Dempsey showed up at the parking of the SI10 building around half past 6. When he left the car, he saw Dave standing at the other side of the car park putting some equipment into a blue van.
"I thought Chas had given you an RT?" Dave said to him when Dempsey approached him.
"He did, but I told him already that it's probably not working in a hospital. Why?" He had no intention to tell Dave that he didn't take the RT with him inside the hospital at all.
"Because Chas had tried to reach you over and over again without any luck"
"Why did Chas try to contact me in the first place?" Dempsey asked, but Dave shrugged his shoulders as if he didn't have anything to do with it.
"The plans have changed" was all Dave said, thinking to himself that it had been more quiet during Dempsey's stay in America. With having him around, trouble seemed to arise almost immediately and on every unthinkable level.
"Changed? How do you mean changed?"
"We wanted to do an observation first from inside a car, but Spikings decided that it would be better to do it by using a house as an observation point"
"A house?" Dempsey asked not quit sure or he had understood it right.
"Why a house? We hardly ever use that way of observation!"
"Don't ask me. I'm only following orders"
"But you have a mouth haven't you?"
Astound Dave looked at Dempsey as if he couldn't follow him.
"Yes, but..."
"To ask questions. They changed the way of observation and you've not even asked why?"
"It didn't seem important to me"
"Grrr" Dempsey groaned between his teeth's. Nothing had changed since the first time he had been in London. Some colleagues would probably never do anything else then following orders without asking questions.
"Alright then" Dempsey gave in: "What do we have to do the observation?"
"What do you mean?" Dave asked shoving another box inside the van.
"Do I have to spell it out for you?" Dempsey started to become more and more agitated: "Which equipment can we use?"
"Oh that's what you mean. Well, we have some telescopes, a photo camera and a tape recorder" Dave seemed very pleased with it, but Dempsey wasn't.
"That's it? Nothing more?"
"Seems enough to me" Dave responded closing the door of the van and wanted to walk over to the passengers seat.
"I guess it's better that you do the driving" Dempsey suggested: "I have no clue where we're going and besides, I'm still getting used to driving on the left side of the road again" thinking back on the near car accident he had yesterday.
"If you insist on it" Dave slipped into the drivers seat, fasted his seatbelt and closed the car door behind him and waited till Dempsey had climbed inside at the other side of the van.
When Dave started the engine, the car jumped forwards without any warning. Dempsey almost banged with his forehead against the wind screen.
"Sorry" Dave said, looking slightly to Dempsey.
"Do you want to kill me or what?"
"That's why I have fastened my seatbelt" Dave responded with a small smile on his face.
"I never use one!"
"Don't tell me afterwards that I didn't warn you" Dave started the engine again. Dempsey was prepared for it now, but this time they just drove away without having any problems.
"Did you visit Harry in the hospital this afternoon?" Dave asked while driving, hoping that Dempsey would be more communicative if the subject would be Makepeace. But Dave could have saved his efforts, because all he got as an answer was a 'Yes' from Dempsey's side and nothing more. He should have known it. The rest of the drive the two men set next to each other in total silence.
Finally Dave stopped the engine when they approached an empty house.
"This is it?" Dempsey asked in surprise slamming the car door behind him.
"Yes. Most of the deals take place here in this street so when we put the equipment up, we would be able to observe them from inside"
"And back up?"
"We can ask for them if we need them" Dave said, opening the door of the van.
15 minutes later they had set up two telescopes, the photo camera and the tape recorder.
"Now all we can do is wait till they show up" Dave leaned backwards into a chair he had taken with him.
Surprised Dempsey had looked at him when he had put that chair up, realising that there was only one.
"And what am I supposed to sit on?" Dempsey asked, starting to get irritated for a second time that evening.
Dave turned around and realised his mistake.
"Oh I'm sorry I forgot" He apologised: "I didn't think of that"
"I can see that" Dempsey tried to be patient: "I'll see or I can find something else in this goddamned house to sit on"
When Dempsey had left the room leaving Dave behind, the last one heaved a big sigh of relief. It's not that Dave hadn't work with Dempsey before in the past, but then there has always been Makepeace at Dempsey's side to calm Dempsey down if he had pushed it to hard. But now that she wasn't there, it seemed to Dave that the whole SI10 could expect more fireworks then they wanted. He had no idea why it had been possible for Dempsey to work for SI10 again. After 2 years, Dave thought that he would never showed up anymore, but then to his surprise, here he was again. More irritating and annoying than he had ever been before.
Dempsey crossed every room downstairs trying to find a chair or at least something to sit on without any luck. All the rooms were empty. He wanted to walk upstairs when a loud noise got his attention. It came, he thought, from the house next door. He hadn't pay any attention on that house, more focused as he had been on this one. It sounded like a scream, but he wasn't sure. Returning to the room, in which he had left Dave behind, he heard that noise again.
"Did you hear that?" He asked Dave who was sitting behind one of the telescopes now and observing the street.
"Hear what?" Dave tried to switch his attention between Dempsey and what happened on the street.
"That scream" Dempsey explained, asking himself if Dave was deaf or something.
"Sorry, I didn't hear anything" but on that same moment another, even louder, scream filled the air.
"There it is. I believe it comes from next door"
"Can be" Dave still paid not really attention to it, he was too focused on the dealers on the street.
"Will you be quiet?" Dempsey screamed hoping to reach the people next door: "I try to do my job here!"
But the sounds didn't stop. They became louder and louder and even more screaming could be heard.
"I think it's some family dispute" Dave shrugged his shoulders. He couldn't imagine why Dempsey made such a big deal about it. They had a job to do, not interfering in some kind of family disagreement.
Then all of a sudden, it seemed or hell broke down. Someone else started to scream now as well and something hit the wall between the two houses.
"That's it!" Dempsey stormed out of the room followed by Dave who yelled after him: "What are you doing?"
"What does it look like?"
"Dempsey, you can't do that!" Dave grabbed Dempsey's arm trying to hold him back from storming inside the next house.
"You'll blow our whole operation if you storm in there now!"
"They had blown it already for us. Look" Dempsey pointed his finger in the direction of the street: "You see, they're all gone. No dealers, nobody. So the only thing I can do now is to try to make an end on this family dispute"
"We're not here for that!"
"No. But then at least we haven't been here for nothing" He pushed Dave's hand away from his arm and walked outside, he left Dave behind, who stand there in total disbelief and not knowing what to do next.
The screaming and the loud noises became louder when Dempsey entered the other house. he gave the front door a hard push with his foot and almost felt inside with it when the door opened immediately, because it wasn't locked. With his gun in his hand he reached the living room where in the corner two people were standing. A man was holding a knife against a woman's throat. The two of them were so totally overwhelmed by Dempsey's appearances, they both could only stared at him and didn't react.
"Drop that knife!" Dempsey yelled against the man: "Drop it. Now!"
Slowly the man throw the knife in the corner of the room. But he was still holding the woman by her arm.
Dempsey just wanted to scream to the man to let the woman go, when something in the corner of his eye got his attention. Around a door was a gun pointed on him! He dropped to the ground, just in time to hear a bullet skimmed over his head that hit the wall behind him. Without any warning, Dempsey fired his own gun and he heard a body tumbling down. The man and the woman were still standing at the same spot as before as if they were glued to the ground.
"I warned you" Dempsey said to the man in spite he would have any intention to pick up the knife again. Then he walked over to the door still holding his gun in both hands ready to shoot again if necessary.
Carefully he peaked around the door. On the ground laid a body. Bleeding like hell from a shot wound in the chest. Dempsey went white as a sheet when he saw what happened. Running a hand through his hair a few times in total frustration, he knelt down next to the body putting his gun away. Seconds later he heard running footsteps coming closer till they stopped behind him.
"Dempsey! Dempsey!" Dave screamed: "Are you okay?" When he didn't react, he heard that Dave said something in the RT in his hand. But he had no clue what it could be.
"Dempsey! Dempsey!" Dave tried again with a more urgent voice now. Still no reaction. Dempsey felt Dave giving him a little squeeze in his right shoulder to give him some support. But Dempsey still couldn't say a word, he was just sitting there on the ground next to the body, feeling totally bewildered and with a small hand resting in his.