Lewis fic: Suspect 1/2

[wendymr]

Story: Suspect
Author: wendymr
Characters: Robbie Lewis, James Hathaway, Jean Innocent, other minor characters/OCs
Rated: PG
Word count: 10,400
Summary: "I'm very sorry, sir, but there are some questions I need to ask."

Written for the Lewis Summer Challenge 2012 event on lewis_challenge, and with excellent BR services by lindenharp - obviously all errors remain mine

Comments

[barcardivodka]

Brilliant - excellent pacing and an intriguing "what if".

So looking forward to chapter two :D

[wendymr]

Thank you very much indeed!

[daiko_major]

really enjoyed this - can't wait for the next bit!

[wendymr]

Thank you very much! I hope you enjoyed chapter 2 :)

[emeraldsword]

ooh, really interesting - I had faintly wondered why Lewis wasn't a suspect when he was last to see her - so glad you're actually exploring that. Really enjoying it :-)

[wendymr]

Ah, so I wasn't the only person to wonder about that! It's definitely strange that, as the last known person to see her alive, he wasn't at least questioned, and certainly taken off the case. Hope you enjoyed the second chapter!

[cactusonastair]

[Gah, LJ gobbled up my comment last night. Let's see if I can reproduce it this morning...]

I must confess that I never really thought of the possibility of Lewis being a suspect for Ali McLennan's murder, mostly because they found the tie to the Poppy Toynton murder so quickly, but it makes a great premise for a fic!

I especially like that you took on in greater detail what Ali's murder and (basically) betrayal meant to Robbie, and that James had an instinctive understanding of that. Since James is essentially Ali's successor, his demonstrating his own loyalty was absolutely lovely and, I think, really reassuring to Robbie. His concern for Robbie and lack of concern for his own career really shone through here.

I do have one mostly-irrelevant timeline question: if Ali resigned *after* Robbie came back from the BVI, shouldn't Robbie know in more detail what happened?

Okay then, onwards!

[wendymr]

Thank you so much for your lovely and thoughtful comment!

Yes, in practice the link was found fairly quickly - James's thoroughness, of course - but it certainly gives pause for thought that Robbie wasn't at least questioned and pulled off the case. Thought it would be interesting to explore as a what if :)

And, yes, we really didn't see much at all of Robbie's reaction to discovering that his former sergeant had engaged in criminal acts, including when she was still in the police. There was that one moment towards the end of the episode when James hypothesised that Ali might have done something; Robbie says "Not the Ali McLennan I knew," and James points out "But she wasn't, was she?" And all we see is Robbie's grimace. He must have felt so betrayed, and also questioned his own judgement. Maybe he didn't feel able to talk to James about it - after all, James took against Ali from the start - but he has to have felt it

[flowerpotgirl]

Re-reading this before I read the new bit and thought I might mention that it would help to link this to chapter 2 or put a link to both chapters in the recent post. Not that I would have a clue how to do that, but you seem much more technologically minded than me!