Lizzie and James got to the station and headed to their shared office. They did not see Robbie's usual vehicle in the parking lot, but kept an eye out for him around the station, but he was not there. Both of them wanted to share the news of Lizzie's success as a "guest lecturer" of Professor Hathaway, who was himself considered a "guest lecturer".
James was also privately concerned that Robbie may have stayed away knowing that the Mumford case was going to be the main subject of lecture that day. Since the case had to do with the death of Robbie's first wife, Val, he may have decided it was too much to have to deal with at the last moment. Laura might have chosen to go to be with Robbie, to offer emotional support. Where ever they were, James figured they were together and hoped that Robbie was alright.
Robbie and Laura were both together, wishing for a canoe about now, since they were involved in a case that involved a body in a body of water. Laura had gotten the call out first. Car went careening off the embankment and into the river. Robbie got the call about the case a few minutes later. He had been en route to hear James and Lizzie's class, but the current case had to trump the retelling of a past case, especially one that Robbie knew so well.
The car was high end, or had been before its encounter with a few trees, the riverbank and the river. The driver had been high end too, in the engineering field. Locally based, engineering researcher who developed self-directed vehicles – cars, buses, trucks, helicopters and other similar technologies. Robbie was not a Luddite. Once upon a time, he himself had introduced his superior, Morse, to computers and how they worked. Morse was not fond of the devices, but glad that his Sergeant Lewis was familiar with these seemingly faddish toys. However, Robbie was not fond of the idea of self-guided vehicles big enough to carry humans. Small model toy cars controlled remotely were just fine, his grandson loved them. But Robbie was not certain that adults were ready for life size adult self-directed vehicles, now or ever.
"Dr. Hobson, good to see you. Love what you're wearing" Robbie told Laura as a way of greeting her in her white scene suit. Dr. Hobson looked at him for a moment then playfully responded "Bet you tell that to all of your pathologists.", with a smile. Robbie assured Laura that she was his one and only pathologist.
Robbie mused that the bodies that ended up in the water were more of a mess than the ones that stayed on dry land, yet water was supposed to be cleansing. It seemed like a fairly clear cut case, vehicle going too fast, ends up in river. But the more the pathology report and other crime scene data reports were developed, the more complex the case became.
Laura left to return to her office and laboratory, after packing up her equipment. She agreed to meet up with Robbie as soon as she could. Robbie headed back to his office, to let James and Lizzie know, they had a case to work on. Not a theoretical academic case study, but a very practical application of the policing theory they all knew. They might make robots to do police work sooner than later, but for now Robbie was perfectly happy to be a flesh and blood proper copper. Not a virtual or e-cop, or whatever they would call the future him, if that made any sense at all.
James was telling Lizzie about one of the students who had asked him if he could "take care" of a parking ticket for their mom. Professor Hathaway had said flat out "No". The student then noted to him that his mom was a trustee of this and that school and was a very important and busy person in Oxford. DI Hathaway wanted to tell the student, that just like everyone else here, the student's mom was a "special little snowflake" in a town and a world full of "special little snowflakes". So his mom should just be more careful where she parked in the future.
Instead of which Professor Hathaway and DI Hathaway quickly decided to act in unison in thought, word and deed. Hathaway told the student that he would ask around and see what could be done. Hathaway took down the student's mom's name, contact information and whatever information the student could provide about the parking ticket. Hathaway then asked for a meeting with Chief Superintendent Moody. Moody was not thrilled about the request, but since this whole sociology and policing academic program was something that he'd been tasked with from his superiors, he took ownership of the parking ticket expungement effort. Hathaway thanked Moody for his assistance with the matter, and left for his own office as soon as he could.
Lizzie and James were laughing about James' story of the student's mom's parking ticket saga when Robbie walked in. Robbie was pleased to see Lizzie and James work so easily as a team. For a moment Robbie had a bit of a pang of self doubt along the lines of "maybe Lizzie and James don't need me anymore", but he banished that thought as he shared the known details of the new case with the rest of his investigative team.