Hathaway was at work early the next morning. There had been a fire at a curry shop just before dawn, and a neighbor had reported seeing someone toss something through the window and run off. However, it was unclear whether the fire was the work of an arsonist or the owner's attempt at insurance fraud. Knox arrived shortly after Hathaway, and the two worked side-by-side, directing members of the SOCOs crew and interviewing neighbors and witnesses. With the snow from the storm still lingering and melting, it was wet and dirty work.

When they had done all they could onsite, Knox stood next to Hathaway and put his arm around James's shoulders. "Now that's a job well done. Let's go back and see what we make of this, shall we?"

Hathaway wrote up what they had, but there was little more they could do until the forensics reports started coming in. Knox stood behind him, peering at the screen and reading over his shoulder. At one point, he leaned low over Hathaway to read something closely. His face was close to James's, and when he was done reading, he made a little sniff in Hathaway's direction.

"That's a nice aftershave, Sergeant, a little bit of spice or something in it?"

"Um, it's my shampoo, Sir." Hathaway felt a queasy jolt. Was Knox hitting on him?

Knox nearly touched James's hair with his nose, and sniffed again. "Ah, yes. Nice."

* * *

They made little more progress on the case until Thursday afternoon, when forensics reported that they were able to lift fingerprints off the petrol-filled bottle that had been thrown into the shop. The prints did not match those of the owner, nor did they match any on file.

"Well, Sir, it looks like this case just removed itself from the 'easy' list."

"I hope you're not afraid of hard cases, James. You and Inspector Lewis seemed to handle your share of tough ones alright." He looked at him closely. "James, I want you to be for me the same quality of sergeant you were for Lewis."

Hathaway was confused. Hadn't Knox just spent the last two-and-a-half weeks beating that out of him? But Knox's meaning became perfectly clear as soon as the older man stroked his fingers along Hathaway's jaw and brushed his thumb over James's lips.

Hathaway repressed a shudder. If he resisted now, it would all go back to the way it had been. Surely that would be worse than tolerating a bit of pawing by Knox for another two weeks, and Lewis had thought he might even be back before that long. He swallowed hard.

"Yes, Sir."

Knox smiled. "Good. According to Chief Superintendent Innocent, Lewis expects to be back at work two weeks from Monday. That doesn't give us much time to wrap up this case and the carjackings."

He shook his head sadly. "I don't know how Lewis expects to do detective work from a wheelchair. I can't imagine he'll be assigned anything but desk duty. You're welcome to stay with me, if you'd like, James."

"Thank you, Sir."

* * *

Hathaway was up well before dawn the next morning. He had been unable to sleep and by the time he was ready to leave for work, he had made several trips to the bathroom, puking up the coffee and toast he had made when he first got up. If he could just make it through the day, he'd have a weekend to think things over. Maybe Lewis would call some time before Monday and he could sound him out about the problem. Hathaway took a deep breath and set his resolve to get to the far side of five o'clock.

As soon as Knox arrived at the office, Hathaway went to get him tea. Knox took the mug from him and then stood very close. Too close.

"You know, James, I wonder if it might be a good idea for us to work on these cases over the weekend. We could get a lot done, I think." He rubbed his hand over Hathaway's buttocks, squeezing him a little.

Hathaway's heart sank and he had to force himself to say it. "Yes, Sir."

"You know, James, you have really turned into an excellent sergeant. I think I'll see if we can get some of those reprimands removed from your file. Would you like that?" He bent close to Hathaway's ear to whisper the last question.

"Yes, Sir."

Then Knox slid his tongue into Hathaway's ear and licked it, squeezing him again with his hand.

Hathaway stared straight ahead. But he caught a glimpse of movement reflected in the glass of the office windows. He focused on it, and saw in the reflection DC Macklin, out of sight of Knox and clearly watching what was going on in their office. She looked aghast.

Hathaway felt a hot flush of shame. He did not want to appear as if he acquiesced in the abuse but he didn't dare resist. He'd have to find her and explain later.

Knox misread the heat in Hathaway's reddened face. "Oh, you liked that, did you? You'll have to wait for more, we have work to do, James. You cool yourself off while I go see about your personnel file." He fairly skipped out of the office.

Hathaway flew out of the office and corralled Macklin at her desk. "I know you saw that, what Knox was doing to me. It's not anything I want him to do, I assure you." He spoke quietly so he would not be overheard.

He could see she believed him. "I know, James. A couple of months ago, he kept doing that same kind of thing to me. I finally threatened to report him."

"But you didn't report him."

"We made a deal that I wouldn't report him as long as I never had to work with him again. It never occurred to me he would be doing it to other officers. James, you have to tell someone."

"I can't, it's . . . it's complicated. I just can't though."

She was clearly not pleased with his answer. "But you can't just put up with it."

"I can and I will. I have to. And don't you report it, either, or he'll just think it was me. Promise?"

She nodded unhappily.

* * *