A/N: Just wanted to say a massive thank you for all the reviews, reads, favourites and alerts! It really means a lot :D hope you enjoy the chapter, love Roxannaaaax
Over the next few days, Alex's bruises healed significantly. Her relationship with Gene was above anything that she could have wished for as he stayed over most nights, obviously unknown about by the team.
CID hadn't clocked that anything was going on between their two senior officers. The only person that had noticed a slight change was Shaz, but even the bright WPC didn't know the depth of Gene and Alex's relationship. Alex couldn't describe it any differently. It was love.
However, they still had to act professionally at work. At work, Alex was just DI Bollyknickers and Gene was the Guv. It had to remain that way, but it didn't stop little flirtatious looks across the room from each other. Alex was blushing profoundly as Gene winked at her through the glass of his office, and then the phone rang shrilly at his desk to take his attention away from his gorgeous partner.
Alex grinned to herself, and suddenly met Shaz's knowing eyes.
"You all right, Ma'am?" Shaz smiled at her.
"Er, fine thanks, Shaz," Alex stuttered, fiddling with her pen awkwardly, "never better."
Shaz chuckled as she returned to her paperwork. Seeing Gene slam the phone down, Alex bit her lip and made her way over to his office. He got to his feet and bumped into her as she tried to enter his office and he tried to leave it.
Alex smiled and tried to caress his hand as she stroked his chest secretively, only for her heart to shatter when Gene grabbed her wrists and pushed her away forcefully.
"Gene…" Alex squeaked, hurt.
"Listen up!" Gene boomed, ignoring her. "There's been another murder."
Everyone in the room froze. Mouths dropped open and heated murmurs buzzed around the office. Alex's breath caught in her throat.
"Who? Where?" Ray piped up.
"Forensics got there first and the body has been taken to the morgue," Gene muttered darkly, "but the reports and details 'ave been passed over ter us to investigate."
Gene strode into the centre of the room. "According to the tosser on the phone, the girl was murdered last night. Her name was Hayley Dickson, and like the other five, she was blonde, early thirties, raped and murdered through strangling by a thin rope."
Gene slammed his fists down on Alex's desk thunderously. "We're finding this bastard killer today! No-one goes home until we've got a lead, got it?"
"Yes Guv," everyone muttered, getting to work immediately.
"Right, Ray, take Chris and get over to forensics. I want Hayley Dickson's file here and I want it now."
"Guv," Ray nodded as he and Chris got to their feet.
"Lady Bolls!" Gene boomed. "My office!"
Alex swallowed as she scuffled through the door, her heart lifting ever so slightly when Gene locked the door and hurriedly closed all the blinds so that they were in their own secluded little world.
Not hesitating in the slightest, Gene turned around and pulled Alex towards him, claiming her mouth was his own as his tongue assaulted hers, causing a stifled moan to come from Alex as she wrapped her arms around his neck.
Gene moved one hand down to squeeze Alex's arse as the other held her firmly round her back, pushing her backwards to sit on his desk.
Alex wrapped her legs around him, kissing him more passionately than she had ever recalled. Gene nibbled her ear softly, placing kisses all down her neck and slowly beginning to unbutton her shirt.
This was where Alex had to stop him.
"No, Gene," she said breathily, "we can't…not here."
Gene stopped, lightly brushing her breasts as he straightened himself up, looking down at a thoroughly ravishing-looking Alex spread out and panting on his desk.
"Yer right," he mumbled, "not professional…shagging you on me desk…the team outside…"
Alex re-buttoned her shirt with a slight laugh. "So Guv," she smiled, "was that an apology?"
Gene smirked at her. "Just letting yer know yer still mine," he winked, "yer just can't go doin' sissy, girly things like trying to hold me 'and in the middle of CID."
Alex sniggered. "Point taken," she nodded, getting to her feet, "now…"
Alex was tantalising close now, her lips inches from Gene's.
"We've got a murder to solve," she whispered, before whipping her face away, unlocking the door and sauntering out of the office, swaying her hips even more so than usual.
Gene ran his fingers through his hair. "Bloody infuriatingly sexy woman," he muttered in frustration.
They were back to Bolly and the Guv as soon as Ray and Chris walked in with Hayley Dickson's file. Alex was right; they had a murder to solve. This killer had been getting away with taking lives for the past few weeks now and Gene was adamant that it stopped today. He had almost convinced himself that due to the lack of killings after Ellie Parker, the murderer must have given up. The murder of Hayley Dickson last night had proven that the bastard was still out there.
CID got straight to work when they got the details of Hayley's murder. Her parents were being interviewed by Gene and Chris, her enemy's alibi and statement were being taken and confirmed by Ray and Alex was sitting at her desk with Hayley's file, trying to draw links.
Hayley was single, Alex noticed, crossing out the potential lead of a jealous or angry boyfriend. She had broken up with her last boyfriend about a month ago.
"Was the last boyfriend the psychotic type?" Shaz suggested jokily. "There's enough of them around."
Alex smiled weakly. "I don't know. I don't even know who he was. Not that it matters anyway, Shaz."
Shaz shrugged. "Just a thought, Ma'am. 'Cos all of them was single, weren't they? I mean, apart from the one who went out with that Mitch."
"Miranda," Alex reminded her.
"Yeah," Shaz nodded, "I dunno…it's just you've never followed up any of their exes as it don't seem important. But…well, you ain't getting any other leads are ya?"
Alex stared at Shaz. "You really should be in CID, Shaz," she grinned at her, "you're a hell of a lot smarter than half of this lot."
"Fab," Shaz beamed as Alex began rifling through the file. Alex began to read the less significant pages, and then found a section near the back that the family had been asked to fill out. Alex scanned the important relationships section, hoping for something they had missed.
Her jaw dropped. No. No way. There it was. The obvious link.
"Shaz," Alex stuttered, her voice laced with panic. Shaz frowned.
"Ma'am?" she said, concerned. "Ma'am, what is it?" Shaz got to her feet and walked round to her DI's desk, peering over her shoulder at Hayley's file.
"Shaz," Alex breathed, "the ex-boyfriend Hayley dumped last month…her ex-boyfriend was Oliver Sarouche."
Shaz gasped as Alex's heart hammered. "Sarouche?" Shaz repeated. "Not the bloke you were seeing?"
"The very same," Alex said seriously, reading further. What she read made her blood run cold. "Oh my God."
"What?" Shaz said excitedly. Alex tore her eyes away from the file and looked up at Shaz.
"Her parents made the statement that Oliver and his mates had been harassing Hayley due to the break-up. Oliver's address is written on here," Alex breathed, "and do you know where he lives?"
Shaz frowned. Alex swallowed. "He lives…he lives with them. The skinheads! Gordon, Stone…"
"He lives with them?" Shaz repeated. "What an idiot! But why's that important?"
Alex's memories were going into overdrive. The skinheads were innocent, but Oliver had never been brought into the equation. And that house…Alex remembered hazily looking around as the drunks prepared their band equipment…
The place was a tip. Chairs, beer bottles, litter, Chinese takeaways, scrappy bits of clothes and material…
Material. Alex saw thin ropes when she was there – thin ropes that could have been extremely dangerous and were completely out of place from the rest of the junk. Alex's breathing quickened…it couldn't be, could it?
"Shaz, get me the files on all five of the other murdered women," Alex ordered, "statements, relationships, friendships, locations…anything. I've got a seriously bad feeling about Oliver's involvement."
Shaz grabbed the files from her desk immediately and handed them to her boss. She stood awkwardly, and then made to go back to her type-writer.
"No, pull up a chair, Shaz, I need you to help me," Alex decided as a grin spread across Shaz's face, "we need to find links."
Alex ripped open Ellie's file first, complete with evidence, statements and researched background information. Alex flicked through it desperately, eager to reach the information about her personal life.
"We already know Ellie had a connection to the drunks," Alex recalled.
"Cos she was Stone's stepsister," Shaz put in, reading Victoria Wentworth's file as Alex finally found the relevant information in Ellie's.
"Ah-ha! No current boyfriend when she was killed," Alex read out, "and hadn't dated for a couple of months. She's only had a couple of boyfriends because of some hassle she had with a boyfriend a couple of years back. Good, it looks like someone's written down who that boyfriend was…"
Alex was silent. Shaz stared at her. She knew what was coming next.
"Oliver Francois Sarouche."
Alex rustled through Ruth Anderson's file next, and was disappointed to see that Oliver's name didn't crop up once. Maybe…maybe it wasn't him. Maybe this was just another false lead.
"But Ruth was Gordon's ex-girlfriend, Ma'am," Shaz reminded her DI, "so Oliver must've known her! Maybe she pissed him off?"
Alex's mouth opened in comprehension. "Of course," she realised, "excellent, Shaz. That's still a strong link. Ruth too can be linked to Oliver."
Shaz swallowed, and then showed Alex Victoria's file. "He's in 'ere too, Ma'am. Victoria's last boyfriend about six months ago was one Oliver Sarouche."
Alex grabbed Miranda's file and found the respective page. She knew what she was going to find, but this one made her jaw drop.
"Miranda Lawrence was engaged before she starting dating Mitch!" Alex burst out. "Mitch has confessed in his statement that he had an affair with Miranda whilst she was engaged to another man, and then Miranda left her fiancé for Mitch."
Alex stared at Shaz, hardly believing the connections. "Guess who Miranda Lawrence's fiancé was about a year ago?"
"Oliver Sarouche?" Shaz guessed, her eyes wide.
Alex nodded slowly. "Oliver Sarouche."
-xx-
The Quattro zoomed through the streets of London at high speed. Gene had hardly hesitated when Shaz and Alex explained the links they had discovered. He was in the Quattro with Alex, Ray and Chris and ready to drive off in minutes.
It didn't matter to Gene that Jessica Hampton seemed to have no link to Oliver – maybe the nutter just went berserk and killed another blonde. But what Gene did know was that he was going to have Oliver Sarouche locked up.
He dated Ellie Parker and made her life hell two years ago, to then become engaged with her best friend Miranda Lawrence a year back. Being dumped by Miranda for Mitch, Oliver started to date Victoria Wentworth about six months ago. When that obviously fell apart, he moved onto Hayley Dickson only in the last month, and Ruth Anderson dumped his best mate around the same sort of time.
This couldn't just be a coincidence. This had to be it. And with Alex's recollection of seeing out-of-place thin ropes at Oliver's home, it seemed there wasn't a piece in the jigsaw that didn't fit.
"Proud o' you, Bolls," Gene said to Alex as they got out of the Quattro and walked up to the house once again, "knew you and that brain o' yours would crack it."
Alex smiled as Chris and Ray stormed ahead with the back-up officers, ready to arrest Oliver Sarouche.
"It was Shaz too," Alex explained, "that girl really should be in CID, Gene."
Gene muttered something under his breath before briefly kissing Alex on the cheek and barging in front of the other officers, making his way to the front.
"Right," Gene said dominantly, getting ready to kick the door in, "let's take this bastard down!"