Second of two chapters today

Monday Morning Makepeace was in early; she was surprised to find that Dempsey had actually finished all the paperwork for the Clarendon case to go to court. She glanced at two files sitting on his desk. There were details of the undercover Tom was working on – some city / financial skulduggery and the other one was tracking some gold imports but seemed to be full of questions rather than answers or suppositions.

Makepeace was suddenly aware that Dempsey was late again, and she was frustrated. He was always late – apart from when he was early – damn the man he was never on time! It was at that moment he chose to walk through the door, he grinned; he felt good to see Harry back. "Good to see you partner" Dempsey said as he walked around and sat down.

"Good to see you still work here" her searing reply

"What? When did you turn into Spikings? I've been ducking and diving for the team, in fact I've done some research on the way in"

"Oh" Makepeace said in disbelief

"Yeh" he defended then added "– not so good as Tuesday's" in a low voice and with a wink inducing a blush from Makepeace. Un-inclined to follow the line of conversation Harry changed the topic to a question about the file on his desk.

"Saw you in the park with your lady on Saturday" Jimmy Bartholomew threw out into the air as he passed Dempsey on the way to get coffee.

"You should have stopped us"

"No way – you liked you were going for gold"

"Would have been an excuse for a coffee"

"Well if I'd gone as far as you looked you had it wouldn't be coffee I was after"

"I tell you it was a pretty hot afternoon"

Makepeace groaned her mind could imagine the coffee bar of last week and worse; she interrupted "Jimmy could you just pour three coffees and perhaps we could look at this gold import info"

Dempsey looked at Jimmy "Spikings just transmuted" he said as he shrugged his shoulders "she's training to be the new commissioner"

Billy Newman, standing offside and looking on decided to try and enter the discussion; he piped up "Well the deputy commissioner's retiring soon"

"Yeh – isn't there some do advertised" Jimmy confirmed

"A ball" Fry said knowledgably

"What like Cinderella went to?" Billy asked

"You going as one of the ugly sisters?" Jimmy asked

"Hey"

"Well Prince Charming over there will nick the pretty ones, he always bloody does" Jimmy nodded to Dempsey

"I've never been to a ball" Fry admitted

"Well now's your chance" Dempsey decided he'd better join in else risk getting floored by Jimmy

"What do you do?" Billy asked, feeling slightly more relaxed now that he knew Fry had never been either

"Eat, drink and dance" Jimmy annunciated each word very precisely

"Eat posh food, drink champagne and …" Dempsey expanded

"I can't do that waltz dancing" Fry panicked

"You can't do any dancing"

The guys all broke out into a frenzy of Mickey taking and imitating bad dancing. Harry felt sorry for Fry "It's just 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4" she tried to reassure him and then seeing his blind panic added that 'usually everybody just danced like at nightclubs.'

"Oh, thanks Harry"

"So whose up for going?" asked Dempsey

"Can you take partners" queried Chas from across the room

"No – it says police staff only" Dave read off the poster he had crossed the room to read.

"Not so sure then" Chas said

"Oooh Alice got you under her thumb" Dave teased

"No"

"Yes"

"No she just…"

"Oh give the guy a break" Makepeace butted in "consideration is not the same as under the thumb"

"Glad to see a hive of industrious energy from a team of hard working undercover officers" Spikings emerged from his office and everyone shrank back

"I rather thought SI10 should show some solid support to the higher offices. Seems the blundering murder squad are all going and those long haired louts from the drug squad – I thought we might show a bit of class and sophistication"

"It's frigging twenty quid a ticket" Billy Newman couldn't help protesting

"Well upstairs are very keen on team exercises and training at the moment so I've put in a bid for training on synchronised motion and inter-relational dialogue practise, all inclusive with refreshments!" Spikings rested a hand on each hip and looked both smug and chuffed

"I'm lost"

"Me too"

"The MET are funding our tickets" Dave worked out "on dancing and talking!"

"Shush don't tell them" Spikings grinned, if there was one thing that made him happy apart from Dempsey bringing him back a criminal alive it was getting one over 'upstairs' and he had enjoyed putting together his little scam.

"Billy you shall go to the ball" Dempsey laughed

"Better go looking for a few white rats and a pumpkin"

"Wasn't that for Cinderella?"

The others groaned "I don't think you're meant to take everything so literally" Makepeace whispered to Fry.