Tess clutched the two paper cups. Herbal tea, because he still needed to be careful with caffeine and exciting substances. Especially after a day like that.
She had looked for him everywhere at the nick, but nobody seemed to know where he was and he wasn't answering his phone. The tea was getting cold, and PC Louden was waiting to bring her back home. She had walked to the blue shack only to find it empty. Tess knew she was acting irrationally, yet she decided to make a last attempt with the small dockyard a few yards from the station.
And there they were, a lanky man and a woman clad in an orange anorak sitting on the wall facing the sea. Tess stopped and hid behind a closed ice cream kiosk. DS Henchard checking on two suspects, sheltered by a Mr Whippy. She smiled sadly at herself.
Alec and Ellie were talking, and even if she couldn't make out their words she knew they weren't just talking about work. Their tone was hushed and... intimate? Moreover, Alec looked exhausted. Head bent, shoulders slouched, eyes red. Tess experienced a moment of irritation: she had talked with his doctor; he should have been resting. But the bloody case was solved now. After almost two years he was finally free from that nightmare.
What about her? Was that chapter finally over for her too? She felt it wasn't. Claire's confession had exposed the truth about the pendant, a story that Tess knew both the press and her colleagues were going to find appealing. It was time to face the consequences of her actions, and the realization brought her a weird feeling resembling relief.
Ellie checked her phone and left a few seconds later. Tess held her breath. This was the moment to pop out and take the place left vacant. But he hadn't answered her calls, and the cups had gotten cold in her hands. She closed her eyes, remembering all the lunches they had shared on a bench outside their CID. The wind didn't smell of sea in Sandbrook, but there was a red cat that used to stare at them until they shared their sandwich with it. Once she had been late, and had found the cat sitting in her place next to Alec. He had shrugged and said that he had always fancied redheads. They had laughed, and she hadn't been able to meet his eyes without chuckling for the rest of the day.
"No, I need Miller."
Alec kept staring out at sea, and Tess took a couple of steps forward. She just wanted to say hi before leaving and make sure he was ok. She opened her mouth to call out to him, but was surprised to feel a dreaded tightness at the back of her throat. She wasn't going to cry in front of him; not now at least.
"Good job, mate," She whispered. "Take care of that heart."
She threw the two cups in a rubbish bin and headed back towards the concrete building.