Dempsey knocked on Makepeace's door and gave a grimace of a smile when Joyce answered. 'Where's your moves Sergeant; you don't check through the peephole, I could have evil intent.'

'I've never doubted it,' Joyce responded sarcastically. 'I saw your car draw up from the lounge window and besides that we have four security personnel on the premises to deal with any person of evil intent so I think the current threat level can be contained.'

'You should never lower your guard,' Dempsey responded didactically as he walked to the back of the house and found Harry discussing the protection she wanted. 'So what we got here,' his interrogative manner soon meant that Mike Manners the security firm's representative started to dialogue with Dempsey rather than Makepeace.

'Excuse me,' Harry butted in. 'I'm the customer here and I'm paying the invoice so…. It was as if she was invisible, Dempsey started to tell them what to install, where and she gave a sound of total exasperation and went to find Joyce.

Joyce had observed the interaction and had made Harry a soothing cup of tea. 'Infuriating isn't it; you may as well let him get on with it and if you don't like what they end up doing tell them to send the D.I. the invoice.'

Harry took the tea gratefully and started to prepare dinner for herself and Joyce. 'It is bloody infuriating,' she muttered as she peeled vegetables and prepared potatoes. She'd been put in a difficult position as she'd have had to cause a scene in order to take over the dialogue with the security chap.

An hour later her temper went up another notch when Dempsey shouted over at her. 'Harry, come here princess, I want to show you how this stuff works.'

She stoically joined him and Mike and they took her through all the sequences to set up her security, it was relatively simple which was good but she had to really concentrate and put her anger to one side which was very difficult.

'Your husband has all the instructions, if you'd just sign here luv,' Harry heard Joyce's snort of laughter and a red mist moment overtook her.

'Don't call me luv, I'm the customer here and for your information he isn't my husband; he's a work colleague,' she signed on the dotted line and showed the security specialists out with a distinct coolness.

'Bit rude Makepeace, the guys did a good job you could've at least offered them a beer,' Dempsey went to her fridge and got himself one. 'Top of the art stuff as long as you read the instructions and set it up properly, it ain't too complicated.'

'So not too difficult for a female then,' Joyce responded tongue in cheek and caught a broadside of blue fire from Harry and an irritated look from the Yank.

'Nah, it's simple a child could do it. You can go to advance settings but most da… people,' he self-corrected, 'don't do that.' He was used to Hargreaves stirring and he was irritated she was here as he couldn't talk to Harry with her there and he knew Makepeace would use the Sergeant as some kind of shield cos she was annoyed with him for trying to look out for her.

'I'll study the advanced settings and see if there's any additional features I'd like to use,' Harry took the instructions from Dempsey and glared at him.

'What?' He protested at her icy manner, 'I told you I'd supervise the security team, we agreed that this morning,' he took a swig of the beer. 'Something smells nice,' he alluded to the meal Harry was preparing.

Joyce could see that they might want a few words in private so she made an excuse about unpacking and left them to it; it was all rather amusing as in her opinion you couldn't pick two more stubborn people to pair up than Harry and Jim.

'It was my security install and you just ignored me as if I wasn't there and that idiot Manners did the same. It was out of order!' She was seething.

'Yeah well, guys speak the same language on these things, it's quicker than having to explain it to… He stopped as he could see he was digging a bigger hole to jump into.

'What a vegetable or a highly intelligent female who is a police officer with a good knowledge of securing properties. It's one of the first chapters on dealing with domestic safety in the training manual of how to be a copper.' He was so infuriating and she could see he'd pulled on his, dealing with the little woman when she was irrational face.

'I was only trying to help Harry, give me a break. So far you've got Chas handling the break-in and Hargreaves providing protection; what am I supposed to do sit around and twiddle my thumbs.' He gave her the puppy dog look which usually softened her up and saw her deflate like a balloon with the air whooshing out.

'I know you are,' Harry conceded with grudging empathy for his situation. 'It would be nice if you could help without making me feel like some swooning female in a silent movie,' she grumbled at him as he drank his beer. 'You can stay to dinner if you like, I should be able to make it stretch to three.'

'Thanks but I've got to meet a snout tonight so I'll take a rain check on that, see you tomorrow baby,' he tipped up her chin and kissed her coaxing her into it until she was clinging to him. He raised his head and took in her vulnerable expression, 'I like it when you swoon, Harry.' He kissed her on the nose in a totally patronising fashion and left her as she fumed at being played.

-oOo-

'Hey Dan,' Dempsey joined the old wino at one of his usual haunts. 'What's cooking, got the word you wanted to see me,' he sat down in front of the fire on an old tyre.

'The girl, your girl,' Dan took a sip of cider from the bottle and gazed into the fire.

'Yeah Harry, my partner the blonde chick with the snooty accent,' he probed for confirmation. 'What about her?'

Dan turned, 'Did you talk to her yet. Did you tell her how you feel,' the older man looked at him his eyes yellowed with the liver complaint he suffered from.

'Yeah I talked to her, we're still working things through and it ain't easy. Why'd you want to talk about her?' He got offered the bottle of cider and took it just to be friendly as he was no fan of cider and especially the rocket fuel variety. It was a mild night with a soft breeze so at least he wasn't freezing his butt off out here.

'There's talk on the streets. A couple of chums of mine got paid to go to her place of residence and frighten her. They give police information from time to time like me, that's how I know.'

'I see, so what you're saying is that these guys were put up to causing Harry grief, who by? Any idea who did that?' Dempsey was fully alert now, any threat to Harry made his hackles rise.

'Police,' Dan turned to him and smiled. 'They were paid off by the police, a copper like you. Don't know who so I can't say.' Dan mused for a while. 'I know their names though but if you lean on them they'll know it was me that told you.'

'Okay, okay, don't worry about that. I won't implicate you.' Dempsey thumbed his nose his mind quickly zoning in on Parker. 'If you gave me the names I might be able to find out who they give information to, if I knew that I'd know the cop that's doing it.'

Dan looked dubious but he wanted to protect the 'lady,' as she'd always been nice to him. 'Freddie Fingers Lloyd and Casper Hines real names Charles or Charlie looks pale like a ghost. They're small time villains, not big fish, paid to frighten her nothing more than that from what I heard.'

'Thanks Dan, I owe you one.' He offered Dan some money but the old man turned it down.

'She's a nice woman as much as any woman can be called that, look after her.'

'I aim to but she's a challenge I can tell you that,' Dempsey responded dryly. 'Likes to pretend she don't need nobody…

'She's like you in that,' Dan responded wisely poking the fire. 'We all need somebody, even down and out's like me, we have a community of our own and that's where we hear things, street talk.'

'Yeah I get that. You know Dan you don't look too good; let me get you a place to stay… Dempsey was concerned the old man looked worse than usual, he didn't look right.

'No thank you James, it's safer out here; I'll be fine,' he sat for a while gazing into the fire and then keeled over.

Dempsey got on his RT and got an ambulance, the old guy was unconscious which didn't look too good. He liked Dan; he was a wise old bird and he could really talk to him; used him as a sounding board. He got hold of Chas and gave him the information Dan had given him and told him to investigate the snouts and who they gave information too. 'It's related to Harry's break in?' He didn't reveal that the two men had caused the damage because that was something else.

Dempsey stayed at the hospital but the news wasn't good and by the morning Dan had gone to meet his maker. The American felt sad about it as he considered the guy a friend. On the other hand, he no longer had Dan to protect so they could get Fingers and Casper in and interrogate them, he went straight from the hospital to the office.

Harry's nostrils flared slightly as she took in the American's disheveled appearance, 'stale alcohol and something else, where've you been Dempsey? You were wearing those clothes yesterday; have you been to bed?'

'Justice never sleeps,' he quipped. 'No, I ain't been to bed cos I've been looking out for you,' he picked an apple off her desk and crunched into it. 'And I had to take Dan to the hospital, unfortunately he's not coming back out as he passed away last night.'

'Oh James, I'm sorry,' Harry looked sympathetic and put her hand on his arm in a comforting way. 'I know he was a friend of yours; he was a real character.'

'Yeah he was, and he wanted me to protect you so he gave me some information which Chas is following up so I think we've got a chance to crack this.' He saw Jarvis come in and got out of his seat and got hold of his friend's arm and guided him into one of the offices.

Harry looked decidedly put out and followed them. 'If it's about my break in; I want to know,' she sat down and looked at them both expectantly.

Dempsey ignored her interruption and looked at Chas, 'what did you get on Lloyd and Hines whose snitches are they?'

Chas looked at his notes. 'They're pretty small potatoes but they have a number of links into the Met and one of those links is into Fraud.'

'Are you talking about Casper and Fingers?' Harry chimed in. 'I know them, they gave us some intel on Charles Madison on the Winchester case, nothing major but helpful.'

'Yeah well according to Dan they were paid to attempt a break in to your property by a copper so I think we should get them in and lean on them,' he looked over at Chas, 'your call.'

'Why didn't you tell me this last night,' Chas frowned. 'I'll haul them in for questioning, is there anything else you're not telling me?'

'Dan told me in confidence and on the basis that they wouldn't know he'd turned up the information. Sorry Chas, I gave you as much as I could. Dan's dead now so it don't matter,' the American's expression changed as he remembered the older man. 'I used to like talking to him; wise man, helped me out on a couple of things.'

'So you think Parker put them up to the break-in?' Harry looked shocked that a fellow officer would do that.

'Well there's a couple of other teams that use the guys' for information, how many cops have you upset?' Dempsey drawled sarcastically. 'I'm going home to get some sleep keep me informed,' he walked out.

Harry followed and caught his arm in the corridor, 'are you okay James? I'm sorry about Dan I know he wasn't just a snout,' she squeezed his arm trying to comfort him.

Dempsey looked down at Harry and then put his arms around her and hugged her to him uncaring as to who walked by, he didn't say anything because he felt all choked up. It was comforting holding her like this but he knew he had to let her go as Spikings was approaching. 'Bereavement,' he threw at the older man.

'I don't care what it is don't do it here, deepest sympathies,' he tacked on in case the Yank was telling the truth.

'I'll come to see you later,' Harry said softly as they broke apart, 'try and get some sleep.' She watched him go and then turned back and found she was face to face with the Chief Inspector.

'Who died?' Spikings asked brusquely. He wasn't an unsympathetic man just didn't want officers canoodling in the office.

'Dan, one of Dempsey's snitches. He gave us information on the Daish case and seems to have uncovered those responsible for the attempted burglary at my place. He lived rough and wasn't in the best of health, D.I. Dempsey was at the hospital last night when Dan died.'

'I know the one,' he rubbed a hand over his short bristly hair. 'It's a hard life living on the street; takes its toll. He spied Chas and pointed at his office, 'well if dear, departed Dan has shed some light on your break-in Makepeace, I'd be delighted to hear it.'

-oOo-