Smile of the Tiger.
13.
Friday, December 4th.
At the best of times, Harry was never far from Dempsey's thoughts.
The fact that she was laid up in hospital now, recovering from being caught in a near fatal explosion only served to flood his mind with pictures of her.
Her beautiful face, soft sensuous lips, light blonde hair, exquisite figure and ocean blue eyes that looked at him with such love in them, left him feeling breathless many a time, even when she was beside him.
Now, as he waited impatiently for the rest of the SI-10 team to join him, those images were ever more acute, especially as he could somehow sense her presence, hear her voice telling him she was beside him in spirit, not to worry about her, but to get the job done and come home to her, hail and hearty.
She was waiting for him.
When she woke up that same morning, she felt a little better. Freddy was still, stalwartly, beside her bed and she smiled at him, squeezing his hand that had hardly let hers go throughout the night.
"Hello Daddy." she whispered, hoarsely. "You should get some rest."
"I'm fine, darling." he replied, smiling back, but unable to hide the concern in his eyes. "Do you feel any better?"
She nodded, then appeared to drift into a dream, her eyes glazing over as if she were in another place, her hand letting go of Freddy's.
Images of Dempsey's handsome, grinning face, soft brown eyes and strong arms that she so loved to hold her, had rushed into her mind.
"I'm there with you, darling." she whispered suddenly, twisting her engagement ring around her finger, Freddy about to answer before realising it wasn't he she was referring to. "Come home to me, safe and sound. I'm waiting for you."
Then she seemed to wake up, taking a second or two to focus on where she was, before glancing at her father again.
"James?" he asked, searching her face, knowingly.
She nodded, her eyes watery now, not because she feared for his life any more, just that she missed him so much.
"I'll keep him safe." she whispered again, then drifted into sleep once more, two solitary tears rolling down her cheek and onto her pillow, her right hand still clutching the third finger of her left.
By the time the SI-10 team had arrived, parked their cars and assembled, it was close to midday, Dempsey pointing out the house to them.
They were accompanied by Francois Durand, the French inspector Spikings had liased with prior to leaving London.
During the night, the home of one of de Cadenet's henchmen had been raided and he'd been taken to police headquarters. There, having tried all the politically correct means of extracting information only to get nowhere, they subjected him to waterboarding, eventually prizing de Cadenet's contact number out of him.
At midday precisely, that number was dialled.
"Oui!?" snapped de Cadenet, annoyed at being contacted without prior agreement.
"Monsieur de Cadenet." said Inspector Durand. "This is the police. Your home is surrounded. Come out now, with your hands above your heads."
"What is the meaning of this!?" replied de Cadenet, still trying to work out how the police had got this number.
"You are in possession of stolen money, extorted from Lord Jonas Cosgrove-Hartley in Britain." answered Durand. "We know all about your activities. Now surrender yourselves or we will come in and get you."
"So be it!" replied de Cadenet slamming the 'phone down and turning to Rene. "Get the guns ready, we're about to be raided!"
Spikings ordered half of the team to break in through the back of the property, while he, Chas, Dempsey and Durand accompanied two French policemen with a battering ram up to the front door fashioned out of stout oak.
"You're gonna need a goddam tank to get through that!" growled Dempsey, drawing his Magnum and smashing a downstairs window with it, before clambering inside, followed by the other three, the two policemen stoically continuing working on the door.
As he hit the floor the other side of the window, something told him to roll to his left, which, having done so, he saw Gaston about to fire at him.
He unloaded two bullets into him, the power of the Magnum lifting Gaston clean off his feet and throwing him backwards against the wall, his dead body sliding to the floor, blood gushing from his chest and neck.
Spikings, Chas and Durand landed safely and bounded up to the rooms entrance, their backs against the wall either side of the doorway and quickly peered into the hallway beyond.
A bullet richochet'd off the doorframe, the shootist crouched on the vast, galleried stairway.
Spikings returned fire, covering Dempsey as he sprinted into the hall and up behind a wood and glass display cabinet. Another bullet clattered into it, wood splinters flying off in several directions, Dempsey immediately firing back in the split seconds it took for his opponent to re-focus his aim.
Another bullet hit the cabinet. Shattered, splintered glass crashed to the floor, Spikings taking that instant in time to step out from the doorway and fire, his bullet finding its target.
The gunmen's dead body slid down the stairs and lay sprawled in a heap at the bottom, a hole where his right eye had been.
Dempsey immediately rushed to the stairway, both Chas and Spikings watching for the emergence of another gunmen. Stepping over the dead body, he sprinted to the top, Magnum held in both hands, hammer cocked, arms outstretched, his finger already partly squeezing the trigger.
Downstairs, he could hear shots as Josh, Jon and Terry exchanged bullets with two other villains.
Dempsey had no idea of the number of guys at large, but counted up anyway as he moved stealthily along the landing.
Two dead, two perhaps three, currently engaged downstairs, de Cadenet and Ahmadi still around somewhere and some more hiding out.
Suddenly a sixth sense caused him to swing round one hundred and eighty degrees and there, facing him about to fire, was Jacques.
In the split second he pulled the trigger, Dempsey had dived to one side, firing back as he fell, again his Magnum finding the target, Jacques dead before he hit the ground.
"Thanks tiger!" he whispered, knowing instantly Harry was with him and, swallowing back the emotion that engulfed him and missing her like hell he, at the same time, thanked God she wasn't mixed up in all of this.
Taking several deep breaths to steady himself, he moved slowly along the landing again, carefully replacing the four bullets already spent. Locked and loaded once more he stopped to listen, sure he heard voices coming from a room nearby.
Crouching down on his haunches he crept up to the door and pressed his ear against it.
He could plainly hear two men talking, sometimes in raised voices, and reaching out slowly, gripped the door handle, slowly cocking the hammer of his Magnum at the same time with his other hand.
After mentally counting to three, he twisted the handle and launched himself at the door.
It was locked!
As he bounced off it, several bullets from a sawn off shotgun, smashed through the door's woodwork, narrowly missing his head as he flung himself backwards.
If he'd been standing up, he'd be dead.
Lying on his back he fired at the door handle, shattering it, the door swinging open as he rolled off to one side. As he lay there momentarily, Rene appeared on the landing and he had his gun pointed directly at Dempsey.
An evil smirk crossed his lips as he cocked the hammer, but as he squeezed the trigger his eyes turned wild with shock, his knees crumpled from under him and he collapsed onto the floor, Chas coming into view directly behind him, the barrel of his revolver smoking.
Rene's bullet has whistled past Dempsey's ear, another inch to the left and it would have blown his brains out. Dempsey saluted Chas, then gesturing towards the room, held up two fingers.
Chas nodded and, backed up against it, slid sideways along the wall to the door's edge, his gun held in both hands and resting against his chest, pointing upwards.
"Ok you two." called Dempsey. "If you wanna stay breathin' chuck ya shooters out or we're comin' to get ya. Either way you ain't leavin' that room free."
"Go screw yourself, stinking pig!" yelled de Cadenet.
"Dear me, you got it bad!" replied Dempsey. "Guess you wanna make a fight of it, huh?"
To all intents and purposes, this was stalemate.
They couldn't come out and he knew, that they knew, it was taking a huge risk for him to go in.
But he, therefore, had the element of surprise.
"In a few seconds from now, there'll be another six guys out here all waitin' for an excuse to blown ya head off." he said. "You gonna be sensible an' take the easy road or make it tough on ya'selves."
"Go to hell!"
"You first!" shouted Dempsey and, rolling across the doorway, from one side to the other, he fired off four shots in rapid succession, two of them hitting de Cadenet in the shoulder and arm, one other catching Ahmadi in his thigh.
Chas followed up and rushed them, kicking de Cadenet in his face as he tried to fire his shotgun, Dempsey charging into Ahmadi as he levelled his revolver at him, the gun going off, the bullet embedding itself in the ceiling.
Several hundred miles away, Harry suddenly woke up and laughed. Freddy, who'd been dozing in the chair next to her bed, sat up in astonishment and looked at her.
She glanced at him, smiling broadly.
"He's okay!" she croaked, her eyes shining." He's coming home. He's safe, Daddy!"
"How on earth do you know?" he asked, conscious of their unique telepathy, but still staggered at witnessing it working before his very eyes.
"I just do." she said, gripping her ring again, more tears, this time of relief, beginning to form in her glistening blue eyes.
In Paris, Philipe de Cadenet and Hani Ahmadi were taken to hospital with a police escort, the rest of the gang hauled away and thrown into cells, the dead bodies collected and taken to the mortuary.
The conterfeit money was loaded into a couple of SI-10 cars and, having arranged for the extradition of the two main protagonists to face trial once they were fit to travel, the team headed back to the UK.
On disembarking at Dover, Dempsey was driven back to Saltdean to fetch his car and he didn't waste any time in driving straight to the hospital.
Walking into the private room, clutching a huge bouquet of flowers, Harry was sound asleep, Freddy still there by her side. He stood up quietly and hugged Dempsey to him, shaking his hand and slapping him on the back.
Then, with his finger to his lips, he quietly exited the room, leaving Dempsey to sit down beside the bed.
He sat there staring at her sleeping face, noticing her breathing was still a little erratic and trying hard not to kiss her. His love for her almost overwhelmed him.
And his resolve didn't last long.
Still clutching the flowers, he leaned across to kiss her lips and, as always happened, her sixth sense kicked in, her eyes flying open, her arms reaching around his neck as she pulled him to her, their lips locked together for what seemed like a lifetime.
Eventually, they came up for air, Harry flushed with passion and happiness and looked at the flowers in Dempsey's arms, now somewhat crushed from being caught in their embrace.
"Oh dear." she croaked, reaching out for them, her eyes then widening with surprise. "They're real!"
"Sure honey, 'course they're real, what else?" he said.
She waggled her finger at him, Dempsey knowing exactly what she was referring to, since the last time she'd been hospitalised he'd brought her a bunch of plastic flowers, only for her to chuck them back at him, angrily.
"And this." he said, delving into his inside pocket and producing a single red rose, still, miraculously, in tact.
That had happened before too and, like last time, she put the flower to her nose, luxuriating in its sweet aroma. Unlike before though, this time she grabbed his collar and pulled him in for another lengthy kiss.
Their privacy was interrupted by both the doctor and Freddy entering the room.
"You must be Lady Harriet's fiance, James." said the doctor, extending his arm to shake Dempsey's hand.
"Yeah, that's right, doc." he replied. "How's she doin'?"
"It's going to mean a few more days with us, I'm afraid." said the doctor. "But she's making good progress. Her lungs are repairing well and her airways too. There won't be any lasting damage, I'm pleased to say. Had she been exposed to that smoke five minutes longer though, it would have been a different story."
"Hmmm, livin' in an' around London ain't gonna help, is it?" remarked Dempsey.
"Ah well I have the perfect recipe for you and Harry." said Freddy.
Harry knew what he was about to say, and watched Dempsey as he said it.
"Why don't we go to my chalet in Klosters, Switzerland over Christmas." he said. "The air is fresh and pure, just the ticket to sort you out Harry, darling."
"You have a place in Klosters?" said Dempsey, looking at Harry in amazement, then at Freddy's smiling face. "You never said."
Harry looked all coy and innocent.
"A girl has to have a few surprises up her sleeve, Dempsey." she half croaked, half whispered, but the effort taking it out of her, even though she couldn't help smiling.
"That would be excellent." said the doctor. "But as you can see, Lady Harriet still needs a lot of rest."
"Come on, James." said Freddy. "Stay with me in London while Harry's getting better. We can keep each other company."
"Yeah, sounds like a plan, Freddy." replied Dempsey, leaning in to kiss her. "'An you, honey, I'll see you tomorrow. We got a weddin' to go to in a week. Be a shame to miss it after all the trouble the bride's been in!"
Harry nodded, smiled, then closed her eyes, the excitement of the last fifteen minutes taking its toll. She fell back to sleep.
Dempsey visited her every day and each time she was better. After five more days she had recovered completely and it was a joyous moment when he finally collected her from the hospital the following Wednesday evening and drove her home.
Whilst Dempsey mixed them some drinks and lit a fire, Harry deposited her bag in their bedroom, then showered and changed into a short, black, thigh skimming, almost see through nightdress - and nothing else.
Whilst lying in her hospital bed, worrying about him, missing him, loving him, wanting him and desperate for him to return to her unharmed and safe, she had dreamt about this very moment when they were home together, the wintry night blocked out and a log fire roaring in the fireplace.
He was sitting on their huge sofa, sipping his whisky, Frank Sinatra crooning 'Come Fly With Me' in the background, when she walked through to the lounge and stood in front of him, his eyes slowly moving from her face to her breasts and down her body to her tanned, shapely thighs, her passion fuelled by his hungry look, their need for each other now matched completely as she lowered herself onto his lap.
Their lovemaking lasted until the small hours of the morning, by which time they were ravenously hungry.
"What are we like!" giggled Harry as she whipped up some scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, tomatoes and waffles, Dempsey only trusted with toasting the bread and making the coffee.
"Damned hungry, angel!" he replied, chuckling. "For everything!"
"You're insatiable!" she said, turning round and winding her arms round his waist, resting her head on his chest. "And I love you!"
"I felt you with me, ya know." he said, bringing a hand up to stroke her hair. "Whilst we were dealin' with those bozo's in France, you were there somehow, right beside me."
"I dreamt about you." she replied, her head nuzzling his chin. "I dreamt I was your wingman - well woman, I suppose."
"We have somethin' that's fo' sure, tiger." he said, looking down at her, the love he felt for her plain in his eyes.
"Yes we do." she agreed, looking up into his eyes, mirroring him in every way. "Something very special."
He lifted her head to him and bent to kiss her mouth, his arousal once more unmistakeable as her lips sucked his and their tongues intertwined with each other.
"James." she said, reluctantly pulling herself away from him and giggling. "I must get out today and find an outfit for Arabella's wedding. It's the day after tomorrow! I'll never get there at this rate! You're coming with me, aren't you?"
"Wouldn't miss it. Love watchin' you dress and undress." he grinned. "Especially undress!"
"Hmm, I wonder if it is a good idea to bring you along, after all." she said. "You might take advantage of me while I'm half naked in the changing booth."
"Be a first!" he chuckled.
"Wouldn't it just!" she giggled again, almost wondering whether they'd ever dare.
For the next couple of days they enjoyed just being with each other, the near miss Harry had with the explosion and Dempsey's subsequent danger in France cementing their relationship ever further and the love they felt for each other ever deeper.
Arabella's and Rupert's wedding went off without a hitch, guest of honour Julio Iglesias, topping off a memorable weekend's celebration.
On Monday December 21st, Harry, Dempsey, Freddy and Aunt Alice flew off to Klosters and spent Christmas and New Year in Freddy's magnificent chalet high in the Parsenne mountains, the breathtaking views, superb skiing conditions, Alpine air, apres-ski and fine dining making it one of the most wonderful holidays any of them had enjoyed.
Returning to SI-10 on Monday, January 4th, Dempsey and Harry couldn't help wondering what challenges 1988 would bring.
The End.