Cork

As was becoming habitual late Friday morning Dempsey walked out into the sunshine. He put on his sunglasses; another bright warm summer day did nothing for his hangover.

Around lunchtime Clarissa parked her car and checked that Mr Dempsey was booked in. The receptionist said something about her finally arriving and gave her a key, telling her the room number. Clarissa took it, her heart was pounding, she turned the key and opened the door gingerly. The room was empty, that gave her a chance to wander around. She picked up a shirt thrown to the side, he must have only left the room recently as the maid had not yet been in to make the bed and tidy up. She thought about waiting, but since she had a key she decided that she would go back downstairs and out into the sunshine to wait for his return.

Makepeace arranged to meet Sheahan for lunch at the Rochestown Park Hotel. As she arrived she wondered if Dempsey had booked himself in, it was his sort of hotel. She enquired at reception but declined to leave a message when the reception confirmed the booking. Out of the corner of her eye Makepeace noticed Clarissa walking down the stairs and out into the grounds, her instinct was to run into the toilets to be sick but Sheahan had left a message that he was waiting in the bar.

Dempsey returned from his third meeting with Fitzwilliam, he had learnt that Sean Hickey dealt with Patrick Tierney. He had seen a photo of Hickey with some other men one of whom looked quite a lot like a guy in the bar. Actually, Dempsey realised, he was one of them.

Dempsey sat down in the bar, gave his order to the waiter and watched. His drink arrived as Harry walked over to Sheahan who stood to welcome her and ordered her a drink. Sheahan kissed her cheek and Harry smelt an alien aftershave and attempted a fake smile.

Dempsey watched memorized as Harry flirted with one of his suspects. Jealousy and envy swirled through him and he fought to submerge a primeval instinct to fight for his woman; this person was one of his chief suspects and he was in the middle of a case. Dempsey asked the waiter if he knew gentleman, and was informed that he was a regular customer, one who enjoyed the company of females.

Harry had also spotted Dempsey; he was watching her. She excused herself to 'powder her nose' and a few moments after she had walked towards the ladies Dempsey followed.

"Do you know who he is Makepeace?" Dempsey spoke once they were out of sight

"Yes, I'm not stupid" she replied with some sarcasm which never dropped throughout the whole conversation

"But are you safe?"

"Thank you for considering my safety but I managed perfectly ok for the past few days"

"Harry"

"What"

"He's a key person" Dempsey was getting agitated, he couldn't work Harry out.

"I know"

"So what's his name?" it hit Dempsey hard to ask such a question.

She looked at him, she recalled Clarissa walking down the stairs. "You've booked in as Mr and Mrs I see" her hurt breaking through her voice

"Yeh, you like it" He couldn't make out what was eating Harry, something very obviously was.

"It's very you Dempsey"

"I told them to expect you" his tone was soft but not welcomed by Harry who was still defensive

"Well I'm booked in else where, and I don't think our cover would be appropriate at present. Now if you excuse me I have a date to return to" Harry left Dempsey mystified and, deep within, mortified.

Back with Sheahan Makepeace kept her eyes scanning the room.

Dempsey thought quickly, he guessed that if Sheahan was a ladies man many of the bar staff would know him well, so looking around he made his way over to the most attractive girl and ordered another drink. She served him; he flattered her then chatted and flirted. He soon discovered that she had been taken out by Sheahan, and that he lived more into County Kerry . She gave him his address and explained that he had a lot of land, but she hadn't met anyone.

Makepeace watched Dempsey move his attention from herself to the prettiest barmaid and sighed as his face leant into the barmaid, as his finger touched her nose. Dempsey was the biggest and most successful natural flirt that she knew. His charms were insuperable and everyone she had seen him with fell for them; he had never failed. She had watched him many times at nightclubs; he moved seamlessly around her friends, those he knew and those he didn't. Every one of them adored Jim and pleaded her to bring him along to all sorts of occasions. It never bothered her girl friends that Jim moved between them, that he obviously was just charming them all. Each one adored the feeling of being special, of consideration and worth. Any woman could go up to Jim and he would make her feel a million dollars strangely without even disappointing anyone whom he was already attending.

Harry smiled – despite all of that her friends called him 'Harry's Jim' and no one expected him to go home with anyone other than herself, to sleep on her sofa and share breakfast with her in the morning, to leave his wet towel in the middle of her bathroom floor, and say 'sorry sergeant' every time. Harry could picture things so well - James was always there to make her laugh, to tickle her mercilessly and wrap his arms around her. Once he even had the cheek to have his post delivered to Camberwell Grove…

Now Harry's anger flared but this time it was directed at herself - she, Harriet Makepeace, was the biggest idiot in the universe! She had jumped – no leaped – to entirely the wrong conclusions.