"When we find this thing. I won't show any mercy."
Jack opened his mouth, unable to respond. He didn't recognise the girl sitting next to him. The stranger that couldn't be Rose Tyler glanced at him once last time before leaving the car. He gathered his wits, and rushed to join her.
Jack grabbed Rose by the arm, swinging her round to face him. "What are you thinking? I thought we dealt with your anger."
"We did." she snapped. "But then another innocent person died, scared and alone. I can't -" She swallowed hard, meeting his gaze. "I want to find this thing and stop it, before anyone else has to suffer." Rose yanked her arm back, then marched into the broken home. Stunned, all Jack could do was follow, praying that the Bad Wolf would retreat to her cage.
Meanwhile, Ianto Jones had done something very clever... possibility life threatening and stupid, but he did it anyway. The team was running out of time, so he chose to ignore the very careful instruction of "Do Not Tamper with the Rift." set out by Jack when he signed up.
By using the rift energy, he was able to amplify the teleport energy signatures and was now able to locate the traces as they had become weaker, pinpointing the alien's movements since the murders had started. Ianto was determined to find to find the ship, solve the mystery and bring the one person he needed home.
He pushed his wheelchair away from the computer desk. Gwen was in Jack's office looking for something so he decided to take a chance. He carefully bent down and took off his shoes and socks. Staring at his bare left foot, Ianto tried moving his toes. He knew that Gwen said it would take a bit longer but with all the bad stuff that had happened, they needed something positive.
The struggling Welsh man tried to wiggle his big toe but nothing happened. He tried again, scrunching up his face, willing his muscles to move, but the toe was still frozen. Ianto sighed, hating that he got his hopes up.
"You okay?" Gwen asked, standing behind him. She had seen everything.
He nodded, but didn't turn to face her properly. He felt embarrassed, almost useless. A spare part that would be forgotten. He had worked so hard to prove that he still belonged on the team but was unaware that his risk was about to pay off and give the team a clue in the puzzle that would be vital to the planet's survival.
"Take your time." Alec said, as he watched the traumatised woman carry on with her story. The Broadchurch officers were doing their best to comfort Helen's mother, a woman who looked remarkably like her daughter, down to the same red hair as Brian and his team examined the crime scene.
The woman dried her tears with a soggy tissue, clutching it tighter as the words caught in her throat. "I wanted to check on her. She had just lost Billy and I thought she shouldn't return to the hospital so quickly. Helen always threw herself into her work, she never took a break."
The team had moved her into the kitchen, as far as possible from the smell that lingered in the home. Ellie made her a cup of tea and placed the only clean and yet flowery mug next to her. She winced at the choice but felt it was better than nothing.
Helen's mother took swig of the drink and carried on. "I found the door locked so I used my own keys. I shouted for her, thought maybe she had overslept. Then I found her."
Words that a parent should never utter. Both having families of their own, Alec and Ellie knew how protective someone could be other their children and couldn't bear the pain if they lost of one of them. Realising her fragile state, they left her with another officer and went to see the body for themselves.
Walking towards the stench, they found Brian in the bathroom taking samples from the bathroom floor. In the middle of the room was the mangled corpse of Helen Jones and just like her boyfriend, the body had been stripped clean and her chest cracked. Blood was dripping from the shower curtain and the tiled walls.
Alec stepped inside the room and examined the body, her limps spread out across the floor, almost like she had been dumped there. His eyes darted to the ceiling. It's almost like she was dropped in. But how could that be?
Ellie stayed in the doorway, as they wasn't enough space for them in the cramped room. "What do we know?" she asked, her voice cracking.
"Same killer as before… but this time..." Brian's voice trailed off, unable to believe the evidence. He was a man of science, but this was impossible. Growing impatient, Alec raised an eyebrow waiting for him to explain. Brian carried on. "From what we could tell the killer didn't strip the flesh from her body, not with a knife anyway, but bit her."
"Are you saying this is a wild animal?" Ellie muttered, shocked.
"An animal that size would be impossible, especially in this area. The only animal I could suggest to do something like this would be a wild dog or something. But even then it wouldn't clean the skeleton like this. There is no scrap of meat on her."
"Why strip the body? Is it a ritual killing? I mean are we dealing with a cannibal?" Alec suggested, kneeling down by the body. He was asking too many questions again which silently told Ellie that he was trying to make some sense of all the fragments they had.
"What makes you think it's eating them?" Ellie said, her voice rising as her stomach turned.
"There are teeth marks along the bones." Brian informed them. "We're just confirmed those on the last body, I was going to debrief you when this came through. They were hardly noticeable on the last corpse, but on this one, the teeth seem to be bigger and longer. There are indentions along the ribs, legs and along the neck. Which means…"
"There's more than one killer." Ellie finished.
Alec grimaced as Brain pointed to the marks on her bones. Holding his breath and placing his glasses on the end of his nose, he leaned in closer, careful not to touch the body, but clearly saw the marks where the teeth of whatever it was they were dealing with had grinded against the woman's bones.
"Can you give us a moment?" Ellie asked.
Brian nodded and left the officers to their theories. "This can't be a coincidence, can it?" she asked her boss, hoping he would have some idea.
Alec turned his attention back to what remained of the terrified woman he had interviewed not a few days ago. "Honesty, I don't know." He put his glasses back into his pocket.
"We should have done more." she stated, coldly.
"That would have wasted resources. Money we don't have." he retorted, trying to make his statement sound less harsh. He thinned his lips, disgusted by his own words. Ellie was right, they should have done more.
Captain Jack Harkness was in charge of Torchwood. He was the one that made all the tough decisions, all the hard calls that no one dared to admit but with all that came the right to feel a little higher than the police, to have a certain arrogance that followed him. He always was the one to tell the police that Torchwood was on the case but this time, the Bad Wolf was on the prowl and had already flashed her ID allowing her access.
Rose wandered through the house until she heard the familiar Scottish accent echoing through the hall. Her harden look made the police move out of her way and came upon Alec and Ellie stepping out of the bathroom.
"Rose?" Alec said, slightly alarmed by sudden and yet welcome presence.
Ellie's eyebrows shot up, confused by the sudden familiarity in his voice. Rose? When did that happen?
"Hey, Alec." she said, a warmer look appearing on her face.
Alec? Ellie thought, what have I missed? Rose looked like she wanted to slap him the other night. She eyed the two carefully, completely thrown by the first names basis being used. Ellie had worked with Alec for over a year and yet she hardly ever called him that.
She blinked, then regained her concentration when she saw Jack standing behind Rose. Thinking of the case, she led the specialists into the bathroom.
Rose went in first, and her guilt hit her like a blow to the stomach. She clenched her fist, stopping the tears before they slipped from her eyes. Need to stay professional. She took breath and let her eyes look over the body. I'm sorry, she thought. I'm so sorry.
"Do we know anything?" Jack asked.
"Nothing." Ellie said. "Her mother is in the kitchen, trying to come to term with what's happened. I don't know if you can."
"I want to talk to her." Jack said, looking at Alec.
But the DI was focused on Rose standing in front of him. He wanted to talk to her, he was hardly listening to anything else. The look of sadness on her face was heart-breaking. She was taking this personally and it could hurt the case instead of help them. Without looking at him, Alec said. "Ellie, go with him."
The colleagues exchanged a confused glance before leaving them alone.
"Rose, are you okay?"
She didn't turn to face him, fearing it would break her strong façade. "I deal with this sort of thing all the time." Rose informed him, but not giving too much away. "But recently it just seems to be getting to me more."
Alec went to reach out an arm to her but retreated when she spun around to him. Instead he tugged his ear and softened his tone. "It happens to everyone. I've been there too." He offered a small smile which she gratefully returned.
Rose… I need to tell you-
Remembering her dream from the night before, Rose snapped her attention back to the case, ignoring her racing heartbeat.
"A…any sign of forced entry?" Rose stammered, gazing around the room.
"No, her mother had used her own set of keys."
Rose rested her hands on her hips. "You don't think that's a bit suspicious?"
"Yeah. I'm waiting to hear your opinion." Alec told her looking her up and down.
"We don't have time to play games, detective." She said, beamused.
"I'm not playing games, Rose." he told her, his heated gaze piercing through again. Her feelings were getting harder to ignore, she hadn't felt like on the spot since John asked her about Nano – genes. Oh, so long ago.
"The killer could have a set of keys, which suggests he or she could known Helen." Rose said, fiddling with her fingers. "Could be someone close to her, someone she knew? Maybe she let the person in? But then whoever this was would have had to have locked the door after."
But with the Torchwood agent knowing the truth behind the case, Rose had her own theory. The alien can teleport. It can only teleport one thing at a time, so it didn't bring her here. It just dropped her here. Must have fallen from the ceiling. She locked up the house from the yesterday, ready to go to work, and after meeting me she must have been attacked. Helen would never have been able to fight this thing off. But why bring her back home? We found Billy at the cliffs. It knows Torchwood is involved, so it's leaving us away from the trail. I'll have to double-check with Ianto what the teleport signature from last night looked like. But it still doesn't explain why the alien would bring her here? How did it know her address?
Rose pulled her hair behind her ears. "Where's her bag?" she asked, suddenly.
Alec raised her eyebrow, sounding confused. "Her bag?"
"The killer might have used her keys, if they didn't have their own set." Rose said, lying about her true intention. She needed to make sure if she was right. Might be on to something here.
He nodded in agreement. Rose walked past him on a search to find the missing bag. Speechless, Alec followed her, curious to where this was going.
Jack questioned Helen's mother but in her state of shock, she couldn't tell them much. Ellie told the officers to take her home and they would come to speak to her later. They watched her leave, both feeling guilty for letting her and her daughter down.
Once they were out of earshot, Ellie turned to Jack. "What kind of sick bastard does this?"
"One with no moral compass." Jack answered, coldly. He had seen his fair few of cold-blooded killers, both human and alien.
"Did Helen and the killer know each other? We talked to Billy's friend, Gary. He asked about Helen. We'll have to interview him again."
"Have you spoken to the press yet?" Jack asked, sitting down on the chair.
"No." Ellie said, surprised by the sudden change in topic. "We were going to release a statement later today, but I'll have to see what Hardy says."
Jack shrugged, then jumped from his seat when his phone rang loudly. He grabbed it from his pocket and answered. "Ianto, lovely to hear your voice, but I'm busy."
"Jack, listen to me. I've found the ship."