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

Rachel awoke, aware that another warm body shared the bed. Then she remembered last night and smiled. So, this was what she'd been looking for without knowing. All those nights she'd been drawn to Canal Street without knowing why. Then tears started to fall uncontrollably.

A stirring beside her brought her back she tried to dry her eyes. She didn't want Mandy to think she regretted anything, she didn't. Well she did: what she regretted was not realising sooner. The way she'd desperately gone from one man to another, trying to find the 'one'. Another tear fell unbidden from her eye.

"Have you been crying? Are you regretting last night?" Mandy voice interrupted Rachel's chain of thought.

"No, not regretting last night, that was the best night I've ever had." Rachel replied through a flood of tears.

"What then darling?" Mandy's voice had a gentle, endearing tone now.

"I'm not sure. But I think it is just that I hate the years I wasted fucking men, being fucked by men, and being fucked over by men... and the consequences of it all." Rachel was trying to put her thoughts together. In truth she was crying for her brother who was one of the casualties of her not realising sooner.

"Fuck! Is that the time? We've got to be in a briefing in an hour and I've got to get home and get changed!" Rachel's voice rose in panic as she looked at the clock.

"Don't panic. The office is only 10 minutes walk." said Mandy.

"But I can't go to work in the clothes I was wearing last night." Rachel was dressing rapidly.

"Oh! Yes I see what you mean." replied Mandy.

Rachel kissed Mandy before darting for the door.

She was so glad she'd left her car parked at Mandy's last night, Although the police station was ten minutes away the canteen would have embellished the story so that by teatime she would have turned up in next nothing to drive away!

Mandy arrived at the office about ten minutes before Rachel. She looked rested and happy. When Rachel arrived she looked like she'd hardly been to bed but she did look happy.

Julie Dodson lead the briefing.

"First the good news, well sort of. Raymond Melville's sister has ID'd the body as that of her brother." She showed everyone a picture of Mr Melville.

"Last night's operation seems to have confirmed that the Ivy Tree was not the source of the drugs. So any ideas on how to proceed?" She asked.

"What about the information Mandy got about the Star and Garter?" asked Rachel

"I''ve asked the Drug Squad to follow that up. We have no indication that the drugs that killed Mellville came from there." Julie replied.

"Ma'am I'd like to have another look at the cab firm. There's something not right there." said Mandy.

"Not right how?" said Julie.

"Well the income doesn't seem to justify the twenty cars they've got licenced." said Mandy.

"I thought..." Rachel was cut off by Julie.

"Good do you need a forensic accountant to help you go through the figures?" said Julie.

"Top of her year at Cambridge in Maths? I shouldn't think so!" chirped Pete.

"Well the figures aren't the problem, it's what goes into them that I need to know. But I think I'll be OK for the minute." said Mandy.

"OK Rachel you can give Mandy any help she needs." ordered Julie adding "It'll be useful to keep you two out of sight in case we need to mount another under-cover op. You two were very convincing last night. Well done ladies!"

Rachel and Mandy just smiled.

Later Rachel was talking to Janet it the loos.

"You've got a spring in your step this morning lady, don't think I haven't noticed." Janet said.

"Yeah, well lets just say Mandy and I weren't entirely acting last night!" Rachel had a huge smile on her face as she spoke.

"No! What? No! You and..." Janet was in shock.

"Yep! Spent the night at hers. I dunno. I've been going down Canal Street on my own a lot lately. Last night, well last night I realised why." Rachel was rambling as she still hadn't really come to terms with her realisation properly.

"Careful you don't rush into anything. You know what scrapes you've got into in the past and how much damage they have done." warned Janet as she left.

Rachel went upstairs and found Mandy.

"OK these accounts. What are you suspicious about?" asked Rachel.

"Well they've declared income of £200,000 last year on 20 cars. Now say each car does 15000 charged miles per year even at a very low rate, say £1.50 per mile, they'd be earning £450,000 per year. See what I mean? Either there is a heck of a lot not going through the books or they are using the cars for something other than taxi work." said Mandy.

"Yeah, you're right. I knew I should have paid more attention at school! Let's run it past Godzilla." replied Rachel.

Rachel tapped on Gill's door. "Ma'am got a minute?"

"Yeah, come in" replied Gill.

Mandy and Rachel entered and Mandy explained her suspicions.

"Good but it's not enough though is it?" said Gill when they had finished.

"Well... why don't we pull the accountants of a similar sized company? Say Circle Cabs that we used last night?" said Rachel.

Mandy looked at Rachel admiringly.

"What will that prove?" Gill was sceptical.

"Well ma'am, at the moment we think this cab company has low figures. However we don't have anything to compare it with so we can't say whether this is normal or not. If it turns out that the comparison company is similar then we know we're probably following a line of enquiry that will lead nowhere. On the other hand if the comparison shows that this company's figures are low then we have something to follow up in more detail." said Mandy.

"And besides ma'am what else have we got." added Rachel.

"OK, do it." Gill sounded a little resigned.