Witness Protection
Chapter Two
"Who's this?" Claire Ripley demanded, seeing Ellie climb out of the car. "I thought this was supposed to be a secret."
"What, nobody knows of this?" Ellie turned on Hardy, who was doing his best not to look either women in the eyes.
"It's a kind of – unofficial witness protection." He said with confidence. "Nobody knows about this apart from me, and the two of you. I'd like it to stay that way."
Ellie's face faltered, irritated that she was being dragged into this. "But Sir, there's protocols and procedures when it comes to witness protection. What if somebody found out and it got back to head office?"
"Well, I'm hoping that it won't. I'm doing this for a reason, and you and Claire could both use a friend right now."
"What?!" Both women snapped at him, slightly offended.
"Can we get inside please? Before somebody sees us?" Hardy pressed, ushering them both into the cottage.
"You'd better tell me what's going on right now, Sir, before I seriously consider giving CS Jenkinson a call." Ellie warned under her breath, annoyed when Hardy bustled her into a different room, separating them from Claire. "What is going on?"
"I'm in trouble Miller, and I need your help." Hardy admitted, much to Ellie's surprise.
Her eyes widened, and then narrowed in suspicion. "What've you done?"
"Do you remember when I first arrived in Broadchurch? People referred to me as the 'Worst Cop in Britain', there was a reason for that."
"The Sandbrook case?" Ellie guessed, knowing how much the case affected him.
Hardy nodded. "Yes. Claire is Lee Ashworth's wife, the prime suspect who got dismissed in court when there wasn't enough evidence. Claire gave him an alibi for the night the girl's went missing, but I believe she's covering for him. I was hoping you could befriend her enough to get some sort of information."
"Oh, brilliant, thanks a lot!" Ellie scoffed, disgruntled with this information.
"Will you help me?" Hardy pleaded. "I can't do this without you, Miller."
"Alright, so tell me one last time, what happened exactly?"
"On the 15th April 2012, two girls were reported missing. Pippa Gillespie and Lisa Newberry, they were cousins. It was well established that Lisa regularly babysat for Pippa on the weekends so her parents could go out. On the weekend in question, Pippa's parents went to the wedding of a mutual friend, and Claire lived next door with her partner. Three days after the girls were reported missing, Pippa was found dead in a nearby river, and officially, Lisa is still missing but presumed dead."
Ellie nodded, taking it all in. "Who was the suspect?" She asked, out of the corner of her eye she saw Claire flinch.
"A man called Lee Ashworth." Hardy explained, clasping his hands together and leaning forwards at the table. "He was given a solid alibi and later he was acquitted from the case when some vital evidence went missing."
"Who gave him the alibi?"
"I did." Claire spoke up, having stayed quiet whilst Hardy was telling the story.
"Why did you do that?"
"Lee's my husband." Claire admitted, tucking her hair behind her ear.
Ellie rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Oh my God."
"Alec promised me protection if I testified against Lee in court, but when the trial collapsed there was no need." Claire went on to explain.
"What was the alibi?"
"That Lee was at home all night, with me."
"Was that the truth?"
"No."
"Then what was?"
"I was at a friend's house, Lee was at home, but he was alone."
After further discussion about how awful Hardy's idea was, somehow Ellie was roped into sleepover at Claire's cottage. She felt uneasy about the entire situation, but if it helped Hardy solve this case, then she'd give it a try.
"You'll find some spare blankets in the top cupboard of the wardrobe, Ellie." Claire supplied helpfully from the other side of the door.
"Right, cheers." Ellie opened the wardrobe door and pulled a blanket out, throwing it on the bed. In the process, something dropped onto the floor by her feet.
Curious, she picked it up and saw it was an envelope, addressed to 'Claire Ashworth'. Ellie sat down on the bed and opened up the envelope, frowning when she saw a singular, crushed bluebell inside. She put the envelope back where it belonged, and was about to close the door, when something else caught her eye. Beside the envelope, there was a packet that you would get when printing off photographs. She pulled it out and started looking at the photographs. They were mainly of Claire with whom she assumed was her husband Lee, a few years younger and on nights out with a drink in their hands, both smiling and laughing.
Ellie then paused. Her heart skipped a beat when the photographs changed, and she saw somebody she recognised.
Rose Tyler.
She was remarkably younger in these photos, with a sparkle in her eyes and more natural, brown hair instead of blonde. In these photographs, Rose was doing certain things that a teenager might do once in a while. Smoking cannabis blunts with Lee, smoking out of pipes and bongs, and drinking with Claire.
That wasn't normal.
Apparently Rose was more involved then they initially realised. They would have to go and speak to her about this at some point. She stowed the wallet into her bag, reminding herself to let DI Hardy know. Hopefully Rose would be willing to talk about it, too.
"Shit." Rose dropped down from the table, glaring at the glob of paint that had just splattered on the floor, narrowly missing the protective sheet she'd placed on the floor. "Shit, fucking, shit!" Tony was going to kill her if he saw the mess. He'd only just agreed – after a lot of persisting from her – to let her paint a mural on the wall in the dining area.
"I thought you said you wouldn't make a mess."
Fuck.
Rose glanced up, having torn a piece of paper towel off the roll and crouching down to clean it, finding Tony stood in the doorway, arms folded. "Relax, would you? It's one spec of paint which I'm cleanin'." The two looked up when the doorbell rang. "Maybe you should go an' answer tha', instead of harpin' on at me?"
Tony rolled his eyes and went to answer the door. He was more than surprised to see the detectives Rose had spoken to on the first day they'd arrived at Broadchurch. "Uh, hi. Can I help you?"
"Are you Rose Tyler's brother?" DI Hardy asked, getting straight to the point.
"I might be." Tony folded his arms across his chest, standing up defensively. "What might this be about?"
"We'd like to ask your sister a few questions regarding the Sandbrook case." DI Hardy confirmed. "It's not a formal interview, just general questions."
"I thought the case was closed after you royally screwed it up." Tony recalled. "Didn't you get some vital evidence lost? How can you ask my sister some questions when the case isn't even open?"
"DI Hardy didn't have my assistance before." Ellie cut in, before the two men started to argue. The tension was so thick she could cut it with a knife. "I'm just having a look at what has already been discovered with a fresh set of eyes. Sometimes with a new perspective you can look at things differently with information that you've had for the longest time."
"Maybe we should let Rose decide what she wants to do." DI Hardy suggested.
"Let Rose decide wha'?" Rose appeared behind Tony, looking between the two men. "Wha's goin' on here, an' why does it look like there's about to be a bust up?"
"They want to ask you questions." Tony explained, not taking his eyes off DI Hardy, not trusting him. "About Sandbrook."
"Sandbrook?" Rose frowned, her nose crinkling. "I thought the case was closed."
"It was never closed; it was dropped when Lee Ashworth was acquitted." DI Hardy corrected, sighing heavily, and trying not to get too frustrated. "We believe that we've come across some new evidence surrounding the case, and we were hoping to speak to you about it."
"Does this evidence involve me?" Rose wondered, keeping her expression neutral, not wanting to give away too much emotion.
"To an extent, yes. We won't take up too much of your time, we just want to talk." DI Hardy assured her.
Rose thought about it, before turning to her brother. "Could you go an' get some stuff from the shops?" She asked him. "We're runnin' low on milk an' bread. An' no offence, but I'd rather not have you hear lurkin' in the room whilst we're havin' a conversation."
Tony rolled his eyes, sensing her ploy to get rid of him. "Fine. I'll give you your space. Text me when you're done." With that, Tony walked out of the house and towards the village.
"Sorry 'bout him." Rose apologised, watching her brother leave. "He's normally an ass, but this is a bit much according to him. Since we moved here he's been a bit over-protective."
"It's fine." Ellie smiled, recognising the behaviour. "I'd do the same for my sister. It's a sibling thing."
Rose nodded in agreeance, stepping to the side. "Come on in."
DI Hardy and Ellie followed Rose into the kitchen and dining area, seeing a mess of paints and tools scattered across the kitchen island, and a protective sheet in the dining area. Ellie walked around the island to see the early stages of a mural that was being painted from the top half of the wall.
"Wow." Ellie breathed; her eyes wide in astonishment. "That looks amazing!"
The flowers were intricately painted and looked incredibly realistic. Leaves and stems were painted in between them, and if Ellie looked close enough, she could even see some bluebells. She glanced at DI Hardy and could tell from the expression on his face that he'd noticed them too.
"Thanks." Rose smiled with a blush, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as she turned the kettle on, pulling out some mugs. "I've been workin' on this since five o'clock this mornin'."
"Isn't that a time that you should be sleeping?" DI Hardy couldn't help but ask, thinking of his own daughter, and her terrible sleeping pattern.
"For most people it is. I don't sleep very well at the moment; I get really bad insomnia. When I can't sleep, so I start to paint. Or draw. Whatever takes my fancy at the time."
"I'm thinking of having the boys' rooms redecorated at some point, I might have to hire you to come up with a design."
"Wha', really?" Rose said in disbelief. "I'm not tha' good. Um, do you guys want tea or coffee?" She pulled out a full bottle of milk when they gave her their responses, and she made them accordingly.
"I thought you told Tony you were out of milk?" DI Hardy frowned, accepting his mug with a nod of thanks.
"It was the only excuse I could think of to get him out of the house. I didn't fancy havin' him breathin' down our necks whilst we were talkin'." Rose took a seat at the dining table, with DI Hardy and Ellie following suit. "Wha' is it you want to know?"
DI Hardy took the lead, both of them pulling out their notepads. "Tell us how you came to know Pippa Gillespie." He started, hoping whatever would be discussed would have him more informed about the girls.
"Well, if I remember correctly, my Mum used to go to school with Cate Gillespie – Pippa's Mum – an' they were best friends. Naturally, when we were born, it was expected tha' we'd follow suit an' become best friends. But tha' wasn't the case. At first, Pippa an' I really didn't get along, for whatever reason, we didn't click. I was a bit of a tomboy growin' up, a wild child if you like, an' Pippa was all proper an' into dresses an' girly things. It changed in year four though, I saw Pippa bein' bullied by a group of girls, an' I don't take kindly to bullies. I went over an' told 'em to back off an' to leave her alone. The head of this group, think her name was Renee or somethin' like tha', really snobby rich girl, turned on me instead. It became well known around the school tha' we hated one another, an' got into physical fights often. But 'cause of this Pippa an' I became best friends, an' became inseparable. Tha' was it, really."
"Quite the Rocky Balboa then, we're you?" DI Hardy chuckled, and could picture Rose standing up for her friend, then getting into fights with another girl. "I bet your mother was proud."
Rose pulled a face. "I mean, she never condoned the fightin' part, but she understood why I reacted the way I did. Renee thought the sun shone out of her backside an' thought everyone else was beneath her. She deserved it."
"Can you tell us about Pippa as a person?" Ellie asked, bringing the attention back to the matter at hand. "What did music did she like? What did she want to be when she was older? Describe her personality."
"Um, she loved musicals an' Disney. Pippa was obsessed with Disney. She loved Ariel an' Tinkerbell. Her career choices changed all the time. For the longest time she wanted to be in musical theatre, an' did a lot of dance lessons. But the last thing she wanted to be was a hairdresser, not sure where tha' came from. Pippa was really kind, she was quiet an' sweet, an' was always tha' one friend tha' would never let you down. If you ever needed a shoulder to cry on or someone to listen to, she was there. She was there for me a lot, especially when it came to boys. We rarely argued, the only time we fought was when I was seein' a boy tha' she didn't approve of. I thought she was jealous – she'd never had a boyfriend – but turns out she was righ' about the boys I saw. Pippa was like the sister I never had, before Mum had Hope of course. I really miss her. She didn't deserve to die so young."
"They never do." DI Hardy sympathised. "When was the last time you saw Pippa?"
Rose sighed, knowing they would eventually reach this part. "It was the Friday before she went missing. We usually had sleepovers at one another's houses every other weekend, an' it was her turn to host it. 'cause we were getting older, we wanted to try new things, tha' we weren't really supposed to."
"Such as?" Ellie prompted, seeing Rose hesitate.
"I'd started smokin' at fourteen, an' would spray myself with obnoxious smellin' perfume so I wouldn't get caught. Mum had her suspicions of course, but she never said anythin'." Rose explained. "We started experimentin' with alcohol as well, sneakin' into the sleepovers. Pippa's Mum was a well-known alcoholic, so it was pretty easy to get it from her. The night of this sleepover though, it was my turn to try an' get some alcohol. I was close to leavin' the door, but the bottles I nicked from the cabinet made a lot of noise in my bag, an' my Mum caught me. For tha' I got grounded, so the sleepover got cancelled. I spoke to Pippa on the phone on the Saturday in the mornin', but nothin' seemed different. She was happy an' excited about the school trip we had comin' up at the water park. Everythin' seemed normal."
"There was nothing else after that?" DI Hardy quired, feeling as though there was something missing in her timeline.
Rose shook her head. "Not tha' I can think of. I was only aware of Pippa bein' missing when my Mum asked if I'd seen her on the Sunday morning. I tried callin' Pippa several times, wonderin' if she'd got into an argument with her Mum an' she'd run off to cool down. If tha' ever happened though, she'd normally come to mine. But she literally disappeared. I wanted to help with the search, but Mum didn't want me to come across anythin' tha' I shouldn't see. Tony went to help instead. Nobody saw her again, until she was found dead three days later."
Rose let out a shudder, remembering that awful day. Tony had come back from the third day of the search, soaked to the bone and with that look in his eyes. Rose didn't remember much after that, only herself screaming and falling to the floor, Jackie holding her tightly and whispering words of comfort to soothe her.
"I know." DI Hardy said gravely. "I was the one that found her."
"You were?" Rose asked, a lump in her throat. "I'm so sorry, I can't imagine bein' the one to find her. Do you mind me askin' – you don't have to answer if it's too uncomfortable –, when you found Pippa, how did you find her?"
Sensing DI Hardy's change of mood, and noticing the stiffness in how he sat, Ellie reached over and gently squeezed Rose's hand in warning. "I don't think that's such a good idea – "
"No." DI Hardy cut in, firmly, although his voice shook as he said so. "It's fine." He appreciated Ellie's concern, but as Pippa's best friend, Rose also deserved to know the truth. "On the third day, it was pouring with rain, and after searching in the house and in the nearby area, we extended the search to the woodlands at the back of the house. There was a field, of bluebells along the river, and I saw her. She was in blue and rainbow polka dot pyjamas, and she was lying face down in the water. From how cold she was, it was apparent that Pippa had been there for a few days. Her autopsy was done soon after, and her cause of death was determined to be smothering. She'd been smothered, then her body was dumped. Who does that to a child? She was the same age as my own daughter at the time."
Rose by now, had tears in her eyes. "Would she … when she died, would Pippa have felt any pain?"
"There was no indication that she struggled when the smothering occurred." DI Hardy explained, hoping it would provide Rose some comfort. "It was likely that she was either asleep or unconscious before the smothering. She wouldn't have been in pain."
Rose nodded, feeling somewhat relieved. "Good. Tha's good, I guess. Better than the opposite, anyway. I always wondered, y'know? Nobody would ever tell me proper details, an' I would have to research myself. It's been hard, wha' followed after. Mum got me into counsellin', but it didn't do any good, 'cause I couldn't open up about stuff. Things sort of went downhill after tha', an' it's only recently tha' I've got my life together."
"When you talk about this friendship with Pippa, were you only ever friends or did it become something more?"
A deep blush spread across Rose's cheeks. "Um." She stumbled on her words before being able to fully form a sentence. "I mean, we were never 'official' or anythin' like tha', but we'd been intimate a few times. We were keeping it a secret though, her Mum didn't like me very much, an' she was traditional, so she wouldn't approved of her daughter bein' with another girl."
"Why did Cate Gillespie not like you very much?" DI Hardy wondered. From personal experience, Rose seemed pleasant enough.
Rose sighed; her dislike of Cate Gillespie obvious. "Cate didn't like me 'cause I came from a poorer background, lower class, an' tha' in her mind I was leading Pippa astray. She saw her daughter as a perfect angel, straight A's, afterschool activities. Little did Cate know tha' Pippa was far from perfect. She was smokin' cigarettes with me, an' we were tryin' other stuff tha' we weren't supposed too."
DI Hardy could only imagine the sort of things the two girls got up to. "How well did you know Lisa Newberry?"
"Not nearly as well. She was older than us, eighteen at the time I think." Rose frowned, trying to remember. "She was Pippa's cousin, an' a lot of times she would babysit for both of us whenever we had our sleepovers. Well, I use the term 'babysit' very lightly. She more or less let us do wha' we wanted if we didn't bother her too much. Lisa was always on her phone, texting a new boy every other week. There'd be times when she'd join us though – very rare – but she would have a drink with us every now an' again, an' when she did she was nice enough. I didn't know her as personally as Pippa."
Ellie glanced at DI Hardy, who nodded. "Rose, were you familiar at all with Lee and Claire Ashworth?"
For whatever reason, DI Hardy saw Rose's demeanour change ever so slightly. It was a small difference, but he saw it. She stiffened and sat up straighter.
"Yes. I am." Rose admitted, shaking her head. "I don't know why, but Pippa was infatuated with them, especially Lee. She never confirmed it, but I think she had a secret crush on him. They lived next door to Pippa, an' she introduced me to them at a BBQ for her birthday."
"What was your first impression of them?" Ellie asked, remembering to take notes as the conversation continued.
"Claire was nice, she would ask me questions, getting to know who I was an' wha' I was into. At the time I was really into gymnastics, an' Claire had done it at school too, so we connected over tha'. Lee on the other hand, he was quiet, an' I don't know why, but he gave me an uncomfortable vibe. He would jus' be sat there most of the time, occasionally talking to Cate, but I would see him lookin' at me an' it would creep me out. He was … intense."
"But you got on with him eventually, yes?"
"Eventually, yea'. Pippa an' I would go to their house regularly, especially if I was staying at hers. Lisa would want to go out with her friends, so Lee an' Claire unofficially took over the babysitting. My Mum an' Cate were fine with it though, since they were all friends."
"When you were at the Ashworth's house, did you do things you weren't supposed to?" Ellie queried, referring to the photographs she had discovered.
"Such as?"
Rose gnawed on her bottom lip, clearly anxious about her response. "Drinkin', smokin', stuff like tha' like most teenagers do."
"Where did you get them from? Neither of you wouldn't have been able to buy it yourselves, so who bought it for you?"
"Lee supplied us with the pot, an' Claire got us the alcohol." Rose confessed, although her insides squirmed uncomfortably as she told them.
Ellie removed the pouch containing the photographs in front of Rose. "Do you recognise these?" She asked. She didn't want to mention where she'd actually found them, so she fabricated it ever so slightly. "They were found at the bottom of an old case file; nobody had bothered to look at them or make a connection."
Rose opened up the pouch and began to flick through the photos, her mind flashing back to when they were taken.
Flashback …
Rose was feeling dizzy, drunk on a mixture of alcohol and pot. Her world spun, and she stumbled and almost fell had an arm not snaked around her waist from behind, holding her upright.
"Woah there, you alright, sweetheart?" Lee Ashworth slurred, also intoxicated, but not as much as Rose.
"Fine, m'fine." That was far from true. Her head pounded, and all she wanted to do was lie down and go to sleep.
"Come on, get another one down you and you'll be right as rain." Lee shoved another glass of wine in her hand. "Smile for the picture, Rosie."
Rose looked up for a brief second and was blinded by the flash of the camera on Claire's phone. Her vision swam, she panicked. "Where's Pippa?"
"Claire's getting her ready for bed." Lee whispered in her ear, his voice making the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, pulling her flush against him. "Don't worry, it'll be your turn next."
End of flashback …
Rose blinked, bringing her back to the dining room table, the memory quickly fading. She shook her head. "It must've happened, but I don't remember this night." She explained. "I must've been pretty intoxicated at the time."
DI Hardy pulled out a card and handing it to Rose. "We'll leave it there for now, I'm sure your brother's getting worried. Thank you for your time, you've been a big help. If you can think of anything else, even if it's the smallest thing, then give me a call. I'll always be available to answer."
Rose nodded in understanding. "Righ', thanks."
"We'll see ourselves out." Ellie said, sensing Rose was deep in thought. The two left the house, with Ellie closing the door behind them.