Chapter Text
Fred was dressed and ready to face the day. He came downstairs and Win called out to him,
"Sit yourself down love, breakfast's almost ready"
"Thanks love" he replied
"Have you still got that key of Morse's? You know, the one to his flat?" asked Win
"Yes, why? What are you up to?" Asked Fred
"Well, I don't think he's eating enough and I thought I might drop him off some groceries as a surprise."
Fred raised an eyebrow at her and smiled at Win, who continued,
"You were round his last week...did he have much in?"
"Come to think of it, no...he didn't. Half a loaf, a bit of cheese and a packet of biscuits and I know he'd run out of milk." Fred frowned
"Well, how about I borrow his key then? I'll pop to the shops first thing after you two go to work and I'll take him round a few things, then I'll drop the key into you at the station. If he asks, why I'm there, you can say you forgot your keys and I dropped them off for you."
Fred chuckled
"You'd make a good criminal, with a devious mind like yours!"
He gave her a kiss and handed her Morse's flat key.
The doorbell rang as he made his way to the dining room and he opened the front door to find a very damp bagman on his doorstep.
"You walk here? Why're you so wet?" he asked
"Have you seen how hard it's raining Sir? This is just walking from the car to your front door!" answered Morse
"Ooh come in love"
Win said, when she saw him
"Take your coat off and sit down with Fred, I'll get you a nice hot cup of tea, so you can dry out and warm yourself up."
"You get pampered by my wife, you do!"
said Fred to Morse, before calling out to Win
"He's only walked up the garden path in a bit of rain and you're treating him like he's just returned from a twenty mile hike!"
"Oh stop grumping and let me take care of the lad" said Win, giving Morse a smile, whilst nudging Fred playfully in the shoulder.
Fred shook his head and smiled. It had been nearly two months now since the pair of them had turned up on the back step, telling Win they were wanted burglars.
Win had forgiven them and things had settled down back to normal.
She'd actually said to Fred after it was all over,
"There's nothing to forgive love, it wasn't your fault, or Morse's, it was just such a worry. And after the last two times...well, I found it quite upsetting"
Fred and Morse had been making a concerted effort since then not to deliberately put themselves into any situations that could result in a bang to their heads.
"Anything in overnight?" Fred asked, bringing his thoughts back to the present.
"There'll be a body in about an hour" said Morse tucking into a piece of toast Win had placed in front of him.
"In about an hour? What are you...a clairvoyant?" Fred frowned.
"No, It was found by some kids messing about on the roof of an abandoned factory. The kids climbed down and called the Police, but it's not safe for anyone to go up there yet."
"We still need to get down there." said Fred
"Sergeant Jakes is on his way." added Morse
"Him and Strange are going to hold the scene and organise checking for witnesses. The building's being cordoned off and the fire brigade are en route. There's nothing we can do until they've made it safe to go up."
"Right, you heard Morse...you can finish your breakfasts" said Win.
They left after they'd eaten, each getting a hug and a packet of sandwiches, which was now the norm.
As Morse drive them towards the factory, Fred asked,
"Well, do we have any information at all?"
"Not really, the kids were quite young, about 9 years old. They just said the body's eyes were wide open and there was blood everywhere."
When they got to the scene, the fire brigade had their ladders positioned up to the roof. The fire chief came over to Fred,
"The ladder's nice and safe now. We've got it secured at the top, if one of your lot wants to go up?"
Fred glanced at Morse, who immediately looked away. 'lad's not good with heights, I doubt he'd make it even a quarter of the way up' Fred thought to himself.
"Jakes!" Fred shouted
"Morning Sir"
"Morning!...You like ladders don't you?" asked Fred
Jakes gave him a wary look, before looking at the ladder and back to Fred with a nervous chuckle.
"Sir, I really don't think..."
"Look, Morse won't last five minutes up there, I'm not going up with my knees, Strange has got his hands full with the kids who found the body and we need to know what we're dealing with."
Fred looked at Jakes with an expression somewhere between 'please?' and 'that's an order'.
"Ok, I'll go up" said Jakes
"That's the spirit, go and speak to the fire chief over there. And take your note book - you'll need to record every little detail for us"
"Yes Sir" Said Jakes as he walked away.
Max Debryn had just arrived with another colleague.
"Morning Inspector, morning Morse" he greeted cheerily.
"This is Frank, he'll go up and take what photographs he can of the body in situ. Then when Frank comes back down I'll need to decide whether to go up and if I can get close enough to the poor fellow to be of any use while he's still up there."
Jakes came back down, looking a little nauseous, but doing a quite good job of hiding it. No one knew if it was the body or the height that did it.
"Male, about 30 years, slim build, smartly dressed, severe facial injuries, lying on a kind of ledge. There's another piece of roof support sticking out about ten feet higher, that looks like it's got blood on it. The main roof is about another twenty feet above that."
"Any idea what might have happened?"
"Hard to say Sir, I mean he looks like he's been hit hard in the face with something. Couldn't see anything up there with him though."
Morse was frowning in thought, but he'd wait until he'd seen the photos before jumping to any conclusions.
Max Debryn did 'pop up the ladder for a look-see' as he put it after Frank had taken his photos.
"Now, that was rather high" He said with a nervous chuckle after coming back down. I can't really say much until I've had a proper look at him on terra ferma, shall we say a quarter past two?
"That's an unusual time for you Doctor" commented Fred
"Oh well I have something to attend to a two o'clock, so I'll have to keep you gentlemen waiting a little longer today, I'm afraid" answered Max
The fire brigade manoeuvred the body into an harness and lowered it down.
There were no witnesses. It was a bit of a mystery.