Spikings called a team meeting on the Van der Bilt & Farrel case as the Finance Department of the Met confirmed Harry's analysis and gave a report on the falsification of the accounts. The analysis from the post mortem indicated that the two board members had been taken out by a professional hit man one bullet from a sniper in both cases.

'MO looks like Johnnie Kilburn or Matt Sykes could be either of them so Dempsey you need to lean on them both until one of them gives up the information willingly.'

Harry shifted uncomfortably as she wasn't too sanguine about Dempsey going after either of those two characters. She felt her partner's knee pressed against hers so she guessed he was meaning to convey reassurance rather than get her sexually interested.

'Take Watson with you; I need Harry on the finance side and its D.I. Andrews day in the office so she stays here,' Harry returned the knee press but she could see he took that as a taunt rather than understanding on her behalf.

'No funny business,' he hissed in her ear.

'Be careful,' she said under her breath.

'Keep him out of trouble,' she said to Watson who just grinned, he loved going out with Jim as he was a bit of a Maverick himself. 'Why am I wasting my breath it's like asking King Kong to baby sit Godzilla?'

'That's a bit offensive Sergeant,' Dempsey responded in an argumentative tone. 'It's like calling you and Andrews a pair of bean counting, paper pushers, probably go out for a nice salad at lunch time with a fruit juice to wash it down.

'Pair of Spods,' Watson grinned adding to the banter. 'C'mon Jim let's go find our sniper and leave the girls to it.' The men left checking their weapons; all testosterone and swagger.

'I hope I'm not going to regret that,' Spikings ran a hand over his short prickly hair. 'Still you have to fight fire with fire and where Kilburn and Sykes are concerned this is war.'

'Yes sir,' Harry looked a little on the nervous side.

Spikings came up to her shoulder and lowered his voice. 'It will be all right girl, he's a big boy and quite capable of looking after himself and Watson.'

'Thank you sir, I wasn't worried,' she lied and took a deep breath, it was ridiculous she couldn't go into a panic attack every time James left without her, she pulled herself together, 'right, let's get back to the accounts.'

-oOo-

It was a very long day and at the end of it Dempsey was doing time in the interrogation room moving from one room to the other at they'd brought in the two suspects. She knew they only had a certain amount of time before they'd have to release Kilburn and Sykes so she expected he'd be pulling an all-nighter. Harry wasn't particularly keen on interrogation duty with the American because he could exude such menace and explosive violence that it troubled her. It was her least favourite aspect of his police work.

Spikings seemed to be supervising the tandem interrogation and Watson was the 'good cop' she supposed although she struggled to see him in that role.

'Do you fancy a drink Harry,' Inspector Andrews asked her. 'My shout, it's been a pleasure working with you today.' Spikings indicated with her head that she should keep him sweet as he had money riding on this. Harry flicked her boss a cool look that said, 'you owe me,' and picked up her jacket.

Later in the evening Dempsey, Watson and Spikings walked into the pub and stood at the bar there body language seemed positive so Harry guessed they'd made progress. Dempsey's gaze flicked over to her and Andrews and his jaw squared ominously. She didn't like his reaction but understood that he'd let his inner thug out for a few hours and it might be difficult to reign it back in.

'Excuse me,' she said politely to Andrews as she went to join her three colleagues at the bar. 'I gather you've made progress,' she offered pleasantly. 'Which one did it Kilburn or Sykes?' Her blue eyes held Dempsey's and she tried to read him but he was blanking her.

'One hit each,' Spikings responded with a satisfied look, 'very satisfying to offer those two gentleman accommodation in her majesty's lock up. Sang like canaries with a certain amount of encouragement.'

'Not a bruise on them chief,' Dempsey remarked picking up his beer and eyeing Harry combatively. 'Sergeant, you're ignoring your boyfriend. Nathan's over there looking all neglected and lonely, you see that's why D.C. Harmon has the edge over you she wouldn't let a senior officer drink alone.' He could see he'd annoyed his partner as she was looking royally pissed.

'Thank you for the advice,' she responded icily, nodded at Spikings and went back and said good night to Andrews and left the pub

Spikings looked at the Yank, 'I encouraged Harry to go to the pub with the D.I. because we're supposed to be getting along with our fellow officers. I was told you were a ladies man Lieutenant and if that's the case why do you screw up with Harry, she's not that hard to figure out. I assume you like the girl?'

'Yeah, I like Harry, course I like her she's my partner,' he looked over at the guvnor, 'got to admit though she's a real ball breaker or speaking in English a nut cracker, whatever. Night,' he raised a hand to his head in an informal salute and left the pub.

'Trouble in paradise,' Watson smirked Dempsey and Makepeace regularly featured in the office gossip and the two of them having a row wasn't exactly news.

'A wished for paradise maybe,' Spiking depressed the upstart's pretensions. 'I wouldn't anticipate a pay-out just yet,' he referred to the betting.

'Opposites might attract I suppose but I think Harry and Jim are a longshot,' Watson left the bar. Watson like many of the others assumed Makepeace would go out with a toff like Pearce-Wynding and not a guy from Brooklyn.

'Remind me to score Watson low on emotional intelligence in the next appraisal,' Spikings muttered sotto voce as he picked up his pint and went to sit with Andrews acknowledging he couldn't leave all the fraternization to Makepeace.

Dempsey caught up with Harry in the SI10 car park, 'where's the fire?' He grated as she turned to look at him. He rested his arm on the top of her car and blocked her access; his gaze ran over her in a somewhat offensive masculine appraisal. 'Spikings said he encouraged you to go for a drink with Andrews, you know he ain't got no right to pimp you out on the basis of departmental relations.'

Harry folded her arms and looked up at him with hard fought for patience. 'One, no one pimps me out I was just being civil and two, the way you just looked at me was extremely offensive.' She raised her eyebrows to emphasise the point.

'I don't want you flirting with Andrews I find that offensive, I don't want him thinking he has a chance with you,' Dempsey dark eyes were demanding as he glared at her. 'What do you think's going to happen? He'll run back to the Met and tell everyone he was out on a date with you.'

Makepeace gave an exasperated sigh. 'I wasn't on a date with him Dempsey now if you don't mind I'd like you to move as I want to get into my car,' her chin lifted as he didn't move. 'What exactly do you want?' She asked furiously.

'Give me the keys, I'll drive,' he put out his hand and then dropped it as she ignored him the light of battle in her eyes pretty difficult to ignore even for someone as stubborn as Dempsey.

Harry's blue eyes conveyed her annoyance and the fact she'd decided that an evening without the pleasure of his company was an attractive option. 'I'm going home and you're not invited to join me. And for your information I don't admire jealous, possessive behaviour so if you're going to get into a mood every time I have a drink with another man then I think we should reconsider our relationship.'

Dempsey's jaw squared ominously. 'I see and you would be fine with me taking another woman out for a drink, it wouldn't bother you; add to that a woman who obviously found me attractive,' he responded angrily.

'At the moment I'd stand her a round for two champagne cocktails,' Harry shot back and then looked conscious of their combative behaviour as Watson went towards his car.

Dempsey put his hand out for the keys and she handed them over as she could see he wouldn't bloody move and she didn't want to cause a fuss in front of their colleague. She got into the passenger seat and simmered nicely as he put the keys in the ignition. 'You're insufferable,' she said thoroughly exasperated with his behaviour.

'Part of my charm,' he growled as he started the car and pulled out of the car park into the traffic. 'I always hated it when you dated anyone and you can't tell me you'd want your guy to be so ball-less that he wouldn't mind you going out with someone who was obviously trying to get into your panties.'

'I wouldn't tell you anything because you're too bone headed to listen to anything I say as in I was not going out with him, I was merely having a drink with a colleague as part of the inter departmental good will Spikings is trying to foster.'

'That's rich, the chief don't believe in that stuff he's just doing it cos the suits are telling him to.' Dempsey pulled out to overtake an old lady driving with her foot on the brake rather than the accelerator. 'Shouldn't let geriatrics drive on the roads,' he growled irritably. 'Anyway when he comes over next week if he asks you for a drink I'm coming with you and let's see him start something then,' he pulled up outside her place and got out and followed her to the door.

Harry sighed and gave up; opening the door she walked into the lounge; dropped her handbag on the coffee table, kicked off her shoes and sat down on the couch with a sigh of relief; it had been a long day.

Dempsey joined her and picked up her feet and began to massage them, 'guys are territorial even you with your limited experience must have got that.'

'I'm catching up fast on my limited experience Dempsey, going out with you is like having a hundred Christmas's in one day,' she relaxed her head on a cushion as he soothed her aching feet.

'I'm not sure if that's' supposed to be good or bad,' his mouth twitched with amusement.

'Neither am I,' she glanced at him and then laughed as his humour was catching. 'Of all the men in the world I could have dated…..

'Yeah, but you didn't want them you wanted me so you have to pay the piper,' he grinned as she rolled her eyes at that. 'Well it's true you have to put up with all that to get to the good part. The good part is that I turn you on,' he massaged her instep. 'And those politically correct types don't do it for ya,' he could see she wasn't listening.

'It's incredible,' she looked distracted. 'You can make rubbing my feet into an act of sexual warfare,' she withdrew her feet and padded into the kitchen to look in the fridge. 'Maybe you can have Andrews for a day there's no law that says he has to be my project. I haven't got any food we'll have to order in or you could go and get something.'

'I'm starving,' he came into the kitchen. 'This isn't a ruse so you get me to go and then shut the door on me,' he looked in the fridge there wasn't much in it.

'You have a key and if I wanted to kick you out I would and I'm still contemplating it however if you go and get some food I might overlook your boorish behaviour,' she responded with a grimace of a smile.

'I'm on it,' he got up and went to the door. 'You've got that upmarket chippy or the Chinese what's your preference?' He pulled on his jacket and looked over at her. 'Chinese right?'

She nodded and smiled as she knew Dempsey would know her order as they were long past the point of menu guessing each other after long nights on stake outs or even longer nights dealing with report generating, bureaucracy.

-oOo-

Spikings called Dempsey and Makepeace into his office and noticed with some relief that they seemed to be in comparative harmony which hadn't been the case in the pub last night. The Yank was obviously jealous of the girl and wasn't doing much of a job of hiding the fact. Watson had been regaling the office this morning about their set-to in the car park and telling the boys that the odds should be higher, idiot.

'Right you two, we've got the confessions from our sniper twins; and we have the dodgy accounts; the last piece in the picture is the exhibition items for Dubai, the money laundering or movement of currency. We don't have much time before the principal's try and skip the country due to the disappearance of the snipers so I want you to go to the airport and work with the customs officers.'

'Right sir,' she picked up the airport security badges Spikings slapped down and wrote down their contact and which building they should go to.

'And get the bust completed before Dempsey goes to duty free,' Spikings growled, 'and that's an order. Dismissed,' he snapped as he wasn't in a particularly good mood as the wife had been moaning about his visit to the pub. Tonight he was obligated to go to some soiree with some of her designer friends which had no appeal for him.

'O-kay, well I can't go front office with the customs guys' cos I've met the broad,' Dempsey shrugged on his leather jacket. 'And that means you're gonna have to wear the cute, little outfit,' his smile broadened.

'How did I know you were going to say that,' Makepeace gave him a mocking glance. 'Don't get excited I'll be handing it back at the end of the operation.'

'Spoilsport,' the American countered as they left the office. 'You're gonna have to pull their luggage and then I'll check through it as I have a better nose for this kind of stuff.'

'I'm sure the customs officers will want to do that themselves and don't annoy them Dempsey, we need their co-operation.' They proceeded to the car park and took Harry's white Ford Escort and went off to Heathrow.

Makepeace was wired up and had communication with Dempsey via an ear piece; he identified the girl but noticed she'd gone through security separately from Van der Bilt. My guess is the samples are in Daphne Carlisle's luggage and not his. He's booked in first class and she's in economy, what a cheapskate. Pull them both over for baggage checks and I'll monitor him in case he makes a run for it.'

'Roger that,' Makepeace responded and indicated to the customs officers which bags she wanted checked. She sighed as Dempsey had got it right and the girl had the exhibition items in her luggage stuffed with high value bills and was detained. Maximillian Van der Bilt's luggage was clean but he was asked to accompany Crawford, the Custom's Officer for questioning on Dempsey's instruction as he was reasonably sure they could crack Daphne and then put the heat on the guy.

However they didn't reckon on Max's reaction to being detained and he grabbed Makepeace who was nearest to him and held a gun to her head and demanded transport out of the airport. Van Der Bilt was sweating and his gun hand was shaking but his grip on the blonde officer was firm and had strength from the adrenaline rush.

Harry saw Dempsey's face as he ran up to assess the scene; he looked furious as he radioed in to arrange the transport and was ordered in no uncertain terms by Spikings to sit tight as the Chief would do the negotiation personally. The airport was cleared and Van der Bilt dragged the female officer over to one of the exits in Arrivals where he'd told them to bring the car with a driver.

Spikings arrived and used a megaphone to talk to Van der Bilt urging him to release the girl and not make it worse on himself. That had no effect as the executive was in panic mode and had his own private plane at an airfield in the Home Counties which had been prepped and on standby for a quick hop over the channel.

Harry was waiting her moment to catch Van der Bilt unawares; he wouldn't know she was trained in combat skills so that was to her advantage a lot of villains were distracted by her looks and didn't see beyond it.

The car came up driven by D.S. Jarvis and she winced as she was bundled into it as she hit her head on the doorframe. She cried out with more theatricality than the wound demanded and Van der Bilt automatically released her long enough for her to get a blow into his stomach and grab the gun. A battle ensued with the gun going off a couple of times and she heard Chas swearing and hoped he hadn't been hit before Dempsey wrenched open the car door and dragged the guy off her and landed a couple of blows on him; two uniformed officers pulled her partner off and secured the gunman on Spikings instruction.

Dempsey glowered at Van der Bilt and walked over to Makepeace lifting her chin and examining the wound. 'You'll live,' he grated his dark eyes reflecting the turmoil he'd felt when Harry was being held captive with a gun to her head.

'Okay you two, I'll administer the collar and give you credit for it; go and get Makepeace seen to they must have some kind of first aid facility here. And Dempsey get me a bottle of Chivas Regal the expensive one, it goes by age,' Spikings grated as the Yank didn't seem to be too impressed with being the grocery boy.

'Chas are you okay,' Makepeace checked on her colleague and was pleased she hadn't got him shot. She could tell Dempsey was ready to read her the riot act about not exercising sufficient caution with Van der Bilt and was happy to put that off for as long as possible to give him time to simmer down.

'Fine Harry, touch and go there for a moment,' the dour Scot smiled wryly and looked at his chauffeur hat which showed a mark from a bullet which had burnt across the very top of it. Now that the danger was over he was quite pleased to have a story to tell the lads down the pub.

The female officer grimaced when she saw the damage and then turned to let the airport officials herd her towards their medical facility aware that Dempsey was on her shoulder. She was taken directly to a cubicle and got up on the examination table pleased she hadn't gone to A&E as this shouldn't take too long.

'Right Miss Makepeace,' the nurse looked at the wound, 'you have a nasty bruise.' She held up her fingers, 'how many fingers can you see.' The patient gave an accurate count of fingers, touched her nose as instructed and followed all the other tests without any problem.

Dempsey paced around the bed as Makepeace got checked out, 'she likely to have a concussion or anything?' He asked with very little charm sounding like his partner's injury was a massive inconvenience. In truth he was dealing with the rush of emotion he'd felt as images kept flashing through his brain of Harry with a gun to her temple. Also the fact that he was pretty sure that Van der Bilt had no idea how to handle a gun so the safety could've been off.

The nurse shook her head, 'I don't think so but it's always good to monitor someone who has had a blow to the head, I'd advise Miss Makepeace to stay with someone tonight who can check on her.' The young woman wondered if the dark hunk was a possible candidate, he'd be very attractive if he didn't look so bad tempered.

Dempsey stopped pacing and came up to the bed, 'I'll check on her, is she okay apart from that,' he watched as the nurse efficiently put a bandage over the wound on Harry's forehead.

'A bit of T.L.C. wouldn't come amiss, Miss Makepeace has had a shock and needs a calm environment,' the nurse's eyes twinkled as they met the blue eyed, blonde's expression of forced patience with her fellow officer's behaviour.

'Thank you Nurse Roberts,' Harry said politely reading the young woman's badge as she swung herself off the trolley and then grabbed Dempsey's arm as she felt a little giddy but more as a dramatic gesture so he wouldn't start ranting at her as soon as they left the medical facility.

'Take my arm,' he growled knowing that Makepeace was milking the injury but not willing to chance it in case he was wrong. The acute anxiety he'd felt when she had that gun to her head had turned into anger as she'd handled the situation all wrong.

'We have to go to duty free,' she reminded him as it was a rule in SI10 that if any of the team got airport access then they did a booze run. 'I'll sit down in the Departure Lounge and you can go and do your shopping Spikings will want the eighteen year old Gold Signature not the Regal Blended.'

Dempsey was experiencing an emotional overload and the last thing he wanted to do was something as mundane as shopping, 'I know about the whisky,' he responded his temper building. 'He can shove his whisky I'm taking you home where I can look after you just like the nurse suggested.'

'No you're not you're going to Duty Free and I'll come with you, I'm fine I was just trying to avoid the lecture on paying due care and attention to rogue executives.' She tensed slightly waiting for the verbal onslaught as she could see Dempsey was ready to blow. That was it, BOOM!

'I knew you were faking it! What the hell were you thinking? There is no way Van der Bilt should've got the drop on you and then wrestling with the guy in the car you could've got Chas's head blown off never mind a ricochet that could've taken you out.'

'He had a gun to my head, I was trying to protect myself and it worked; you've got to go with the odds James, life is hard and then you die.' Harry knew quoting Dempsey to Dempsey wouldn't buy her much but she couldn't resist it; she walked ahead of him and went straight to the perfume counter. She wasn't surprised when he came up to her and grabbed her by the lapel of her smart, customs outfit.

'If you hadn't got a head injury I'd paddle your ass right here, right now and don't for one minute think I'm joking,' he glowered at her and wasn't mollified at all when she raised herself on her tiptoes and placed a quick kiss on his jaw, that was so damned patronising talk about putting out fire with gasoline.

'You were scared, don't worry I won't tell anyone,' she moved away and picked up the largest bottle of her favourite perfume and went to the checkout perfectly aware that her partner was in a very bad mood and it would take time to get him back to anything approaching fun Dempsey.

Harry let out a sigh of relief; she was shaken by the day's events and could do with a stiff gin and tonic. Her gaze monitored her partner as he grabbed a number of bottles and smiled he'd picked Chas's favourite as well as Spikings. Underneath that macho exterior there was a heart of gold you just had to dig deep.

They left the airport with bottles clinking in the back of the car; the airport authorities turned something of a blind eye on the duty free allowance especially when Makepeace smiled at them so prettily. Dempsey had insisted on driving and wasn't providing much in the way of conversation; Harry glanced at him once or twice and gave an internal groan, the forecast read stormy.

The female officer went over the incident in her own mind and had to agree she'd been a little off her guard when Van der Bilt had grabbed her. Most people didn't put a gun to your head when they were merely being asked to answer a few questions. She hadn't even been the officer detaining him. The situation in the car though she'd done that before a few weeks back when Giardino's team had held her captive and that had saved Dempsey from killing Coltrane.

Harry came out of her reverie when she noticed they were outside Dempsey's place and she looked at him questioningly as they were supposed to be going back to the office to fill in their report and deliver the duty free. She knew Spikings would be expecting them as anything to do with an airport, and especially Heathrow, meant a lot of paperwork and focussed scrutiny from 'upstairs' as the Chief Inspector called it not to mention attention from the Ministry of Transport.

'Did you forget something?' Makepeace questioned as he got out of the car, he didn't respond and she sighed and followed him to the door. Once they were inside she wondered if she'd majored in stupid today because he'd obviously been banking his temper since the airport.

He turned to face her when they entered the lounge. 'You want to try that kiss again just here,' he touched his jaw lightly with his thumb. His dark eyes were furious as he looked at her; it reminded her of the time she'd given him the identikit of the dog when they'd been tracking the African Liberation Army.

'I wasn't even the detaining officer,' she protested. 'He was only being asked to answer some questions how was I supposed to know he was on such a hair trigger, and he'd been through security,' she pointed out.

'He was going through security you were it,' Dempsey thundered at a painful decibel level. 'You dropped your guard and behaved like some rookie on your first field operation.'

'Nobody got hurt,' Makepeace protested and then swallowed hard as he closed in on her. She wondered if charm would work as her hands came up against his chest and she was born back against the wall. 'Okay Dempsey stop this because you're scaring me,' her blue eyes flashed to his.

'Oh now you're scared,' he scowled as he tipped up her jaw and his eyes ran over the bandage on her forehead. 'Well I'll tell you something, I was fucking scared. Guys like Van der Bilt are the worst because they panic; they're not professionals they're just greedy businessmen that don't know shit. It hit me hard today and then you sashay up to me with your little kiss; you're lucky you ain't on a slab with a label on your toe.'

She winced as the volume hurt her ears as he'd yelled the last part. 'Would sorry buy me anything,' she asked in a contrite tone, Harry did feel bad when he put it like that. Dempsey lowered his head and his kiss was flavoured with the violence of his emotions and his fingers winnowed through her hair. The kiss was dynamite and she realised he'd been holding back on her, wow!' His heart was hammering in his chest; she could feel it and his hand palmed her rear and pulled her against him; yes that was bad he was obviously on some kind of emotional overload.

Dempsey dragged his mouth away from hers and his eyes ran over her face, 'there've been a lot of times I've wanted to knock you on your back and show you what for Makepeace and you know what today might just be that day,' his gaze settled on the bandage and he sighed in defeat. TLC that's what she needed not this, he made to pull away.

Harry wasn't accepting a retreat. She kissed his jaw in the same spot as before and gave him a sensual look from under her lashes. His eyes darkened with desire and she ran her arms around his neck and pulled his head down; the temperature of the kiss blew away her partner's control and they barely released the necessary clothes to come together in a blistering sexual encounter that shocked even Dempsey with his many years of experience.

James' chest heaved as his body pressed hers back against the wall they hadn't actually got to the bed; 'sorry, I lost control,' he nuzzled her throat. He couldn't believe the scorching heat they'd created or that he'd had Lady Harriet up against a wall, it made him smile against her skin.

'I wouldn't say that,' she responded huskily. 'I rather think I took it from you, Lieutenant,' she sucked in her top lip, her tongue soothing it's tenderness. She slowly released it and her eyes met his darkened gaze as he'd watched her mouth with fascination.

'Still mad at you,' he growled as he removed his body from hers and they both tidied their disarray. 'I need a smoke,' he went over to his jacket and got out a cigar; 'you want to get busy with the coffee since you're taking charge.'

Harry felt a little awkward now the passionate encounter had run its course; she couldn't believe she'd had sex with her partner, during working hours and up against a wall. She felt the blush heat her cheeks and sought sanctuary by heading for the bathroom but not before she heard his low, throaty laugh and her blush deepened. 'I think I can manage that after I've used your shower, we've er… got those reports to write,'

'Yeah we do and while you do that I'm going to look through the training manual and you're gonna do a refresh on a couple of courses because I'm not fit enough to do that on a regular basis.' He smiled as the bathroom door shut as he'd said before Harry was a class act.