Actions

Work Header

Rating:
Archive Warning:
Category:
Fandoms:
Relationship:
Language:
English
Stats:
Published:
2025-10-07
Words:
135
Chapters:
1/1
Comments:
2
Kudos:
8
Hits:
150

Ice-Water

Summary:

My take on a scene from the season six episode 'Limbo' - Tommy's POV.

Notes:

Property of Elizabeth George and the BBC, no copyright infringement intended.

When Tommy told Barbara to return to London from Wimborne and tell Tate everything they had discovered, she must have taken the Bristol as they’d travelled in it. When he later calls her to go and break the news to Conrad of his father Sergeant Mike McCaffrey requesting to make a statement to Tate, he asks where she is - and at no point between her leaving Christine’s house and turning up at Conrad’s apartment did she meet up with Tommy to hand back the Bristol. I also can’t imagine, considering the urgency, that she swapped cars or thoughtfully left the Bristol and keys somewhere within easy reach of him. And given he knew his partner and best friend was with the killer, I don’t see him faffing about searching for keys or figuring out where she’d parked it.

So how he turned up in it - the knight in his burgundy charger - to rescue Barbara from Conrad's clutches is a giant Bristol-sized crater in the plot... but we'll let them off!

Work Text:

Stuart and I observed as Mike McCaffrey gave his statement to Superintendent Tate, my frustration rising as he got detail after detail of my night with Julia Oborne incorrect.

“That’s wrong again.”

“What?”

“We didn’t sit at the bar, and I don’t have a penthouse.” I looked Stuart in the eye, “Is it possible the DNA on that glove wasn’t his at all?”

“Possible but unlikely, I mean if it’s not his it’s a close relative.”

My blood became ice-water as the implication of his words hit me like a punch to the gut. Without saying a word, I turned and rushed to my car.

Conrad had killed Justin.

Conrad had killed Julia.

Conrad had killed Christine.

Barbara was with Conrad.

However unwittingly, I had delivered my best friend into the hands of a killer.