1. Wicked Boy

He was beautiful. Young, and strong, with intelligent eyes and a certain sense of style. Phyllis might be over the hill, comparatively speaking, but she was not dead, and she knew sexual charisma when she saw it. He walked with grace and panache, and damn if he was not smart as a whip. Talked like a whip, too, putting everyone in their place with his biting comments and verbal bravado. There were stronger men on the force, bigger men and older men, and she felt sorry for them because they would all fall before this force of nature that waltzed into his job like a man possessed. Probably insane, some twittered, but if he was crazy, she was a lunatic. And one thing Phyllis knew about herself was that she knew a good thing when she saw it.

She set her cap and she got him. It was not very difficult, because he was young and antsy and lonely, and no matter what men drooled over in the magazines they all loved an older woman who knew what she was doing to them and told them clearly what to do to her. It was not meant to last but that was fine: once taken, always held. She had her stable of boys she 'brought in' and they owed her, forever, even if she never touched them again. Years would go by and they still knew: what she wanted, she got. Some hated the bargain but not this one, he accepted it, because he was smart and wicked and always willing to take the risks associated with a win.

Yes, that boy Gene Hunt was going to go far in this job, and Phyllis planned on riding him the whole way up.