She heard the door and got up to greet the man she was growing to love.
"Daisy seems to like you," he smiled when they'd kissed. "I'm not sure about the two of you laughing about my doll house making skills though."
"Aw, we were just teasing ya," Rose grinned.
"I did gather that Rose. You do know that when she gets old enough, she may decide she wants to live with us?" he asked.
"I know and yeah, if that's what she wants, I've got no objections. Tess might have though?" Rose wondered.
"Don't worry about that eh?" he replied, sneaking another kiss. "Now, just take it easy and don't worry about not working, there is no point in making things worse between you and Claire."
"That's if she's still with Lee?" Rose replied.
"You were with him for quite a while," Alec reminded her.
"I don't even want to think about it Alec. Tell ya what, I'm glad I never gave in to him Alec. Something was stopping me giving away what I'll never get back."
"I know and you will get no pressure from me love, have no fear of that. I did wonder if you may want to explore more ways we can be closer? You can say no."
"I don't know Alec? It was pretty much the same with Lee, he was always saying 'come on Rose, let's try something else', like he was getting bored with me but he wouldn't let me alone. I was glad when I was out of bounds sometimes," Rose recalled.
Alec put his arms around her.
"Rose, that will never happen with us, okay? Whatever you need, if you need time to recover after your monthly then you only have to say and we can find another way of being close. Want to give it a try later, maybe?"
Rose managed to nod her agreement. She'd never had a man who was so considerate before. She went to rest her head on his shoulder as he held her close, he had waited patiently these last few weeks.
"Yeah, I want to try Alec. I mean so far, well it's nice to have no pressure."
"Well I would not want to spoil what we have. You be careful tomorrow that you don't go near that salon."
"It should be her day off, not that I'm going to visit," Rose laughed.
"Well even so, she could make things very difficult for you, even now," he replied, since he'd seen Claire earlier.
Why had Claire gone to him for help? She must have distanced herself from Lee Ashworth then? Had she mentioned it and he'd taken no notice? He thought it was just typical the judge had adjourned the trial and put Ashworth and Ricky Gillespie back on remand, the longer it went on, the longer Rose would be scared they would get off.
He still didn't know who had taken the pendant though, had it just been kids after all? He got to work the next morning and was handed a court document as the desk sergeant called him over.
"This was delivered for you Sir," he told Alec as Alec took it out of the envelope.
Alec hoped it was a court date for the trial. It was a court date but for a divorce hearing. Why had it been delivered here, Alec wondered as he read the details. Surely Tess had given his new address? He went off to confront her.
"My office," he suggested as he stood in front of Tess's desk, Dave showing interest. "Not you, Harris," he added as Tess got up.
"It may concern him," Tess objected.
"Forget it Harris," Alec suggested, not in the mood to play Tess's game.
The last few weeks, Tess had been making snide remarks about himself and Rose and he was tired of it.
"Whatever your game is Tess, it stops, from now," Alec told her as he closed his office door. "We keep work and our divorce separate, understand? I have gone too easy on you but no more. I'm putting the house up for sale, we will split any proceeds so start looking for somewhere else."
"What?" Tess was stunned at his sudden announcement. "That's short notice. Oh, don't tell me Rose is expecting and you want the money?" she scoffed.
"No, nothing of the sort, I have just had enough of your games Tess. Whatever you are planning, forget it, my copy of the court proceedings just came through, strange how they can fit that in and not a trial."
"Those are two different things Alec," Tess replied. "As for me, playing games, I don't know what you mean. What am I supposed to do about finding somewhere else to live? If I have to, you'll have to take Daisy until I do."
"What? Come off it Tess, that's no excuse. Get the personnel office to help re-house you then," he suggested. "I don't want anything in the way when it comes to the trial so, this is what we are going to do," he pointed his finger on the desk. "We are going to court, you are going to agree not to bring Rose into this and in return, I will not bring Dave into it, understand?"
Tess was already fuming at the idea. Yes, she wanted to bring Rose into it but Dave's wife would get to hear.
"So, you're bringing that up?" she asked.
"You started it Tess," he reminded her. "You expect me to do nothing about it? Really? You would spoil any chance of getting a conviction over Lisa and Pippa just to get your revenge on Rose and I? Do you really want that bringing up at the trial? You were careless Tess, someone followed you that day. Are you certain you were not followed?"
Tess sat herself down, trying to let her anger subside.
"There might have been a taxi behind me," she tried to remember. "As I pulled into the pub car park, under the canopy, one might have passed behind me."
"While you were greeting Dave, no doubt?" Alec asked sarcastically.
"Well it's only the same way you greet Rose," she gave as much back.
"Back to the point Tess. Was any CCTV ever retrieved from the pub?" he wanted to know.
"They will have recorded over any footage by now," Tess replied.
"So that means no-one has looked at it? Well, get onto it and find out," he hit his desk with his hand. "Tess, this was all basic procedure, you should have followed that up," he had to remind her.
"I was busy Alec plus the two didn't seem related at the time, I wasn't sure about the taxi, it may have stopped and was just driving off again when I saw it.," she admitted.
"What are you playing at Tess? As if getting a divorce wasn't bad enough, you fail to notice something like that. What about at the car sales that day? Think back, did you notice anyone paying too much attention, anyone who stood out in the crowd or may have stopped a passing cab?"
Tess shook her head, trying to remember. Had she noticed something other than a cab may have followed her? She still wasn't sure even about that.
"Hold on Alec, why would anyone passing the car sales be interested in following me? What did they have to gain? I wasn't carrying anything valuable and how did they know I was going to stop? While we're at it Alec, you should have insisted you took it, instead of you being too interested in Rose," she pointed out.
"Oh, don't give me that Tess, don't pin the blame on me. You are a senior officer and more than capable of returning evidence without stopping off somewhere on the way back," he reminded her. "While we are on the subject, who would be interested enough to follow you, eh?"
"Someone who was interested in the case?" she replied. "Only Ashworth knew we were going to search his car."
"Someone let him place a phone call Tess," Alec remembered because he'd been annoyed about it. "Get onto the custody sergeant and get the phone records for the day we held Lee Ashworth. There's one person he may have called."
"You mean Claire Ripley?" Tess wondered. "Why was she hanging around last night? What did she want with you?"
"Nothing Tess, back to the case," he tried to avoid answering, seeing how she was looking at him. "It was nothing to do with the case, it was a message for Rose," he lied, knowing Tess wouldn't be interested. "Go find out who he called Tess, now, then get Claire in for questioning. If you had remembered that taxi, we may have gone to trial by now."
Alec knew he was right, who else would Ashworth have been calling that day and why hadn't he followed up on it? It had seemed unimportant at the time and like everything else, it had got pushed to one side. He assumed Ashworth had told Claire to get to the car sales, she'd seen Tess drive off and had luckily got a cab and followed. Why had Tess been so careless though, had she been getting back at him?
It was soon established that was what had happened and officers went to pick Claire up from the salon, where she had dragged herself in to work even after the procedure she'd had the day before. Alec was waiting outside.
"What's all this about?" she asked him innocently.
"You already know Claire. Did Ashworth move out?" he replied.
"A few weeks ago, why?" she asked, recalling when she'd asked him to leave, he'd told her he already had something lined up.
"Did he ask you to follow us to where his car had been sold, then you followed DS Henchard?"
"What?" Claire laughed as she got into the police car. "Why would I do that?"
"You know why Claire," he indicated for the WPC to get in beside her. "We have plenty of questions for you."
He could see her staring at him on the way back to the police station, a smile on her face. He just hoped she wouldn't bring up the fact he had gone to the clinic with her last night. He wasn't so lucky though as Tess joined him to question her.
"Why did you follow me that day, from the car sales?" Tess began to ask Claire.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Claire still insisted.
"We talked to your staff, Claire," Alec told her. "They remember you leaving that day."
"So, what if I left? I had somewhere to go," Claire stared at him again. "Why did you go with me last night?" she challenged him.
"What's she talking about Alec?" Tess wanted to know, going to turn the recorder off.
"Leave it. You know why I went with you Claire. Should I tell DS Henchard where you went?"
He saw the smile disappear from Claire's face.
"Does Rose know about us?" Claire then continued.
Tess wanted to hear more but didn't want it recorded but Alec stopped her turning the recorder off again.
"You were with Lee, Claire, there is no us. I will tell everyone where you were last night, so stop playing games," he insisted.
"When we were together, you hurt me, Alec, you forced me to have sex with you and forced me to get an abortion. You shouldn't have done that," Claire carried on.
"Fine, we can stop the interview, you can have me charged and I'll be arrested, is that what you want Claire?" he stared back at her.
Claire went quiet.
"Is any of that true Alec?" Tess turned to him, wondering if he'd been cheating on Rose.
"Of course it isn't Tess," Alec lost his temper. "Have you finished Claire? Lee got you to leave work and see what was going on when we were searching his car. Do you know what we found Claire?" Claire shook her head. "We found evidence that Lee had one of the girls in his car that night. That proves on top of the witness we have that he was responsible for Pippa's death."
"We can charge you with being an accessory Claire," Tess told her. "What's it going to be? Did you break into another car and steal an evidence bag? We can do a deal if you return it, you'll just get a caution but we need that evidence, to put him away."
"If I admit anything, he'll go after me, if he gets out," Claire replied.
"Then you will know how Rose feels," Alec told her. "Where's the pendant Claire?"
When they had finished, Alec took the evidence bag to the chief's office.
"Where was it Alec?" the chief asked him.
"Claire Ripley had it, she followed Tess's car to where she was meeting Dave," Alec replied. "Ashworth was allowed a phone call during his interrogation, for which DS Henchard accepts no responsibility but she does for leaving the evidence unattended. What now?"
"We see if we can get a trial date Alec. Anything else you want to tell me?" the chief didn't seem amused.
"Claire Ripley was pregnant by Ashworth, I took her to a clinic last night to abort it," Alec admitted.
"Why you?" the chief wanted to know.
"She trusted me, for some reason. Maybe because Rose trusts me? Now we have the pendant, I will send it for testing. By the way, Tess and I are proceeding with our divorce, she is not bringing Rose into it."
"I hope not Alec," the chief replied. "We don't want that bringing up during the trial. Carry on."
Alec broke the news to Rose when he got home, including where he'd been last night.
"Ya didn't have to tell me Alec," Rose told him as they'd eaten.
"I did not want her twisting things around Rose. I wanted to be honest with you. You were lucky it never happened to you, when you were with Lee Ashworth. By the way, I am putting the house up for sale, I am not making any more part mortgage payments on it. Daisy may have to stay for a while."
"That's not a problem Alec and yeah, you're doing the right thing, selling the house," Rose assured him. "Ya didn't have to tell me about Claire either."
"I did not want you to hear it elsewhere. Now we have the pendant, we should get a trial date," he replied confidently.
It wasn't long before Rose received notice to attend as a witness and she prayed that her living with Alec wouldn't spoil things. It was all still being kept quiet but Rose had a nasty feeling that because Lee and Ricky knew it was her, the defence wouldn't go easy on her but she only had to attend Lee's. On the first day, Alec had to let Rose make her own way to the court and they had to stay apart until one of them was called.
Alec was in first, giving his account of when he was called to the Gillespie house on the Sunday morning. The defence made a point of asking him what had led him to suspect Lee had seen both girls that night. The prosecution objected, saying this trial was only concerning Pippa and although the two were connected, Alec was relieved. He was in no mood to answer questions about how Rose had led him to believe Lee Ashworth was guilty of killing Pippa and helping to cover up what had happened to Lisa.
He was hoping the wait would soon be over for Rose, he knew she was nervous enough without wondering what was going on in the courtroom. Her mother had wanted to visit but Alec had discouraged her, saying Rose needed to concentrate and he didn't want Jackie Tyler going on at him by saying Rose had been playing with fire leaving Lee for him to which Alec had retaliated by saying did she want her daughter to stay with an abusive partner?
He knew Jackie had objected from the start by telling Rose she shouldn't have got in the middle of a divorce.