Death of a Pieman

Ted always wanted to be a policeman and ever since he was a child he voraciously read detective novels. He was always struck by how stupid the policemen were made out to be. His career path was not dynamic. Until he met his wife he seemed to make slow progress on his cases and failed to make the decisive breakthrough. He was good at passing the exams to get considered for promotion and he interviewed well but he lacked the big case to propel him to the attention of the really senior police officers. So the years passed by. Then he met Clare and now he looked at each case with a certainty that she could help him when he got bogged down. She was his best kept secret.