Thank you to those that have reviewed! Enjoy chapter 2…

Ray's Idea

"Where were you on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday between the hours of eight in the evening and two the following morning?" barked Gene.

George Capstone leaned back in his chair, a smirk curling across his lips. He was about five-six and so shorter than both Gene and Alex. His hair was a light brown colour but there were streaks of grey at the temples and it had been slicked back with what Alex strongly suspected was Brylcreem. As she inhaled, the scent of Old Spice filled her nostrils. She smiled slightly, despite herself. Her father had used that scent.

"Horse and Falcon. You know it?" he sneered at Gene.

"Been there once or twice," replied Gene, his dislike for Capstone growing.

"You were there on all three nights?" asked Alex, trying to keep her voice neutral.

"Yeah, with a mate of mine, Jimmy Johnson."

"You were at the same place, three nights in a row, with the same person?" asked Alex, her voice no longer neutral. Disbelief dripped from every syllable.

Capstone's lawyer said, "I believe that's what my client said, DI Drake."

Alex's eyes flicked from Capstone to his lawyer and back again. She leaned against her chair. Finally, she said, "Did you ever have any sort of relationship with any of the girls that worked for your wife?"

"No."

"I'm not talking anything romantic… a shag, maybe, a fumbling grope in an alleyway-"

"DI Drake!" spluttered the lawyer as Capstone denied any such thing.

Capstone and his lawyer were dismissed. Alex ejected the cassette from the tape recorder and said to Gene, "what do you think?"

"We'll need to check his alibi, smarmy bastard."

"Being smarmy doesn't make him a killer, but I think you're right. He was very up himself."

"Things are looking bad for Thomas Bryson, aren't they?" said Gene, standing up and walking out of the interview room, Alex following. As they passed through the double doors of CID, he said, "What was that about 'all three nights' anyway?"

"I just don't know if it's normal to be out drinking three nights a row at the beginning of the week," Alex shrugged.

"What do you do every night?" smirked Gene.

"That's different!" Alex retorted dropping the cassette on Shaz's desk so she could type up the transcript and following Gene into his office, "I live just upstairs from Luigi's and it's with the whole of CID, not just one person-"

"Is it?" said Gene

Suddenly, the room felt very hot even though it was February. Gene had fixed her with an intense gaze and Alex didn't know where to look but she knew she couldn't meet his eyes. It wasn't true. She talked to the others, even when she and Gene had a table on their own; she still spoke to Ray, Chris and Shaz…

"I'll just, um, tell Ray to check the alibi," Alex stammered, backing out of the room.

XXX

"Jimmy Johnson confirms the alibi," said Ray to CID at large.

"Bugger," said Gene leaning against the doorframe of his office, "Did you go to the pub like Bolly asked you?"

"Yeah," said Ray, "and the barmen don't recall either of them there that night but they say it's not that unusual since they get really busy, even during the week."

"We can let Capstone off the hook then," frowned Gene, "especially as the pub is about ten miles from the river. Oh!" he broke off, realising something.

"What is it?" Alex asked from behind her desk

"Bryson's flat is half a mile from the river. Not looking good eh?"

"He's only half a suspect!" argued Alex, standing up, "It can't have been him on Monday."

"We found knives when we searched his flat!" said Gene triumphantly.

"What in the kitchen?" sneered Alex, "did they have blood on them?"

"No. It is possible to wash knives, Drake!"

"But you can't prove it! It won't stand up in court!"

"I have an idea," said Ray quietly.

Everyone turned to look at him. Gene had a sinking feeling that he wasn't going to like it.

"We can't link him forensically to the crimes so we'll have to trick him to confess. We've interviewed Mrs Capstone and some of the other girls he's gone with and we know he likes new girls, not virgins necessarily, just girls new to the world of prostitution. We also know he talks a lot to 'em."

"DS Carling, if you are proposing using a honey-trap, I will dice your knackers and pin them to the door of every strip joint in Soho!"

"It might work though," said Alex thoughtfully, "We need a confession and I don't see how we can get it any other way."

"I'm with the Guv," said Chris, surprisingly, "I think it's far too dangerous, risking the lives of innocent coppers. Also, that sort of action degrades women and promotes loose morals."

Ray rolled his eyes and muttered "poof" under his breath.

"It's alright Chris," said Alex kindly. "We can't use Shaz, Bryson would've seen her when he came in for questioning."

Suddenly, Gene saw the cogs in Alex's head stop turning and realised what conclusion she had come to. He slammed the door shut behind him and strode over to her desk, banging his fists down on her desk. "Over my dead body, DI Drake!"

Alex placed her fists on her desks, mirroring the Guv's pose. "Guv, he's our only suspect-"

"He's only half a suspect!" shouted Gene, throwing her words back at her.

"Well, half a suspect is better than none!" Alex shouted back, "I haven't been in the last week, let me try and-"

"And what, shag his guilty conscience to the forefront of his mind? What if he works out who you are? Or what if he doesn't, the man might be a killer, Alex! What if we find your body by the river?"

A heavy silence fell. Gene took his hands off Alex's desk and saw her do the same. As he turned away, thinking he had won, he heard Alex's voice.

"Well, we'll know it's him then."