not eating mate? This is good stuff"

"I…er…well I expected you'd want to be off" Dave heard himself stutter and was mad with himself and Dempsey

"We've got time to eat first man, come on; we can't be expected to work on an empty stomach"

Dave looked at Dempsey; it felt like he was looking at Jekyll and Hyde. He wanted to point out that yesterday he had been pulled away from breakfast and not even offered the fast food brunch but Dempsey was his supervisor so he merely offered to fetch Dempsey another coffee when he went for his breakfast.

"Thanks… and get one for yourself - Spikings' paying"

'weird' thought Dave

Feeling more secure with a full stomach Dave pushed his plate aside and turned to Dempsey "How come you don't have a hangover?"

"Why? Should I?"

"You don't remember?" Dave was amazed "Dempsey how can you be blind drunk and not have the slightest headache?"

"Maybe I wasn't, maybe I do"

"You looked like you had every intention of downing most of the bottle when you left the bar"

There was no way Dempsey was going to admit that he'd charged a full bottle of whisky to his room, then knocked most of it over and had to leave a whacking tip for the room staff to remove the resulting stain and odour.

"Don't we have some contacts to meet?" Dempsey totally sided stepped the whole issue with such a growl that Dave lost all his courage and stood up ready to leave.

***

Sergeant Makepeace had spent the night tossing, turning and regretting so much. Sometime between 4 and 5am she had finally found a few hours sleep and now slipped into the office at 9.50am.

"Ah Harry" Chas looked up

Harry glanced at Spikings' office "He's not noticed, been too busy with upstairs complaining about budgets" Chas reassured her "but" he continued "Dempsey rang in with a list of searches he wants making"

"Dempsey" her heart beat at mention of his name and she fought to quieten the thud she was sure everyone else could hear as well.

"He seems to think that these smaller boats may travel between Liverpool and Dublin and be carriers."

"She picked up the list and could hear his American accent pronouncing the names of the boats 'Suzy Slow' she knew he'd make a comment about that. She missed him terribly.

***

As they drove to Birkenhead Dave went back over the information he had gained yesterday, and this time Dempsey both listened and asked questions.

They pulled into a lay-by to prepare for a meeting with Ted Smart. Dempsey looked again at the lists in Dave's scrawling handwriting and in his mind saw the same words written in Harry's hand. He blinked his eyes back to the present and asked about tide times.

Dave looked surprised.

"In New York the big ships can only come in on a high tide I'm guessing it's the same here" Dempsey explained and then suddenly keen to talk more he continued "Liverpool seems quite like New York to me, reminds me of home."

"'You miss home?" asked Dave

"I ain't a girl" Dempsey's reply was sharp

"I never said you were" Dave was flustered but had the sense to drop it and Dempsey clamed up again.

They met Ted, who turned out to be a middle man for the New York contact and Dempsey had threatened him, pushing him up against the wall, tightening his tie. Dave tried to look cool and nonplussed, but this was seeing the Dempsey he heard about and his eyes were being opened.

"I could find your man back in New York; but I didn't travel all this way to meet some nobody. I wanna know that my goods are cared for first class from New York to Ireland to here and I need to see the real man cos you see if they don't get to Mr Buskill here safely I need to know who I'm gonna come after and believe me you won't want to be that person cos they don't usually walk in the park after."

Ted gave them the name of a hotel "Don't bother calling him I'll introduce myself" Dempsey let go and there were two huge sighs of relief!

As they walked back out to the car Dempsey could sense Dave's unease. "You gotta learn how to survive out there in the field"

"Aren't there rules Dempsey?"

"Sure, survival of the fittest. First rule is 'make sure you survive', second 'get them to talk'" Dempsey opened the passenger door and got in.

Dave felt unsure of everything: He had already asked Spikings if he could do some more undercover in preparation of his promotion interview. Dempsey had prepared the case and had invited Dave to do the cover with him saying that two guys were more realistic than a girl; this was a man's world.
When Dave had been hesitant, questioning what Harry thought, Dempsey had jumped down his throat "This one's my shout". He had seemed very touchy and Dave had felt torn between wanting the experience but uncertain as to what the tension in the office was he didn't know if it was the job for him. He had anticipated a few local jobs. Dempsey had taken the silence as a reticent ascent quite correctly but he hadn't been bothered to think or care about the cause of reticence.

You drive" Dempsey threw Dave the keys to his car and as Dave started the engine Dempsey suggested "Better phone base and see if there's any news on those boats I phoned in on"

Dave looked at him blankly "What boats?" he eventually asked

"Suzy slow, Racie Gracie, Lucky Lucy and The Feisty Tiger"

Dave just looked blank

"The big ships do tides yeh? But the little boats they can come and go any time, just like New York , like I said"

"Why those boats?" asked Dave there must be 30 or 40 out there

"I went for a walk before breakfast and those were the ones"

"What ones"

"The ones my nose found"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean the nose knows, ain't you got a nose yet Dave?"

"How do I get one?"

"Well you see somewhere along the High Street there's a shop that says 6th sense and hunches for cops and you go in there and buy some nasal spray and pump it up your nostril."

Dave was mad "Dempsey I'm not Fry; I came because Spikings said I could learn something and you work without me and don't explain anything so how the hell am I supposed to learn?"

"Oh bloody hell don't you argue with me as well"

"As well? As well as Harry? – no wonder – you're an egocentric cop who does nothing to the rules…" Dave stopped; Dempsey had declared "that he didn't need another dripping tap" and promptly shut his eyes and slept. Whether it was real or fake Dave didn't care he just drove. He left Dempsey soundly asleep in the car and escaped into his own hotel room.

***

Determined to beat Dempsey at his game he phoned SI10 to get the info on the boats. If Dempsey wouldn't explain then at least he could get the results and try and piece the story together.

When the phone rang Harry answered it; she had felt a flutter of hope rise: maybe it would be Dempsey. Disappointed to hear Dave's voice she resolved not to ask about Dempsey in case it sounded pathetic.

"These boats Harry?" Dave's question was deliberately open

"Oh yes" she replied "What did you want to know?"

"What do you have?" Dave didn't know the answer and Harry guessed he didn't "What did Dempsey think?" she asked before she had time to check herself and rephrase the question to leave him out of it.

"That small boats aren't reliant on the tide?" his pitch showed that Dave was uncertain as the statement became a question by the rising tone at the end.

Harry guessed Dave didn't know so she gave him all the details of registration, ownership, sailings logged with the port authorities, their most frequent journeys and also their most obscure random ones in the past year. Then as Dave scribbled everything down her mouth let the words out "How's Dempsey?" She bit her tongue as she tried to stop them but it was too late. Dave was quite certain that he should say nothing "Oh … you know….. ok" he said, then after a longer pause because he didn't really know how to deal with him "he's not very communicative"

Harry's heart sunk "Oh well, he'll get better when he gets his teeth into the case" she found herself wishing it were true.