Alec and Tess Hardy had already been annoyed their Sunday morning had been interrupted after arguing who was picking their daughter up from the friend's house she stayed at last night. All it needed to put the icing on the cake was them both getting a call to go out to a new housing estate where two cousins had supposedly disappeared overnight.
"She'll just have to stay there," Alec declared, not having time to get a shave, not that he was bothered and putting his tie on and leaving his top shirt button undone, making the tie slack.
"That's typical of you Alec," his wife told him, frowning at the man she was now cheating on with another male DS in their team. "Tidy yourself up Alec," she added for good measure.
"Give me one good reason?" he dared her. "It's Sunday morning, who will be bothered eh? It's not going to find two missing girls any faster, is it now?"
Tess shook her head in despair. His usual neatly plastered hair was all over the place, which made his fringe long and he had the makings of a beard, making him look scruffy and now resembling a certain American detective who had been on TV in the 1970's, down to the unfastened shirt and tie. She picked up her phone from the dresser and looked again at the time, 9.45 am.
They'd had a few drinks at a party she'd dragged him to last night, hence why Daisy had gone to a friend's house for a sleepover and she wished she'd dared go with Dave and not her husband, who'd not made any attempt to give her a reason to break off her affair.
"You could have made an effort last night Alec," she told him as she found Daisy's number.
She had disagreed with their daughter having a phone at that age but Alec had pointed out she needed one for emergencies.
"An effort for what?" he asked, a little confused as his head wasn't quite clear and cursing himself for letting the host of the party keep refilling his glass like red wine was going out of fashion.
Tess covered the phone while she waited for the almost teenager to answer.
"As if you don't know," she replied. "We go out and have a few drinks and you still don't have anything to do with me in bed."
"What? You never encouraged me, did you eh? You just turned away," he replied. "We don't have time for this now, the patrol car will be here in ten minutes."
"We never have time, do we?" she huffed, pulling her jacket straight one-handed. "Daisy, how long does it take to answer your phone?"
"Mum, I left it downstairs," Daisy told her. "Brittany's mother just brought it to me. It's lucky dad insisted I didn't have the answerphone on. So, who's picking me up? I bet it's not going to be dad."
"You don't have the answerphone on because it costs you more of your credit. It's easier if you just see a missed call. Never mind that. We have to go to work, can you stay at your friend's for now?"
"Mum, it's Sunday morning, what are you doing going to work? Is that both of you?"
"Tess, hurry up," Alec reminded her as he opened the bedroom door.
"Tell them to wait," she told him, covering the phone again. "Well Daisy?" she asked her.
"Fine Mum, I'll just get the bus to gran's house if you're going to be a while."
Alec was looking at himself again in the hall mirror. Maybe he'd keep this look? Tess had looked suitably annoyed at him, it could be worth it. They were soon on their way to a new housing development just outside the town, where a tearful mother of the youngest cousin was consoling herself with a bottle of wine.
"Put that away Cate," her husband was telling her. "It's early, even for you. Where are those bloody detectives? All they've done is sent two officers to look here for them. If they were here, we wouldn't have reported them missing," he shouted loudly upstairs, where two uniformed officers were following protocol in missing persons reports.
The female officer glanced at her partner.
"We're finished here, we'll have to wait for Hardy and his wife," she smiled. "Don't know why she doesn't use her married name."
"You really don't keep up, do you Price? Haven't you heard the rumours?"
"Yeah, the one that says she's seeing someone else? That's what I meant Andy, why doesn't she just leave him?"
Alec and Tess's car was let under the tape at the end of the street, Alec seeing people standing around and being asked to move their cars now other officers had arrived.
"Tess, go take charge of clearing the street after we've seen the parents of the youngest girl," Alec told her as they got out.
They were let inside the Gillespie house and Alec began asking the usual questions.
"Do you think they just went out early?" Alec asked.
"The patio door was open," Cate told him. "Someone took them, I know they did."
Alec saw the half empty bottle of wine and wished he'd not had any last night. Had he known this was going to happen, he wouldn't have done.
By midday, it had hit the national news as the media officer put out appeals if anyone had seen them and their photos, being secured by Tess from a reluctant Cate were being shown to reporters who had gathered at the end of the street.
In London, it had been picked up by an operative in Torchwood, who had asked her supervisor if she should inform assistant ops manager, Rose Tyler.
"I'll call Jake first, let him decide," the supervisor replied, picking up the desk phone. "There's no reason not to think they've gone somewhere and lost track of time and I don't want to bother Miss Tyler over it."
Jake was amused they thought it should involve Rose.
"I'll call her but she'll probably say not to bother," Jake told the supervisor.
He got Rose's number up on his phone and pressed the button.
Rose was playing with her younger brother, who had insisted they had a car chase on his race track after breakfast so her phone was downstairs. Pete picked it up.
"It's Sunday Jake," Pete reminded him.
"I know. Have you been listening to the news?" Jake asked him.
"About those two missing girls? You think I should tell Rose?"
"It's what she wanted, Director," Jake replied, always calling Pete that when it was business.
Rose had been unsure what she wanted to do when she'd completed her education, which Pete had insisted on before she joined Torchwood. So she had settled on what she and the Doctor used to do help people. It wasn't quite what Torchwood had stood for but in recent years, Pete had tried to re-build it for good.
"I know Jake. I'll tell her when she comes down but I expect she'll want to go and have a look. Give me the details."
"Want me to book her into a hotel?" Jake asked, since her out of hours secretary should get on with it.
"Yeah, just arrange everything, Rose will probably go straight to the scene in the morning. She won't be able to resist it, if the eldest is the age Rose went off with the Doctor plus she likes ruffling a few feather, being able to just walk in and take charge," Pete laughed.
He decided to go find her and tell her so she could get ready.
"Dad," Tony greeted him excitedly. "Can I have some extra race track? There's not enough for me to beat Rose."
Pete ruffled his young son's hair. If it hadn't been for Rose and him meeting her mother when he'd gone over to the other universe, Tony would never have existed.
"We'll see eh? Rose, I need to talk to you. Tony, tidy up please," Pete asked him. "Rose, Jake called me about something that may interest you."
As soon as Pete told her, she agreed to go.
"Will you clear it with the police?" Rose asked him.
Since coming to this world, she had learned not to just barge in like she and the Doctor used to.
"Just call Jake, he'll get through to whoever's in charge. They may just turn up later and wonder what the fuss is."
"Well I hope so Dad. I'd better get some details where I'm gonna stay then?" she smiled. "Did Jake get any names?"
"Someone called Alec Hardy I believe. He and a DS Henchard," Pete told her. "If the DS is female, watch out."
"Don't know what ya mean Dad," Rose grinned.
"Really? After that other incident?"
"That was blown out of proportion," she defended herself.
"You should be more worried about telling your mother you're going away again," Pete smiled.
Down in Sandbrook, Tess and Alec were not in agreement.
"Alec, they're upset enough without you saying if the girls don't turn up by morning, you're going to have their garden dug up," she was telling him.
Alec stood with his arms folded, as he tended to do when Tess challenged him.
"It's unavoidable Tess. Look at that other case where a girl went missing and her own mother was hiding her? Look how long it took to find her? No Tess, we have to consider it and also Lisa's house. We also need to get the dogs involved, there are some woods nearby."
"Ricky told me they used to go there sometimes," Tess admitted.
Alec shook his head.
"Now you tell me. Well first thing tomorrow, get them started on it. We still don't know if they were abducted or not. What about the neighbours?"
"It was Saturday night Alec, no-one was taking any notice what was going on in the street," she replied.
They were in the mobile unit, everyone had left them alone, knowing what they were like.
"Well what about next door?" he asked.
"The Ashworths," Tess told him. "The wife said she was at a friend's house all last night and got back just as the police arrived."
"That gives the man no alibi then," Alec replied. "If he knew the girls were alone, he could have gone round or got them to his house on some pretence. Maybe they never needed any encouragement? Let's talk to the Gillespies one more time then call it a day. We still have to go get Daisy and while this is going on, she is not to be left alone."
"You think I don't know that?" Tess asked, finishing her cold coffee. "What do you want with them?"
"Let's see how well the two girls knew the neighbours?" he replied.
They were let in the house again, Cate having gone to lie down.
"Any news?" Ricky asked them.
"Sorry," Alec apologised. "Your neighbours, the Ashworths. How well did Pippa and Lisa know them?"
"Not that well apart from when we went for a barbeque or they came to us," Ricky replied.
"That's what you know," Cate corrected him from the doorway. "Pippa sometimes went to see Claire."
"Did she now?" Alec asked, looking at his notes. "I think we are done here for now, we'll go see what she has to say."
"You're not serious about digging up the garden are you?" Ricky asked him.
"We have to consider it at some point," Alec replied.
"I'm sorry Ricky," Tess told him. "We'll be searching the woods as well. Did Lisa have any boyfriends?"
"No-one serious," Cate told her.
"Hold on, what about the one who used to hang around the estate?" Ricky asked her. "Lisa once asked if I'd help him out, he was trying to keep his father's business afloat."
"What business would that be?" Alec wanted to know.
"Ah, agricultural services, in Portsmouth," Ricky replied. "Thorpe agricultural services I think."
"We'll look it up," Alec told him. "Call the number we gave you any time, if they come back. There will be a patrol car outside if you have any questions."
"You mean no-one's looking for them now?" Cate wanted to know, going for the wine she'd had earlier.
"We have officers going around the estate for now, some people may have been out earlier," Tess told her. "Is there any chance they would be near where Lisa lives?"
Cate shook her head. "Lisa doesn't get on with her parents, she's out most of the time."
"Then we will have to make enquiries nearby," Alec told them, putting his notebook away and getting up.
"Oh, that's a nice photo," Tess pointed to one of Pippa on the trampoline.
"That's my favourite one of her," Cate told her.
"What did she want to be when she grew up?" Tess asked, seeing Alec wanted to leave. "Excuse me."
She followed Alec to the door.
"Why don't you get off? Get a ride home and then go get Daisy, I'm going to talk to them for a while."
She had seen her chance to go meet Dave, if he could get away from his complaining wife. That was why they had started meeting. Alec had not been paying attention to her for months and Dave had told her pretty much the same. He said his wife went out on Sunday night, maybe she was meeting someone else as well?
Alec went off, thinking it would be easier to call for Daisy on the way back. He picked her up, the girl wanting to know where her mother was. He explained about the two cousins going missing and said for now, she walked home from school with friends to her grandmother's house and one of them would collect her.
He wasn't surprised when a few hours later, there was still no sign of Tess.
"Where's mum got to?" Daisy wanted to know.
"With the family of the youngest missing girl," he told her as he made them something to eat.
"Are you two going to be missing a lot?"
"No, why do you think that?" he asked as they sat at the table. "Daisy, we'll try not to work late but sometimes it's unavoidable."
"Yeah, I get it Dad," she replied.
Alec wasn't sure how things were going to be. Just after ten, he heard Tess come in and she went into the front room.
"Don't say anything Alec."
"What? So you've been at the Gillespie house all this time?"
"I'm going to bed, it's been a long day," she replied, refusing to answer him.
"Hold on Tess. Answer me. Did you go somewhere?"
"Why are you so bothered Alec?" she asked him.
Alec put the newspaper down and folded his glasses. He let her go, giving her time to go to sleep then maybe he'd get some peace and quiet.
Rose was all packed and ready to go just after seven the next morning, having got the details where the girls had disappeared from. She promised Tony she'd be back soon and set off, arriving just before nine and being stopped by a patrol car. She got her Torchwood ID out and the officer went to check with Tess, who had arrived on her own while Alec had gone to see the chief after dropping Daisy at school.
"What's Torchwood doing here?" Tess asked the officer.
"She said the director thought we could do with their expertise. They have a specialised unit that can deal with this type of thing."
"Since when?" Tess laughed. "So did you get a name?"
The officer cleared his throat, not believing he'd just been talking with Rose Tyler.
"Well let her through then," Tess told him when he gave her a name, not wanting to cross her or Torchwood but she bet Alec wouldn't hesitate if they came in and took over his crime scene.
She smiled at the thought as she saw the officer letting Rose through after he pointed to Tess.
"DS Henchard is in charge until DI Hardy arrives," the officer told Rose.
"Yeah, thanks," Rose told him and parked just on the corner.
"Miss Tyler, what brings you here?" Tess asked her as she approached.
Rose put her sunglasses on, since the sun was trying to break through the clouds after it had been raining most of the night.
"I thought I'd said?" Rose replied.
"The detective in charge won't be happy when he arrives," Tess told her.
Then she felt like laughing. Yes, Alec would be annoyed when he arrived and it may make him keep away from her.
"Well, I'll try not to annoy him then," Rose grinned. "So, you're DS Henchard?"
"Call me Tess. Welcome to Sandbrook Miss Tyler," Tess replied, going to shake her hand as she saw Alec arrive. "I think we'll be working together, I've already made friends with the parents of the youngest girl."
"Great, that makes it easy. I look forward to working with you Tess," Rose replied as Alec got nearer.
Alec had spotted Tess talking to someone and thought it was a neighbour who had some information. Then he got closer and recognised the woman. What the hell was Rose Tyler doing here? If she thought she was going to waltz in and take over his investigation, she could think again.