Disclaimers: Most of the dialogue is from the episode. I don't own The Ghost Squad or Downton Abbey. I don't own the characters either. I hope you'll enjoy it.

Anna spent the rest of her day on the Danielle Parker case. She went alone to the building blocks and looked for the apartments that had a window on the streets near Dani's block. She looked for the CCTV cameras and noted their emplacement on a map, trying to make her task easier once she'll receive the tapes. Each camera had a specific number and she'll be able to trace her tracks if by chance the cameras will reveal something for that night.

She watched as mothers were looking after their children playing on the grass near the buildings. Did they know what had happened just the day prior, only three blocks away? That a man had been brutally attacked by teenagers who were terrifying the neighbourhood. Had they seen something and were scared to speak up, afraid that they could retaliate?
Anna decided to head back and wait for the CCTV, numerous in this area, which had a good chance to have filmed Danielle's whereabouts that night.


On the other side of the neighbourhood, Jimmy had been asked by O'Brien to follow closely Sergeant Bates as Anna hadn't been able to bring any new information in 2 months. Her boss was growing more frustrated and so here he was, following John Bates to the hospital. As he walked through the long corridor in the ICU, something caught his attention in a room on his right. He slowed down and managed to see Sergeant Bates in uniform, his peaked cap on the little table by the bed, holding a young woman who was crying on his shirt. In the bed was a young man, in a coma, with tubes coming out of him and a bandage on his head.

DC William Mason, he thought, and the woman must be Daisy, his wife. Anna had made her rapport with her colleagues, and she had phoned him earlier to inform him about his attack.

It appeared that Bates was comforting Daisy, but this wasn't of any use. He waited on a chair for him to come out, and decided to continue to follow him. He was very good at spying on people without raising suspicion. It was one of his many talents and it was mainly why the Squad had recruited him.

Ten minutes later, Bates got out of the room and left the hospital in his police car. Jimmy followed him to the social housing blocks. He recognised the place to be where William had been attacked.

On the street above the bridge where it happened, Jimmy hide and took out his camera to take pictures of him. John looked around him and when he made sure no one was around, he kneeled to the ground, inspecting it.

Why was he coming here? Returning to the scene of the crime? Had he some role to play in all of this? Something was going on with this man and Jimmy couldn't put his finger on it yet, but he knew he was getting closer to the truth.

Once John rose up again and left, Jimmy decided to get down under the bridge and get a look at what Bates was inspecting. On the floor was a dark stain on the tarmac. By the smell of it, Jimmy knew it was piss, surely mixed with some blood.

He knew the police had arrested a group of teenagers earlier in the morning, but nothing could prove any of that. He took a look around and saw no CCTV cameras on the premises. But then he saw movement on a balcony from an apartment in a building just across from where Jimmy was standing and where the crime had been committed. A woman was hanging sheets out. If someone saw something that night, it would have been someone from that building. Knowing this woman was at home, he decided to ask her a few questions.

Once he was in front of her door on the fourth floor, he knocked and waited. A feminine voice came in.

"Hello?"

"Police, ma'am," he said. "Can you open up?"

A few seconds later, the door opened just a crack, letting appear a young woman, with a ponytail.

"Yeah?"

"DC Jimmy Kent. You are?" he asked her showing her his badge.

"Helen Wright," she answered, fully opening her door, reassured that he was indeed from the police.

"How are you doing, Helen? There's been a violent assault at the foot of the block, and I was wondering if you happened to have seen anything?"

"Yeah, I talked to John about this."

Oh, so Bates had done his job correctly.

"Right," he said, a bit unsettled. "Ok, well, then, I'm sorry to have bothered you." She smiled at him. "It's just that it's a shame no one saw anything."

He was turning his back to leave when Helen stopped him.

"Oh, no, like I told John, I saw it all."

He turned around again to look at her.

"I'm sorry?" He tried not to show his surprise too much. What was happening? He had an eyewitness who had seen everything and he hadn't reported it?


Back at the station, Anna saw Gwen with Nathalie. She pretended to look at some paperwork on the counter to listen to them.

"Sign here, love," Gwen said, handing her a pen and a piece of paper.

Nathalie took the pen with attitude.

"Not much of a writer, are you?" Gwen teased her.

Nathalie laughed sarcastically but didn't answer.

"Are we done?" she asked.

"Yeah. You're all done."

"Good," she answered, almost throwing the pen on the counter.

Anna looked at John who had been standing there next to her, him too pretending to look at some paperwork.

"See you then, Johnny," Nathalie said before heading to the door.

She send him a wink before she finally left. His jaw tensed. She caught his eyes. She could see a lot of emotions behind them, going from anger to sadness. He turned around and left, his footsteps resounding in the now-silent great hall.

Anna was debating whether to go after him or leave him alone, but when she looked up in front of her she saw the missing person poster of Danielle Parker. She needed to concentrate on that girl and not let her feelings get in the way of the investigation.

After she finished her shift, she sat down in her car, ready to go home when her phone rang. As soon as she picked up, a male voice spoke.

"He's lying."

"Jimmy?" she asked.

"He found a witness to William's assault and he didn't tell anyone," he said, ignoring her question.

"Shit," she swore. "Are you sure?"

"Oh yeah. I only spent the last hour talking to her. Where are you?"

"I'm just in my car, I was going home to a nice quiet evening watching to CCTV footage"

"Well, you can skip that. I need to see you."

"Can we meet up, I don't know, in half an hour?"

"Yeah, no worries."

He hung up and she started her car.


"She saw the whole thing," Jimmy said.

They were back at her apartment, sitting on her couch.

"She knows the girls involved and she even mentioned Nathalie by name."

"Jesus," said Anna. She couldn't believe it. She thought she was beginning to understand John more, that maybe it was just a coincidence. But this? Proof that he was deliberately ignoring when he had played the role of a man consumed by sadness for William's assault and had shown his anger publicly. Why had he done that?

He seemed to have opened up more to her lately, she had felt secure with him, but now she didn't know anymore. Had it all been in her fantasies? It was the second time he was neglecting proof. Danielle and now William. And it was all linked to Nathalie and her gang.

"She's a credible witness," Jimmy continued. "Reliable and willing to stand up in court."

Anna was now staring into nothing.

"So why is John telling her not to come forward? Why the hell is he deliberately obstructing the case?"

"There's a link to that gang, to those girls," she voiced her thoughts.

"O'Brien was right. He's a f..." Anna turned her head. "He's a pig," he said, shaking his head.

Anna took a tape and put it into her cassette player. She needed to show what she had found to Jimmy.

"So, what's this?" Jimmy asked, looking at the screen showing the street in front of Danielle's building.

"Danielle Parker, the missing girl. I was going through CCTV cameras before you arrived. I followed them from her house."

On the screen, a woman appeared, running towards the left.

"There she is, ok?" she told Jimmy who nodded. "All right, and she heads along." She took out the current tape and put in another one. She fast-forwarded a little to the right time and Danielle appeared again on the camera, from a different angle on another street.

"Ok, here she is again, all right? And she heads along, going towards Bishop Avenue, ok? And then we lose her," she explained.

She took out the tape to put another one in.

"How many tapes you got?" he asked her.

"Probably fifteen, most of them were useless."

Again, she fast-forwarded to the right time. This time, the screen showed the street and a garden in front of a building.

"Hang on, there she is," she said as she appeared once again on the screen.

Jimmy leant forward to see clearer.

"Who's that?" he asked as a large figure came out of the shadows and grabbed Danielle. "What's he doing to her?"

On the screen, the man was holding her arm, facing her, and he was agitating his finger in front of her face. He was wearing a police uniform.

"What's he saying to her?" she replied.

"Well, I don't think it's an official caution, is it?"

The man let her go and walked towards the garden, nearer the camera. He removed his peaked cap and looked at his watch as if he was waiting. It was Sergeant John Bates.

"Oh fuck," Jimmy said. "Fucking bastard."

They looked at each other.

"He was the last person to see her," Anna said.

"And now he's the one heading the investigation into her disappearance."