ci5hq | Pros Novel Read-Along - Painted Angels by Angelfish

Well, this time I forgot the reminder, but I'm pretty sure that you'll have remembered anyway... *g*
Painted Angels by Angelfish.
Cover art by

firlefanzine

Chapter Nine

Half an hour after leaving Bodie, Doyle is in the laundrette, where the woman who works there knows him, and is startled by his beaten-up face. He's still processing things, including the fact that his father is dead, and what has just happened with Bodie. The latter makes him smile, but "it's no damn good." He's attracted to Bodie, and even Bodie's bad qualities wouldn't matter - except that Doyle now knows that he has the same bad qualities himself.

When the laundry's done, Doyle goes to Knightsbridge to return Gabe's clothes. Gabe simply accepts Doyle as his friend, and they talk about what's happened since they saw each other last. Gabe reveals that he's moving to a job in the Vatican, and that before he leaves for Rome he's going to go home to see his family - and that he thinks Doyle should come with him. Gabe recognises that it was someone else that Doyle wanted the previous night, and doesn't need Doyle's apology - but he also guesses that it was Bodie that Doyle really wanted, and that Doyle is resigning so that he won't end up losing Bodie as well. Doyle denies it, repeats that he's leaving.

Doyle finally heads to HQ, and comes across Murphy, who's returned to sign up with CI5 after all. Murphy tries to talk to him about Bodie, pointing out that he looks better than he's seen him in years - "Must be doing something right, Raymondo."

Cowley, meanwhile, is short of men in CI5 and doesn't want to lose Doyle, though Doyle is adamant that he's leaving. He and Bodie have a story to cover up their fight, and although Cowley knows it's just a story, and that something else happened, he's impressed that they're working together so tightly, even over the lie. He suggests to Doyle that Bodie doesn't need to be betrayed again - Doyle denies that his leaving is betraying Bodie again, and says that Bodie will be fine with Murphy. Cowley, however, also knows that Bodie is "as he is now" because of Doyle.

In the end, Cowley lets hiim go: "Hand your gun in at the armoury."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Thanks for this, especially when you're very busy.

Ah, but I very cleverly read the chapter the other day, then wrote the post last night, and just posted this morning...

So, after missing the last three discussions (but not the reading) I'm in again. *g*

This is a chapter I like, even when we don't read much about Bodie's feelings. It is a Doyle-chapter through and through. But that's okay for me because it is a chapter where he isn't weeping. He thinks and that it is a good thing.

I can imagine that "watching the washing go round" could be very meditative and that it could help you to come to terms with one thing or the other. So it is the best he can do, think about the night. And discovere that he liked it, even when it hurt. But in his mind it can't be a good thing because they are both violent and dangerous and I can understand that he fears that all their lovemaking would be violent and painfull. This really could happen.

And I like Gabe when he sees Doyle again. He reacts in a way a priest who really loves god should react. He forgives Doyle and tells him You're here as my friend now., because he can see into Doyle's soul. And when they talk about their lives they discovere that they are equal in their thinking about corruption, even with Gabe deniing it.

When Gabe tells Doyle to come whith him to Derby to bury the ghosts from his past. It seems a sensible thing to do for me to go and see that the person who hurt you so much no longer can hurt you. To make the ghost vanish. It's like Gabe said I think you have monsters left in Derby, bugbears and ghosts that will vanish if you see the place again. I think you should see your father's grave. That's something all psychiatrists will tell you could help.

I didn't understand about Murphy's return, but maybe that would be clearer in one of the following chapters. And I had difficulties to accept that Cowley wouldn't fight about Doyle leaving without observing the notice period. I'm sure when you in CI5 you can't leave from one day to the other. There has to be a notice period. Might it be a week or a month. So Cowley's reaction is the one thing that doesn't fit for me.

didn't understand about Murphy's return,

Yes, and I thought he came back a bit too quickly. I understood his exit worked as a way to bring Bodie closer to Doyle but why bring Murphy back at all? Maybe, as you imply, his reappearance will serve some purpose later.

And I like Gabe, too, and love the fact that he wants to remain in Doyle's life as a friend.

Edited 2019-05-11 19:12 (UTC)

Yes, I think I mostly liked this chapter too - it seemed more straightforward than some of the other ones, and people acted in more sensible ways! Or at least Doyle and Gabe did... *g*

Murphy's return annoyed me. I was expecting it really because of course he's in CI5 in the series, but I don't like the idea that he's somehow so close to Bodie that he could just take over from Doyle (although of course both he and Cowley pointed out that he couldn't really...)

I think Cowley's reaction was probably tempered with reality - I think he could see that Doyle had had enough, and probably the fact that he knew Doyle had killed McMahon was a factor too. And actually he was half-expecting Doyle to leave and then come back - but hoping that he could get him to change his mind by saying that couldn't happen... but I bet he will accept him back. *g*

(Also - welcome back! *g*)

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Random thoughts:

Isn't this Marsh guy the same as Major Nairn? Or is Nairn somebody else? That's Rita in the laundromat, right? Good thing she doesn't see Bodie with his damage that matches Doyle's.

Cowley has a very loose idea of confidentiality. Does he know what betrayal he's even talking about?

Oh, Ray.

I mean.

Oh, Ray, really.

I love that scene with Rita, she was so real I'm sure I've met a few 'Ritas' in real life!

Don't know that Marsh is necessarily Nairn - it's just someone who's presumably reporting on Bodie when he was in the SAS.

It sounds like it's supposed to be Rita in the laundomat, but I don't see how it can be, because they move houses and Rita knows Doyle in season 4, which would mean that either he lived in the same area just after he'd joined Pros, or else that she moved laundrettes to be near him... *vbg*

Cowley has a very loose idea of confidentiality.
Oh, I think Cowley does what he thinks is right, and things are confidential unless he needs to use them in some way... *g* He did it with Murphy earlier in the story too, didn't he, when he told Bodie that Murphy wasn't joining CI5 because he thought Bodie needed to be told...

Does he know what betrayal he's even talking about?
Perhaps something in the papers he's just read, perhaps Murphy pulling out of CI5 after all - but he might not need to if he just thinks its something he can use to keep Doyle in CI5...

Pros Novel Read-Along - Painted Angels by Angelfish - Chapter Nine

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