I'm so sorry about the massive delay, but I'm afraid real-life got in the way over the past few weeks. My dad's been in hospital and everything just got a bit messy. Hopefully this chapter will make up for the long wait!

Chapter 7

Alex opened the front door and stepped inside the house. The hallway was completely dark, which was slightly odd. Gene had gone home before her, and Molly should've come back from school hours ago. She was on her guard as she made her way through the hallway, half suspecting some criminal to come jumping out of the darkness any second.

"Gene? Molly?" She hesitantly called out.

"I'm in 'ere", Gene replied.

Alex breathed out a sigh of relief, and followed the sound of his voice into the living room. The lights were dimmed, and the dining room table was set for two. He had even lit a few candles.

For a moment, Alex didn't know what to say. When she finally spoke it came out in a whisper. "Gene, what's all this? And where's Molly?"

"She's staying with Chris and Shaz tonight." He said. "Thought it would be nice to spend the evening together, just the two of us you know."

Gene had his hands stuffed deeply into his pockets, and was looking at his feet instead of looking at Alex. He seemed nervous, almost shy, which was very unlike him. Alex walked over to him and softly pushed a stray lock of hair, that had flopped forward, out of his face. "That's very sweet of you. But you didn't have to do all this", she said, pointing at the candles and the table. "I would've been just as happy to spend a quiet evening on the sofa with you."

"I know, but I wanted to. We hardly spend any time together these days."

This caused Alex to laugh. "What do you mean, hardly any time together? We work together and we live together, we are in each other's company nearly 24 hours a day. Not that I mind at all," she quickly added.

"Yeah but there's always other people around. And once this little un arrives, we won't have any alone time anymore."

"Of course we will have alone time. Perhaps not so much at first, but we'll make time for each other, I promise." She assured him, stepping closer as he pulled her into a tight embrace.

"Right, I hope you're hungry," Gene said after a while, feeling the need to lighten the mood.

"Oh yes, I could eat a horse."

"Well I'm afraid that's not on the menu tonight, but I hope cow will do?" He said, giving her a quick wink.

"Do you need a hand with anything?" Alex asked as she already made for the kitchen.

"No no you stay here," he said as he guided her back to the dining room table. "You just sit here and be waited on. I'm the chef tonight."

Alex looked up in surprise as she sat down at the table. "You cooked?"

"Course I did Bolly. The Gene Genie isn't just known for his good looks and legendary prowess as a lover you know. I'm actually quite a decent cook."

And Gene was right. He was more than a decent cook, he was actually a really good cook. The food was lovely; nothing pretentious, just simple, good food. After polishing off the last of the sticky toffee pudding Gene had made, Alex felt as if she was ready to burst.

Throughout the meal, Gene had watched in amusement as Alex had slowly made her way through everything he had cooked, leaving nothing but clean plates behind.

"Good food love?"

"Hmm delicious, you should cook more often. I could definitely get used to this. " She teased.

"Well don't get your hopes up just yet Bolls. Bloody hard work this is."

"And it's probably for the best," she sighed. "At this rate I'd be 20 stone in no time."

Alex retired to the sofa, still so full from dinner that she felt she really couldn't move any further, while Gene went into the kitchen to make coffee. When he re-entered the living room he saw that she'd already made herself comfortable. She was sitting on the sofa and had propped her feet up on the coffee table in front of her. She was seemingly relaxed and staring into nothingness, but Gene knew her better than that. She was in one of her silent, pensive moods again.

"What are you thinking Bolls?" He asked as he put the coffee down on the table.

She'd been completely emerged in her own thoughts, and the sound of his voice made her jump ever so slightly.

"Oh, nothing much. Just the case, that's all." She said.

"You think too much Bolls. If that brain of yours was paid overtime, you'd be a rich woman."

He handed her a cup of coffee as he sat down next to her. "Anyway, no talk of work tonight. There's enough shit going on in the world and we should try to keep it out when we're at home."

"I agree, let's not talk about work," Alex replied, her free hand brushing softly across his cheek.

They spend some time just chatting about a variety of subjects as they sipped their coffees. Just light hearted chatter, nothing too serious, but both found it difficult not to mention anything involving work in general or any of their current cases at all.

Alex noticed something about Gene. Even though he was talking to her, he seemed pre-occupied, distracted in a way. As time went by, she saw him grow more restless, and she wondered what could possibly be bothering him. After all, the evening had got off to a good start with dinner, but now the atmosphere was different.

"You're studying me again Bolly." He said all of a sudden. "I'm not one of your psychiatric patients, remember?"

"Something's bothering you," she said, ignoring his comment, not even correcting his use of the word psychiatry.

"What makes you think that? I'm fine."

She gave him a serious look. "You're nervous Gene, I can see it."

"M'not nervous Bolls. Honestly, I'm fine."

She opened her mouth, ready to contradict him again, when Gene cut her off. He felt this was the beginning of what could turn into a massive argument, and he wanted to prevent that from happening. This evening the atmosphere should stay positive, otherwise he'd never be able to go through with what he was planning to do.

"Right, I was gonna wait till later, but I might as well do it now."

He fumbled in the left pocket of his trousers, desperately trying to retrieve something. Alex just gazed at him, intrigued and slightly amused, as the look on his face became more worried. He sighed in relief as he finally felt his hand grip what he was looking for. C'mon you coward, it's now or never, he thought to himself.

He coughed nervously, not knowing whether to look her straight in the eye or elsewhere.

"Alex, will you marry me?" He blurted out.

Shit. That's not the way it was supposed to go. He had some stuff prepared, things he wanted to say to her, that he desperately wanted to know. But as with most things in his life, it hadn't exactly gone to plan. Great work you idiot, he thought to himself.

With all these thoughts spinning through his head, he nearly forgot to retrieve the box from his pocket. He held it up and handed it over to Alex, who was just staring at him, completely stunned.

She slowly opened the box and her eyes lit up as she saw what was inside. It was a beautiful ring, a silver band with a red ruby sitting on top of it, and nothing else. Just very simple, nothing over the top.

"It's beautiful," she said, her voice reduced to no more than a whisper.

"Good. I was hoping you'd like it." He said, still sounding a little nervous.

Alex took out the ring and slid it on her finger, it fitted perfectly. "I love it."

"So, is that a yes then?"

Alex looked up at him, a big smile now plastered on her face. "Yes, of course it is. I'd love to marry you."

"Good, cause that ring cost me a small fortune." He grinned as he pulled her in for a kiss.

For the rest of the week nothing much seemed to be happening. The team chased up a few leads regarding Rana's death, but none of those gave them any more information. In the meantime a few other cases such as robberies and a car theft seemed to take up most of their time. It was all pretty dull and the team started to get sick of the straightforward investigations and paperwork without any real action and excitement.

Alex and Gene tried their best to keep at least some parts of their personal lives private, so they didn't make a big announcement of their engagement. But the sparkling ring on Alex's left hand, which she showed off proudly, spoke for itself.

The following Monday finally brought about a change. Gene and Alex were both in his office sharing a mid-morning coffee when Shaz burst in without knocking, her cheeks flushed with excitement.

"Guv, Ma'am, got a new DNA report here. They said it was urgent."

Both of them immediately jumped to their feet at this announcement, and Alex extended her arm to get the report from the overexcited WPC.

"Thanks Shaz," Alex smiled.

She quickly opened the file and started scanning the first page, her eyes getting wider and her shocked expression becoming more noticeable as she read on.

"What's up Bolls? Your eyes are nearly popping out of their sockets." Gene said, obviously getting curious as to the contents of the report as well.

"I think it's time we bring Aziz back in for questioning," she answered as she handed Gene the papers.

"Bloody hell," he muttered after a quick glance at the information he'd just been given."

An hour later Gene and Alex made their way over to the interview room, where Ray and Chris had left Aziz after picking him up from his hotel. Once again, Alex stopped Gene briefly before they entered the room.

"Please promise me you'll at least try to stay calm this time. I know the info we've just been given was shocking to say the least, but we can't get any concrete information if you start slapping him around the room."

"Yeah I'll try, but I can't make any promises Bolls. This is a sick bastard who deserves a good slapping." Gene answered gruffly.

Alex didn't answer back, and just sighed as they stepped across the threshold into the interview room. Aziz was already seated behind the table, seemingly calm and composed. But Alex could see past his outward appearance and noticed the underlying tension; the way he kept scanning the room, and the way he kept fidgeting with the sleeves of his jacket betrayed his nervousness.

"Right then Mr. Sulaiman, time for you to start telling us the truth." Gene said as they both sat down opposite him.

"What do you mean Mr. Hunt? I've told you everything I know last week, didn't I?" He replied, still trying to feign innocence.

In spite of Alex's earlier plea to remain calm, Gene felt his temper rise immediately and he wasn't even sure if he wanted to suppress it.

"Don't play games with me and start giving me some bloody answers. We know you were the father of your sister's baby, you bastard!" He yelled at Aziz, slamming his fist down on the table to emphasize his anger.

Aziz's facial expressions changed from disbelief, to shock and finally to a pained sadness in a matter of seconds. He buried his head in his hands before starting to sob uncontrollably.

This wasn't the kind of reaction Gene and Alex had expected, and for a moment neither of them quite knew how to respond to this.

Gene soon found his voice again, and had decided against changing his tactics. "Now stop those bloody big crocodile tears and start telling the hole truth once and for all."

Aziz leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes for a moment while he tried to take control over his breathing again. Then he started talking.

"Rana's my sister, and I've known and loved her all my life. I'm not her biological brother though; I was adopted by the family when I was 8 years old. My father had worked for the Sulaiman family all his life as a sort of odd job man and was dearly beloved by all of them.
I grew up on their big estate, it's the only home I've ever known. I was an only child, as my mother died giving birth to me, and my father hadn't remarried. So when he died, the family took me in and adopted me. They raised me as their own and never treated me differently than any of the other children. Rana was born a few months after I came to live with them, I remember it well."

Here he paused for a moment, allowing the memories to temporarily wash over him. He soon composed himself and continued.

"We always seemed to have a special bond, the two of us. It's very difficult to explain, but we had a sort of mutual understanding and respect that reached far beyond any ordinary bond between siblings. We both fought our feelings for a very long time, but about a year ago we finally gave in.

This was of course a very big taboo, and we had to make sure we couldn't be found by our family or anyone else for that matter. I had just started up a business in town and had bought a small flat so I didn't have to travel down to the estate every night anymore, and this is where we started meeting. Her personal driver would drop her off at the flat, where she was supposedly helping me choose fabrics etcetera for decoration. Nobody found it suspicious; after all, we were siblings.

When we learned of our parents' plans to arrange a marriage for Rana we were both heartbroken, but we knew that nothing could be done about it. Sometimes we fantasized about running away together and going abroad, but we both knew that we wouldn't be able to. At least that's what I thought. As the day of the wedding came closer we continued to meet each other, but all of a sudden her behaviour towards me changed. Suddenly she seemed very eager to marry, and even though it broke my heart I could understand why. She was accepting things the way they were, and was trying to move on with her life. Our secret meetings came to an end about three weeks before the wedding.

After she'd left on her honeymoon I searched her things, because I had this nagging feeling that something wasn't right. And that's when I found her diary and learned of the pregnancy and her plans to run away. I panicked and didn't know what to do, so I told my parents. Obviously I had to show them the diary for proof, so I was glad that she never mentioned my name and only referred to me as 'A'. My parents then decided to send me and my other sister to London to go and find her. We lied low for a couple of days and then came to the station where you told us that Rana was dead."

Alex looked pretty shocked after everything Aziz had just told them, while Gene was still visibly unaffected by all the information they'd just had to digest. In spite of their contradictory reactions, neither really knew what to say for a moment.

Alex spoke first, deciding that a softer approach was needed here. "So you're saying that you were involved with Rana, but that you had nothing to do with her death?"

"That's right," Aziz answered, sniffing slightly while a solitary tear rolled down his cheek. "I love her, and I would never do anything to hurt her."

"So what would you have done if you'd found her here, alive?" Gene asked, still quite obviously suspicious of the young man.

"I don't know. I really don't know," he answered, his voice still shaky and slightly panic stricken.

"You know of course that her life would've been over if you'd taken her back home with you." Alex intervened.

Aziz nodded in agreement. "Yes, I am aware of that. Women who commit adultery are generally sentenced to death. Of course I would never have let that happen to her. So I don't know, perhaps I would've stayed here with her."

Gene stood up abruptly and walked towards the door. "Bolly, a word."

Alex got up as well and went after him, carefully closing the door behind her.

"So what d'you think Bolls?" he asked.

"I think he's innocent," Alex replied, leaning back against the wall.

"Piss off. Do you call that piece of scum innocent?"

"Well innocent of murder at least, yes." Alex replied, getting annoyed now.

"I'm telling you Bolly, he's guilty as sin!"

"No, he isn't! And when will your Neanderthal mind finally accept that people are innocent until proven otherwise!" Alex shouted, making other people move past quickly in the hallway, and trying to ignore the fact that their two senior officers were about to start one of their infamous shouting match in the middle of the station.

"We will discuss this some other time, and in a quieter place," Gene hissed, grabbing her by the arm and dragging her away from the small crowd of onlookers that had stopped in their tracks.

Gene was still holding her by the arm as they returned to CID. By now, Alex had the facial expression of someone who was seriously contemplating mass murder, which Gene conveniently decided to ignore as he took her into his office and closed the blinds.

He made her sit on the chair and perched himself on the edge of his desk, folding his arms in a defensive manner.

"Now we're gonna have a civilized conversation about this Alex, without shouting. I won't have your blood pressure go through the roof because neither of us can admit that we might be wrong sometimes.

Alex looked away, still visibly annoyed by his recent behaviour, and to proud to admit that he might've had a point there.

"Look Bolls, Alex, just tell me what you think. I promise I'll try not to interrupt…too much." This last remark was accompanied by a wink, and Alex failed to suppress a small smile.

Alex took a breath, and then began speaking. "I've been studying him closely; not just the story he's telling, but I've been observing his body language, his emotional state. I've checked all his statements for continuity errors and inconsistencies, and I haven't been able to find any. I think he's an honest man, who might've made some mistakes, but I think he's telling the truth. I'm not acting on a hunch here, I genuinely think he's got nothing to do with any of this."

Gene stared down at his boots, thinking about what Alex just told him. His lips were pursed into their trademark pout, and a blonde lock of hair had flopped over his forehead, making him look quite adorable, and Alex felt her anger ebb away instantly.

"So you're saying you're back to suspecting the husband now, or what?" he asked.

"No, I don't think he's done it either." Alex answered. "I have a strange feeling about the other sister though. Not that I'm saying she's the killer or anything, but I wouldn't be surprised if she had anything to do with it."

"I'm sorry Bolls, I wanna support you in your theories an' all, but that just sounds plain ridiculous." Gene said, standing up to pour himself a generous amount of scotch, which he downed in one go.

"How could she have had anything to do with her sister's death? The girl's always in the company of other family members, always protected and watched over, waddling around in that bin bag-like outfit of hers."

Alex rolled her eyes at the rather uninspired burqa-metaphor Gene had just used.

"You haven't spoken to her, Gene. You didn't see the cold and uninterested look in her eyes when we talked about her dead sister. She doesn't seem to care about her at all, almost as if she was glad that her sister had died!"

"Well what do you suggest we do then? Arrest her for her sister's murder because she has a nasty look in her eyes?" Gene was on the brink of losing his temper again.

"Of course not. But we could follow her, see where she's going and what she's doing. Remember, her brother's still in police custody, so she can go anywhere she likes and do as she pleases."

"And I suppose you'd want to volunteer for that job?" Gene replied.

"Well, maybe." Alex answered. "But not necessarily. We could get Shaz to do it, or she could just come with me. At the same time it would be a great opportunity for her to do some proper police work."

"No way Bolly, this isn't gonna happen, end of. Besides, you're on desk duty at the moment, so I suggest you get back to said desk and get some work done." Gene turned his back on her before she could answer back.

Alex knew that trying to argue with him now would be futile, so she turned on her heel and stormed out of his office, slamming the door shut behind her.

Alex did as she was told for a while, and sat behind her desk with a bunch of files lying in front of her. But she found she couldn't concentrate, as her mind kept going over the details of the case that seemed to occupy most of her thoughts these days.

She looked down at the notepad in front of her. All the things she'd scribbled down seemed to be completely at random, but there just had to be a connection somewhere. She felt as though the answer was right in front of her, but for some reason she just couldn't find it. It frustrated her beyond belief, and when she could stand it no longer she decided to do something about it, whether Gene liked it or not.

"Shaz, I'm going to go out for a bit. I'm not going to do anything dangerous, just going to have a look at the crime scene again and ask around in the neighbourhood. If the Guv asks about my whereabouts, just tell him I've picked up Molly from school and have taken her shopping. I'll be back by five o'clock."

The WPC just nodded, thinking it wisely not to disagree with her DI, but she felt her nerves rise from the pit of her stomach as she watched Alex leave.

TBC