Notes: This chapter isn't particularly exciting if you've seen the original show. Just kind of going through as they collect all of the facts, but important nonetheless. I've tried to include Rose's usual comments that point out the observances we were all screaming at the TV screen as we watched. Enjoy.
Chapter 21 - Drawing Conclusions
When Rose awoke the next morning, Alec was already out of bed. She could smell breakfast and tea from the kitchen and wrapped her dressing gown around herself as she made her way out of the bedroom. She was slightly surprised to see Alec dressed in his usual suit as he went over the papers of the Sandbrook evidence while drinking his tea.
Jackie handed her a cup and she filled her plate. She was famished after her upset stomach the night before and the bacon smelled fantastic.
"I am ready, love. We are going to light a fire under them and we are going to solve this!" he nearly shouted enthusiastically.
"Someone's excited," she commented with a smile.
"I'm reborn! I'm on fire! We'll call Miller and we'll need Tess to get the case officially reopened, so I want to keep her in the loop too," Alec rambled.
"Alright, invite them both over and we can work out a game plan. I'm glad you're feeling better, love," Rose told him as she stuffed her face with eggs and toast. "I'll just need to get cleaned up, yeah?"
It was two hours later when Ellie and Tess arrived at the house. Alec had gone out for a bit while Rose made herself presentable, though he wouldn't say why. Rose had insisted to both of them that the news of her pregnancy should stay a secret for now, just in case something happened. And they would need to come up with a proper press release through the Tyler's PR people.
"Claire's gone from the house. Then I found a pile of ash in the sink, presumably from where she burnt the photograph of herself wearing this pendant," Miller told them once everyone was together.
"Really? You think Pippa's pendant actually belonged to Claire?" Tess asked, not having heard about that news the day before.
"Well, Claire was wearing it in the photograph I saw. So, she must have given it to Pippa at some point," Ellie deduced.
"And now she's burnt the photo. She's panicking. That's good, eh? I like it when they panic," Alec said excitedly.
Rose beamed at his newfound enthusiasm. This was a side of him that she hadn't seen before. She knew that it was partially because he felt so much more energetic after his surgery, but she thought some of it might be about the baby too.
"Yeah, so what? Claire kills the girls and Lee covers for her? What would be her motive?" Ellie wondered.
"Not necessarily. We've always felt that she was involved, but it doesn't mean that she killed them directly," Rose interjected.
"I knew I'd seen this name before, Gary Thorp," Tess called from where she was looking over some papers tacked on the wall.
"Yeah, he runs that incinerator business, Thorp Agriservices," Ellie confirmed from her research into the business before.
"Yeah, he was also on the invite list to the wedding Ricky and Kate went to. RSVP'd yes, but didn't turn up on the day," Tess replied triumphantly as she found a connection between those points.
"So, does he know Ricky and Kate? We haven't talked to him?" Alec asked.
"There was no connection until now, I'll get onto it. And no, it doesn't mean we're gonna reopen the case," Tess told him firmly. "Right, what are you three going to do?"
"Miller is gonna give Claire one last chance to confess," Alec insisted.
"Oh, am I?" Ellie questioned, not impressed with being ordered around by her former boss.
"Aye, you are. We're gonna set a fire under her," he growled.
"What about you two?" Tess asked.
"We're going to light the fire under Lee. Then we watch which way they run," he replied with a frightening sneer.
"Right then, we've all got our jobs figured out. We'd best get to it," Rose announced and gathered all of their mugs to put in the kitchen.
Jackie walked into the room then and looked startled at them preparing to leave. "Oi! Aren't you supposed to be resting? Where do you all think you're off to?" she questioned.
"Sorry, Mrs. Tyler, but we've got a mystery to solve," Alec called to her as he took Rose's hand and pulled her with him out the door.
"I told you, it's Jackie! And don't you two dare do anything dangerous!" she shouted after them from the doorway.
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Lee came down to meet them as they approached his little shed. Alec squeezed Rose's hand in reassurance before addressing the man they were fairly sure had killed at least one of the girls.
"Where's Claire?" he asked, knowing the question would likely make him worried.
"Don't you know?" Lee countered.
"She's left the cottage," Alec informed him.
"What did she do that for?" Ashworth wondered.
"Anyway, we came to say, thank you," Alec told him with a smile, avoiding the fact that he had told Claire to get out of the cottage.
"For what?"
"South Mercia Constabulary have authorized the Sandbrook investigation to be re-opened. New leads, new evidence. We could never have done it without that information that you gave us," Rose lied convincingly.
"Not gonna take long to wrap it up now," Alec added as he draped an arm over Rose's shoulders and smirked at the man.
"Are you alright? There's something different about you today," Lee questioned.
"I'm more than alright, Lee. I'm reborn!" Alec answered excitedly.
"What?" Ashworth asked, chuckling as if Hardy might have lost his mind.
"I thought this case would kill me. I thought I would die not knowing; having failed. Then I had my operation. After it, when I woke up and I was alive, I discovered that I can do anything now. I've got so much ahead of me and this case, it makes me angry. Really, properly angry. For the Gillespies, for Pippa, for Lisa. I'm not broken anymore. Now, I've got a new lease on life. Whereas you, of course, look at you. You're exhausted. Sick of running. Sick of not being able to escape what happened. I get that," Alec told him.
"You don't get anything about me," Lee growled.
"What I don't get is whether you're lying to protect yourself or someone else?" Rose wondered.
"Presumably, Claire," Alec added. "I'd always thought she was lying to protect you. Maybe it's the other way 'round. You can't trust her."
"You're wrong," Lee replied confidently.
"Am I? She ever tell you she was pregnant?" Alec asked.
"When?" Lee demanded, suddenly angry.
"Judging by the dates, well from before the night Lisa and Pippa went missing. So, all the time you were in custody," Alec told him.
"You're lying," he denied adamantly.
"Why would he?" Rose interjected.
"Ask her," Alec replied.
"So what happened to it?" Lee said as if he still didn't believe it to be true.
"Why don't you ask her?" Alec concluded and they turned to walk back to Rose's car.
As Rose pulled her car back onto the main road, Alec received a call from Tess about Gary Thorp and they decided to go and interview him while he was at work. Rose set her GPS for the drive back to Sandbrook and Alec called Miller to see how things had gone in court that day.
"You bribed your sister?!" he shouted into his phone. "Can you not see how that could get put together? Well, that's alright then! It could go either way. Juries are funny animals. Rose and I are going to interview Gary Thorp. Tess found out a few things and I want to talk to him. Alright, yeah. Bye."
"What was that all about?" Rose asked.
"Miller gave her sister some money to cover her debts the same day that she gave us her statement about what she saw the night of the murder. So, of course the defence feels that she bribed her sister to make up evidence to frame Joe," Alec explained.
"God, I know she's your friend and she keeps getting a raw deal on this, but it seems like she keeps digging the hole deeper for herself half the time, yeah?" Rose groaned as yet another mistake went against them.
They entered the building and found a young man washing a car diligently.
"Gary Thorp?" Alec asked. At the young man's nod, he added, "South Mercia Police."
"Are you the same Gary Thorp who owns Thorp Agriservices?" Rose questioned.
"Used to. It was my dad's business. When he died, I took it over. Went bankrupt. What's this about?" Gary explained.
"Um, did Kate Gillespie do your business accounts?" Alec asked.
"Not to my knowledge."
"Have you ever met Kate, or her husband, Ricky?" he wondered.
"Yeah, once. He lent me cash when I was in trouble. Uh, money came through his niece, Lisa," Gary told them.
"So you knew Lisa Newbury?" Rose asked curiously.
"We went out a couple of times," he admitted.
"Was it serious?" she queried.
"I wish!" he scoffed. "I fell for her, big time. I thought she was the one, and she didn't feel the same about me."
"Why didn't you come forward when Lisa disappeared?" Alec demanded.
"I wasn't in any state," he answered nervously.
"Why not?" Rose asked more gently.
"The business was in a state 'cause I wasn't paying attention to it and my whole life started unravelling really quickly, everything went out of control," he told them.
"What do you mean, out of control?" Rose pressed slightly.
"I used to follow her a little bit. Stand outside where she was. I'm not proud of it," he admitted reluctantly.
"Like when she was babysitting? Did you stand outside the Gillespie's house when she was there? Where were you on the night the two girls disappeared?" Alec insisted.
"In hospital. I tried to kill myself," the young man said finally.
They let the young man get back to work and went to the car. He was clearly unstable, but he wouldn't have killed Lisa. The question was whether there was some kind of connection.
"Why did he try to kill himself on that night specifically? What if he was at the Gillespie's before his attempted suicide? Maybe he saw something or talked to someone and it made him crack?" Rose theorized.
"We should talk to Ricky again. See why he gave him money and what the relationship was from the other side," Alec suggested.
Alec called Ricky Gillespie and they were instructed to meet him at his office. It was a portable unit on a construction site, but he seemed to make himself at home there.
"So, what are you here for?" Ricky asked.
"Did you ever give money to a Gary Thorp?" Alec questioned as Rose looked around the office.
"Nope, never heard of him," he denied quickly.
"He went out with Lisa a couple of times, got a business called Thorp Agriservices," Alec explained further.
"Yes. Yeah, I did give him some cash. Lisa asked for some help, said he had a cash flow problem, that I'd get it back," Ricky admitted, as if finally realizing who the boy was.
"Why didn't you tell us at the time?" Alec wondered.
"Uh, 'cause it didn't seem important and it never came up," Ricky told him.
"Did you know he ran an animal incineration business?" Alec informed him, knowing that he might use that to try and pin things on someone else.
"Jesus. Do you think he had something to do with it?" Ricky gasped.
"How long have you had this picture?" Rose interrupted suddenly from the other side of the room.
"A year? Two?" Ricky replied confusedly.
"Do you like bluebells?" she asked him.
"Yeah, yeah. They're alright. They're a flower, aren't they?" Ricky stuttered, unsure of what this had to do with their questions regarding the girls.
"Well, thank you very much for your time," Alec said suddenly and led Rose back outside.
When they were a few steps from the door, Rose asked, "Did you copy down the number Ellie got from Claire's phone?"
"No, but I can call Ellie. You think it might be his office number?" he realized.
"Maybe," she said, glancing back at the office nervously.
Alec asked Ellie to call the number she had copied from Claire's mobile and sure enough, they could hear the phone ringing from inside Ricky's office at the same time. They got back into the car as their minds swirled with possibilities.
"Ok, so Ricky has a picture of bluebells in his office, Claire has that number on her mobile, Claire has been sent bluebells through the mail, and the area around where Pippa's body was found was covered in bluebells at the time of the murder. He knows who killed his daughter. If he didn't do it himself, then why is he protecting that person by not telling?" Rose deduced. "Did Claire kill Pippa and that's why he sent her bluebells?"
"Maybe they have something on him? If he comes forward about whoever killed Pippa, they'll tell on him?" Alec theorized.
"Does that mean he might have killed Lisa? Why would he kill his niece?" Rose wondered.
Rose and Alec drove back to the house, not wanting to leave Jackie on her own for too long. It would give them a chance to jot down some of their theories as well. Jackie went back to London on Sunday afternoon with many kisses, hugs and tears for both of them. She insisted that they visit soon, so that Alec could meet the rest of the family.
"Well, you survived meeting my mother. Didn't even get a slap! That's better than the Doctor managed," Rose teased.
"I'll keep that in mind, love. Should probably give my Da a call, so you can meet him too," Alec replied and wrapped an arm over her shoulders.
"They're finishing up the trial tomorrow. Do you think they'll convict him?" Rose wondered.
"I dunno. Just because we know that he confessed to it without any coercion, doesn't mean the jury will believe it," Alec responded with a sigh. He had seen one of his cases fall apart so dramatically before and knew just how easy it was for things to go wrong.
"Let's get some rest and we can deal with that tomorrow."
They sat with Ellie in the courtroom as they listened to the two barristers give their closing remarks on the case. The crown reiterated all of the evidence against Joe Miller and questioned why he didn't run eagerly into the witness box to defend himself. In her opinion, the only logical reason for that was that he knew that he couldn't defend himself. The defence, once again tried to accuse Mark of killing Danny and asking Nigel to dispose of the body for him. She insisted that it was impossible to be completely sure that he had committed the atrocity he was accused of.
After the jury were sent for deliberations, Rose saw Beth and Mark outside of the courtroom. Alec stayed nearby. They weren't his friends, but they were Rose's and it had been his responsibility to gather all of the evidence in the case.
"Honestly, if they really want to say that you had done it, Mark, they still proved that Joe was there. Wouldn't he be claiming that he had witnessed it? Wouldn't he say that he saw it happen? This whole thing is ridiculous," Rose fumed.
"I know, Rose. We all know what really happened. Thanks for being here with us," Beth said, trying to calm her down.
"I'm sorry. I should be the one helping you through this and I'm just stressing you out more," Rose apologized.
"The judge has let the jury go today. They'll be reconvening tomorrow," Ms. Knight's assistant, Ben, informed them.
"How long will it take?" Beth questioned, rocking the sleeping baby in her arms gently.
"It could be done within an hour tomorrow, could be a week, it's impossible to predict," he admitted.
"Do we have to come in tomorrow if they're still discussing?" Beth wondered.
"No, but if they reach a verdict, they'll read it immediately," Ben told her regretfully.
"We have come back and sit and wait?" Mark grumbled.
"Yeah," Ben acknowledged.
"Whole bloody system stinks," Mark complained from where he was leaning to overlook the lower level of the building.
"I'm sorry Mark, I know it can't have been easy for you in there," Ben apologized, knowing that the whole trial had been as hard or worse on the family than the pain of the loss had been to begin with.
"You have no idea," Mark replied quietly.
Rose and Alec said their goodbyes to the family for the evening. They called Ellie over to discuss all of the new details that evening. They knew that they were getting close to figuring it all out, but they needed to find the proof that would allow them to really convict someone.
"Recurring suspects, what were they doing in the 12 hours before Lisa and Pippa went missing?" Alec asked as he paced the dining room.
"Uh, right. Claire left work at four o'clock and she went to do Cate's hair for the wedding party that night," Ellie said as she and Rose drew with different coloured markers on the map. "Ricky, he got home at 4:45, having spent the afternoon at a building site doing foundations."
"Lee finished a job that morning, putting in flooring in a church hall, then went to buy stock. We've got him on CCTV in the carpark, a receipt timed at 14:27, so that all tallies. And then, Claire and Cate remember hearing him working on his own floor when Claire was doing Cate's hair," Alec added as he drew his own marker lines on the map. He indicated a picture that they had of Lee, Claire and Pippa sitting with the unfinished flooring around them.
"When was that taken?" Ellie asked as she looked closely at the photo.
"About a week before," he replied quickly and refocused on the other people they had examined. "That leaves Gary Thorp, who says he spent all day and most of the evening at work. The place was on a seven day, twenty four hour activity during that period."
"Well, so the furnace was alight all weekend? Who else knew that?" Ellie questioned.
"See, this is what bothers me. When I asked about Thorp Agriservices, he lied. He said maybe it was connected to Cate," Alec told her.
"Yeah, he seemed to remember giving money to Gary rather quickly, once it was clear that we knew about it," Rose added.
"He'd heard that name before, he knew it was connected. How?" Alec wondered.
"Well, Gary Thorp is a credible suspect, especially if he was stalking Lisa," Ellie responded.
"But Gary was a mess. He clearly has some kind of anxiety issues and I checked into it as best I could, he was in hospital that night after an attempted suicide. Even if he had killed them before trying to kill himself, he wouldn't have had a chance to dispose of the bodies," Rose interjected.
"And how does Lee Ashworth know he was stalking Lisa? We only know 'cause Thorp told us. Ashworth would have no reason to know that," Alec realized.
"Unless Lisa told him," Ellie agreed.
"Oh! What if, like I said before, Gary was there at the house that night and Lee spoke to him? Scared him and that's what made him snap and go try to kill himself? I thought maybe he saw it and went mad, but Lee's a scary guy," Rose suggested.
"If that's the case, Lee must have known Lisa better than he's ever admitted," Ellie added.
"Mustn't he?" Alec agreed excitedly.
"Time to have another chat with Lee?" Rose asked with a smile.