"Right, listen up everybody," Alex bellowed, "We have two victims, seemingly unconnected. Similar MO, both died from a severe blow to the head, seemingly from the same weapon, except that the first victim, Mr Chester was found to have poison in his blood. Whilst the Guv is away, Ray and I will be leading the case. We're going to interview the pub landlord that the second victim's wife informed us of yesterday, Chris, can you go back to interview the family of Mr Chester again, try to find out if he may have any connections to Collins."

"Right you are, boss, er Ma'am" said Chris, rather glad to have some responsibility to himself for a change.

As they all headed out, Alex began to miss the Guv; she liked being in charge but she knew her authority would never totally be respected in the eighties Met. Ray and Chris were on side but she knew that she could never order them around the same way that Gene could, but she had Ray, he was a good copper, not as sharp as Gene but like him in many ways. Ballsy, not afraid of a fight and a lot of hard work to get the job done.

--

As they approached the pub, she let Ray take the lead; these types always listened to the man anyway, it was no use her even trying to get them to talk, unless she was willing to go in there dressed as a tart and trick them into giving them information.

As they walked up to the bar, Ray flashed his warrant card. "DS Carling and DI Drake, you the owner?" the man nodded, "just wanna word 'bout Mr Collins, did ya know 'im? Mr…"

"Lewis. Colin Lewis Yeah, what did you mean did I know him. What's happened?" he replied.

"I'm afraid 'e's been found dead. Can you tell us the last time yer saw 'im" said Ray, straight to the point.

"Well, he was in here on Monday, we play dominoes every Monday; Jim, myself, and a couple of other blokes, Ken Harris and Charlie Dean who live round the corner. Not for money or anything just for a bit of banter and an excuse to get away from the wives." He winked, and addressed Alex "oh, no offense love."

"No that's quite alright. Can you tell us what time Jim Collins left here on Monday?" she asked.

"Quite late as I recall, the others had gone home, we'd all had a bit of a skinful. Jim left just before I did, at about 1am." He said, a little unsure of himself

"Right, and that's the last time you saw him?" Alex hazarded. Colin nodded "and did he leave on his own?"

"Yeah, he only lives round the corner, would a taken him about 5 minutes at the most." He replied.

"Ok, thanks Mr Lewis. One last thing, did Jim have a girlfriend or friend, anyone he may have gone to see after he left here."

"No, not that I knew of, he kind of kept himself to himself as far as I could tell, well, apart from the dominoes; but whenever else he came in here it was always on his own. He came in maybe twice, three times a week just for a pint or two, was quite chatty with a couple of the girls behind the bar but that was that, you know?"

"Well, you've been very helpful. We'll let you know if we need anything else." Alex smiled, and with that they left, feeling a little disappointed at the lack of information that they had been able to obtain, thinking through what they were going to do next.

--

Alex woke with a start; a light tapping on her door was getting louder. She stayed in bed, covered herself with the duvet and tried to ignore whoever it was. "Alex? Alex, I know you're in there, open up," came the unmistakable voice of Gene Hunt. Oh God she thought what did he want now, in the middle of the night? She tried to ignore him but it was no use, she knew that he wouldn't go away, not that easily anyway.

Slowly she got out of bed, walked over to the door, and opened it, squinting slightly as the light of the hallway hit her tired eyes. "Gene, what on earth are you doing here at this time of night?" she asked, crossly.

"I need to talk to you Bolls" he said matter-of-factly, as if it was perfectly normal to turn up unannounced at a colleague's flat in the middle of the night.

"What's so urgent that it couldn't wait until the morning, Gene?"

"Well, I dunno really, I just…I just needed to see ya. Just wanted to check your alrigh', that everythin's goin' ok. At the station, without me I mean. I was gonna 'and meself in but…I dunno I just, with all that's been goin' on an all I…I wasn't sure I'd be welcome."

He was clearly nervous, she noted, he looking down at his feet like she'd seen him do before, a sure sign that he was uncomfortable in the situation. If she was honest with herself, she preferred this side of Gene, the side that showed he was just like everybody else, behind the façade of the 'manc lion' persona that he had built up. Sure, the aggressive, manly, tough side of him made him a good copper and it was, she could admit to herself, quite sexy really. But this side of him felt more special, she knew that she was one of the only people to have seen it, one of the only people who he had allowed to see him this vulnerable.

"Bols?" he exclaimed, "are you bloody listenin' to me woman, I'm tryin' to tell yer summin 'ere'"

"Oh sorry, I, er, you were saying?" she suddenly realised that she was analysing him and not really paying much attention to the words coming from his lips.

"Look Bols, I need you to 'elp me 'ere, it's not often you'll 'ear the Gene Genie askin' but this is important. I need you to keep me in the loop, with everythin' that's goin' on so that if…no, when, I return, I'll know what's what. You got that?"

"Yeah, sure Guv, whatever you say; but in future could you call round at a more sociable hour, a girl's got to have her beauty sleep you know." She replied, trying to lighten the mood a little.

"Yeah Bols, course, yeah. I'll go then, maybe, see you tomorrow? I'll call round, I mean, if you're not busy?" he said hopefully.

"OK Gene, tomorrow it is." And with that he walked slowly to her front door, opened it quietly and slipped out as if she wasn't there. His behaviour was starting to trouble Alex, she hadn't expected him to be totally back to normal, at the station or with her, but this was something else, it was almost as if he was a different person. At least he was talking to her now, wanting to be in some way involved with everything; it was a step in the right direction.