Claire had no luck catching Alec, since he went around the back way where his car was parked so Claire went off, determined to go back on Monday, even if it meant having time off her new job. She was out of luck though as she got to work and the owner called to say Claire would have to be in charge as she needed some time off.
She thought maybe Alec would ignore her anyway, if he had a case to solve similar to his last one. Then she had a horrible thought – had Lee come to the area and killed that boy to get hers and Alec's attention? Would he go that far?
Alec was thinking more or less the same as he got to his office on the Monday morning and Ellie knocked on his door.
"How's Rose taking it?" Ellie wanted to know as she was invited to sit.
"She was very quiet over the weekend," he replied. "She was so happy over the baby, well we both were, then this happens."
"Well, I was thinking. Is there any chance that man from your last case followed you?" Ellie was reluctant to ask. "I got thinking about it after that telephone engineer mentioned it."
"That's what I'm afraid of Miller," Alec admitted.
Rose had tried to get him to call her Ellie but to no avail. Poor Ellie had just had to get used to it and often called him Hardy to annoy him. He'd got that he preferred her calling him that as opposed to 'Sir' all the time. He wasn't going to admit it to her though.
"You think it's really him?" Ellie didn't believe she might be right. "What did Danny do to him then? I know why Lee Ashworth killed that girl then covered it up but to leave Danny on the beach? It makes no sense."
"Why would he come back after all this time and kill Danny to get my attention? How did he even know Rose was here?" Alec replied.
Ellie thought about it.
"Maybe he didn't? Maybe he'd somehow got to know you'd moved here and assumed Rose was with you?" she suggested. "Maybe he asked at your old station where you'd gone?"
"Don't be daft Miller, they would never tell him where I was. Maybe Tess did though?" He banged his fist on the table. "If I found out she did?"
"You don't know that," Ellie dismissed the idea. "I don't know, maybe we're wrong but we have a town full of suspects and none of them are being ruled out. At this moment I only trust the men in this station, Joe, Mark and you. Oh, maybe Nigel as well," she added.
"Don't trust anyone Miller," Alec reminded her.
"Well Rose can vouch for you and I can vouch for Joe," Ellie smiled. "Mark will be here soon. Did you really have to catch him out? He's been through enough."
"He was being inconsistent Miller. Besides, it's your fault for saying his fingerprints were found at that hut. Rose was not happy I got called out, trust me."
"Quite right," Ellie smirked at the thought of his six week pregnant girlfriend objecting. "Still, I can't sign things off, that's your job."
"Don't I know it Miller," Alec replied.
"Well make sure she knows you might be called out again, if something crops up," she reminded him.
"Yes and while I'm in the news, that means either Ashworth or Rose's old boss could turn up here," Alec replied. "Which brings us back to the question that Ashworth could be trying to get my attention."
"You mean to tell me he knows you're hiding Rose?" Ellie wanted to now. "Why? I mean besides she stood up in court against him?"
"Come round tonight Miller, it's up to Rose if she wants you to know the real reason why she's hiding from him," Alec told her.
"I think I might just, if you don't keep me working late. My youngest will have forgotten what I look like," Ellie grinned.
Alec led the way to go interview the boy's father. He'd been to see the man before Ellie had called him when she'd been finishing up at the hut.
"What I don't get is, why you would hide things from us," Alec was telling Mark Latimer. "I have a teenage girl and if there was anything involving her, I'd tell the police everything, I just would."
"That's easy for you to say," Mark objected, looking uncomfortable after being told his fingerprints had been found at what could be the crime scene. "You never caught that other kid's killer, did you?"
"That's not fair Mark," Ellie reminded him. "We're talking about your Danny and we'll do everything to catch who killed him."
"Then why do you want to know where I was?" Mark cried out, his head buried in his arms, which were on the table.
"We need to know where everyone was Mark," Alec reminded him. "I was with my girlfriend, DS Miller was with her husband but you told Beth you were out on a job but you weren't. Why did you lie to her Mark?" he wanted to know. "We're you with someone?"
Mark seemed to think about it, then looked up.
"I got mixed up, all the days seem to be running into each other. I met Nige Carter," Mark admitted.
"We will check," Ellie reminded him as she got up.
"Now?" Mark looked at her.
"Is there some reason you don't want us to check now?" Alec raised his eyebrows in surprise. "DS Miller, lock him up while we check it out."
"What?" Mark objected as Ellie went to call the officer outside. "I want a phone call."
Memories of Ashworth calling Claire to steal the pendant for him came rushing back.
"Make sure he's supervised and write down who he calls," Alec told the officer who had entered.
"You don't trust him?" Ellie noticed.
"That's partly how Ashworth walked away," Alec admitted. "Miller, I did not want to bring my old case with me, trust me and for Rose's sake, I hope I'm wrong he followed us here but it seems like the cases are becoming intertwined. Don't tell Rose why you're asking about what happened with her and Ashworth, just say we were talking about it and I thought it was best coming from her."
"Don't worry, I won't say anything," Ellie agreed. "She's never said much to me."
"Yes, well she doesn't like to be reminded of it, it was a bad time in her life," Alec admitted.
"Until she met you, apparently?" Ellie smiled. "You must have turned on the charm Hardy?"
"I never needed to Miller," he replied as they left the interview room and Alec could see Mark on the phone at the end of the corridor.
He hoped the officer with him was eavesdropping.
"How come?" Ellie asked as they went for the lift. "Oh, you rescued her from Ashworth? Did she live with him then?"
"Read up about the case Miller," Alec suggested as the lift arrived and two uniformed officers got out, nodding at him and Ellie.
"I never thought about it much," Ellie admitted. "I thought she might have been his girlfriend or something but is she really that scared of him because she left him for you? I know she was the prosecution's main witness? How did it all go wrong?"
Alec wanted to say ask his ex wife. Ellie went off to check with Mark's friend Nigel Carter but was told by his mother he'd just gone out when she'd not been able to reach him on his mobile. She went in to tell Alec, who was trying to reach the officer who was supposed to inform him where Ashworth was.
"So, it seems like Mark was trying to cook up an alibi?" Alec asked her when told.
"We don't know that, it could be a coincidence?" Ellie wondered.
"You're too trusting Miller. You have to learn to step back," he advised her.
Ellie decided she was going to sit down.
"Like you did with Rose? You more than rescued her and you never stepped back. You let her stand up in court and testify against him despite that. Didn't you have physical evidence?" she wanted to know.
"I thought you'd followed the case Miller?" he asked her.
"Don't worry, I'm going to catch up now because you've just connected the two cases with you and Rose. You have to tell the chief," Ellie told him.
"Not yet Miller, we have no proof yet that there's a connection. Don't fight me on this," he warned her.
"Well, okay for now but if anything else comes up, you have to tell her," Ellie agreed. "I want to hear Rose's side and you have to warn her Lee Ashworth may be around."
They went out to find Nigel Carter was sat in the firm's van outside his house and Alec got two officers to hold him while Ellie went to check with Nigel's mother.
"Did Mark Latimer just ask you to give him an alibi for Thursday night?" Alec was asking Nigel.
"What? No, me and Mark were out that night. We met at the cliff-top hut car park then we went off to the pub – The Fox, late night lock-in," Nigel replied, too hastily for Alec's liking.
"So, they will remember you?" Alec wanted to know, trying to catch Nigel out.
"Yeah, I think so," Nigel gave Alec a goofy smile.
Ellie had just found out the truth and Nigel knew it as she marched up to him.
"Stop messing around Nigel. Your mother said you were in all night apart from you went out for last orders. Did Mark ask you to lie for him?" she asked.
Alec motioned for the two officers who had followed them to take Nigel back for questioning and Alec knew that now, both of them were suspects.
"I told you not to trust anyone," Alec growled as they got in Ellie's car.
"Well, that narrows it down to Rose trusting you and me trusting Joe," Ellie reminded him.
"Rose trusted Lee Ashworth, look where that got her?" Alec replied with that look on his face that Ellie knew he wasn't happy dragging Rose into things.
Just what was it that only Rose could tell her? When they got back, they confronted a tired Mark again.
"Your alibi is rubbish," Alec looked at Mark across the table. "If you're going to get someone to lie for you, don't pick your mate Nigel Carter."
"It'll be better if you tell us the truth," Ellie encouraged him.
"We are going across the corridor to see Nigel, he will probably tell us you called him and asked him to lie for you," Alec told the boy's father.
"How is this catching who killed my Danny?" Mark wanted to know, putting his arms on the table and resting his head.
"We need to know where everyone was," Alec sighed, losing his patience and not seeing why the man was so reluctant. "Were you with someone else and you are trying to protect them?"
He leaned across to Ellie.
"Get Pete to tell Beth her husband is going to be here for a while. Mark Latimer, I am arresting you for obstructing a police investigation. DS Miller, read him his rights."
Alec was running out of patience as Ellie went to get the officer outside to take Mark to the cells.
"What good's that going to do?" Ellie asked as she watched Mark being led away.
"I'm tired of people messing around Miller, if he was with someone, maybe they will come forward?" he replied.
"You think he's cheating on Beth?" Ellie asked in disbelief.
"You know the family better than I do Miller, you tell me?" Alec turned to face her.
"Well it may explain his reluctance to talk?" Ellie agreed. "I would be surprised if he was though."
"Sometimes you don't know people as well as you think you do," Alec told her.
"Thanks for that piece of wisdom, Confucius," Ellie replied sarcastically.
Alec just huffed and walked to the lift, while Ellie called the family liaison officer. She then went to tell Nigel he could go.
"You don't need me then?" Nigel grinned as he got up. "You wasted my time bringing me here Ellie."
"Then you shouldn't have agreed to give Mark an alibi," she told him.
"He's my mate," Nigel objected.
"Go back to work Nigel," Ellie advised him. "Unless you really know where Mark was that night?"
She watched Nigel leave then went back upstairs to see Alec talking to the chief.
"Why are you holding Mark Latimer?" the chief was asking him.
"Excuse me, he won't say where he was the night his own son was killed," Alec defended his decision.
"Is he a suspect?" CS Jenkinson wanted to know.
"Not exactly," Alec had to admit.
"Then let him go Alec," the chief ordered him.
"I can't. I can keep him for 24 hours without charging him," he replied.
"Has he asked for a solicitor?" he was asked. Alec shook his head. "Then if he does, he's out of here, understand? What do you hope to gain by holding him?"
Alec's idea was that someone may come forward and give him an alibi. If the man wasn't prepared to admit he was cheating on his wife, the word would get around that he had been and whoever he'd been with my admit to it.
"It's only about his son being killed. I cannot for the life of me think why he wouldn't say where he was," Alec told her.
"He must have his reasons Alec," the chief told him as she got up. "Bear in mind what I told you about releasing him."
As soon as she left, Ellie wanted to know what it was all about plus she had a message for him.
"Do you know someone called the front desk asking for you?" Ellie asked as she sat down.
"Did you hear my phone ringing?" Alec replied.
Ellie ignored him as usual.
"They never left a name, they just hung up when Bob told whoever it was you were interviewing someone. You don't seem too bothered," she grinned as Alec sat back in his chair, sideways.
Then he suddenly sat up.
"I have to call Rose, now," he told her.
"What for?" Ellie wanted to know.
"Was it a woman asking for me?" he panicked, grabbing his phone.
"Bob never said," Ellie replied, going for his desk phone. "Bob, who asked for DI Hardy?" she asked the sergeant when he answered.
"It was a woman, thought I'd said?" Bob told her.
Alec already knew – Claire Ripley was in town and he had to warn Rose before Claire found her. If she was here, Ashworth may come looking for her, then Rose.
"Rose, sweetheart," he began as Rose answered with a 'watcha' as she always did, which usually made him smile. Not today though. "Listen carefully. Claire may be in town."
The other end went quiet, which was to be expected, he thought.
"Tell me you're kidding?" a stunned Rose replied.
"I wish I were. DS Miller just told me someone asked for me and never left a message," he told Rose.
"How the hell does she know we're here Alec?" Rose wanted to know. "Do ya think she saw ya on TV and came down here? What for though?"
Alec thought that was typical of Rose – always asking questions.
"I don't know love. Just stay in until I get home eh? Then we'll talk about it. It doesn't mean she's looking for you or that Ashworth will come looking for her," he tried to assure Rose.
"I know but I was so happy, being here and now about the baby," Rose told him sadly.
"I know love, I'm sorry but I'll have the call traced. It may just be a coincidence and she saw me on TV. She may also be hiding from Ashworth."
Great. That was all he needed, he thought as he said goodbye to Rose and rubbing his beard.
"Miller, go down and see if you can get a trace on that call," he said to Ellie as she got up.
"I'm on it. What else do you want me to do?" asked a concerned Ellie. "You never told me the name of Rose's old boss though."
"It's Claire Ripley, she turned her back on Rose then took up with Ashworth. She got pregnant and came to me for help. I took her to a clinic but she disappeared, before the trial finished," he told her, trying to recall exactly when Claire had vanished.
"She's no danger to Rose then?" Ellie wondered.
"Well no, maybe not but if Ashworth's looking for her?" Alec replied.
"Why would he be? Is he still looking for Rose?" Ellie asked.
"Maybe? He got off because there was no physical evidence and we always suspected Claire stole the pendant belonging to the girl for him but we had no proof," Alec told her. "We thought Ashworth had got her to steal it for him but she wouldn't hand it over to him."
"So he thinks she still has it?" Ellie wanted to know. "What good will it do now? I mean if he was acquitted?"
"Sometimes I wonder about you Miller. If Claire hands over the pendant and tells us he got her to steal it, there will be another trial. Hers and Rose's testimony will ensure he's convicted this time, the judge will have to believe them."
Ellie thought about it.
"So the judge dismissed the case for lack of evidence?" Ellie asked him, Alec pulling a face. "Because Rose was living with Ashworth?" she tried again.
"Partly," Alec admitted. "Miller, once there is new evidence, Ashworth will know he'll be re-arrested. The judge only half believed Rose was drugged that night."
"Didn't she have proof?" Ellie asked, wanting to hear more.
"Well yes but it was argued she could have been given it another time. Her testimony should have put him away but she only knew his side, not Ricky Gillespie's. Ricky should have turned on Ashworth but he didn't, Miller. That to me proved that they were both in it together, making Rose right."
"Well yeah, it makes sense," Ellie had to agree. "So Ricky took the fall?"
"Indeed Miller but why? Why would he let Ashworth get off and not testify against him? We left it because of the missing pendant and I left Tess in charge."
"Maybe you should get her to re-open Lee Ashworth's part in it?" Ellie suggested.
"She'd never go for it, she won't do me any favours, trust me. Don't get involved Miller, look at what it did to Rose?" he reminded her.
"That's just it Hardy. Rose is my friend and if this Claire's in town, I want to help her. So, tough luck. You brought Sandbrook to Broadchurch."
