Hi all, thanks for the reviews...please note this is the second chapter uploaded this weekend! so please review both! i know I'm greedy :)
I really have know idea why Alex has gotten a sudden liking for icecream;)
Take cover Dempsey is on the warpath!
Chapter 5
He was angry, very angry. Dempsey swept through the office with the force of a tornado scattering bewildered work mates in his path with Harry trying to keep up with the American whirlwind. He scooped up his jacket from the back of his chair and snatched up his car keys kicking at objects as he went.
"Dempsey, wait!" Harry called after him.
He didn't stop, instead he deliberately slammed the door off its hinges making sure his partner was on the other side of it. Undeterred Harry followed him out into the car park, racing to keep him in within bickering distance.
"Dempsey!" she tried again "Don't you dare blame me." One thing that riled Harry more than anything else was Dempsey ignoring her. "Will you listen..you..you..pig-headed git?"
Dempsey span round and squared up to her and spat "Why shouldn't I blame you?"
"It's not my fault we're in this mess. I wasn't the one who picked up a random tart for a quick shag." She knew that remark was below the belt, but she always fought her corner.
Dempsey scowled at her "I may have had a 'lack of judgement' moment, but I didn't go running to the boss like a good little school girl to tell tales sweetheart."
"I'm sorry, I was angry with you...it just slipped out."
"Yeah! You just can't help yourself can you? Thanks a bunch ...partner."
"I didn't realise it would get you into trouble." She squeaked.
"Trouble! If it wasn't for your Prince Charmless of a husband we wouldn't be having this conversation. What went wrong Makepeace, didn't you put out enough so he had to go elsewhere?"
That did it, rage was burning to the point she was about to spontaneously combust. "Dempsey, that is low even for you!"
"Y'know what Makepeace, I feel real low right now...question is..what are you gonna do about it?" He punctuated, pointing with a quivering finger.
"Me?
"Yeah! You! He's your husband, your problem. You must have done something real bad for him to hate you this much." He growled.
God it hurt speaking to her like this, but he couldn't help it. Just when things seemed to be going right for once, the world suddenly came crashing down around them. He knew it wasn't all her fault; he was wise enough to know that when marriages broke down there was blame on both sides. However, this problem compounded with his little dalliance with Monica, which he also blamed Harry for because she was so awful to him he needed to seek comfort elsewhere, resulted in one big mess which he had no control over. It was almost like the powers at be were constantly working out ways to make his life as shit as possible.
"I was the innocent party...I came home to find my husband in bed with my best friend" she shrieked, amazed at Dempsey's lack of compassion. "How do you think that made me feel? Discarded like yesterday's chip paper. Bloody Robert wanted his cake and eat it! The only thing I have done to him, Dempsey, is catch the lying rat red-handed."
"Maybe you should have screwed him in a shed as well, seems to be the only way to loosen your chastity belt."
His words stung and cut her to the core. 'Thwack!' she hit him hard across the cheek "YOU BASTARD!" she screamed before bursting into tears and running for the cover of the ladies.
Dempsey realising he had just been a total bastard slumped onto the bonnet of the Merc and put his head in his hands. This was not the plan. Why did he say it, why did he even mention the shed? He cursed himself 'Stoopid, stoopid dumb bastard!' He had said it out of sheer frustration. He couldn't understand why Robert Makepeace wanted ruin Harry, after all, Harry was right, he was the one that cheated on her. There had to be another motive, in Dempsey's experience, if it wasn't sex and love it had to be greed. The more Dempsey thought back to his conversation with Freddy Winfield at the wedding, the more he was convinced that Robert had to be taken out of the equation if he and Harry were ever going to move forward.
Dempsey gave a long sigh and sloped off towards the office to find her...and apologise.
Five minutes later he was knocking tentatively on the ladies locker room door. "Harry, I know you're in there." He listened for a reply..none came.
"Harry, come on honey."
DC Fry gave Dempsey an odd look as he came out of the Gents, he always found his American colleague's behaviour somewhat bizarre so say the least, but he couldn't help staring at the sight of Dempsey ear pressed up against wood, rapping it gently and talking to a door. "Harry" he whined.
"What are you gawping at Fry?" He snapped "Go and do some work."
"Yessir." Fry quickly disappeared fearing the wrath of his superior.
Once back in the office he asked aloud "What's with Dempsey? He's talking to the locker room door?"
"They've had a bust up again...something to do with Harry's husband." replied Dave.
"Ohhhh!" said Fry "Didn't know Harry was still married."
"Quite clearly she is." remarked Chas, munching on a banana.
Fry scratched his head and said quite innocently "Why would they be arguing over that? It's not as if they're boyfriend girlfriend is it?"
Dave and Chas gave Fry an exasperated look; he could be so dim sometimes.
"Who knows with those two Fry, Dempsey may as well be Harry's husband the way they carry on. I should leave them to it." advised Chas.
"Ahhh c'mon babe." Dempsey was becoming impatient and he was getting fed up with the strange looks he was getting from other members of staff. "Pleeeeeaase Harry...I'm sawry...I didn't mean it...you know that." Dempsey knew he was sounding desperate, but that was because he was.
"It was a stoopid thing to say...Haaarrry!"
His heart leapt as he heard the handle turn and the door open slightly. Harry's puffy swollen eyes appeared in the crack. She said in a quiet little voice "Why say it then?"
Dempsey sighed "I dunno, it was a cheap shot...I'm sorry." He was so sorry; one look at the state of Harry told him he had really hurt her this time.
"Yes it was." She muttered "Very cheap, just like our little rendezvous...apparently."
"You're not cheap Harry, you're anything but, you're a million dollars." He gave a small smile in the hope that she would forgive him.
She didn't return the smile, she just looked at him blankly, devoid of any emotion. " I'll be out in moment...need to pull myself together. We'd better get on to Jimmy MacKintosh while we still have a job..."
Dempsey dropped the smile and meekly nodded in agreement "Yeah, get onto Jimmy."
Maddy Andrews raced off the bus in the direction of the records office. She checked her watch...she had twenty minutes before it closed. She charged through revolving doors nearly flattening Leroy and Shaz as they were leaving...well if it was possible to flatten the hulk of Leroy.
"Hey watch it lady!" he complained.
"Sorry." Maddy mumbled her apologies and dashed towards the information desk.
"Jeez, folks need to slow down."
"Some people are so rude." agreed Shaz wrestling with a number of files, her neat orderly pile having been upset by Maddy.
"Here, lemme have some of those." Offered Leroy.
"I can manage." Insisted Shaz
"Okay, you're the boss."
Shaz grinned at him.
Leroy opened the back door of the car and dumped his tower of files on the back seat, he then helped Shaz with hers.
Once in the car Shaz started the engine and pulled away from the curb. Leroy turned to her "So partner, what do we think?
"I dunno really, they're just lawyers doing what lawyers do I s'pose."
"I don't like the look of them, they look shifty to me."
"How can you make an assumption just watching people going in and out of an office?"
"Hmmm that Makepeace guy looks like a weasel. I've known lawyers like him before. They are only interested in one thing...money...blood suckers the whole God-damn lot of them. Bleeding schmucks like you and me dry."
"You're starting to sound like the Guv."
"Hunt has a point."
"So what are we going to do with this lot then?" she gestured behind at the files.
"Bedtime reading honey, see what jumps up...this guy's gotta be dirty."
"How come?" asked Shaz, she couldn't see what Leroy saw "He was married to a police officer."
"Case of know you're enemy, or should I say sleeping with the enemy."
Shaz quirked an eyebrow questioningly.
Leroy explained "Who'd suspect a lawyer who's married to a cop...he's gotta be a sound guy...right?"
"I see..." the light-bulb came on in Shaz's head "No-one would suspect a thing."
"Right." Leroy beamed.
"You have a suspicious mind Leroy."
"Yup, comes with the territory."
Maddy stared disbelievingly at the records office clerk. She thought she'd misheard "I'm sorry?"
"I'm sorry madam, the files you requested have already been loaned out." The clerk was amazed when Maddy asked for the exact same records as the previous couple.
"Who to?"
"A coloured gentleman came in with a young lady...an American five minutes before you arrived."
"An American?"
"Yes Madam"
"Awwwww!" Maddy said deflated. She started to curse Mrs Carter for collaring her at the school gates, where Maddy taught, to discuss her daughter's university prospects.
"We do have the records on microfiche, but we close in ten minutes."
"Never mind, I will have to come back tomorrow." She huffed "Thank you."
Despondently Maddy caught the bus to take her back home to her father. As she stared out of the window she thought about the American and the young lady who had collected the records minutes before she arrived, then she remembered, the enormous American she careered into..what did he want with the files? Maddy was beginning to think there was more going on then she first imagined. She wanted to know who the mystery Yank was.
Dempsey and Harry had tossed a coin to see whether they should stake out the car dealership or The Grapes, not really the greatest detective tactic, but there seemed very little choice. They now sat in stony silence outside the local pub, the air thick with tension. Dempsey couldn't stand the silent treatment; he knew he had screwed up and he couldn't really blame her for giving him the cold shoulder. Harry sat motionless inwardly brooding, her eyes fixed on the doorway of the pub.
Dempsey couldn't bare it any longer "Say, why don't we screw the surveillance and go and catch a movie, I hear Beverly Hills Cop is good?"
"No thank you" she replied curtly
"Or something else...Footloose?"
"No...thank you"
"Give us break Harry, you're killing me."
"You're lucky I haven't shot you with your own Magnum in a very delicate place."
"Ow!"
"Yes...ow indeed." She still stared straight ahead.
"How many times do I have to say I'm sorry?" he was looking at her pleadingly.
Harry grinded her teeth together, she was still seething.
"Okay, you're angry, I can understand why you want to shoot off my cohunes, it was a crass, stoopid comment...what can I do to make it up to you?"
"Let me shoot off your cohunes." She retorted flatly.
"Nah! You don't want to do that. Think of all the fun you'd be missin'" he grinned childishly.
Harry turned to him slowly and gave him a long hard glare, he responded by broadening his grin.
"What makes you think I want to have fun with you after your jibes today?"
"Because, we know how to have fun...I tell you what, to make it up to you, I will do anything for you, onetime offer." He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.
Harry's face brightened and she pursed her lips together in contemplation "Anything?"
"Sure! Anything, except shoot off my own cohunes."
"Hmm, I'll have a good think about that...you do realise you might live to regret it?"
Their conversation was interrupted by the Landlord of The Grapes banging on the window. His toothey grin loomed through the glass. Dempsey wound down the window.
"If you two are going to sit there all night there is a parking charge of four rounds of drinks."
"I'm driving." growled Dempsey.
"Not my problem Guvnor, get a taxi, the charge remains. You may as well come in, Jimmy will be along soon, he's promised Knobby his money for his girlfriend's mini."
Dempsey looked at Harry, she shrugged as if to say 'May as well.'
"It's quiz night.." pressed the Landlord "The winning team wins a pint and a curry at the Ruby Palace."
Dempsey replied sarcastically "Well, with an offer like that how can we refuse?"
Harry sourly remarked "How nice!"
"Beer and a vodka tonic it is then." the landlord grinned, bang his hand on the car roof and scuttled away in glee.
Dempsey turned to Harry "Do you ever get the feeling you're living in a parallel universe Princess?"
"Frequently, it's called working with you, since you arrived reality has never been the same."
Robert and Pipa ate their dinner in silence. Little Mathew, having been thoroughly exhausted by his first full day at nursery, was sound asleep in bed. It had been a relief to Pipa when she had picked up a smiley happy little boy from the nursery that afternoon. He had chatted endlessly on their way home about how they had been making dragons out of egg boxes and toilette rolls. The dragon now had pride of place on the welsh dresser, a trophy to a successful day.
Pipa was summoning up the courage to ask Robert a question. "I was thinking today..."
"Oh yes." Robert sawed off a morsel of steak.
"Maybe it's time I went back to work, now that Mathew is in nursery."
Robert ignored her at first, choosing to examine his food "This steak is like rubber."
"Robbert?" she pressed.
"Whatever gave you that foolish notion?"
Pipa gritted her teeth "It's not foolish, I need to feel useful."
"You already have a job, you're a mother. Mothers belong in the home."
Pipa felt her hackles rising, Robert could be so patronising when the mood took him. "and what do you expect me to do all day? There is only so much washing and housework one can do."
"Learn to cook? I could bounce this steak off the walls." He gave her a supercilious smirk "Do what the other butterflies do...whatever that is, I believe book clubs are the in thing...you could broaden your meagre literary knowledge, although I fear Jilly Cooper is more your style."
"When I said I want to feel useful I meant I wanted to have a career again." Pipa was trying hard not to snap at him.
"Pffff!" scoffed Robert "Who the hell would want to employ a mother who hasn't picked up a brief case for four years and who's only recent experience is cleaning up child sick and washing nappies, be realistic darling."
Pipa felt her cheeks burn, her blood boiling. "You never stopped Harry working." She hissed.
"Harriet wasn't stupid enough to get up the duff." Robert knew this would rile her. Pipa had only ever been intended as a bit on the side, a mistress...she was never for keeps until Harry had discovered them in her marital bed, later discovering Pipa was carrying Robert's child. Pipa always felt she was second choice.
"Sometimes Robert, you make it sound like you would prefer Harry sitting here rather than me."
"Don't be bloody ridiculous woman. Harriet wouldn't know what to do with leggo and can't name all of the Mr Men. Then again.." he cheekily smirked at her "she knows how to cook steak."
"Robert! I'm being serious."
Robert sighed "Look, if it makes you happy, I'll have a word with George and see if he has a vacancy for a part-time PA or something, then you can earn some pin money...but only part time, a couple of mornings a week...okay?"
"Thank you"
It was a small victory, but more importantly it was a small step for Pipa to start regaining her independence and her self-worth. She had felt out of the loop for too long, friends had initially dropped by to coo over Mathew when he first arrived, but gradually they had drifted away to follow their own careers or to have their own families. Pipa, had felt increasingly more isolated from the real world. She found herself thinking of her ex best friend, Harry, more and more these days. She couldn't help thinking how different their lives would be if she had never slept with Robert. Would it have been Harry sat there day after day knee deep in play dough and leggo and Pipa enjoying a high flying, exciting career. Somehow she couldn't envisage Harry being anything other than a success.
Pipa collected up the dirty dinner dishes and took them over to the sink as Robert picked up his post on the kitchen counter and headed for his study, just like he did every evening.
How she missed her best friend.
Don't think I like Robert very much, I think Harry had a lucky escape...and what the hell was Dempsey thinking? He deserved a punch! I'm sure you will all suggest ways in which he could make it up to Harry :)
Please R&R thank you!