DISCLAIMER: 'The Bill' characters depicted in this story is copyrighted to Thames Television/Pearson Corp
He strided though the corridors liked he owned the place, his expensive, polished shoes stamped loudly on the cold solid floors of the station. He was in a bad mood because some youths were getting the better of him. He pushed the CID main doors so hard they nearly came off their hinges. Sam, Phil and Debbie looked at each other – they knew that if someone was going to get a call to his office, it'll be one of them.
"Debbie, Phil office now!" Sam smiled to herself; for once she was grateful that he had put her on a burglary case.
Phil gently closed the door behind him, the two DS's knew what was about to come. "Well?" DI Manson sat at his desk, "You both said that if I gave you two time that you would catch these car thieves. I just heard from uniform that another car was stolen last night, Don't worry about informing me, I've asked uniform to keep me posted." Neil sat, twiddling his thumbs, looking at the sergeants momentary he spoke to them both in a quiet tone.
Debbie glanced at Phil then to her feet, "Guv' we are trying – but no-one wants to talk. If our snouts won't talk what intelligence do we have?" Debbie looked at Phil for backup, he got the message.
"Uh... Yeah. Guv' we've asked around, but nothing" He slid his hands in his pockets, trying to keep his composure. "If we could have some uniform on this then that'll help. You know someone to cross- check the data, to find a pattern."
Manson kept calm. He stood up and made his way to the window, he wasn't looking out, but looking at his DS's reactions while they thought he wasn't looking. They were elbowing each other to say something. But he spoke first. "Talk to inspector Gold, see if she can spare anyone. If not then your on your own." He stopped looking at then and decided to look out at the yard. He legs felt as if they had crumbled. Andrea Dunbar was walking to work, chatting to Kerry. She was laughing at something, he loved the way she smiled. He decided to move, "Try to see if she can spare PC Dunbar, she's a good cop – she'll help get us a result." Phil nodded at Debbie that this was their cue to leave. "Will do Guv'... I'll bring her up to date as well."
"No" Neil spoke quickly. A little too quickly.
"Sorry Sir, but I thought you said..." Debbie questioned, Manson turned around
"You two get out on the streets, I don't need you wasting time... I'll bring PC Dunbar up to speed." He turned to face the window again. Phil raised his eyebrows to Debbie and opened the door for her, they both left and Neil sighed when he heard the door close. He had nearly put his foot right in it, he tried to hide his affection, but when Andrea was around, it was hard. She had a way of squeezing smiles out of him, he tried not to smile too much at work. But she was different.
Andrea walked out of the WPC locker room. Phil Hunter walked down the corridor, his pace increased when he saw Andrea, "Andrea! This way, your coming with me." He walked closer to her and nodded his head towards the opposite end of the corridor, "The DI thinks you'll be able to help. I've gotta' go but the Guvnor' will bring you up to speed. Inspector Gold has agreed to lend you to CID for today, Do a good job and we might want you tomorrow as well" Andrea followed him to the stairs leading to CID. "See ya later, ring me or DS McAllister if you get anything," He walked away on those words. Andrea Smiled and walked up the stairs slowly, tidying her shirt and checking that her radio was off, she couldn't stop thinking about why he wanted her, when there was many more PC's and even, more that wasn't on probation. Maybe he likes her, or it maybe it was because she was a good cop.
By the time she had finished thinking she had come round she found herself directly outside DI Manson's office. She took a deep breath and knocked. Twice.
Neil was standing near the filling cabinets, he had to review who was up to date, and who wasn't. He heard a knock on the door, "Come in" he continued to examine the papers.
Andrea walked in and closed the door behind her, he hadn't noticed who had walked in she thought, he was too busy with some sort of paperwork, he turned around, and like clockwork his insides turned to jelly. "PC Dunbar!" She smiled, he turned around, placed the papers back into the drawer, as he closed the drawer he smiled. covertly. He turned back towards her, "I guess DS Hunter told you about the case, take a seat?" Andrea smiled once again, she knew that she had a soft spot for him, but decided not to show it. Too much, "Thank you Sir." As she sat down DI Manson picked up a file from the other side of his desk and sat down in his chair.
"There has been a recent space of car thefts, we don't know much – only that they operate at night and probably spot the cars in the day. To make it worse, they rub it in our face by spraying their tag on the road where they had stolen the car." Andrea looked into his eyes, and sometimes she would look at the file he was holding, he handed her a picture of the tag; It was small, and in the shape of an owl. Underneath the picture was writing she guessed that it was their name, as she was looking closely at the picture. Neil looked closely at her, the smooth curve of her cheekbones to the hypnotising beauty of her large brown eyes – while he was admiring her eyes he noticed that they were now looking at him, as deeply as he was looking at hers. He knew where this was going so looked at the file then back at her, she seemed confused "The Owls?" Andrea asked.
Manson stood, he found that it would give him a little more concentration. Her eyes followed him as he moved to the filling cabinets, "Yeah, we think they call themselves that because they only steal the cars at night, but there's no occurring pattern of the cars – some thieves choose to steal fast, expensive cars. But these guys aren't thinking like that, there had been an increase of car thefts in little over a month. but there has been the same MO used in the past months..." He tried not to focus on her too much, so he walked over to the window facing the main CID office and sat on the ledge, "... dotted around here and there. So we think they have been doing this for quite some time now. The MO has been spotted in thefts of Fords, Fiats, Landrovers, and BMWs and on a few occasions Mercedes. There's no way of telling what they'll steal next. That is why it's so hard to find these guys "
"You think they're stealing to order?" Her observation skills were known to be sharp while she was a journalist, it's not going to disappear now she's a copper. Neil looked behind him, he didn't want the rest of the team seeing his soft side. He walked up towards her and sat on the desk. Inches from her, "Yep, that's what I thought" He lied – it was actually Phil Hunter's, but he wasn't going to admit that. " Did DS Hunter say what you'll be doing?" He picked up a transparent ball, with air bubbles in the middle that was on his desk and started rolling it across his hands.
"No not yet, he just said that he - well you said that I could help the investigation Sir."
"Yes, well you are a very good cop, you look at the data of the gang, possibly pin the thefts on a map and see if there are any connections. Of maybe areas or streets nearby, when they steal the cars, they need somewhere to put them." She looked at the picture once again, there must be some clues here. She looked at the other pictures of the tags taken else where, they are sprayed at different angles, some are pointing towards the road, some towards the houses and other pointing towards the other cars.
"What about this Sir?" She pointed towards the pictures and showed him the different angles of them. On the last picture he took off her he accidentally touched her hand. Neither of them noticed at first, they had diverted their attentions, he was looking at the pictures and she was looking at him. When they realised, they stayed there. Motionless. He looked her straight in the eye and smiled. She reciprocated the attention by smiling back.
Debbie had returned back from begging her snouts, she had left Phil trying to get information from his – she was never one to have endless supplies of patience. As she was hanging her coat on the back of her chair she glanced into the DI's office, then sat down at her desk. By this time what she had witnessed had registered into her mind and she darted her attention back at the office window. But it was too late the office door opened and the DI walked out followed by Andrea. He nodded towards Debbie, "Oh, your back... Where's Phil?" Debbie glanced at Andrea, then back at Manson.
"He's out double-checking with his snouts Guv'. He shouldn't be long." Neil looked back at Andrea,
"Debbie could you give PC Dunbar the papers we have on the gang, she'll pin them on the map. She had also spotted that the tags are at different angles." Debbie rolled her eyes.
"Did she, well maybe the photos are at different angles, I'll ask Phil when he comes in, he was there most of the time they were taken." Neil detected her sarcastic tone and brushed it off immediately, "Yes well any way PC Dunbar can check!" Manson walked back into his office and closed the door. Debbie searched her desk for the papers, she moved some – and then replaced them when she realised that they weren't there. "Oh, sorry the papers don't seem to be here, what a shame." Andrea took a deep breath, she never liked Debbie McAllister. Since the first day Debbie had taken the mick of her Scottish accent.
Also the patronising sarcastic tone didn't hide the fact that Debbie still didn't like Andrea. But she put it aside - she wanted to impress the DI. And sooner or later she will. She put on her smile and said brightly, "OK, well I'll try DS Hunter's desk..." Andrea walked over to Hunter's desk and moved some of the papers, one file caught her eye, she picked it up and put it under her arm. "Found it!"
"O, goody" Debbie muttered under her breath. Andrea walked over to the large map of Sunhill and gathered some of the pins that were cluttered at the bottom of the map, and slowly dug the pins in their place.
After time Andrea had placed all 17 pins into the map, she felt her stomach rumble, so she told DC Best that she was going to get some dinner, she would have told DS McAllister but didn't trust her to pass the message onto the DI.
"Hey! There she is, you know I don't trust CID, first they nick Gary – and now they want Andrea." When Andrea had got her tea she sat down next to her usual crowd; Kerry, Yvonne, Cameron and sometimes Tony.