Next morning
Harry ran up the stairs and jaunted along into the SI10 office. The silence that fell was heavy and she instantly knew they'd been talking about her.
She gave a tiny shrug of her shoulders "Dempsey not in yet?"
"Er no"
"Well they've not come in together" Billy whispered to Dave
"Doesn't mean anything – it might be a diversion"
Makepeace cleared her throat and turning her back to them picked up a file on her desk
"What are you thinking?" asked Dave
"Well I can hardly say can I" hissed Tony
Harry put the file down and walked out of the room; the lightness of her step gone, replaced with a cursing for not thinking the consequences of her actions through.
She bumped into Spikings
"Umm where do you think you are going?" he asked
"To interview a snout sir?" she tried hopefully
Spikings smiled to himself "Which one he asked"
Harry paused for too long and she knew it "'You been in there?" He asked nodding towards the office
"Briefly" she winced
"It'll pass" he grinned "in the meantime sergeant you brought it on yourself so you'll just have to grin and bear it." He emphasized the bear and continued down the corridor, he chuckled to himself. Harry stood and watched him go fuming at his comment before steeling herself to return to the office. She decided a phone call would encourage the guys to shut up and give her some distraction.
As a result Harry was out of the office and missed the arrival of Dempsey. He slipped in hoping his sunglasses would hide the state he felt.
"Yo" he greeted as he made his way to the coffee machine
"Good night eh mate?" asked Dave
"Full on"
"Did you get Harry home then?" asked Tony
Dempsey looked around the office sharply noticing her absence
"Is she not in?" he asked hoping nothing untoward had befallen her
"Went to the old files office" Chas informed him as he walked back out of Spikings office. Dempsey hoped the dark sunglasses he was wearing had masked the panic that had flitted across his eyes.
Watson walked in and slapped Dempsey on the back "Morning mate what did you have for breakfast?" He glanced around the office suddenly panicking that Harry might be there
"Paracetamol and coffee" Dempsey muttered
"Hangover?"
"Humdinger of one – haven't you got one?"
"Not that heavy a night"
"That's what I thought till I woke up" Dempsey drank his black coffee and as he walked over to his desk became aware that everyone was watching him; that puzzled him. "Hey Fry how did you get on?"
"Good thank you she gave me her phone number – don't you remember?"
Dempsey bit his inner cheek and opened his eyes wide as if trying to make the recall "Er no" he finally admitted
That speech at the end droned on Chas complained. Dempsey knew he should remember it but he didn't "yeah he agreed"
"Sobered everyone up"
"At least we got free taxis home" Fry piped up
"Only because he didn't want a scandal in his last week of drunk driving police" Watson added
"Can't you remember the speech?"
The way Dave asked, the nervous yet hopeful intonation made Dempsey suspicious
"Well it don't seem like I missed anything" he said as he put his cup down and decided it may be prudent to find Harry away from the office.
He found Makepeace along the corridor at the vending machine that actually had cartons of fresh orange in. He bent down and picked up one as it fell into the tray. He pulled off the straw and started to drink. Makepeace rolled her eyes and put in some more coins.
"I apologise" he said
"Well I doubt that it's for drinking my orange"
"Ok I apologise for drinking your orange and take back anything I said"
"Have you any idea what you said"
"No, but to be honest you're not usually impressed"
"Well last might I was, but if you didn't mean them then I'm not"
"Well I don't know if I did or didn't do I?"
"No" she looked at his dark glasses; she couldn't see his eyes so she lifted them off "Ouch" she grimaced as she saw his agony
"Well aren't you going to tell me?"
"I think I'll wait and see if you say them again" she decided
"Shit I can't remember" he threw the empty cartoon to the ground "I think beer and champagne don't mix"
"I think beer and whatever else was in there don't mix"
"My drink was spiked!"
"Dave and Tony hovered over your beer all night and when they did Billy and Fry looked as guilty as hell"
Dempsey fished in his pockets for some change and retrieved another juice out of the machine. "We had a fun night though partner"
"We did"
"I'll tell you you looked fantastic"
"Umm"
"What's the problem? You were stunning and sexy and steaming"
"I think the guys in there are talking about me"
"Sure they are; they'll be saying that you were stunning and sexy and steaming"
Harry groaned
"They're guys what do you expect?"
"Some semblance of professionalism"
"They're professional guys – they'll be imagining all the things guys imagine"
"Please don't enlighten me" Harry hung her head and winced again.
Fry walked down the corridor past the pair of them; as soon as he saw them he turned bright red.
"Seems our Fry did ok"
"He did, even volunteered to take her home, queued up for her coat – very gentlemanly"
"Well he learnt from an expert"
"Who – oh his father I guess"
"Ah" Dempsey guessed he hadn't been the perfect example "I'm sorry"
"For what?"
"For everything?"
"For the whole night"
"Do I need to be?"
"I hope not – I rather enjoyed it, we did do it to have fun"
"Phew" he ran his fingers through his hair and watched Makepeace, she seemed genuinely happy enough "Umm Makepeace you're gonna have to tell me what I did because I can't trust those guys" He reached for his sunglasses but Makepeace held his hand down "Oh no – I want to see your eyes Dempsey"
"Enjoy the pain eh? Well fire away the sergeant" he leant his weight on the side of the machine and prepared himself "I'm guessing the cloakroom went wrong?"
"You rolled the ticket and tried to smoke it; we had to wait until last before they would give me my jacket"
"Did I take you home?"
"After a fashion yes"
"Phew"
"We got in a taxi, it went to my house; you were so out of it that in the end I stayed in the taxi and we went to your home."
"You didn't stay for breakfast" he grinned "I got eggs!"
"Dempsey you stumbled into your bedroom, struggled with your buttons, your cuff links and your belt"
"Did you help me?"
"I helped you"
"Torture!!! The worst torture ever"
"Why?"
"It's bad enough to wake up from my dream and find you're not there but to discover you were but I was too out of it to remember – that is the worst torture a man could endure"
"The taxi waited, I didn't see anything I've not seen before. I assume that at some point you crawled under your quilt."
Spikings was en route back to his office. "I hope you've not hid in the corridor all morning Sergeant"
"No sir – I've been looking up some files Tom asked me for to do with his undercover" she waved them in front of him.
"Humph I should have auctioned a job here – would have made a fortune" he scowled
"Oh no Boss Harry ain't no commodity" Dempsey jumped in anxious to redeem himself
"I don't recall actually saying it had anything to do with Sergeant Makepeace lieutenant" he tipped his head "– I think the women had more money!"
The noise in the office as Spikings approached it drove him mad. He stepped into the main office, behind him Dempsey and Makepeace squeezed around to their desk as Spikings called everyone to attention.
"Last night" he began and rubbed his head "You all scrubbed up remarkably well, some perhaps a bit more remarkable than I was expecting but you all looked good" he rubbed his head "best dressed team there" he beamed.
A murmur of satisfaction ran around the room. Spikings continued "And you all bid well, SI10 contributed generously"
People smiled, Spikings rubbed his head again before he continued "But you behaved bloody atrociously" he barked "The idea of the evening was to raise the profile of SI10 in the Commissioner's eyes"
"With respect Sir" Harry was the only one brave enough to speak "I thought the idea of the evening was to raise some money and have some fun"
"Not at my bloody expense sergeant" he barked again "My aim was to go as a team and make a good impression – not a bloody lasting impression"
Everyone shrank back uncertain of what their sin had been, no one felt inclined to defend the unknown; they had done no different to any other table.
I was summoned to the top table just after Lacey had left it and let me tell you the bloody Commissioner had been knobbled. I SUFFERED as he watched you; I SUFFERED as those pathetic street cops all came up asking to join the team; I SUFFERED as the Commissioner pulled out a list of statistics that made us look fools compared to Murder.
"That's not fair Sir! Surely they were biased and provided by Lacey"
"Of that I have no doubt Makepeace" he rubbed his head again "but you had fun and I SUFFERED – the Commissioner wants to know how serious we are and so" he rubbed his head and coughed
"You had that cough last night Chief" Dempsey finally ventured, he thought Spikings' complaints outrageous
"And so I told the Commissioner that you were all so serious that you were personally all contributing a hundred quid to his benevolent fund"
"WHAT!!!!!!!!" the staff at SI10 had never been so unified.
"Now will you please get on with some proper work and catch me some proper criminals" Spikings went back into his office
"I still say it was worth it" Dave said
Spikings opened his door "If it was that good Dave you can give two hundred"
"I can't remember it all so can I pay half Boss?" Dempsey called out
"You. You can pay three hundred; no the whole bloody lot Lieutenant" Spikings slammed the door and then opened it again "NOW WILL YOU PLEASE DO SOME BLOODY WORK"
The end!
