As light spilled through the window Alex woke to the interrupting sound of her telephone on the wooden side table. Rubbing her eyes and clearing them of the previous night, full of nightmares of a young girl without a smile she reached out and grabbed the phone, pulling it towards her.
"Hello?" She asked into the handset groggily. There was a crackle of static on the other end and a muffled sound.
"Hello?" Alex asked again, a little louder this time before hearing the click of the handset on the other end, hanging up. She looked at her own handset and sighed before replacing it and rolling over in her duvet, snuggling against the pillow for a couple of hours more sleep.
Drifting in and out of consciousness she wasn't sure as to whether the rapping noise of hand against wood was in her dreams or reality.
"Bolly! Open up or am I gonna have to break the door down?" she sat upright once more, hair covering her face."Definitely not a dream." She sighed and pulling the duvet away from her she headed for the door where sure enough the noise was coming from. Opening it, and stifling a yawn she saw D.C.I Hunt, alone, looking at her.
"What seems to be the problem?" she asked running her fingers through her hair.
"Get your clothes on and meet us downstairs." he told her before turned and heading off again. Alex watched him go before shutting the door and returning to the bedroom, a confused expression on her face.
The sight downstairs was a shock to the system. Gene, Ray and Chris were stood, surrounded by destruction as Alex joined them.
"Nice of you to join us. Say hello to PC William Jones." Gene pointed forward, behind the bar where the young policeman was hanging by a rope attached to the ceiling - dead.
"Oh My God." Was all Alex could say. She'd seen PC Jones around CID, he always seemed happy, very serious about his work and was always prepared for anything. He'd been brought on with senior officers on many cases to help clear up because of his talent and ability but nobody seemed to cast him a blind eye.
"What happened?" She eventually asked, clearing her throat and removing her gaze from the body toward her colleagues."No idea. Viv said that Luigi reported it this morning. We came over, trying to get a hold of you on the way, see if you'd noticed anythin'" Ray explained.
"Well no, I haven't been down. I mean what time did Luigi close last night? Surely that must give us some indication of when this happened. Was the Pub open or not?" Alex asked."Pub closes at 11pm. Body found at 7am this morning. Nobody seemed to have heard or seen anything, and if they have they haven't come forward as of yet." Chris replied.
"Come on then Drakey. You've been here all night you didn't hear anything?" Gene asked but Alex just shook her head."No nothing. Absolutely nothing." She answered."Right, Chris go get the plods to take the body down to the morgue. We'll get back down the station, see if anything new has come in." he turned on his heel, black coat sweeping round and headed outside, back to the Quattro. Shortly after stepping out the door five or six police officers wandered in and began taking the body down, under Chris's orders. He stayed with them leaving Ray and Alex to return to where Gene was waiting with the car.
CID was fairly quiet when they arrived. Shaz had been sat quietly at her desk, cup of tea on the side and a bunch of paperwork filling the rest. She looked up when the Guv walked in, swiftly followed by her D.I, Alex Drake and her DS Ray Carling.
Each of her superior officers headed to their own desk apart from Alex who walked up to her."Um, Shaz can you get me all of PC William Jones telephone records, visitors, people that he knows, speaks to, may have had an issue with?" She asked and Shaz nodded, a bright smile and headed to the filing cabinet. Alex continued walking into the small kitchen to the right of the Guv's office and poured herself a cup of tea, sitting at the table in the corner. A few seconds later and Gene joined her, sitting at the table and taking a biscuit from the plate she'd got for herself. Alex knew better than to comment.
"Barely knew the guy." He started the conversation and she knew he was on about PC Jones."I'd seen him around a couple of times and he did a few clean up operations with cases we worked on but never really spoke to him. Can't see it being anyone here though Guv, he never seemed unhappy or anything at work and everyone seemed to get on well with him.""What you see and the truth of it are very different things don't forget that. We'll speak to his force and his superior, see what they have to say about him before we start jumping to conclusions." he looked up this time, straight into her eye for just a second before getting up and leaving her alone.
Soon after Shaz poked her head round the corner."Phone call for you Ma'am." She smiled.
"Thanks Shaz." Alex followed the young officer out into the main office and spotted the phone on her desk, waiting for her to pick up.
"Hello?" Alex waited for a reply, a sensation in her stomach telling her that something was wrong. She heard a cough from the other end before the handset clicked and the caller had gone. Alex put the phone down again, bewildered and turned to her friend."Shaz, when you have a minute can you see if you can trace that number…find out who called?" Alex smiled."Sure thing Ma'am. Someone bothering you?" "I don't know yet." Alex replied and walked round her desk, sitting down and sighing.