Disclaimer I do not own New Tricks.

Paperwork

Sandra hated paperwork, she always had. To her it was a necessary evil but she would never let the boys know that or she would never see another report from them again. She sat at the desk in her office desperately wanting to know what was happening with the investigation but she knew there was no way she could ask. Not until court. She signed off another report Brian had left on her desk and wondered whether Sally knew her team had found out about her plan to kill her. A sharp knock at the door broke her train of thought as she looked up.

"Emily. Hi." Sandra smiled as the younger detective walked in.

"Hi." Emily looked nervous. Which was always a bad sign as far as Sandra was concerned. She knew the younger woman was more like Gerry than she cared to admit.

"What is it Emily?"

"I." She paused and looked at the desk. "I just wanted to ask you something."

"Ok." Sandra smiled. "Go ahead."

"Jack said you worked with Sally. That is was you and her in CID when Lincoln and McCarthy were arrested."

"That's right."

"At the time. Was there? I mean did you?"

"Spit it out Emily." Sandra didn't like where Emily was going with this. She sensed Emily wasn't confident with it either.

"Did you and Sally get on well? Was there any animosity between either of you?" Emily watched as Sandra's eyes clouded over.

"Has Jack said anything?" She didn't mean to sound as sharp as she did. It was a defense mechanism but the question had hit a nerve.

"Not really." Emily stepped nearer. "Just that you were always competative and that Sally was a bit lazy, costed along a bit. Hung on your shirt tails."

"We were the only women in the station. Not just CID. Apart from us it was just Joan from the canteen."

"Did that create tension?" Emily asked.

"Of course it bloody did. Look Jack was the DI in those days. He ran a tight ship. No room for playground squabbles. I did my job, I worked bloody hard. Same as you do now." Sandra looked away. "That was probably why I missed it."

"Missed what?"

"I wanted to nail the pair that were robbing local pubs. You read the case notes. Well anyway if I had been focused a little more on what was going on outside of work then I might just have spotted the fact DC Sally Morris was sleeping with my fiance." She snapped the folder she was reading closed.

"What?"

"You heard. She was sleeping with the man I was engaged to. I'm sure Jack told you all this." She stood and walked to her filing cabinet, aware that the main UCOS office was empty. She had no idea where Gerry and the others were.

"He didn't say a word." Emily was genuinely shocked. "But."

"But if I am the wronged party why is Sally trying to have me killed?" Sandra slammed the door to the cabinet closed. It seemed she was determined to take her temper out on the inaminate objects in her office. Emily nodded.

"Might be because after she slept with Karl I threw him out. And I threw myself into my work. A 13 year old girl had just found the dead body of the father she adored. I wasn't going to let that go. So I worked damned hard. Every hour God sent. And I got the conviction. What I also got was fasttracked to DI."

"Which she didn't like."

"Oh no she hated it. Look Sally and I were never friends. We worked in the same department, thats all. She hated the fact I got promotion. She hated the fact I secured the conviction on Eleanor Lincoln and Peter McCarthy. She hated the fact that she was seen as the one that had done wrong and that I didn't react. I threw him out. As far as I was concerned she was welcome to the cheating little." Sandra faced her. "If that's why she wants to kill me then it's pretty pathetic."

"Yeah." Emily watched as Sandra tried to end the conversation. Suddenly paperwork was looking more and more attractive. "You know something? My dad was right about you."

"Was he?" Sandra rolled her eyes. She had no idea what Emily was talking about this time. "You do think you have to be the one to look after them all. Maybe Sally did order those two nightmares to kill you. But maybe it was nothing to do with back then. Maybe she just wants you out of the way so she can go for your job."

"Killing me seems a pretty extreme method of getting promotion." Sandra shook her head. "Nah I don't think so."

"Think about it. Nine years ago no one wanted anything to do with UCOS. It was a joke as far as the rest of the police were concerned. But then you headed up the unit. Handpicked your team. You turned my dad and the others into proper coppers again. Made UCOS what it is today, I mean anyone would be jealous of your clean up rate. I know I am." Emily watched as Sandra smiled slightly.

"Talking of those three idiots, where are they?"

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Gerry shook his head as he waited for Jack to finised paying the barman. It seemed to him the case was never ending, so when Jack had suggested they stop for a drink on the way to the station he had agreed. He watched his friend as he thought about how the case had affected them all.

"You think we did the right thing, letting Brian interview Lincoln?" Gerry asked as he carried his drink across to the small table at the far side of the pub.

"You know Brian."

"Yeah." Gerry scoffed. "That's why I'm worried."

"Well don't be. He has Pushkar with him. It's going to be ok. Pushkar wont let him to anything stupid." Jack smiled slightly at Gerry's raised eyebrow. "Well nothing too stupid." He sipped his drink as Gerry laughed.

"Anyway, have you decided how we are going to go about interviewing Sally?" Gerry asked as Jack's eyes clouded over.

"I know Sally."

"Correction, you knew Sally." Gerry watched.

"She was difficult in those days. There was no love lost between her and the rest of the team. I worried that it would begin to affect the morale of the team. I considered asking for her to be moved. Or Sandra. When Sandra became eligable for promotion I didn't stop her." He raised a hand as Gerry opened his mouth. "Not that I wanted her to leave but after everything with Karl, I knew Sandra hated the gossiping. The way she felt she was pitied. Sandra getting promoted to Detective Inspector made Sally bitter. She may have had the man, but that didn't last long. Karl cheated on her with the cleaner, Lucy. Half his age and twice as stupid." He shook his head. Gerry stared into his pint.

"So you gonna talk to her?"

"Yeah." Jack drained his glass. "Yeah, I'll take your Emily with me. Come on." He was up and heading towards the door of the pub before Gerry realised he was being left behind.

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A/N Not much more left now. Please review.