Alec could see now she was in a dilemma, even if her friend came forward and didn't claim Rose had been drinking that night, he knew she was on shaky ground. In front of a judge to see if her testimony would hold may be easy enough but the defence finding the slightest thing and a jury listening as she got ripped to pieces and her having no choice but to stand there and take it or refuse to go ahead?
This was why he wanted her with him, not because he'd missed her so much over the last few months and being unable to find an excuse to bring her to the town but because the nearer the date, the more worried she would get. A few hours later, Alec was pulling into the block of flats that was to become Rose's new home. He helped her with her cases then said they should go to the local supermarket for groceries and anything else she needed.
Rose though wanted to know if she should change her address and if it was safe to register at the local health centre.
"Yes, it's safe," he tried to assure her as he pulled her into his shoulder. "You don't have to hide Rose, it will be a while before people even know there's a trial about to take place and the chances of anyone local being there are very slim. If we can keep the press out of the courtroom, you will be safe enough."
"Yeah, I hope so," she sighed into him.
"I know you're worried love," he assured her, kissing her forehead. "If it helps, I will get the chief to step up the search for your friend."
"What good's that gonna do Alec? What if she just says I drank as much as she did that night?"
"Then what about her mother or this mysterious Ken? I know it's Tess's fault for not investigating at the time but surely your friend's mother knows how much you drank? Tess should not have dismissed it as she did, she knows that. I want you to come into the station with me tomorrow and have a meeting with my chief. Will you do that?" he asked.
Rose nodded. "Yeah, if ya think I should?"
"I think he should meet you. You can ask him yourself about finding your friend but I also want to find out more about this Gary Thorpe, to find out where he disappeared to that night. He could still hold a lot of clues as to who chased him off but my bet is it was Lee Ashworth. Lee saw him as a rival, possibly. Maybe Claire being out, he saw an opportunity of being alone with Lisa. Maybe they got the younger girl to sleep and Lee saw the other man hanging around?"
"Yeah, Ken probably saw who was chasing him but thought since Lee was seeing him off, Ken just left him to it? Maybe it had happened before?"
He kissed her forehead again. "You are probably right love and I bet your friend would say the same. What about the morning after though? Was there anything going on when you were about to leave?"
"Not that I saw but I was getting ready to leave early, since the trains were all over the place. I wasn't gonna leave until the afternoon. I had to prove to Tess that I was there you know?" she asked him.
"In what way love?"
"That when I was leaving, a police car was up on the main road and the bus driver was at the junction, waiting to see where it was going. How would I know that unless I was there?" Rose asked him. "I wouldn't have asked Shareen would I?"
"I don't think you would have," Alec had to agree. "Say you heard about it on the radio the next day, there would be no point in you asking your friend if any police cars were there, the street was covered with them. Did you call your friend when you got home?"
"Yeah, I told ya, she didn't believe me," Rose replied.
"Never mind love, you will have told me all this before so leave it eh?"
The next morning, Rose got ready to go to the police station after they made breakfast together, just enjoying being around each other without fear of Rose leaving on a train later in the day. Alec though wasn't so sure she still wouldn't leave at some stage if things got too much for her.
He didn't know what he could do to make it any easier on her though. She had to face the court and eventually the accused who didn't know who she was but would do once she took the witness stand. He still wished she could do it via video link though, to make it easier on her. Maybe he should try the prosecution again?
Rose followed him into the police station, picking up a visitor's badge and went to wait in Alec's office while he saw the chief.
"I'm not sure it's a good idea having her here Alec," the chief reminded him.
"Well I do think it's a good idea, there will be a lot to go through soon enough. What about Ricky Gillespie?" Alec asked, wanting to get back to Rose before Tess pounced on her the first chance she got.
"What about Ricky Gillespie?" the chief asked. "You want him in a line-up?"
"Yes, I do want him in a line-up, since he got out of the last one," Alec replied.
"Then have someone call him and get him in tomorrow but he'll probably refuse," the chief told him.
"Not if he wants to clear his name," Alec disagreed. "Not that he knows we are fairly certain he was involved somehow. The most we can get him on is helping Lee Ashworth dispose of something, if Rose had seen him better later. That's just it," Alec stated. "Everything that went on that night was indoors, Rose only saw from the outside and apart from Pippa being carried out, it all seem innocent."
"I hardly think someone planning on illegally dumping something was innocent," the chief replied. "Still, we're presuming an awful lot of her Alec and losing that pendant didn't help. The defence knows by the way, I couldn't stop them."
Alec leaned forward. "Great, that's all we need though I'm surprised it took them this long or did they know all along?"
"Don't ask me, ask your now ex wife Alec," the chief told him. "Maybe Claire never mentioned it to her solicitor?"
"Why should she?" Alec asked him. "Anyway, I'll go get Rose, she's nervous enough as it is. We'll have to ask the prosecution if they told the defence our key piece of evidence was lost."
"Maybe they've managed to keep it quiet?" the chief hoped, looking forward to meeting the witness, who was now Alec's girlfriend and he hoped the defence hadn't already worked out the fact she was.
While Rose was waiting for Alec coming back, Tess hadn't been able to resist meeting her ex-husband's new girlfriend since she'd barely had anything to do with Rose the few other times Rose had visited the police station.
"So, you're here again then?" Tess mused as Rose turned when the door opened.
"Geez, I can see why you're a DS then?" Rose remarked. "Lost any more evidence lately?"
Tess supposed she'd walked right into that one. If she'd not lost the pendant, Alec would never have got involved with the blonde who was now going head to head in the catty remarks final of the century.
"Well you're only here because the evidence went missing, remember that," Tess replied.
"Yeah? Well don't think I wouldn't have rung back after you totally blew me off at the time. Do ya think I'd have stayed quiet if I'd seen it on TV that any trial was about to collapse?" Rose asked her.
Tess thought maybe she had a point. Alec would have done more digging anyway and knowing him, he'd have found out sooner or later she had tucked Rose's initial phone statement away.
"So are you staying in the town?" Tess asked.
"I'm staying with Alec, we're not hiding, well not yet. I just want you to know that there was nothing between us until I found out he was divorcing you," Rose told her.
"That's comforting," Tess replied. "Why are you getting all this special treatment?"
"Huh? The defence would love to get their grubby hands on me to find out what I know," Rose replied. "Do ya think it's fun, having to sneak around?"
"I'm saying no such thing," Tess protested.
She turned around when she heard Alec behind her.
"I hope you've been apologising to Rose?" he asked Tess as Rose turned around.
"What do I have to apologise for?" Tess wanted to know.
"Maybe for not believing I had something to say?" Rose replied, Alec putting his hand on her shoulder, trying to resist kissing her in front of Tess and thinking it may be worth it to see her face as he did so.
"Leave it Rose, the chief will see you now. Tess, I want Ricky Gillespie in for a line-up after lunch."
"He won't agree to it Alec," Tess reminded him.
"I don't care if he agrees or not, just get him in here. He knows someone saw him that night," Alec replied, holding his hand out to help Rose up.
"Yes but you've nothing else on him Alec," Tess told him.
"That's what the chief and I were just discussing Tess, we know that already but it will cast doubt on the fact he claims he went back to the wedding reception after he claimed he went to check on the girls that night. I also want to interview him again, I want to know if he actually saw them in the Ashworth's house that night and find out if anyone else had a key for their house."
"You're asking that now?" Tess wanted to know.
"Yes, Rose saw Claire being handed a key and she went into the Gillespie house so who gave her it? Come on Tess, it could have only been Ricky with that van that night so why is he getting away with denying it? Rose, are you certain that was what you saw when the van came back?"
"Yeah, whoever it was went in his pocket, handed something to Claire and she let herself in," Rose replied.
"Hang on," Tess interrupted. "You never saw what it was?" she asked Rose.
"What else could it have been? Unless Claire already had the key, what difference does it make? She went in there and whoever else was there got in the van and drove off. I never saw her come back out."
"There must be a gate between the two houses," Alec concluded, both women looking at him.
"Did anyone check at the time?" Tess asked him.
"It never seemed relevant at the time. Call Cate Gillespie and ask her if they made a gate, maybe if they were friends it was a way for them to use both gardens when they were socialising or if they were watching Pippa for her. If Claire went in there that night, she could have been checking on the girls but Rose saw Pippa being carried out so why did Claire go in there?"
"Alec, what if she was checking something?" Rose dared ask.
"Such as?" Alec asked her. "You mean it was her just making sure no signs of the girls had been left? Tess, you went in their house the next morning, what did Cate say to you while I was talking to her husband?"
"I'll have to get my notes," Tess confessed.
She went off to her desk, Rose sitting down again.
"Just when you thought this was sorted?" Rose managed to smile. "That's where she buried my statement, in the back of an old notebook?"
"Sorry love but at least your statement wasn't the only one, she had notes about your friend as well and what they told her that morning," Alec replied.
"Well Ken won't have seen much, he was off to football or something. Did anyone check?"
"Want to become a detective love?" Alec smiled. "We made enquires, as far as I know, nothing came of it, maybe we asked in the wrong places?"
"Well Shareen said it was in the opposite direction to the town, that's why he couldn't take us to the train station. Mind you, it was funny how Shareen never called me when she got back to say something was going on in the street," Rose replied.
"Yes, that does seem a little strange," Alec had to agree. "I know how you women just love some gossip," he smiled.
"That's typical of men," Tess told him as she came back in with her old notebook.
"Rose was just saying her friend never called to tell her something had happened that morning. If you saw something going on and your friend had just left, would you not want to tell them about it?" Alec asked her as Tess thumbed through to find the information.
"Maybe Rose's friend was giving her time to get home?" Tess suggested, seeing where she wanted. "I interviewed all three of them, this Ken had just got back so he saw nothing, apart from he said he'd had to leave his car at the end of the street and he complained the officers weren't going to let him go home until he saw Shareen Costello's mother outside watching and she told the officer he lived there. I spoke briefly to her, she said she'd known nothing until all the police showed up and Shareen herself had only just got back though she never said where she'd been."
"Well we know now she'd gone to the train station with Rose," Alec told her. "So what did she say?"
"That she'd been into town and just got back. Don't forget Alec, this was over an hour after the first officers were called out, we didn't arrive until later. By that time, searches were being conducted for the two girls, we knew nothing else at that stage."
"Yes and while we were searching for two girls instead of just one, we were wasting time because Rose had already left the area," Alec replied.
"Well how were we to know?" Tess asked indignantly.
"Geez, were you two always like this?" an amused Rose asked. "Tess, if ya had listened to me, you would have found Pippa three days earlier."
Alec scowled at her. "Tess, maybe if you'd asked if anyone else had been there, we may have got Rose's name?" he asked Tess.
"Maybe, maybe not? Shareen seemed very reluctant to say why she'd been out. Maybe she thought she was just keeping Rose from being questioned?" Tess asked.
"Or maybe she was already jealous?" Alec suggested. "She knew that Rose was at the window the night before, maybe she already knew Rose must have seen something?"
"Yeah," Rose agreed, feeling left out. "She must have already known if something had happened, when I asked her those few things. It's my fault she clammed up, I should have called her to watch."
"Rose, it would have made very little difference. If you'd both seen something, Shareen already admitted she'd been drinking, any statement from you would have assumed the same of you," he assured her, glancing at Tess.
"Well I'm not the only one who would have dismissed it," Tess insisted. "When I went back, I got a bit more out of Shareen but only how Rose had left her out while she was being nosy the night before."
"You never said that before," Alec looked at her. "Give me that notebook Tess, what else haven't you told me? All these months have gone by, Rose came forward so what are you hiding eh?"
"I'm not hiding anything Alec, it never seemed relevant at the time, it was just Shareen going on about her friend being there and she was annoyed Rose could have seen something but as soon as she said Rose had drunk as much as she'd done, I dismissed it."
"They would have sobered up by the next morning Tess and Rose wasn't drinking," Alec reminded her.
"We only knew that afterwards Alec. When I took Rose's call, I took her friend's statement into account and made a decision," Tess replied.
Rose and Alec looked at her.
"Well we all know you made the wrong decision now, don't we?" Alec asked her.
"Geez, thanks for the vote of confidence Tess," Rose snapped. "I knew you didn't believe me when you never called me back, even when the police were still asking for witnesses. What would ya have done if Alec hadn't found out about me?" she asked Tess, who wasn't keen Rose was using her first name.
Tess was about to reply they may be still married but she doubted that, they were already on the verge before it had all kicked off, the investigation was just the icing on the cake and Rose Tyler was the topping. They were interrupted by the chief calling Alec, wanting to know what the delay was.
"I want a copy of what's in your notebook Tess," Alec told her as Rose got up again.
He led Rose to the chief's office, stopping just outside.
"Ready for this?" he asked her.
"Yeah. Alec, did you go for the divorce because of me?"
"What? Is that what you think?" Alec asked her.
"Just tell me Alec 'cos that first time I came here and we were waiting for the train, you said something about it."
"Yes, I may have done but you were not the cause of it love, it was already on the cards," he tried to assure her. "Now no more, you are staying here, no matter what happens in there or in the court."
"Good, 'cos I told Tess I wouldn't have gone with you until I knew you were getting divorced," Rose smiled.
"I'm glad to hear it though I apologise for trying to make you feel sorry for me on your first visit," he smiled back, knocking on the chief's door.
"It worked," Rose whispered as they were told to enter.
Alec squeezed her hand then let go as he allowed her in first. After the introductions, the chief asked Rose how she felt about facing the court in a few days time.
"Not so keen but I need to get it over with," Rose replied honestly.
"Well DI Hardy will be with you when you have to appear. I'm aware of your relationship and while I'm not entirely happy about it, I won't insist you break it off. The hardest part will be the defence using that against you. I'm sure the prosecution will do everything in their power for you to remain anonymous."
"I hope so," Rose replied.
"We were just talking with Tess, she has a few things she never disclosed before, we had words about it," Alec informed the chief.
"Anything relevant?" the chief wanted to know.
"Plenty, such as the delay in knowing about Rose and her friend who lived across the street," Alec admitted. "She had no right to keep all that back, I should charge her with withholding evidence, I would not have expected her to be so low that she'd try to keep it quiet and use it to her advantage at a later stage," Alec replied.
"That's going a bit far Alec," the chief told him.
"Is it? Really?" Alec asked, shifting in his seat and wanting to pace the floor, the chief looking like he was daring him to. "Three or more witnesses got away because of her, are you on her side?"
"Calm down Alec, no, I'm not on her side. Get everything she had and have it gone through," the chief replied.
"I'm already on it," Alec told him. "She's a liability," he added.
"She was trying to be one up Alec, we know why she withheld it but maybe then, she purely forgot about it?" the chief suggested.
"How convenient then?" Alec asked him. "Anyway, Rose can pick Ricky Gillespie out of a line-up as the person she saw leaving the Ashworth house that night when he claimed he was elsewhere."
"You're sure it was him Miss Tyler?" the chief asked her. "His solicitor may want to question you."
"I thought I was protected?" Rose asked, not happy with the news.
"From the other defence," the chief replied. "Don't worry, we'll try and get the prosecution to extend that, I'll get onto them myself but since it's hardly likely it will go to court, they may not go for it."
"What?" Rose asked. "So they get to know who I am and then the other defence say if it's good enough for his defence, it's good enough for theirs?
"We don't know that Rose," Alec tried to assure her. "We don't even know what we can hold him on at this stage. We may only have him on conspiracy or at most impeding a police enquiry."
"Yeah, 'cos he hid when he came back," Rose pointed out. "He must have had a idea he was being watched then?"
"Maybe he'd begun to suspect?" Alec had to agree. "It would explain a lot but it also makes it more likely we would pursue it to find out."
"Yes Alec, I agree," the chief told him. "See what happens after the line-up then? Just keep a low profile for now, Miss Tyler."
"I'll try but it won't be easy," Rose replied.
When they left, Alec took her to the staff canteen and got her a drink.
"So what good is there, getting me to identify Ricky Gillespie?" Rose asked.
"We have to hope he will trip himself up," Alec replied. "There are still a lot of questions to be asked, about that weekend. Maybe his wife would be willing to tell us what they were arguing about on the Saturday morning?"
Rose smiled. "Yeah, then they will know they were being watched, that's a great help."
"Yes but at this stage they still think it was your friend," Alec pointed out. "Until such times as it goes to court, they will still think the same."
"Meaning?" Rose asked, wondering what he was getting at.
"We could light a fire under him and see what happens," Alec replied.