After they finally got to sleep, with Alec getting a little bit further with Rose, who seemed to be about to finally be worn down and give in, Alec was woken by his mobile ringing and just managed to squirm out from under Rose. He went into the bathroom so as not to disturb her to find it was the Duty Sergeant who had tried to get hold of DS Miller or one of the other DS's but couldn't. It seemed there was some trouble at a housing estate just outside town with several reported break-ins in the last hour and units were already out there but a senior officer was required. He told the Sergeant to get on of the DS's, it was their job, not his and there would be trouble when he got to work in the morning. He hold the Sergeant to call a DC if he couldn't get anyone else or to get a car out to wake one of the DS's and hung up. He was now regretting staying in the town where there were three DS's and two DC's who were capable of doing the job and he swore blind someone had put the desk Sergeant up to it by calling him.
He wasn't a DI for nothing, he'd done more than his fair share of callouts during his time in the police. Someone was going to suffer in the morning and it wasn't going to be him. Then they wondered why he was such a grump. He stood in the bathroom in just his shorts, looking in the mirror. Just what exactly did Rose actually see in him, he wondered. He was quite slim, in fairly good shape as he like to run a bit now and even been to the gym a few times, the one out of town but hadn't been on Sunday morning because he had stayed to comfort Rose but as he looked at his scruffy beard, he wondered when he'd got past caring how he actually looked but Rose seemed to like his beard or she hadn't said that she didn't. Maybe he could trim it a bit more, not let it get so thick and maybe get a haircut a bit more often. He liked to go out of town for that as well though, he didn't want the locals gaping at him. Maybe he and Rose would go shopping for more things for the new house and he could go to the barbers there, he thought.
He waited a few more minutes then put his phone on silent and went back to bed. Just how was he going to get back under Rose again without disturbing her? He just managed to squeeze in beside her as she moved slightly at his presence and without thinking, put his arm around her. That's how comfortable they had both got with each other over the last few days. She looked so peaceful now, like a great weight had been lifted from her and it had. This must have been the first time for her in over two years she had been able to let go of what was haunting her. He thought about when he had said he'd look into John's death and decided he'd start in the morning and get all the details and re-open the case although he'd better not tell the Superintendent it was a personal matter or she might stop him. He'd told her he was moving but not in with someone and not with the wife of the man he was re-opening the case about.
Still, Rose was in Broadchurch under her maiden name so that would cover it for a while and if it came out and he'd succeeded, it wouldn't matter. He would have proved a wrongful death by dangerous driving and failure to stop at an accident so if he found the driver he didn't have a leg to stand on, he was guilty without a doubt. It was the very least he could do for both Rose and John's mother who must also still be grieving. He could give closure to both of them. He was going to suggest to Rose to go down and visit her and was going to offer to go with her. He drifted back to sleep just as she moved again and was almost all the way over him again like he'd never even got up.
Thursday morning, Alec woke to his alarm and checked his phone to see if someone had rung back from the station, they hadn't so he was going to give them all a lecture on procedure as to who attended an incident first and who was the last one to be call. He qualified for being called next to last, only the Chief was called last if absolutely necessary. Great, that would make him even more popular than he already was, he still swore someone had put the Sergeant up to it. He looked at Rose as she was still sleeping and managed to get his other arm from under her where she had moved during the night. He loved waking up with her and wondered why he'd ever been on his own for so long now. Even when he'd still been with his ex wife, things had started to go sour long before they split up which is probably why she had cheated on him. He knew now that he was no longer alone as he looked at her, tucking a strand of her fair hair away from her forehead and leaning forward to kiss it. She stirred slightly, moving her arm over him and he moved his free arm across it. He was going to tell her how much he felt about her, had started the night before last but since then, his feelings were getting more intense, like he needed to be with her all the time. Being at work all day and coming back to an empty hotel room had been arduous but now, coming back to Rose had made it worthwhile. Only last Friday, the day before he had met her, he'd been thinking of taking a break and looking to see if any other police force would take him. Now he had someone to stay for, someone who cared about him and it had been a long time in coming.
He hadn't yet admitted to her that he did remember her from a few weeks previous, she had remembered him though why she had he didn't quite know. He had thought at the time she was quite beautiful although he had only seen her twice and the second time he had been trying to send his monthly message to his daughter so hadn't taken much notice but at the time he had thought she was only on holiday and would be going home and she was with an older woman, probably her mother, who seemed to talking at sixty miles an hour, never giving her daughter room to get a word in. Even then it had struck him that Rose seemed quiet and hardly talked. If he'd known then she was coming back, he might have done something about it back then but chatting women up was something he'd been bad at, hence Becca Fisher turning him down so that had put him off.
Rose was still asleep and would be disappointed she'd missed him changing his shorts again. He made a note to ask Rose if a washing machine was amongst her belongings and to remember to pick up his and Rose's laundry from reception on Friday, he was running out of clean shirts and shorts and Rose might not quite be ready for him to sleep without any. Not just yet anyway although he was nearly there.
He couldn't wait any longer to get changed but while he was in the bathroom, Rose woke up and put her hand where he should have been. She smiled to herself as she was thinking he'd probably thought he'd got away without changing his shorts in front of her. She was disappointed though and was determined to tell him what she had planned for their first night in the new house but maybe she should just surprise him and if all went well, they could be staying there on Saturday night, Sunday at the latest. Alec came out and greeted her before she had to run into the bathroom as she had waited too long again. Before they went down to breakfast Alec asked her for all the details about the day her husband had died and that he was going to do his utmost best to find out who had caused it by looking at witness statements and hospital reports and details that may have been missed or disregarded previously.
"Rose, I need to know everything you can remember about that day. I know it's painful but you need to know what happened Sweetheart and I think you should call his mother and let her know I'm going to re-open the case and maybe you should go down and see her. I'll come with you if you want, it's not too far away, I'll drive you."
Rose looked at him and she could see in his eyes he really meant it, he wasn't going to let this rest even though it had been over two years. Alec was determined, that she did know.
"I can do better than that, I have all the details from the investigation. I wrote every single thing down, every phone call and every time someone came to see me about it and received a copy of the coroner's report with all the witness statements recorded on it. I insisted I received a full report."
"Rose Tyler-Smith, you are not only beautiful but brilliant," he said as he kissed her forehead. "Do you have it with you?"
"It's in my room, I have a folder that I couldn't just leave with my furniture, it's all I have."
"I'll take great care of it, I'll make copies and bring it right back to you but if I succeed, you won't need it again. I'm sorry to say that sometimes in big cities, resources are stretched and they need to clear things up quickly and despite witnesses, with no car registration or details, it's just one of those things. I'll not ask you any of it, I'll get it from your folder but if I succeed and they catch the person responsible, you will need to attend any court appearances and I'll have to hand it over the police authority where it happened, I can't pursue it, I can only present them with any new evidence to re-open it. You may have to make a few trips to London but I'll try to minimize everything, tell them you've moved and they'll have to come down here. There's just one thing though, I won't be able to move in with you officially until I've handed it over to them or they'll take it the wrong way. I'll just have to keep my room here for a bit longer to make it less obvious that I'm involved with you. You do understand that don't you? Once I've handed it over then it will be ok."
"How will you explain why you want to re-open the case if you can't tell then it's personal? I don't want to get you into any trouble, Alec nor do I want everyone in the police to know you're involved with me because if you find out who it was and I have to go attend the court, they'll know if you come with me. I can't do this without you Alec, I just can't. Even if I go to John's mother and ask her to get the case re-opened ." Rose stopped as they both realised the answer.
"Rose, you could go visit her, tell her you've talked it over with someone and they think you have a good chance of getting it re-opened, she could go to her local police with it and they'll have to send it to London but they'll investigate first to see if there is anything that's been missed. You'll have to tell her though why you can't do it, if you want her to present it. How would she react if she knew you were involved with someone else?"
"I don't know, maybe she won't want anything to do with me or maybe she'll be happy for me. I could ring her after breakfast, tell her and she what she thinks about the idea. There is another alternative, my mother but you will have to meet her, she'll understand why I'm moving on. I could send her the folder, get her to go to the police station that dealt with it. I can imagine her going in, throwing on someone's desk and demanding to find the killer of her deceased son-in-law. To be honest, it hit her as hard as it did me and John's mother, like all the fight had gone out of her, which is saying something but I think she did it mostly for my sake, she didn't want to drag it on when they told us they were closing the case."
"Then that might work, Rose because I sure as hell want to move into that house with you at the weekend and if I re-open this then we'll have to put it off. I can't use police recourse for personal reasons. When I get back tonight, we'll go through everything, use your laptop, I can get into police files, no problem but you'll have to do the rest. Ring your mother and see what she thinks. If she doesn't want to do it there might be another way but you won't like it and neither will I. You could go to DS Miller and ask her to investigate. Take the folder to her and show her it, ask if anything can be done. I'm not going to change my address with the personnel department yet so she won't know I'm moving in with you but even if she does, as long as I'm not involved in the case, she can't turn you away without even looking at it. Whatever you decide to do, I'm with you 100% on this. Come on or we'll miss breakfast," he said as he kissed her cheek.
Rose was feeling a lot brighter over breakfast, two days from moving into a house with Alec and the prospect of getting John's killer caught because the more she thought about, the more it seemed that she shouldn't have just left it like that, she should have taken it further but she had been too distraught and now she was coming to terms with starting a new life, she could do this now.
So she kissed Alec goodbye in the foyer and went back upstairs to phone her mother and John's mother. She spoke to Mrs Smith first who was glad to hear from her and was delighted when Rose told her she had moved nearer and asked her to come and see her. She was honest with her ex mother-in-law and told her she had made a friend in the police since she arrived who had told her there was a really good chance they could get the case re-opened. She asked if Rose could handle it, she still wasn't that strong and she'd not been well so Rose had to agree she would see to it but asked if she could bring her friend when she visited and she said she would like to meet him.
She rang her mother next, hoping she'd have more luck. She had to admit to her that she was spending time with Alec but her mother wasn't surprised and was glad she was moving on. The crunch came when she told her that Alec had said they had a good chance they could get John's case re-opened and her mother was all for it if Rose did it. She tried to explain that it would be easier if she did it, she was still in London but her mother said it would have more impact if Rose did it herself. Her mother now wanted to meet this Alec Hardy who had caught her daughter's attention and Rose pointed out that she should have been paying attention in the hotel dining room a few weeks ago and she would have seen him. So Rose had to settle for her mother coming down at Easter unless she had to go up to London to get the case re-opened.
Rose was down to option three, asking DS Miller for help because she didn't want Alec to get in trouble and wanted nothing to spoil them moving in together at the weekend but before she did, she would let Alec know she had struck out with the first two options. She sent him a text asking him to meet her at lunchtime and got out her folder containing everything she knew about John's accident case and got her laptop out to see if she could find anything out. She was planning on telling DS Miller that she had been too distraught at the time to argue for the case to be continued or had it re-opened sooner but was now starting a new life in Broadchurch and wanted some finality.
She didn't find anything new on the internet apart from what she already had, she had saved all the newspaper articles about his accident but decided to go to the newspaper websites in case she had missed something. Then she typed in 'Doctor Jonathan Smith accident' and waited for the results.
She wasn't expecting what appeared on the screen as she saw one of the results. There were interviews with witness who had come forward that were never actually interviewed by the police because as far as she knew, only four witness statements were followed up but there were another three who were interviewed by the local paper and their names were printed, it would be easy for the police to find them and one of them had said he had seen the car driver and got a partial number plate but was never asked for his statement and said in the interview he was sorry he couldn't help because the driver had been at fault as he had come speeding around a corner as the victim had checked the road before crossing and never slowed down when he'd seen him. The witness said people were calling out and some were waving after the driver, who only looked young, to stop but he didn't.
Rose had tears in her eyes as she rang Alec who told her to tell him the name of the website and what page it was on and he would go see DS Miller.
