Julia lay back in the heather and sighed contentedly.
"What a glorious evening," she said. "It was a great idea to picnic up here."
"Beats the Bull Ring in Birmingham, anyway," Lucy Turner answered lazily in her noticeably Birmingham accent. "That's some view," she added.
It was early evening and they were on the moors, above the Cow and Calf Rocks at Ilkley. Lucy was sitting, arms round her knees, gazing out over Wharfedale and the moors beyond, dividing Wharfedale from Nidderdale. The air was warm and heavy, the skyline crystal clear and the moors across the dale fading into the purple distance.
"You know," Lucy said suddenly, "She's all right."
"Who is?"
"Our Millie. She drives herself too hard and she's a bit of a loner, but she seems to care about everybody else."
"Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself..."
"Eh?"
"A bit of the Desiderata."
"Oh, yeah. Everybody brought up in the sixties had a copy hanging in their loo a few years ago. Some probably still do. Still, it's a good thought really. Millie has quite a temper when she's roused, but apart from that she's easier on the discipline towards everybody else than she is to herself. A bit unwholesome really. She let me go early today but she was going to stay on herself to wait for Shirley Hunter to finish her shift."
"Don't knock it," Julia said. "A lot of bosses would have it organised the other way round. And some of them wouldn't have waited until the end of her shift to charge Shirley Hunter either, hospital or not"
"That's what I said," Lucy agreed. "She's all right really. And Tommy Hammond's not bad for a bloke."
"Who's Tommy Hammond?"
"A detective constable in the department," Lucy said. "He's a cop with a conscience."
"What d'you mean," Julia asked.
"He really seems to care about what he's doing. Do you know, he wouldn't even press an old lady for Koswinski's name, because she was scared of retaliation if she told."
Lucy was silent for a time, gazing out over the stupendous view, then added, "He's too nice to be a cop really. He'd make a good partner for some girl who's into men." She paused again, and then added. "But I'm not. I prefer you, Jules."