The king's Pub was smaller than Luigi's but had a lot more colour. It was a vibrant building with glittering signs and neon pictures in the windows. As they entered Ray scoffed in delight to see that a full scale striptease was taking place on the left of the building. He stopped to watch, hoping his senior officers wouldn't notice but when he looked over he saw both of them had stopped. Alex was glaring in disgust at him but his D.C.I was on the same side as Ray and was watching the stripper.
"Erm, excuse me? When you have both finished we're in the middle of a murder enquiry." Alex insisted but they both continued to watch."Guv!" She yelled over the music, causing him to stir and look round.
"Oh calm down Bolly we have to check every possible area of the building." Gene replied.
"Maybe I should go and check every area of the left hand corner." Ray licked his lips and didn't take his eyes away.
"For crying out loud. You know why you both never have a girl don't you? It's cos' your bloody bastards who only want sex. Well you continue looking. Cos' you'll be the ones explaining to the commissioner why we didn't apprehend a murder suspect but a local stripper has two new members of her fan club." with that Alex turned away and headed through the back curtains with Chris where the landlady was waiting.
"That's objectifying women that is." Chris pointed out.
"Yes Chris. Right now Leanne Hartland?" she asked the landlady who nodded quickly, looking terrified.
"Y-yeah. Erm the body is right through here, we left her hangin', no idea what to do really." she told them, leading them into a back room where the body of Kelly Andrews was hung, with a rope around her neck, just like the first body had been found.
Kelly Andrews was only 22 years old and was very pretty. She had shiny brown hair, down in loose curls, a heart shaped face and a slim figure. She had only joined the force a few months ago and had already caught the eye of many the police officer, with three offerings to the state police ball in a month's time. Smart as well, Alex remembered. It had been Kelly who had announced several ideas in all sorts of cases and was quick to answer any question directed at her, even if she had only just entered the building at the time.
Eventually, when an eruption of applause suggested that the stripper had finished did Gene and Ray enter the backroom and see the victim.
"So how was it?" Chris whispered quietly to Ray behind Alex who rolled her eyes dramatically. Ray pointed forward to their D.I before replying.
"Tell ya' later." He whispered with a grin on his face.
"Did you see who did this?" Gene asked as part of routine ('for a change' thought Alex).
"Not faces no, but a couple o' men around 30 left pretty quickly before I found 'er. Normally I wouldn't say a thing, but they were watching Jessica and headed towards the toilets. Came out and walked straight out without another glance." Leanne explained.
"Jessica?" Alex asked but knew the answer immediately after doing so.
"Yeah, m'niece, Jessica." Leanne pointed outside.
"Your niece! Bloody hell." Alex sighed.
"Looks must run in the family." Ray commented, earning himself a warning glare from his D.I.
"Did you see which way they headed?" Gene asked, enjoying listening to the annoyance from the woman who annoyed him constantly.
"They left out the main entrance and from what I saw headed off to the right and round the first corner." Leanne replied.
"Ray, Chris your on foot, head down through the alleys etc and see what people have seen and whether you can find them. Bolls to the Quattro." Gene didn't look back and entered his car. Sighing Alex slipped into the passenger seat, shut the door and turned to face the window, waiting for the Guv to comment.
"Jessica was nice." Was all he said to try and wind her up and although it worked on the inside Alex tried her hardest to keep a cool and calm voice.
"Well you and Ray would know. Good to see you had fun while a fellow police officer was hanging from a piece of rope in the next room." Alex leaned against the window pane as Gene put the car into gear and roared off down the street, slower than normal so they could also keep an eye out.
"Why the hell are you so bothered anyway Bolls? Didn't have you down as one to protect the prozzies."
"I'm bothered because you allowed the criminals to get further away from capture by pleasing yourselves! I mean for goodness sakes Guv, Ray I can understand he's about as bad as you can get and entering a building with a stripper means we've lost him for a good ten minutes but the one time a serious crime turns up in a stripper house and even you can't keep your eyes away. Chris seemed to be the only officer who wasn't drooling by the time we left!" Alex complained.
"That's cos' Chris is a poof." Gene stated simply, driving down a smaller road, avoiding cars on either side.
"No, it's cos Chris doesn't have the maturity of a 13 year old." Alex replied in annoyance.
"Oh lighten up and have a bit of fun Bolly."
"Those two there." It took Gene a couple of minutes to work out what she was on about but soon realised she must have ignored his comment and was back to acting as D.I Drake, spotting two blonde haired, middle aged men in suits who were whispering to themselves and walking down the street. Before stepping out of the car Gene pulled it to a halt in an empty space and signalled for Alex to stay in the car and just watch.
Eventually he clicked open the door and he and Alex left the car, following the suspects behind from a reasonable distance. He slipped out the radio from his pocket and raised it to his mouth.
"Ray, Chris we've got sight. They're coming down to the end of Parkland Avenue." he explained quietly.
"We're just coming down to the start of parkland avenue. If we've got 'em cornered it makes it so much easier." Ray replied, sounding happy. He had a tone in his voice which suggested that he must have just recalled Jessica's act to Chris. From up ahead Alex and Gene saw Ray and Chris come round the corner, standing in front of the two businessmen and talking to them casually. As they got nearer they could hear the conversation, or rather Ray making light work of what they had come to do.
"…down the station. I think we need to have a little word with you both about a certain number of copper deaths." Ray's voiced spoke gleefully.
"Copper's can't even control their own now. It's about time someone run 'em off the streets and left the crime to play itself out. More crime commi'ed by police nowadays anyway." one of the businessmen snarled, earning himself a smack round the back of the head from Gene and Ray's knee into his stomach.
"That's abuse!" The other suspect growled.
"That's the police." Gene insisted, handing the bent double suspect over to Ray and shoving the other back towards the Quattro. Standing before the car he grabbed the suspect by the shoulder and threw him forward, smacking his head against the car. Alex sighed and folded her arms, knowing that any comment she made now would either result in an insult thrown in her direction, or being completely ignored.