Spikings phoned through to the hotel "They've put a car outside" he told Dempsey

"Yeh boss, Watson was doing a mini for them"

"This is no mini" Spikings drew himself up "They have a Beemer, stolen from the owner of the Freedom Clinic…" he let his words hang, conveying his disapproval "If you've taken this off track Dempsey…."

"I left the man sweet" Dempsey protested "Watson was being delivered a car this morning and to have it wired and in place by noon"

"Well Watson is telling me he's still waiting" Spikings punched his words out "So you'd better go and do some investigating"

.

"The car is already there?" Mac repeated "I thought the plan was to dump it there for lunch time"

"Someone has brought forward the operation" Dempsey was standing in Mac's room

"Unless they're just practicing where to park before they take it Watson"

"Very amateur - draws attention to the car"

"Well it's all I can think of" Mac offered

Dave barged in "It's on the local radio saying the council either closes the Freedom clinic or the bomb is detonated at 9.00"

"What does Harry think?" Dave asked

Dempsey avoided the question "They've changed car – got the Beemer belonging to Mr Freedom Clinic

"Have you heard from Makepeace?" asked Mac perceptively

Dempsey refused to say, but that in itself was answer enough

"Shouldn't we try and find her?"

"We have to sort the bomb first" Dempsey insisted "Watson has confirmed that he still has the mock device"

"So they've used another marvelous marvel creation" Mac presumed

"Well bomb squad have dealt with them before" Dave comforted

"This one's different" Dempsey murmured low and worried

"How do you know that?" Dave questioned

"I just know - don't you know?"

Dave shrugged he didn't think he'd ever get Dempsey's nose; Harry would know Dempsey thought

Dempsey explained "Look at this way - they've backed out of their plan and now are rushing forward - why - what's spooked them - what do they know?"

"You think they have sussed us?"

"Who knows, we'll keep in role – I'm prolife – I'm off to see the plan in action – you can be seen watchin' me and we'll meet up down there" Dempsey commanded

"We should find Harry" Mac persisted

"She can take care of herself" Dempsey insisted trying to hide his frustration with her

"Didn't she come back last night?"

"No, now can we get on?"

"Why?" asked Dave before he thought not to

"How would I know?" Dempsey released his frustration "that's why women should never be cops"

"Never? Why?" Mac was confused "I know some good women cops and Harry's probably the best"

"Hormones" offered Dempsey

"Hormones?"

"Yeh - they have too many of them"

"Not Harry - she's never done that time of the month thing whilst I've been in SI10"

"Well there's a first time" Dempsey grouched whilst inwardly crediting Dave with an accurate observation, but she had been more something lately

The decisions Harry had arrived at the night before was being challenged by the very real prospects of death. 'Life is hard and then you die' that was Dempsey's line but she didn't want to die; she wanted to live and to live with James, she wanted to get married and have his babies - oh god more than anything right now. The career woman seemed to have been blown up before the detonator had been set.

Not long before the sun started to rise she had finally fallen asleep; her wrists red raw and weeping from her failed attempts to release herself. The confusion and disorientation she had felt when, not long after, Brite had pulled her from her slumber had robbed her of her chance to overpower him. Hands still behind her back Harry had kicked and ran down the stairwell until the locked doors had been too much of a barrier. Rather a pathetic attempt she had considered as in the privacy of the yard Brite had gagged Harry and forced her into the boot of the BMW 6 series car.
"I need the thing to go off if she moves" Brite had instructed and as the old man, Joe Donnelly had packed his marvel comics around the explosive device Harry had reflected again how Dempsey had profiled Joe so accurately.

"Its rush hour traffic and the car is on the main road; it's not that close to the clinic this time" The three men were watching from the shelter of some trees, giving some cover for their conversation

"You kill more people" Dave suggested

"Unless that's not their motive" Dempsey contributed "there's something fishy Dave my nose can smell it"

"Makepeace should be here" Mac mused

Feeling increasingly riled at her independence Dempsey gave vent to his frustration "She's probably doing something clever for her inspector interview"

That was a bolt out of the blue for Mac "Harry's going for promotion?"

"She acts like the commissioner so she might as well have his job" Dempsey was not gracious in his comment

"I guess she's been sergeant long enough" Mac conceded "and what about you Dempsey?"

"I don't do the rules bit" Dempsey reminded them ruefully

"You're the best teacher I've ever seen though" Mac laughed gently "even Fry says you scare the shit out of him but you taught him loads more than the rest of us"

Dempsey was not in a receptive mood "Maybe you can all be bloody commissioners then"'

Dempsey He didn't even know he was going to be dad and suddenly Harry wanted him to know; to know that their love had created a new life. What did it matter if she was Sergeant or an Inspector when she died; she wanted to see Dempsey playing baseball with his son. The regrets were beginning to pile in thick and fast:

She had never gone and watched his baseball session last Saturday morning – how had he been with the kids? She smiled recalling the previous Christmas – he'd been great with her nephew…now with Winfield Hall in her minds eye she recalled being wide eyed and open mouthed at her fathers' proposal for increasing the income of the stately home – team building events based on raft building on the lake, shooting and riding. Freddy had been reticent to say where his ideas had come from but even then Harry had been certain they were not his own; now in the depths of the darkness of the car boot, what had started as a sneaky suspicion that Dempsey had planted the seeds rooted into full conviction.

Another regret was beginning to pin Harry down and make it more difficult to breathe in the confines of the blackness; her departing words had been just another typical row, the sort that they usually glided over, the sort where life just carried on without reference back to any altercation but it was different not ever meeting again; she didn't want her last words to be angry ones. She started a morbid fantasy as to what she would like her last words to James to be; they couldn't be too trite or sentimental… "don't worry you're right - life is hard and then you die; James Dempsey you're the most frustrating and annoying man", she was melting now "that I love with all my heart" and now disintegrating into mush "take good care of it". Or what about "Always and forever" Sentimental slush won't help anyone she reprimanded herself.

The uniformed officer approached the SI10 staff. He updated them on the area being cordoned off and cleared and also that a light aircraft had taken off with three men on board, Brite hadn't waited around to see his ultimate explosion.
Spikings and bomb squad were both being flown up but time was of an essence and the three men stood staring at the isolated BMW.

"Well this is a crap shoot" Dempsey surmised watching Dave go inside to take a phone call

"A what?" asked Mac

"Game of chance" Dempsey explained "do we wait and see if the thing really goes up?"

"What about a controlled explosion?"

"It will all go bang which ever way" Dempsey bemoaned hopelessly "and where the hell is Makepeace"

"I'm sure it's just a domestic"

Taken aback Dempsey looked questioningly at Mac

"I know no one else thinks there's anything between you two but I know those looks you two share, me and my girlfriend…"

"She should be here, it's her job" Dempsey cut Mac off and walked down to the car.

On floor well of the back passenger seat a small cardboard box cradled a clock and a rats nest of wires.

"Still using old marvel comics" Mac observed peering in "ironic really - there's you, me and Dave and we could use superman"

Dempsey wasn't listening he was peering though every window trying to follow the two wires that actually left the box and seemed to be travelling towards the back of the car; were they feeding to the petrol tank or the boot? Dempsey pulled Mac back and asked him to look at the whole car

"83 pretty good nick" Mac began "should get a good speed"

"it slides round corners well I bet" Dempsey mellowed as he admired the car

"Sleek body shape" Mac concured and pulled a face as he studied the BMW

"what was wrong?"

"The car is heavier at the back" Mac decided "the boot must be packed full of explosives"

"I know where Harry is" Dempsey said with a clarity of knowledge and Mac felt his stomach drop into his boots. For the first time in his life Mac really got gut feeling and knew he Harry was in the boot.