The signed shirt of Glen Hoddle that opened the second half of the charity auction was drawing a lot of attention and the bids were moving in units of £10. Finally they slowed; Dempsey topped Spikings' bid by £5 and Spikings glared in disbelief.

Harry leaned towards him and whispered in Dempsey's ear "You didn't need to push it up further"

Dempsey widened his eyes with incredulity "I thought he wanted us to bid"

"But not making what he wants more expensive"

At the second 'going' Lacey increased the bid and stared at Spikings

Spikings ruffled himself and sat even straighter as he raised the bid again

"O god this is war" Harry murmured

The bid increased in steps by a further £50. Harry gave a message to Chas "Tell Spikings that if he wants the shirt to give me the nod and I'll get one of my girlfriends to enter the bidding then he can drop out."

Spikings shook his head "no way is Lacey winning" Spikings wasn't into football but his son was and he rather thought Mrs Spikings would be impressed with him for once, remembering that.

Harry leaned across the table "He won't Sir – my friends will deliver it here – it will sit on our table – you can go up with Nita and pay for it – that will trump Lacey."

As the price was raised 3 more times a series of nods flew around the table and across the room. Nita entered the bidding with a £15 jump and both Spikings and then Lacey stopped. With the hammer down Spikings rose weaning a broad, childish grin; as he returned, passing the murder table, with the shirt he muttered audibly "own goal to you Lacey"

"So what team does Hoddle play for?" Dempsey asked

"Tottenham Hotspur" Watson replied

"I thought they were blue and white"

"Very good"

"That shirt's red"

"It's an England shirt from the world cup"

"Oh not one of your better moments" Dempsey ribbed

"No" admitted Watson

"Not sure that I'd pay that much for a shirt" Dempsey stated "but this sounds more like my scene"

The auctioneer was speaking "An extreme sports weekend in Wales with white water rafting, some climbing and quad biking."

"Now that's a mans' item" Dempsey maintained as he tossed the Pudsey bear in the air towards Dave who was forced to catch it. Makepeace frowned, she objected to the inference. Dempsey jumped into the bidding and she followed with a well rehearsed touch of her nose. The auctioneer took a few repeated attempts before he noticed her but once he had he remained discreet in his banter referring to a bid on his left and further left when describing who was holding the winning bid.

Dempsey looked around to see whom he was competing against; he decided it must be someone from drugs. He hit his ceiling at £200, at least certain that it was no one on the murder table so Spikings wouldn't be having a coronary he let it rest.

When the auctioneer declared the item won by the beau in the dress he turned sharply in surprise to see Makepeace stand and move to pay.

"Makepeace!" he exclaimed in total disbelief. Spikings burst out into a raucous laugh "She got one over you there son"

Dempsey grunted, he watched Makepeace all the way across the floor and back; when she sat down he glared officiously. She held his stare with a sweet mock smile – "There's no such thing as a man's world"

"Actually there is, and you ain't coming into it" He looked at her again and made a decision. Dempsey called a waiter over and gave him some instructions under the guise of ordering a drink. He winced as he watched the waiter indiscreetly move directly to Denise and Kate and convey his request but Harry was not looking in that direction and missed the incident.

The box office tickets for les Misérables went to the girls from North London - Harry showed no interest; a picture slipped by quickly and the penultimate lot came up - this time Makepeace bid straight away. A pamper day at 'The Grove, Hertfordshire'. Dempsey leaned back in his chair and signalled Kate. Most women joined in the bidding but by the time the £250 price was hit most had fallen out. Dempsey watched with fascination at Harry's discreet bidding – no wonder he had missed it earlier. At £350 it was Kate against Harry and at £380 Harry gave up – she could always treat herself anyway she decided. She gave a thumbs up sign to Kate and shook her head at the auctioneer.

When Dempsey stood and made his way to pay for the Spa day Harry sucked in air between her clenched teeth, seething that she had been fooled by her own design. Dempsey returned, pocketing the tickets, grinning like a Cheshire cat. Makepeace glared

"Wow" Chas commented "That cost a bit"

"Well it should help the total raised by the SI10 team" Dempsey replied magnanimously

"How much have we spent?" asked Spikings

As they added up their combined purchases Tony groaned in agony

"What's the problem?" asked Chas

"The Aha tickets have gone too high for me"

"Aha tickets?"

"Oooh I like them"

"Is this the last lot?"

"Think so"

"Who's bidding"

"CI5, North London and Vice"

"So long as it's not murder we're ok"

"I don't think they'd have enough fun in them to like that music"

"It's great disco music"

"They may play some later"

"I hope so – I can't do that other sort of dancing" Fry muttered

"You can do monkey dancing" Dave teased

The auctioneer was expressing his thanks to all whom had bid and giving details of the total raised.

"Damn how much did those tickets go for and who bought them?" Tony asked

They all shrugged their shoulders, having been sidetracked but Spikings was now grinning widely "We did it" he said as pleased as punch – we spent the most money. Well done team, well done!"

He offered to buy a round of drinks and almost strutted like a peacock in front of the murder squad on his way to the bar.

The band struck up, a male vocalist started to sing:

Let's dance put on your red shoes and dance the blues

"I do believe this first dance is mine Sergeant; shall we?" Dempsey asked

Let's dance to the song
they're playin' on the radio

Harry consented with a smile and allowed herself to be led onto the floor, it remained quite empty as most people struggled with that embarrassment of getting up and deciding whether to dance as a group or a couple.

"Come on everybody" The vocalist shouted as the music played on

Let's sway through the crowd to an empty space

"More like the crowds are still at the tables" Dempsey commented

On the floor they had initially started to dance opposite each other. Makepeace was inclined to giggle entirely due to her nerves. Dempsey couldn't keep his eyes on her face – his gaze drifting downwards and he was forced to consider how certain aspects of her body may have moved if it hadn't been so forcefully stuck to the covering dress.

Each time the vocalist came to the phrase Let's dance he seemed to look hopefully at seated masses and forlornly hope more people would fill the dance floor.

Dempsey stretched out his arm and taking Harry's hand pulled her closer to him and placed both his hands lightly on her hips. She rested her hands up onto his shoulders and with just a few inches between them they moved, stepped and swung themselves around.

Thus the couple from SI10 held the attention of the room and provided a focus for people to pass comment. Their own colleagues were no different.

"You know what I remembered when we were talking about Dempsey's minimalist flat?" Watson had asked the boys, trying to avoid Spikings hearing too much.

"Dempsey's got some good gym equipment" Dave said "– it's not really a minimalist flat at all."

"So what secret do you know then Watson?" asked Tom feeling more curious than he felt he should to be

"You remember that weirdo woman who stalked him and bugged his flat? Well we had to go over and take dabs and we picked up Sergeant Makepeace's prints in his bathroom"

"Cool" Dave whistled

"Well what would you expect? If someone visits they're quite likely to visit the bathroom" Tom censured

"This was actually in the bath" Watson announced with triumph, rather peeved that Tom was being all righteous

"If she'd had a bath you wouldn't get prints" Tom suggested

"Were there any in the bedroom?" Tony asked eagle-eyed and alert but before Watson had to admit they hadn't found any Spikings coughed again, feeling very glad that he didn't go out with the team too often – he'd rather not know what they got up to he decided. Dave and Tony nudged each other and deciding to try their luck with some of the other guests they excused themselves.