Jim Mason had a terrible time over the past fortnight. His fling with Cate became, to his dismay, just a one night affair.

As a past suspect, business died down. People did not want a potential murderer in their house. He thought of it as quite reasonable except that it led to his losses over February.

In addition, a psychic insisted that Jim could help the case. Jim did not know what the person was talking about and he doubted the person knew either. Then came the morning of the third of March. The psychic seemed to know something. The thin old man pecked incessantly at Mason's door. Mason gave him a "piss off." The psychic did not give up. Before Mason knew it, the man was in the backyard.

Mason opened the door and saw the psychic enter his shed. Mason ran in to ensure that he did not incur any more losses.

The psychic lost the little sanity he had. He was holding a shaft, the kind of shaft used to open jammed doors. "You used this, didn't you?" The psychic yelled. "You did, right? Just opened this and killed them, I see."

Mason was speechless.

"The call you said you were on was a fake, right?"

"Take it to the police, you twat! See what they have to say! I did not do this!" At least the police knew the truth.

"You know what? I will!" The psychic ran with the shaft to the police station. Jim hoped they would not call him in for questioning.

The psychic reached the station quickly and almost threw the shaft at one of the officers. Quickly, Hardy came down to personally thank the man. "Do I get paid?" The man asked.

"No, we cannot pay you, I'm afraid."

"I'll talk to the media."

"We can't stop you."

"Fine. See what I say about you, Hardy."

"I will." Hardy stiffly turned thanking the man once more. Hardy reached his office and sighed. Mason was a useless link either way – they had CCTV evidence of his activities the night of the murder and it did not really matter. At least it eliminated one missing link and gave them a chance to see more footage of the culprit.

The police had stored the footage from all over town the night of the killing as a precaution. That paid off as Hardy saw the killer get his break-in device. Unfortunately, the footage offered no other clues about the killer. So far, Werner was the only suspect.

She declared leave at the school, awaiting the police team which would come and investigate. She knew that she had no alibi for the night of the killing – she was at home alone. Yet, she hoped she would be let off the hook because the car was not hers. She bought it the morning after from Cripps. Did that sleazy bastard try to frame her? It was possible. There was no way anybody else could have put the evidence there without breaking her car in some way.

The police came a little late – five past nine instead of on the hour. Hardy apologized, admitting to having had to attend to another matter. The car was quickly searched and the pendant found once more. The team left to run the fingerprints within five minutes.

Werner entered her house and emerged in two minutes declaring: "I'm innocent, I swear, see I didn't have this car before after the crime." She handed Hardy the papers with the date of the car's purchase marked as the Friday after the killing.

"It was Cripps' then, right?"

"Yes."

"I'll see to it." Hardy thumbed his phone asking Alice to bring the evidence to the office. "Wait here for DS Hardy to get the evidence."

Alec drove to the car dealership using a police car. He pulled up and walked in quickly, throwing the picture of the pendant down onto Cripps' desk. "Can you please tell me how this got into one of the cars in your showroom?"

"What showroom?"

Hardy sighed. "How did it get into one of your cars?"

"The owner-"

"While you owned it!"

"You got me!" Cripps sarcastically said. "Was it in one of my cars?"

"Yes. While you were in the dealership."

"What if the owner put it in afterwards?"

"We are checking that possibility."

"But you still came here?"

"To ask again and hope you tell me the truth: did you kill Jane and Annie Mortimer?"

"No!" Hardy scanned for guilt but found none.

"That's all I wanted." Hardy drove off.

Alice pulled into Werner's driveway. She picked up the pendant and drove off quickly thanking Werner for her patient cooperation. She had agreed to meet Cripps at the bar and decided that a quick drink would do no harm.

She reached to find Cripps in his normal state. They talked and planned ahead: she would go to drop the evidence off and hopefully close the stupid case.

Halfway through their pints (conversation made them drink at a similar rate), Cripps was called by his brother.

"Jamie?" An uncharacteristically anxious voice came through the line.

"Yeah?"

"Can you go somewhere private?"

"Sure. What is it?"

"You there?" Jamie walked to the bathroom, leaving Alice wondering exactly how he would pee with the phone in his hand.

"I killed them-" Rob was too nervous to say the sentence quickly.

"You did the-" Jamie was too shocked to articulate the full thought.

"I'm sorry, I-"

"Why?"

"They threatened me."

"Who?"

"Simpson's gang."

"They told you to kill two little girls and you did?"

"They would have killed us both, Jamie!"

"But-"

"I had to, I couldn't-"

"You could have come to the police."

"No! They would have tortured us both."

"Not with police protection."

"They would have been on us before the police got near us."

"But, why?"

"I did bad things with their-"

"I don't want to know. I already would have to arrest you."

"Please don't!"

"You killed to kids as they slept!"

"To save us both!" Both sides paused. Rob continued the conversation: "I need you to get rid of the pendant."

"What?"

"The pendant."

"You're asking me to destroy evidence?"

"Yes."

"You know I can't-"

"I killed them for you, now at least save me."

"Bullshit!"

"You were their main threat, brother."

"Make me an offer I can't resist."

"The car business?"

"And you pissing off to another town."

"Deal." Rob sighed. "I'm sorry it had to be this way."

"If you and I were, I would arrest you and you would plead guilty."

Jamie snuck out to the back parking lot and found Alice's car. He reasoned that it would be better if Alice did not know that the culprit was his brother. He picked up a rock and smashed the car's window. The alarm instantly went off and Jamie quickly pocketed the evidence bag. As the bar crowd rushed out, Jamie looked around as if he had run there first.

"What happened?" Alice called.

"There were some kids who broke in."

"What did they do?"

"I don't know."

Alice peered into the car. "They took the evidence bag!" She shrieked. She cursed herself for taking the drink. Depressed, she texted Cripps' story to Hardy.

Hardy drove to the bar quickly and picked up his subordinates. "You see what your laziness does!" He yelled. "We had it solved!"

"You knew who it was?" Jamie asked.

"Cripps, right?" Alice questioned. Jamie looked at her, noticing that she did not seem fazed and his motive was flawed.

"Robert Cripps." Hardy sighed. "But thanks to you morons, we can't press charges."

"Why?"

"We don't have a single piece of evidence, that's why!"

"We-"

"You two lost it!"

"Sorry." Alice said, injecting venom in her words, hoping to stop her crazy husband.

Hardy reached the office and walked in without another word during the short drive. The fingerprint lab team came in and the leader declared that Rob Cripps was the last person to touch the pendant.

"I lost it." Hardy quietly said.

The team frowned as one.

"I stopped to get a drink and some people robbed my car."

There were groans in the fingerprinting team.

"Sorry. We cannot press charges."

"Will you tell the media?"

"I will have to."

Alec resigned to his office and sighed, wishing he had something more potent than coffee to drink. Alice walked in quickly, slamming the door behind her. "Are you going to do this?"

"What?"

"Take the blame like the valiant knight and hope to get me?"

"Yes."

"Well, you've lost me."

"I know, but I hope that it helps you."

"Get out of my life!"

"Divorce?"

"And maybe your death."

"Did you have that type of awakening when Jamie fucked you?"

"It's better than when you did." Hardy was offended by tried to hide it.

"You could be nicer about this, you know. Take some blame and leave."

"Blame?"

"You could have told me we were divorcing and we could have quietly divorced."

"You could have left me to live my life not get my parents to make me marry you!"

"I was wrong. I thought I had to help you by being there. I thought you wanted me and loved me."

"I never did."

"Do you love Jamie?"

"Does it matter?"

"If you don't want me to shove him under a bus, yes."

"Fine, I love him. Shove yourself under the bus!"

"Alright, I will. I already have."

"And leave me."

"What about Jenna?"

"She's mine."

"I want to be able to talk to her."

"Fine, but don't involve me or try to get me back or anything."

"We'll work it out."

"Good." Hardy sighed as Alice left. He wished she left the same way he did but he knew that his love was unrequited. He hoped that Jamie would treat her well. That was all he could hope for – a good treatment for Alice and Jenna, unfortunately not from him.

Karen White had a boring day. As usual, nothing compared to her old story from Sandbrook. All she was working on now was the equivalent of a lost dog. Her career and sacred duty were both not leading anywhere and she knew that she would not be able to feel fulfilment any time soon. That changed when she heard that the Sandbrook police department were going to release data on the case. There were new eventualities and there was a sense of progress – hopefully closure.

Alec wrote the speech as he dealt with the raw emotions of his divorce. He wrote to keep the thoughts of Alice and the future away. He lost her and there was nothing he could do. Furthermore, the press demanded more and he had to give them that. While he wrote, he knew that Jamie would be cementing the state of affairs between himself and Alice.

Alec looked into Jamie's story: that the car was robbed by a mob of kids. There were no wannabe vandals in Sandbrook as far as Alec knew and so he wondered. He saw the CCTV footage of the bar's back parking lot. Jamie had the pendant, he found. He had had to stop his work and face the raw emotion. Alice would be with that kind of a criminal and maybe Jenna would get caught up as well. Yet Alice loved him. Maybe he would have to talk to Jamie to decide. If he was quick enough, he would also be able to get the press release done when he got back. He called Jamie to meet him incognito.

They met at Rob's dealership. "I know you have the pendant, Cripps." Alec began.

"What?"

"The dream-catcher. I saw that you stole it on CCTV."

"You what?"

"I checked the CCTV – just to know the story I would have to weave to keep it off you two. You stole it. Why?"

"Rob told me to. He gave me the store and that way I thought Alice wouldn't know about Rob."

"So you destroyed the case?"

Jamie laughed. "Rob's gone, Hardy, the case is already done for. All I want out of this is Alice."

"I'll tell her you stole it. Show her the footage, then what?"

"Then fuck you."

"Give me a reason not to tell her."

"Give me a reason to incriminate my brother."

"It's your job."

"I'll make it up. I promise." Jamie knew that he had to do something. "I'll figure something out, I swear."

"By tomorrow."

"First thing in the morning."

"What time?"

"Nine." Jamie was quite lazy.

"Or, find the pendant."

"What?"

"Magically pull it out of thin air!"

"I-" Jamie sighed. "I burned it."

"You idiot!" Alec resigned himself to studying the case and preparing the relevant press release. He was ready to kill Jamie but knew that that would only anger Alice further.

The release was short and hopefully would be wasted on an empty room. He realized that his hopes were false as the room was decently crowded. In was not full or leaking as he had seen it once, but was populated handsomely by some of the townsfolk and two people of the press.

One of the reporters was Karen White, who came brimming with hope. The other agent was somebody even more local and less known.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen," Hardy began, "I am sorry to inform you that the case of the murder of Annie and Jane Mortimer is going cold. Because of the lack of funds and the age of the case, we must leave it as is. That said, however, we may bring another close as we are reviewing a suspect after the finding of the pendant. We shall not reveal any further information as we shall respect the suspect's privacy from the media. We may be able to press charges, but we need more concrete evidence as the elusive pendant was once more lost." There was an air of dismay as Hardy transitioned from hope to hell. "My car was broken into as I stopped for a drink to prematurely celebrate and there the evidence was robbed. I apologize profusely to the family and hope that the evidence would be found to facilitate the case."

"Do you still intend to press charges?" White asked.

"We will try."

"But there will be no allegation without the evidence?"

"We will leave that to the judges." White took that as a 'yes.' She wondered how something so stupid, something as insignificant, could let a murderer roam free.

"And ladies and gentlemen, we will have more to present to the court as I have found a witness!" Jamie yelled, walking across the room and climbing onto the pulpit. Hardy frowned as Jamie winked. "We will leave the identity of this person a secret for the sake of court procedures, but you will all know in due time." Jamie grinned once more and whispered to Hardy: "told you I'd find something."

"Tell me later." Hardy quietly said, admitting defeat for Alice's sake.

The night was one of the worst – Alec dealt with Alice's new treatment of him and realized that he was wrong to marry her and force her into a life with him. In addition, he dealt with the reality of a couch as a bed. He was ready for anything by the time he woke up because anything would be better than the previous night.

In the morning, Hardy called Cripps and asked about the witness. The call revealed that the witness was a neighbour who had not been able to sleep and was not seen leaving the house on the fateful night.

Casually, the Hardy family broke and Alice took on her maiden name – Keys, though she planned to change it to Cripps in the near future.

Alec left the divorce attorney's in a daze. The place was small, an alcove of miserable relationships in Newcastle. He drove unconscious of the world or his thoughts. Both seemed as grey as each other. He was tired of everything. It felt as if a part of him was cut out and that that part would never grow back or heal. There was a gap which he knew the world or future could not fill. He decided against reacting as he saw that the court case would be more important.

The court would meet on the next Monday to see the evidence and by then Alice, Jenna and Jamie had planned to leave. Alec was the only person in the police to stay on the case the whole time. So far, he had taken the blame for the loss of the pendant. He really should have predicted the conflict of interests and thrown both the retarded lovebirds off the case. He should have known, foreseen, predicted. He blamed himself. Everything bad in his life was his fault. The divorce, the case, Jenna's sordid upbringing and his stress about it all as well.

He took a breath, noting its surprising brevity. He took another one, more desperate for air. His vision began to blur and the world whirled. He braked and swerved and heard a screech.

The car turned and hit a hedge, the thicket absorbing the high momentum before breaking and letting the car edge through. Hardy opened his door and struggled for the seatbelt, wondering what would happen if he never escaped the car. Would he die of his anomaly? Was it a heart attack? He was surely too young.

He reached out one last time, hearing the belt click off him. It slid slowly as he tried to step out, staggering on wobbly feet. The world spun before turning perpendicular to its normal slant. Hardy hit the ground hard, breathing in the grass as he gasped for breath.

He clawed forward a last time before the grey turned black and he wondered if he could ever come back.