Hiya! Sorry to be absent for so long, work and life have been keeping me away from writing, grr! Anyway, here is the next part of the story! Hope you enjoy, sorry it's a bit long and nothing-y but it will .. I dunno, enjoy!
Jessie xx
Very Rarely Late
"Morning Guv," Steve greeted her as she walked into the UCOS office, while Gerry she noted barely looked up from his desk. "Nice weekend?"
"Lovely, thank you," she replied, her eye still half-drawn to her distant friend. "Where's Brian?"
Steve shrugged. "Not in yet. Do you want a coffee?"
"Yes, thank you," she frowned slightly as she passed Brian's desk on the way to her office. Brian was, as she had once defended him, very rarely late. It would seem that today was one of those rare occasions. She dropped her bag on the desk and leant over to press the button that would fire her computer into life. Hanging her coat up on the hook, she returned to the main office. "Did you go up to Glasgow in the end?" she asked as Steve made three mugs of coffee.
"Aye, Charlie managed to get off work about nine on Saturday, so we had Sunday out, bloody cold though."
"Hmm," she agreed. "It snowed in Wales. Did you have a nice weekend, Gerry?"
Gerry looked up and, with an effort, did not scowl. It was bad enough, he thought, that he hadn't spent his Friday night in his usual way – getting pissed with Steve and Sandra – so that Saturday didn't actually have to start until it was time to take Little Gerry to football; but to be asked in such a polite, small-talk, manner… Try as he might, he couldn't shake off his jealous feelings that Sandra now had someone else to spend time with. It wasn't that he resented her being happy, or even very much that it was Strickland who filled that role; it was simply that he couldn't spend as much time with her. And because he had been stupid and selfish and more than a little childish about it, now she asked about his weekend as if she had to. "Yeah, thanks," he replied, managing with extreme concentration to not sound petty.
Steve fixed his face on neutral and delivered the coffees to his desk and her hands before taking his own and perching on the back of his chair. He still hadn't moved from the red corner of the office; occasionally he made use of the computer on Jack's desk, but his favourite thing about UCOS was definitely that he didn't have to sit at a desk if he didn't want to. His least favourite thing was the atmosphere between Gerry and Sandra. It wasn't so bad when Brian was around too, the two warring parties seemed less inclined to be vicious to each other when he was there. But today, for whatever reason, the Northerner was conspicuous by his absence and Steve was left with the task of trying to keep the peace. They weren't being openly nasty to each other; it was just … not as it had been.
"Right," Sandra took a sip of the coffee which for some reason didn't taste as nice as it usual did. Strange, she thought to herself, she hadn't enjoyed her morning brew that much either. Anyway. "Archives have sent down a dozen or so files to add to the pile so I suggest we split them up and make a start. Keep an eye out for the usual; any active villains, ongoing cases, new evidence. Relations are shipping down their latest pile of contacts, so cross-reference those. Right," she sighed. "Let's get going. Brian can catch up when he gets in."
She looked at the pile of files on the table and grimaced. The sooner they found a case, the better. She moved over to the table and sorted them into four piles. "Gerry, can you print out the list from Relations when it comes through?"
"Sure," he replied shortly, as he pushed against his desk and fished in his pocket for his cigarettes. "Back in five."
"Ok," she said automatically, picking up a pile and turning away to return to her office. She thought about leaving her coffee on the table, then decided to take it with her anyway; she might fancy it when it cooled a bit. Though normally she liked it when it was still hot enough to steam open envelopes.
Steve watched as his colleagues dispersed and sighed as he chose one probably insignificant pile from the others. Returning to his chair, he felt about in his pocket for his music player and headphones. Relaxing, he spent the next five minutes untangling the wires (how did that happen? He'd wrapped them perfectly around the player not twenty minutes previous) before settling in for the morning.
After what felt like half her life, but in reality was only an hour and a half, Sandra leant back in her chair and ran her hands through her hair. Nothing had caught her eye in the half a dozen case files that she'd been through. Casually, her mind wandered to what dinner would be. Mia had done a basic shop for them; milk, bread and croissants, but they would have to do a full shop in the next couple of days. The wine cupboard was worryingly sparse also. That ruled out shopping before work. Sighing, she reached her gaze to her window into the main office. She really wanted to try and make that pork dish she'd seen on the telly over the weekend while Rob had been in the bathroom. Realising that she still hadn't heard Brian come in, she frowned. Picking up her mobile, she checked for any messages before picking up the files from her desk and returning to the main office where Gerry and Steve were quietly reading, Steve tapping his fingers against his knee to the music that he was listening to.
"Alright?" she asked to get their attention. "Brian still not in?"
"No," Gerry replied flatly as if she'd asked the stupidest question in the world. Which, seeing as how Brian was clearly not in the room, it probably was.
"Have you rang him?" she asked, not in the mood for his childish retorts.
He looked at her, vaguely gathering the situation. It wasn't worth causing a row. "No answer at home," he admitted quietly that he'd already tried Brian's house number not ten minutes ago. "And the stupid sod doesn't have a mobile, does he?" There was no malice in his rhetorical question, he'd gotten used to Brian over the last ten years and all his strange foibles. He'd gotten used to a lot of things.
"I'll try Esther's mobile," Sandra scrolled down her contacts.
"I'll stick the kettle on," Steve stood up, leaving the file he'd been looking at last open on top of the pile on the coffee table.
Gerry couldn't help stifling a laugh into a snort at Steve's aid into the 'where's Brian' saga. To which Sandra couldn't help suppressing a smile as she held her phone to her ear, listening to the tone ring out. "Hmm," her frown deepened. "Voicemail."
"Maybe they're busy," Steve offered helpfully.
Gerry and Sandra looked at each other. For a second, each of them felt some remnants of the sense of humour they used to share. "I'll try the house again," Gerry broke the connection, reaching for the phone on his desk. He wasn't ready.
Sandra held in a sigh and looked absently around the office, hoping for something for her mind to latch on to until she could find the words to save the situation between her and Gerry. Her eye came to rest on the file that Steve had left open. "Have you found anything there, Steve?"
"Aye," Steve lifted the now boiled kettle and topped up the three mugs. "Professor Henry Albert. Suspicious death at a dinner party."
"Suspicious how?"
Steve shrugged. "That's what they never figured out. But there's a name that cropped up, Simon Tesla, author, read his obituary the other week in the paper. Albert was mentioned."
"Ok," she glanced at her phone as it flashed that she had a message from Rob. "Put it on the board. Thanks." She received her coffee from Steve as she read the message cancelling lunch. "Damn," she cursed quietly.
"Brian?" Steve asked as he lifted the file from where he had left it to start writing up the details.
"No, just, I was …"
"Meeting Robert for lunch, but he's got a meeting," Gerry filled in, putting the slightest emphasis on his boss' boyfriend as he could resist.
"Yeah," she muttered, offering the lightest hint of acknowledging sarcasm to her voice as was humanly possible.
Steve bit his tongue and turned to the board. He couldn't quite fathom Gerry's hostility towards Sandra's relationship. And he wasn't getting involved. If he could possibly help it. So he contented himself with filling the white board with the bare bones of the case of suspicious death and case photographs of the principle individual's involved. By the time Sandra had decided that there was definitely something wrong with coffee today and Gerry had consumed his, been for a cigarette and returned; he had completed his graffiti and presented the case to his two colleagues, who agreed that it was indeed an interesting conundrum. They were just beginning to decide on the next actions to take when they were interrupted by the arrival of their missing partner.
"Brian!" Sandra exclaimed as the elusive detective walked through the door to the office nearly three hours after he would usually arrive. "Where have you been? Where's your bike?" her eyes narrowed as she observed the absence of his transport.
"Esther gave me a lift," he said quietly, crossing the department floor to reach his desk where he went about his routine; taking off his lucky overcoat, hanging it on its hanger and replacing the hanger in its customary position.
"Where have you been, mate?" Gerry repeated Sandra's first question after an exchanged glance between them; something wasn't right. Brian was a stickler for routine.
"Eh? Oh, er, doctors," Brian mumbled barely making eye contact with either of them as he lifted the lid on his laptop and switched the machine on.
"Do you want a coffee?" Steve pushed on the arms of his chair and went to their coffee station to fill the kettle again.
"Er, yes please," Brian cast his eye over the board. "So, what's this?"
Sandra looked at Gerry who offered a small shrug to her silent question; her eyes returned to Brian who despite studying everything Steve had already pinned to the board, did not seem to be registering any of it. The file forgotten in her hand, grew heavy in disuse and she placed it on the coffee table. "It's just a new case," she said. "Brian? Is something wrong?"
They watched as he cast his eyes towards Steve then back to Sandra. She nodded, understanding in some way. Gerry cast his eyes to his feet; Steve would never replace Jack, not for Brian.
"No," he said firmly. "It's nothing," he added, aware as he always was of Steve's presence. "So, new case? This looks interesting," he pointed at the map that had been annotated with literary references in the hand of some past investigator.
"Yes," Sandra picked up the file from the coffee table and pulled out the case notes. "Professor Henry Albert, lecturer of English and American Studies at Hull University, suspicious death at a dinner party during a symposium in London, summer of 1987. These references point to other places he had visited over the previous ten years, other places where other dinner deaths have occurred."
"So, cheers Steve," Gerry accepted the brew handed to him. "He goes to dinner in ten places over ten years, each has some literary significance, and in each there is a mysterious death at the dinner table?"
"Not always mysterious," Sandra corrected him. "A lot of them were never investigated at all, the heart attack in Nottingham, the food poisoning at Edinburgh, most of these deaths were just treated as unfortunate events. The only factor tying them together is the presence of Albert."
"So, he was either killed by someone who worked this out, or killed himself in some homage to what he'd done?" Steve asked incredulously.
Sandra shrugged. "Or he just happened to be at the same get-togethers as the person who was responsible. Steve, I'd like you to talk to the pathologist who worked on the case, this Martha Figgett; see what she can remember about the case. Gerry, Brian, I need the case files or whatever we can find on all the other deaths as well as the details about all these other dinner engagements and the guest lists for each one. Also, the obituary for Simon Tesla, as that's where Steve saw this professor's name."
Steve reached for his coat with one hand whilst grabbing the contact details for the pathologist with his other. "Alright, let's boogie," he said cheerfully. "See yous later."
"Bye Steve," Gerry and Sandra said in unison.
She waited to be sure that the Scotsman was well away before turning to the uncharacteristically silent Brian who was still staring unseeing at the board.
"Brian?" she prompted quietly.
The northerner sighed then turned from the board which he hadn't really been reading and offered his friends a small smile.
"What is it?" Sandra pressed. "The doctors?"
He nodded.
"Why were you at the doctors?" Sandra asked, deliberately suppressing her growing worry about his reluctant response and steeling herself to dislike the answer to her question.
"Esther," Brian said grimly.