So the really quick updates still aren't happening, sorry! BUT I think this is the shortest gap between chapters so I must be getting there! Haha!

Chapter four

'What? Sorry, let's go' came Alex's reply as they both got out of the car are walked up the pathway. As they got to the front door, both their hands reached up to press the bell together, meaning Gene's hand came to rest on top of Alex's 'Oh god sorry' said Gene while quickly removing his hand and looking at anything but Alex. If he had he would have seen Alex blush and then a flash of disappointment across her face as he removed it.

Alex removed her hand from the bell and turned to face away from Gene so he couldn't see her blushing. 'Pull yourself together' Alex whispered to herself while taking some deep breathes to compose herself.

The front door opened, 'Mr Hartley?' Asked Alex, he nodded in reply, 'My name is DI Alex Drake and this is DCI Gene Hunt' both flashed their badges 'may we come in please, we have some questions about your daughter, Jessica who you reported missing last week.' Mr Hartley stepped out the way for Gene and Alex to move into the hallway and into the small room at the front of the house, which was used as the living room. Straight away Alex spotted the number of photographs both on the mantelpiece above the fire and on all the walls in the room, all of what looked like the same girl, taken over the years of her life.

'You reported your daughter Jessica missing last week is that right Mr Hartley?' Asked Alex as her and Gene sat on the sofa, 'Yes' replied Mr Hartley, 'she went out to celebrate a friend's birthday and missed her curfew of midnight, but thought she must have spent the night at a friend's as she has done before, when she doesn't want to get a taxi home on her own you see, so it wasn't till the next morning when she still didn't show up that I started to worry. You know….what with this guy on the loose….I've seen the reports on the news…..oh god please don't tell me that is why you are here, my Jessica…she….she can't have been taken by this guy!'

'Mr Hartley, please, we need you to come down to the station, a body of a young girl matching your daughters description was found this morning we need you to come and identify the body' Alex spoke, trying to keep calm in what was a situation spiralling out of their control.

'No….you…can't…it can't be! My baby Jessica…no…I don't believe it….your lying….she can't be dead…I only reported her missing….she will come home soon, I've got her bedroom ready and the food in for her favourite dinner, sausage and mash…she….she just needs time out…..I can understand that….but you two' Mr Hartley stood up and started to advance on Gene and Alex 'Come here and try and tell me that my little girl….my beautiful little girl with her whole life ahead of her is dead…NO! I don't believe it…..'

'MR HARTLEY!' Gene stood up moved in front of Alex but Alex pulled him back and stood up in front of Mr Hartley 'Mr Hartley, I know how difficult this must be for you and I understand you don't want to do this but we need you to, there is a little girl in our station who needs to be with her dad, now why don't you come with me and my colleague here and we can just have a chat about the night Jessica went missing, we can go at your pace okay' Alex reached over and touched Mr Hartley's arm 'Okay, now if you just follow us we can go'

'Okay' replied Mr Hartley following Alex out of the living room and towards the Quattro where she calmly let Mr Hartley get in and looking round to check Gene was following her, which he was, got into the car.

Gene followed Alex and Mr Hartley out of the house and again thanked whoever had sent Bolly his way. He had never been good in these sort of situations, but now he had Alex here to deal with this, if it was up to him he would have lost his temper ages ago, he doesn't know how Alex does it but thankfully he didn't have to deal with this sort of situation anymore!

Once back at the station Alex led Mr Hartley down to the mortuary 'Now' Alex took a deep breathe 'You know this is not going to be easy Mr Hartley. We will go at your pace, just let me or DCI Hunt know if you want to leave'

'Okay' replied Mr Hartley as he followed Gene and Alex into the mortuary and stood next to Alex as Gene pulled the sheet covering the body down over the face and revealing the body of the girl, as he did so he saw out of the corner of his eye Mr Hartley grab hold of Alex's arm as his knees gave way. 'NO!' Mr Hartley screamed 'But…that's my little girl! Oh god, what am I going to do without her?' He reached forward to place his hands on Jessica 'It's her' was all they heard before he bent over his daughter's body and began to sob. Gene looked over at Alex and could see tears in her eyes. Alex could see Gene looking at her and tried to hide the tears, it was not the time or the place to be getting upset. 'Mr Hartley we will give you some time alone with your daughter. When you are ready we will be waiting outside and we will arrange for an officer to take you home, I'm very sorry' She looked at Gene before walking out, sensing he was following her.

'We need to find this killer Gene, I don't want to see another family torn apart through this person's actions!'

'I know Bolls, look its six o'clock, we can crack on with it tomorrow, see what the others got to this afternoon yes?'

'Okay' replied Alex and the rest of the walk up to CID was silent, aside from Alex asking Viv at reception to send someone down to wait with Mr Hartley and then to take him home.

On entering CID they could see Shaz still hard at work deciphering the clue found in Jessica's hair, and Ray and Chris actually working for once, adding the information got from this murder to the whiteboard where the details about the other murders sat. At the sound of their senior officers entering the room the other three looked round in time for Gene to say 'It's six o'clock, hometime, Luigi's awaits' before heading into his office to fetch his coat. Buy the time he came back out the outer office was empty aside from Alex who was sat at her desk 'Come on Bolls, bottle of Luigi's finest awaits us, start again in the morning'

'You're right' replied Alex as she followed Gene out of CID and down to Luigi's.

A/N a bit of a filler chapter, but needed to move the story on a bit, hope it was okay and please read and review, and help on improving my writing is welcome =] x