"We wondered where you'd got to, boyo," Watkins said. "We thought you were going to incur the wrath of God by coming in after He'd started talking."

"It rained all last night, didn't it?" Evan muttered. "It took me ages to get down the hill."

"You drove your car up that track?" Glynis asked. "Wasn't that asking for trouble?"

"Not the car-me. The car was parked down below, but it took me awhile to get down to it. It was so slippery, and I didn't want to risk sitting down on my rear end and arriving here covered in mud."

"So what do you think you're going to do all winter?" Watkins asked. "In case you hadn't noticed, it does rain a lot up here, and snow, too. Is this going to be a recurrent excuse for showing up late?"

Evan grinned. "We're going to have to do something, I know. Bronwen's father promised us his old Land Rover when he gets a new one, but he doesn't show any signs of doing so. And we can hardly keep nagging him, so it's a case of taking the track carefully at the moment."

"Well, luckily you haven't missed anything," Glynis whispered. "The great man is running late too."

"What is this for now?" Evan asking, looking at the other officers assembled in the room. "It looks like the whole Plain Clothes Division is here this time. Who exactly would be holding the fort if there's a major crime?"

"Don't ask me," Inspector Watkins muttered. "I'm as much in the dark as you are. I'm too lowly to have been invited to the brainstorming sessions among the top brass."

"What can't we have covered already?" Evan asked.

"Maybe it's to tell us that the Plain Clothes Division will now be wearing uniforms. Plainer plain clothes, so to speak." The detective constable sitting in front of Evan turned round to him with a grin.

"Let's hope they're not as ugly as the uniforms he's planning to make the poor blokes on the beat wear," someone else chimed in.

"No, I bet it's nothing to do with uniforms. My bet is that it's more sensitivity training." Glynis said.

"Oh God, please no," the first DC rolled his eyes. "Where did they find him, anyway?"

"He's just done a stint in America."

"As if they know anything about sensitivity training there. They just shoot first and then show great sensitivity to the corpse."

A general chuckle ran around the room. Evan noticed that DI Watkins tried not to smile but couldn't quite manage to keep a straight face.

"Now, come on, lads," Watkins said. "That's not the spirit. We may not find his methods easy at first, but he is our new boss and it's up to us to learn to love and appreciate him."

"Providing he's sensitive enough," someone quipped.

This time there was loud laughter.

At that moment the door opened and the new Chief Constable Mathry came in. He was followed by the division commanders of the three regions, Chief Superintendents Morris, Talley, and Jones; and behind them the various chiefs of operations, including Evan's own boss, DCI Hughes.

The Chief Constable looked around the room, beaming. "That's what I like to see, lads, positive team spirit. That's the ticket. I know we're all going to get along splendidly. What we need is more meetings like this, more chances for the entire division to interact. There has been too much compartmentalization and not enough cooperation between the regions." He perched on the edge of the desk at the front of the room. "I've been taking a look at the logs on that recent mugging on Mount Snowdon. It was originally reported to Colwyn Bay HQ, who referred it to Caernarfon as the national park was within their jurisdiction. However, it was then handed back to Colwyn Bay because they had more manpower. Precious time lost with haggling back and forth."

"With all due respect, sir," DCI Hughes rose from his chair. "As senior detective of the Caernarfon Station, I have to point out that we had only five men on the roster."

"Five people," Glynis muttered, loud enough for Evan to hear.

"This mugging happened on a Sunday when two of my men had days off after working ten days straight, and one was still on leave of absence for his honeymoon."

"Awww," several men teased.

"Should have called him back, lazy bugger," someone else commented.

"Gentlemen, please." Hughes held up his hand. "As I was saying, we were undermanned that day. It made sense to call in a bigger unit."

"Excuse me, sir." Glynis rose to her feet. "I don't wish to sound like a raving feminist, but I should like to point out, for the record, that there are two women officers present. To hear only the male members of the force being addressed is somewhat insulting."

"Quite right, young lady." The Chief Constable nodded. "Hit the nail on the head. That's exactly what I was getting at in our session on sensitivity the other day, being aware of those around you, watching that you don't offend unintentionally. Now would you like to rephrase what you were saying, Hughes?"

DCI Hughes turned slightly pink. "My apologies, sir. Just a slip of the tongue, I assure you. Now, as I was saying . . ." he cleared his throat before repeating what he had just said, using nongender-specific language with great care.

"You'll be put on shoplifting detail forever after this," Evan whispered to Glynis. "Making your boss blush in front of his fellow officers."

"I know, but I couldn't sit there and hear him address the assembly as 'gentlemen.' "

"You all know the old proverb, a new broom sweeps clean," the Chief Constable said, as DCI Hughes sat down again. "I've been studying the running of this division, and I've decided the only thing to do is a complete overhaul. Superintendents Morris and Talley have been working with me all weekend, and we've decided to avoid miscommunications and holdups like the one I just referred to by instituting a Major Incident Team to be kept on call at headquarters here in Colwyn Bay. We have selected officers from each division to rotate onto this team. My hope is that by working together with officers from all three divisions, we will create a better spirit of cooperation throughout the force."

"How's this going to work, sir?" A detective inspector in the front row asked. "Who's going to decide what's a major incident?"

"A 'major incident' is something a local division isn't equipped to handle at any given moment. A murder, a kidnapping-any crime that would need to coordinate with our forensics and specialist teams. Local stations will call us in when they need us, and the next available team will be dispatched."

"Excuse me, sir?" a tentative hand went up, "but do I understand correctly that you've selected officers from all three divisions to take their turns operating out of Colwyn Bay?"

"Quite right. Absolutely."

"That will mean rather a long drive for some of us. I live close to Wrexham. That will be an hour's commute for me."

"Yes, I do appreciate that this will be a problem for a few officers. We're working on a feasibility study to see if police accommodations can be provided for those officers who genuinely live too far away. How many men would be seriously inconvenienced?"

A good number of hands were raised.

"Ah yes, well that is a considerable number. If you'll meet with us after the meeting, we'll take commuting distance into consideration when forming our first teams."

"And what about the female officers?" Glynis asked in her clear voice. "You can't expect us to bunk down with the men."

There were several muttered comments along the lines of "we wouldn't mind a bit."

"Good point, Miss-uh?"

"Detective Constable Davies, sir."

"We'll definitely include your concerns in the feasibility study, DC Davies." The big man gave her an encouraging smile.

"They just don't get it, do they?" Glynis muttered to Evan.

"This will require further study, I can see. Obviously an officer is of no use to us if he's going to take over an hour to respond to a crime scene. Chief Superintendent Morris, would you like to tell everyone where we are so far?"

"Right, sir." The older man rose to his feet. "We are setting up response teams within the Major Incident Division. Teams will be composed of a DI, a detective sergeant, and two detective constables to each unit. When a call is received, the next available team will be dispatched. We're going to start with three teams and see if this is sufficient for our needs. We want to have all situations covered, but we don't want officers sitting around drinking tea and doing the crossword all day either."

"Sounds all right to me," a voice muttered.

"A roster of the first teams to be selected will be placed on the notice board after the meeting. Now if you'll-"

He broke off as the door to the room opened and a young female dispatcher came in, looking distinctly embarrassed as the attention of all the senior officers was suddenly on her. "Excuse me, sir, but we've just had a call from Bangor. They are reporting a homicide. The Bangor duty officer says he needs their detectives back on the job right away."

Chief Constable Mathry clapped his hands together delightedly. "Our first test, men. Superintendent Morris, whom have we assigned to the first response team?"

The superintendent glanced down at the sheaf of papers he was carrying. "We had DI Bragg from Central, DS Wingate from Eastern, DC Pritchard from Central, and DC Evans from Western. Let's have you four lads up here right away for briefing."

The Chief Constable was still beaming. "I realize this will be a baptism of fire, men, throwing you together like this before you've had time to get to know each other; but I have great confidence in your abilities, and I know you'll be a credit to the force."

It took Evan a moment to stand up.

"Good luck, Evan." Glynis gave him an encouraging smile.

Watkins leaned close to him and grabbed his wrist as he began to make his way to the front of the room. "Watch out for Bragg. Word is that he's a right bugger to work for. Likes all the credit for himself."

Evan nodded. He gave Watkins and Glynis Davies what he hoped was a confident grin as he moved forward to join the other men.