Lewis whistled as he got ready for work. He'd had a nice weekend away visiting with Lyn and the family, but for as much as he loved them he was happy to be going back to work. He always knew his place there. Even as a semi-retired DI working on contract, there was always work to be done or someone who wanted to bounce ideas off of him. As the figurehead of institutional memory, he had become a font of wisdom around the office. He smiled at how it irked Hathaway to hear Lewis be called a font of wisdom.

There would be a fresh face in the office today; Jean Innocent had become Chief Constable in Sussex and the coppers of Oxfordshire CID would meet their new boss. Lewis had seen administrators come and go over the course of his long career. He was sure that breaking in the new governor would be smooth sailing.

Even the Chief Constable was on hand to introduce the new Chief Superintendent Joe Moody. The new CS seemed like a pretty affable guy, but when Lewis laid eyes on Moody he felt déjà vu nagging him. Surely the new CS couldn't be the same man Lewis had seen in a tête à tête with Jack Cornish at the football match! Lewis didn't let his face betray his suspicions as he greeted the new boss with a hearty handshake.

Moody wanted to spend some time getting to know each of his DIs, so Lewis found himself on the other side of the desk where Innocent had once sat. Could this Moody fill her shoes? Even though the meeting was meant for Moody to get to know Lewis, Lewis decided to sound out the new arrival with a few questions of his own. "So, you've been with the Met, sir?"

"Yeah, South London was pretty full on. But I'm sure that Oxford has its challenges too."

This guy thinks that Oxford is a backwater. I don't doubt that London is full of criminal activity, but wait 'til he sees how our learned citizens use and abuse Shakespeare and Jacobean revenge tragedies to mould their murderous desires. Seriously, you can't make this stuff up… thought Lewis.

"I understand that you have thirty plus years of experience both in uniform and with CID and that you've rejoined us as a consultant. Is that meant to be full time work?"

Lewis nodded. "There is no part-time police work when you're on a case, sir." Perhaps Lewis was overly confident at the apex of his career in Oxford, perhaps he just wasn't the same Sergeant who needed to impress Strange all those years ago, or perhaps he was just plain suspicious. He decided to test Moody.

"All the same, I do make time to visit my daughter and grandson in Manchester. Went up there this past weekend to take in a match together. Sadly Newcastle lost to Man City, but I do love a good game."

Moody stared back at Lewis.

"Thank you, Lewis, that will be all."

Moody was there all right, Lewis thought.

When James had returned from his holiday, he too had an interview with the new boss. Just like Lewis, Hathaway was surprised that the meeting wasn't quite what he'd expected. For starters, he found himself holding a cactus. It seems that Jean Innocent had left him a parting gift. Second, Moody's line of questioning threw Hathaway off.

"So, what do you think of this old DI that they dragged out of retirement?"

Hathaway bumbled a bit and accidentally stuck himself with the cactus. He feared that he appeared inarticulate, so he offered to write up his thoughts for the new boss.

Hathaway left Moody's office and went back to his own. Instead of finding Sergeant Maddox there, he found Lewis using her computer. "What's this? You usually delegate the computer stuff to me or Maddox…"

"Oh you're back from your holiday? A hello wouldn't go amiss."

Hathaway smiled as he recognized a bit of Hobson's influence on Lewis' humour.

"Where were you again?"

"Nowhere important."

"That explains why I didn't get a post card. Settle a bet for us, eh? I say it was another orphanage in Croatia, but Laura's got the crazy idea that you were raving it up in Magaluf, whatever that means."

"Neither. What are you up to on the computer?" Hathaway got nosy into Lewis' screen space. Lewis had been seeing whatever he could glean about Moody from the interoffice services. "Researching the old boss? I've never known you to be an apple polisher."

"I'm not," Lewis said. "James, did you get the feeling that something's not quite right with Moody?"

"Not at all," answered Hathaway. "Seems like a good bloke who just wants to impress people. Maybe you're just suspicious of Moody because he thinks you're old and should be put out to pasture."

Lewis growled and closed the browser window.

"You ought to log out before closing the window," Hathaway reminded him cheekily.

Lewis got up to leave. He had thought about taking Hathaway into his confidence that he suspected Moody of working with Jack Cornish but decided against it- for now anyway. He'd had enough of Hathaway's cheek and he didn't want Hathaway compromising his relationship with the administration.

"Where are you going?" Hathaway asked.

"To go find some crime. Got to make myself useful for the new boss," Lewis went to go find some coffee, and then possibly some crime.

Hathaway sat down at his computer and started to wade through the backlog of emails from his holiday. After that, he started to draft a memo about DI Robert Lewis.

What could he say, damn good cop who loved him like a son? No, the only professional thing to do would be to try to appear detached from Lewis. If Hathaway's in-person demeanour was aloof and facetious, his writing style was pedantic and could be misinterpreted as condescending. Hathaway tried his best to highlight Lewis' strengths, but the end product sounded stiff and reserved.

Lewis' hand trembled with a feeling of betrayal when he found the letter amongst Hathaway's files a few days later.