Within the next hour Detective Cornish and her partner had managed to get statements from Jack, Gerry, Sandra and Esther. All they'd found out was that after he was told to go home from UCOS he'd gone out, then they Gerry and Jack had found him not far from their local, injured and drunk.

Then Detective Cornish spoke 'Okay, we're off now. We'll notify you when we find anything concrete. Ring us if you remember anything else.'

'Thanks.' Came Sandra's reply. It was now late afternoon and everyone looked exhausted but no one wanted to leave. 'Esther, I think it's time you left now. Go home, get some sleep. You look exhausted; we'll ring you if anything happens.'

Esther tried to protest but was too tired to really put up much of an argument, so in the end just nodded in acceptance.

'I'll come with you, make sure everything's okay, plus you're way too tired to drive.' Jack told her.

So Jack and Esther left, leaving Gerry and Sandra on the small uncomfortable chairs outside his room. It was silent between them but not at all awkward, Sandra sat with her head resting on Gerry's shoulder and trying not to drift of to sleep, she wasn't succeeding though. Until her phone rang.

'Pullman.' Sandra answered sleepily.

'Hello, it's Detective Cornish.'

'Oh, hello. Have you found something?'

'Yes, actually we have. He went out drinking to the Four Seasons pub and according to CCTV had a lot to drink with a man we've identified to be Michael Hopkins.'

'Michael Hopkins? I recognise that name.'

'Well that's actually why I rang; I wanted to know if you knew him, if he was a friend of Brian's?'

'Not that I know of, but I do for some reason recognise the name.' Then it hit how, how she knew the name. 'Oh god. Before our investigation at UCOS was closed down, I'd been on the phone to one of our witnesses, they'd mentioned his name. I didn't have time to write it up before D.A.C Strickland closed down our investigation. I think he's an ex police man.'

'Okay thank you, I'll look further into this and get back to you when I find something out.'

Sandra then hung up.

'What was all that about?' Gerry asked her.

'You know we were in my office on the phone before Strickland came barging in?'

'Yes.'

'Well you know our witness mentioned the name Michael Hopkins?'

'Yes. I don't see why this matters now.'

'That's the man Brian was out drinking with.'

I hope this is still okay and you're still enjoying this. Feel free to leave a review telling me what you think!

Beth xxx