Sadly I don't own New Tricks. I'm glad it had a good run, and while I am sorry it ended, I'm just grateful that the series didn't get stupid stories.
The End of UCOS… Or a new beginning.
Strickland stood by the window looking into the UCOS offices, a melancholic smile on his face. How many times had he walked into this office, sometimes stormed through the doors because one of the team pissed him off with their antics or because they had once against flouted the new procedural rules which contradicted everything they had learnt during their own careers?
Too many to count.
Despite being upset - you didn't work with a team or supervise them for a decade and not develop some form of attachment for the people working in a unit, and was sad when one of them decided to move on with their lives or was promoted - Strickland wasn't really surprised Sasha and the others had left; as Jack Halford had told them a few years ago, no-one could stay forever in UCOS, or indeed in other departments indefinitely.
In many ways, after 9 years, Jack's departure following his discovery of how he was dying from liver cancer, the avalanche had started. Not only had Jack left only to die a few months later in France where he could enjoy his few remaining days in a place where he and his beloved wife had been happy, but Brian and Sandra had both left within months of each other. Strickland looked down at the toes of his smartly polished shoes and he thought back to the day where Sandra had argued with him about the case they were working on at the time, a serial killer of young girls.
"There's not going to be a next one!" Sandra had yelled, and Strickland had looked at her in shock when he realised she wanted to leave, and he discovered she planned to take a job offer to search for Nazis who'd escaped the war. Strickland had been upset, of course - he had long since fancied Sandra, although nothing had come of it, he had counted on her being a dear friend even if they sometimes argued.
But he was realistic enough to know it was time for her to go.
Sandra had redeemed herself in so many ways from that dog incident, which she still groused about. A chuckle left his lips as he thought about her frequent "you shoot one bloody dog in this country…" grumbles.
Sandra's leaving the UCOS team had thrown everything into chaos, and Strickland had needed to find a new replacement for Sandra. But as he had started looking for someone who could take the reins, somebody who was aware of what UCOS needed and wanted at the same time, Strickland had been unable to think without Stephen Fisher's words coming back to haunt him.
Strickland had been warned by Fisher who had only needed to observe the UCOS team for an entire day during that Abigail Padua case from 100 years before to realise Sandra Pullman departing could spell the end of UCOS.
Sasha Miller had proven Fisher wrong.
Okay, he had known Sasha would have trouble with the UCOS team at first - it was always the way, new boss, a new style of doing things, but she had pulled through, and within a year things were going well. But this year things had been going downhill for UCOS; ever since Gerry was revealed to be partly responsible for the Chapman's going after one of his old DCIs thirty years before, although he had expected the fool to have run as far as he could before the Chapman's could reach him instead of trying to reason with them before they beat Ackroyd to death with Gerry's own truncheon, Strickland had been having a hard enough time to keep his department floating at all.
Sure, many of the issues had faded when it was revealed Gerry was innocent of the murder and he was not behind the assault on Ronald Sainsbury, a retired policeman who was bought by the Chapmans (how far this went, Strickland didn't know; Gerry had told them at the pub Sainsbury and Ackroyd had been only two of the known policemen who were on the payroll, but there were others, including lawyers and solicitors, and even PIs, for goodness sake), but because of the cloud created by what happened with Gerry, Strickland had been fighting tooth and nail for UCOS to keep on standing.
The unit's record was in their favour of course, but if there was one thing he had learnt over the years, it was many still looked down on UCOS. Some felt the department was a waste of time, some of the former detectives who'd investigated the cases UCOS investigated to get results were resentful or they were deliberately covering something up which was later used against them, or it was just simple bigotry against the department itself, but it was rare for Robert Strickland to go through the week without having to deal with people who wanted to tear UCOS down.
And now it had happened.
He had warned Sasha and the others to keep their heads down, but as he'd always come to expect the UCOS team came from an era where Kojak's actions seemed to be the procedural manual. Cynthia Kline's cutthroat methods worked only too well; the woman had been so determined to create her own new department - yes, while Strickland saw the benefits, he had seen so many moments during his career where his high-ranking colleagues formed their own departments to create their own. That was how UCOS was created in the first place, so it made sense it would go the same way.
But realistically, Cynthia had been looking for the right amount of money for setting up her new department, and while he could see the benefits of the pitch which were even more attractive than dealing with cases that were 50 to 30 years or less unsolved, Strickland cursed Ted, Danny, and Steve for pushing Angela Morris the way they had. Yes, he could understand why they had seen her as likely, but the fact she had withdrawn her statement after Ted had arrested her illegally to get a formal statement only for her to drop it had signed UCOS's death warrant. It also gave Cynthia the excuse she needed to cut UCOS up and get Sasha to work for her.
Well, she had gotten what she had wanted. Sasha had been promoted and she was soon going to start working for Cynthia's new department, while Danny would be going with Fiona for a job at Aberdeen, Steve would be spending time with his son while Ted would be on a tour with his boyfriend. But at the same time Strickland had gotten the promotion he wanted, he was now the Assistant Commissioner. That meant he could restore UCOS.
And he had. In a few months, the new UCOS team would be assembled, and these offices would be reused, by a brand new team. Some might argue with him about keeping such a department going on, but Strickland had long since seen the advantage of UCOS. Thanks to Sandra, Sasha, Brian, Jack, Steve, Danny, Ted, Gerry and Ted, so many cases had been solved, links to other cases and the discovery of cases which had never even been reported in the aftermath so nobody even knew about them were soon tied up with red ribbons.
It wouldn't be easy coming up with a new team, of course. Strickland already had plans in mind to speak to Sasha, Ted, and Danny and perhaps even Brian for help in arranging a new team; he fully expected Brian to give him a few decent names, although he was prepared to face his old colleagues' odd mood swings. But he didn't think Brian would cause too many problems, not if Esther was nearby.
Strickland looked around the office, already looking forward to the prospect of more excellent work done by UCOS.