discoveredinalj | May Day! Part 19 (Reply)

Doyle’s side of the bed was empty when Bodie left it to answer an early morning call of nature. Once dealt with, he tied the belt of Doyle’s spare dressing-gown –- it was two sizes too small for Bodie and ended mid-thigh, but it kept his dangly bits from shrivelling up in the cold –- tightly around him and made his way to the kitchen for some much needed caffeine.

Doyle sat at the table, a frown on his face and the offending photos spread out in front of him.

Bodie stepped behind him, feeling muscles tense under his hands as he leaned on Doyle’s shoulders.

“Kettle’s boiled,” Doyle told him as Bodie bent his head down for a kiss.

“And good morning to you too, my little ray of sunshine,” Bodie greeted unperturbed, planting a wet kiss on Doyle’s cheek before taking the proffered mug. He contented himself with making the coffee and plonked both mugs on the table before sitting down himself.

“Come on, then, I could hear your brain working from the bedroom. Woke me up, it did. What’ve you got worked out in your curly bonce?”

Doyle ran a hand over his face and leaned back in the chair. “Hell if I know,” he admitted. “Someone has gone to the trouble of setting up a camera to take photos of us in a place where even we didn’t know we were going to be. Why? Why not just bug our flats?”

“Too much security,” Bodie replied, simply.

“Yeah, ok,” Doyle conceded, slurping his coffee. “But why set up a random place to catch us in? Unless there was more than one place set up…… Or…..”

“Or what?”

Doyle put down his coffee and grabbed at the envelope as a thought struck him. “No note, no blackmail attempt,” he mused, examining it again.

“What if it wasn’t us being set up?” Bodie asked, his voice grim. “They were expecting someone else and got us instead?”

There was silence as they digested the information.

“Pretty thin,” Doyle said.

“Paper thin,” Bodie agreed. Then, “We’ll need a list of who was at that Embassy party.”

“It’s Saturday,” Doyle pointed out. “Civil servants don’t work weekends.”

“Well, these ones do, if they want to stay civil servants,” Bodie declared, clearing a space on the table. “Come on Ray, we’d best get remembering.”