Hi again. And again, such a long break between the chapters… Thank you for your patience and support.

During my holiday in the UK I went to London to see "The Best Man" and met with Glynis at the stage door afterwards! :) We talked - she was absolutely lovely, warm and wonderful. Something to remember forever :)

I have included a very tiny bit of Glynis' and Michael's real life story in this chapter. Who's going to find this? :-)

Anyway, enjoy. I hope you'll like it. And I believe a few good reviews would help me to write the next chapter properly… :)

Chapter 26

James jerked involuntary in his sleep and opened his eyes. Staring at the ceiling, for a moment he was slightly disorientated, having no idea where he was and with whom… as he definitely wasn't alone. After a second he remembered and a smile slowly appeared on his face.

They must have stirred on the sofa during the night seeking each other's warmth and touch as now he was on his back and Harry was snuggling into him, with her head on his shoulder, arm across his chest, hand on his other shoulder, leg flipped over his. Her attitude indicated absolute, total trust and devotedness and Dempsey just couldn't believe his luck.

He lay quietly, not daring to wake her, relishing the feeling. His arms enveloped her and, interesting, he kept his right hand on her bare small back, under the blouse… how had he got there in his sleep? You'll always find a way, Jim, he grinned to himself. He looked sideways at the old clock on the wall: a quarter to six. The sound of pouring rain could be heard through the ajar window. Another rainy day. England, he thought. Wonderful England. Oh how he loved England now.

Nevertheless, lying there with her body cuddled up to his own began to take its toll. Dempsey felt his pulse accelerating, his blood warming up. Oh Jesus, he wished he could wake her with kisses, rip their yesterday clothes off, kiss her exposed naked body while she would respond in the same eager frantic way… and finally they would make love on this sofa finishing off what they had started on the same sofa the previous day…

But she slept so soundly and innocently, he didn't want to take these last minutes of sleep away from her. So he just lay there, breathing deeply to collect himself and just enjoying the moment.

A big car, a van perhaps drove past the house making quite a noise and Harry stirred moving her hand along his shoulder and touching his neck, her fingers warm. He imagined her lips at this spot instead and sighed. At the same moment Harry stirred again and he felt her body tense. She was waking up.

"Mornin' Tiger, slept well?" he murmured with a low voice. "I reckon you did."

She cleared her throat. "Time's it?" she asked, he heard a kind of awkwardness in her voice.

"Ten to six" he brushed his hand over her back smoothly.

To say Harry was baffled would be the understatement of the month. She felt pretty confounded after she realized she had nearly... wrapped herself around him in her sleep. And to be honest she liked it… the way she had cuddled up to him, how he held her in his arms, the strong heart beating under her cheek… Suddenly she thought it would be nice waking like that every morning… well perhaps not on the sofa and not in the clothes… But it didn't help to make the whole thing any less confusing.

"So we have to get up" she tried to sound casually.

"Mmmm" she felt his mouth caressing her temple and they didn't make a move. His fingers were lazily drawing circles on her skin.

"You know what? Wish we could stay here."

"Yes, but we can't" she murmured, her discomfort raising.

"Indeed we can't" he agreed with amusement, moving his hand up her back.

She briskly disentangled from his embrace and swung her legs down on to the floor. "Ugh" she winced feeling her muscles asleep. "Would you make coffee please?" she said, avoiding his look. Surprised, he reached out his hand to catch hers but she was beyond his reach already, having stood up quickly she made for the door. He raised his eyebrows and was about to make a cutting remark when he heard her painful cry from the hall where a big mirror was hanging on the wall: "Oh my God I look like a panda!"

He swallowed the disappointment at her strange behaviour that had seemed a kind of offence to him.

"That's a sexy thing!" he shouted towards the hall.

"What, yesterday's makeup?"

"Yes, that's what I am talking about. You're beautiful anyway" he added quietly but he was sure she had heard it. Eh princess, what's wrong with you, he thought, though.

Of course good old Chas was already in the office when they came in. He greeted them from the coffee corner - relaxed, smelling with a good aftershave, bright eyes. Dempsey patted him on the shoulder. "Have you slept at all Chas?"

"Yes, on the couch in Guv's office" Chas handed a mug of coffee to Harry. "Bit too short for me but I got used to it through all these years. Spent too many nights there. I am afraid one day Mona will have enough and divorce me".

"You're not married though, aren't ya?"

"No" Chas said matter-of-factly "but that's the way it feels when you're in a long term relationship, believe me. Anyway. I hope you had a better night than I did."

"Well my bed was quite comfortable" Dempsey grinned catching Harry's glare. The fact they had arrived together and Dempsey's remark may have made Chas suspicious. Why was this bloody Yank all mouth?

The telex started tapping and Chas went over to check the incoming news. Dempsey leaned against the wall sipping his coffee; Harry walked past him to wash her mug. "Could you stop grinning like a monkey?" she hissed over her shoulder looking at him. "In a second he'd think we spent the night together!"

"But we did spend the night together" he noticed cheerfully.

"Be quiet!" she hissed again. "Or, you know, what don't you go outside, up to the roof and shout out to the four corners of the world where you spent this night and with whom?"

"Easy girl" he frowned, her reaction had annoyed him. He continued angrily, lowering his voice "I think you're overreacting a bit. Nobody understood but you and me. And you don't have to punish me for only you know what…" but he was interrupted as Spikings had just stormed into the office.

"Good morning bright eyes" he shouted from the doorway. "Let's gather together, my eagles and hawks, and let's have a little chat about our duties on this lovely day…"

"Not very impressive", Dempsey said nonchalantly, looking around the hotel lobby and at the reception desk, empty at the moment, where a phone was ringing. "Wonder how much per night."

"Don't plan a weekend here, that's all I can say" Harry mumbled. "What?" she asked startled seeing his suddenly curious look. "I mean you'd live on toast with jam, no coffee, for the rest of the month" she felt a kind of guilty at her morning cool and distant attitude and tried to sound nicely and amicable.

"Coffee's free in the factory" he grinned.

"Coffee's not free anywhere, Dempsey, Her Majesty pays for your coffee" Spikings joined the conversation "and as I remember what you both did at the Park Lane Hotel three years ago I'd rather not see you spending the weekend at the Ritz."

"Excuse me Sir, when you say you I hope you mean him?" Harry's voice was like a velvet glass. Dempsey shrugged with amusement, "I bet at least coffee here's better than in the factory" and he looked again towards the reception desk still empty and the ringing phone. "Hey! Anybody gonna answer the phone?" he boomed out loudly to Harry's horror. All heads in the lobby suddenly turned towards them, glaring at them in disgust.

"Dempsey!" Harry hissed in panic, poking him on the rib. "It's Ritz, not McDonald's!"

"A five-star-hotel with nobody to answer a phone, gimme a break, Makepeace…" if looks could kill he would have been dead already. Spikings took a deep breath, he was about to reprimand him but he noticed a tall dark-haired man walking towards them. "Chief Superintendent Spikings, I assume?" he greeted the Boss with a kind smile. "My name's Rafferty. Lady Ladbroke is awaiting you. Please follow me."

Lady Ladbroke didn't resemble her sister at all, she rather looked like her mother. Short and plump, with silver curled hair, beady eyes and flushed cheeks, it made her look like a character from an Agatha Christie novel.

"What can I do for you" she asked politely when they already had exchanged attentions "I am sorry but I don't have much time. My son's getting married today. You should have come yesterday, Mr Spike."

Spikings kept a poker face. "It's Superintendent Spikings, Madam" he corrected her.

"Superintendent Spikings, yes" she giggled. "Would you like something to drink?"

"No thank you" Spikings' angel face could make Harry laugh, she and Dempsey could recognize the small signs of irritation appearing in his eyes but Lady Stephanie was of course absolutely unaware of them.

"So what can I do for you, Superintendent?"

Spikings cleared his throat again and briefly informed Lady Stephanie about the interrogation. She listened to him nodding and smiling all the time with interest and a kind of concern. She's a weirdo, James thought, he caught the amused look of Harry's who apparently thought the same.

"Yes of course my sister told me about all these facts" she said when he finished "it was really horrible, a man killed in her garden. A foreigner. So improper! Poor Grace. But to be honest I am not sure why you are telling me this story. I wasn't there the night he was killed." She looked uncertainly at Harry; she must have been asking herself about the role of these younger officers sitting at the table - one of whom was the daughter of dear Lord Frederick Winfield! - and saying nothing.

"Did you know, Lady Ladbroke, your daughter was in… a close relationship with the victim?" this question was like a loud shot in a small meeting room.

Lady Stephanie batted her eyes several times, confused. "What do you mean, in a close relationship?" she didn't sound any different, she still was like an old lady gossiping with friends, waiting for a juicy news about a scandal in the neighbourhood. "My daughter knew this man?"

Spikings took out an envelope from the inside pocket of his jacket. He brought out the photo of naked Emily Ladbroke sitting in a provocative pose in the armchair in Dalley's flat. "Is it your daughter?" he asked calmly.

Slowly her face turned scarlet, she reverted her eyes and stared at the window. "Yes… yes, it is my daughter. Emily." She breathed deeply, then cleared her throat. "This is, hmmm, very awkward for me, Superintendent" and, to their surprise, she giggled suddenly. "These kids!" she shook her head. "Always make us worry about their stupid ideas. Where did you find this photo? Were there more of them? This is… this is really…" she paused.

"We found it in his apartment" Harry joined the conversation "do I take it you didn't know anything about this man and your daughter?"

Lady Stephanie shrugged. "My daughter is, after all, a grown-up woman. She never tells me anything about her… life, or her love life. Of course she is a silly girl, what can I say, this picture's the proof. I gave up on trying to understand my daughter, Lady Harriet, long time ago. She was born when I was over forty, that's a big age difference. When I was young life was simple. School, horses, hunting, flirting with gentlemen. Now, this world has turned upside down, we can only watch our kids and there is nothing we can do to stop them from doing silly things. Emily has made a lot of mistakes, I suppose. But she's young. She is starting a new life now, far from here. Soon she will be ashamed of what she did… perhaps she is already."

Harry felt a bit shocked. Lady Ladbroke may have been an emancipated woman, why not, but this carelessness about her own daughter's behaviour, before the eyes of completely strange people, seemed rather unnatural.

"Your daughter is in Australia now, right?" Spikings asked. "And she will get married there soon. Is her soon-to-be family so indulgent too? I mean if they knew they would gloss over her… youthful indiscretion?"

She straightened up and looked him in the eye. "Mr Spikings, since I didn't know about it, how would they? I hope Emily will be wise enough not to tell her future husband anything. She has a chance to start a new life" she repeated her own words "a great chance. Hopefully she'll take it."

And to their amazement, she giggled again.

"Good god" Dempsey moaned quietly when they met in the SI-10 corridor at the vending machine when Spikings finally had told Harry to go home "is he bloody going to let me go too? What does he need me for? It's after five. I am afraid we're gonna be late at the party, princess."

Harry sighed, shrugging. "What can we do about it."

He looked at her. "Why don't you go home, get ready and go and wait for me at my place? You'd drive past it on your way to Angie's, right? Here" he fished around in his pocket and handed her the keys. "It'll save time. Let's meet there, I am hoping to be there in an hour or hour and a half".

Taking the keys from his hand he looked in his eyes, hers shining. "Sounds good, Leftenant. I promise not to look into the drawers of your writing desk in search of your diaries."

"I am not stupid to keep my diaries in my writing desk drawers" attracted by these impossible blue eyes he leaned forward to kiss her but he was stopped by Spikings' roar telling him to get back into his office.

Harry came back home and took a long hot shower. She stood under cascades of pouring water with her eyes closed, for quite a long time. The pictures of the last few days were running in her head. Everything went so quickly and was so intensive. James, work, dinner, office, the couch in the living room, waking up together… She smiled. Yes, everything was happening very fast, but not too fast. Apparently, that was how it was meant to be. Weird and exciting… She felt a wave of arousal flowing over her body. Wish he was here, waiting for me in the bedroom. She sighed deeply, moving her hand down her body...

What the hell am I doing?

She turned on the cold water tap. There was no time for… for a shower frenzy. At least not when she was alone here.

Harriet, for the love of God!...

It took her quite a time to choose the outfit for the evening. As Angela said, it was just one of these small casual country home parties – that's how she would call it. Harry decided on a red 'a girl from the neighbourhood' dress which was, however, quite sexy – well all depends on a neighbourhood, doesn't it? And a nice creamy, silk, discrete lingerie… yes. That looked good. Two pieces of silky fabric, not very bold, but… pretty interesting. Harry's mind drifted back to the more intimate things again.

For goodness sake, it's just an all-night party! Hardly possible there would be time and place to… to show this stuff to him! Not in this noisy house full of thumping music, booze and people everywhere laughing out loud all the time!

Yes, that's how Angie's small casual country home parties were like, actually.

Half an hour later Harry left the house, giving the one last look at herself in the mirror. Yes, a very good result. "Party time!" she murmured to herself and run down the stairs to her car.

Harry looked at her wristwatch. Seven thirty. Where the hell was he? He should have been here already.

She took a glass of sparkling water and, tempted, she stood on the doorstep of his bedroom. She remembered when she had been here before… the chat with Simone about James, interrupted at the most interesting spot. Harry smiled. Yes, Simone had been right about her and Dempsey, she had seen it in the proper light.

At eight she called the office but nobody answered; of course it was Saturday evening and everyone was long gone… finally enjoying the weekend while she was sitting here, totally dumb and not knowing what was happening to Dempsey right now.

At eight thirty she called Angela to apologize but nobody took the call either. No wonder, they probably didn't hear the phone ring - talking, laughing, drinking, dancing to the loud music. Harry waited until the answer device started and let the brief regretfulmessage they'd be late or might not come at all because their duties still kept them at work. She started pacing along the living room back and forth, her concerns raising. What happened to James? Where was he?

When finally at nearly nine o'clock Dempsey's Merc appeared on the street and parked up with the screech of brakes Harry felt extremely relieved. Glad, she rushed to the front door Dempsey was just opening and they bumped into one another.

"Wow" she couldn't hold the exclamation.

Dempsey looked as if a tank had run over him. His hair was messed, his trousers covered with stains of mud, the shirt's sleeve was torn and his face was dirty with trails of mud and… was it blood too? He just briefly looked at her face, the blue eyes shining with what he took as anger and started quickly, raising both hands in a defending gesture: "Harry I am sorry, I am so sorry! I know it's bloody late, I know you're mad..."

"James."

"I knew this day couldn't be normal, I just knew. I dropped Spikings to the ministry and was about to go back when I saw this jerk…"

"James."

"So I had to chase him, ya know, and then we had this little accident" he continued nervously and without a break.

"James, I am not mad!"

He put his hands down and looked at her in disbelief. "You ain't?"

"No! I just worried. You didn't come back, I didn't know what happened to you. What was it? Why didn't you call?"

He sighed deeply and wiped his face with the dirty hand.

"I just saw a jerk robbing an old lady on a street. So I had to, ya know. Intervene…"

"Of course."

"And yet you're angry."

"I am serious. I would have intervened too. You know that"

"I ran after him, we had a fight in a crescent, that's why I'm lookin' like that… the bastard managed to escape so I shot. In the air!" he added quickly seeing her face. "That scared him, he slipped and fell down and I just caught him when the police patrol arrived. Bang on time."

"And I think I can guess what came next…"

"Yeah they took us both to a station! I showed them my shield but it didn't help! They said I could call so I called Chas to help me to get out of there. But it took some more time and I was locked up in a cell with this jerk who made fun of me."

Harry thought it was extremely hard not to laugh but it was out of the question.

"See? It's not the first time being a knight in shining armour gets you in trouble" she reached out her hand and touched his cheek.

CRACK!

The electricity that flew between them was almost visible.

Blue eyes, hazel eyes, stared deeply into each other's.

This time it was Dempsey who reached out his hand and brushed Harry's cheek, stopping at the corner of her mouth. He leaned forward, his eyes on hers, his lips parted…

And then he looked at his palm, then at his shirt, trousers…

"Oops" he murmured, confused, moving away "that ain't looking good. I guess I need a shower and a change" he brushed a lump of mud off his sleeve. He peeked quickly in the mirror. "Ouch! Definitely. Give me ten minutes Tiger… I'll be back and we… can go…" and surprisingly quickly he disappeared in his bedroom, where the door to the bathroom was, leaving Harry alone.

She smiled and went back to the living room. Standing by the window and leaning her hands on the window sill she looked at the empty street, with unseeing eyes.

Blow the party off, James.

I wanna stay here with you…

The sound of water running in the shower could be heard now from behind the door.

Water was warm and Dempsey relaxed, slaking the tension off his shoulders. Gee, what a weird day! What a stupid adventure, he wasted so much time at the station while Harry waited here for him, what a bummer!...

In general, it wasn't their luckiest day. First, they missed the barbecue. And now they're so late for the bloody party. When would they arrive there? Everybody would be drunk, loud, music, people… Shit. He didn't want to go. He thought about Harry waiting in the living room, so beautiful in the red dress, so wonderful, so sexy… She was there…

Screw the party, Harry. Let's stay here.

But it was Angie's party, Harry hasn't seen her best friends for more than half a year, she missed her, she's been looking forward to meeting her again and talked about the reunion for days.

OK what Harry wants, Harry gets, he decided. After all, he liked these guys and they always had had fun together. It's going to be a nice night.

And then all his mind flew away in a second as out of the sudden two bare arms wrapped around his waist from behind, he felt a body pressing against his own and a voice whispered seductively to his ear:

"Fancy a company, James?..."