Would it do any good though, she wondered. If he had given up on her, he'd refuse to see her and maybe everyone else would take his side? After all, she was the one who'd been putting off going up there since she was twenty one, she couldn't blame any of them for taking his side.
She decided to sleep on it and try not to let on to Donna what had happened or she would frog-march her to the railway station and put her on a train to Glasgow, regardless of if it was safe to go back or not. Donna had other ideas the next day as she saw Rose moping around in the corner of the store's staff canteen at lunchtime.
"Come on Rose, I know it was Alec's birthday, you're usually happy about it," Donna told her as she sat opposite.
"I know Donna but I've really stuffed it up this time, good 'n' proper," Rose replied.
"What have ya done now?" Donna wanted to know.
"He hung up on me Donna," Rose admitted. "I think he's done waiting for me."
"Never," Donna wouldn't accept it. "After all this time? Well, what did ya say?"
"Nothing, that's just it Donna. I never said anything and he hung up on me," Rose replied. "It was a stupid thing to do."
"Ya mean him hanging up or you not saying anything?" Donna was now confused. "Well call him back tonight then."
"I can't Donna. What do I even say to him?" Rose wanted to know.
"Don't ask me, he's your boyfriend," Donna replied.
"Thanks for your help Donna," Rose grumbled, pushing her half-full plate away.
"Well ya can't blame him, what's he supposed to think if ya go all quiet on him?" Donna wanted to know. "Maybe he'll call back tonight? If ya want my advice, talk to him and arrange to go up, on your birthday. I'll process some leave for ya myself."
So, when Rose got home, her mother had a guilty look on her face.
"What have ya done Mum?" Rose dared to ask her.
"Alec wants ya to call him," Jackie admitted.
"Are you and Donna ganging up on me?" Rose replied. "Or did Alec call back?" She saw Jackie's reaction. "I can't Mum. I already told Donna, just leave it."
"Then what?" Jackie asked her. "Are ya just gonna leave it? That's not fair on him Rose, he's tried, all these last few years to make it work and it was. That was 'til ya got all these ideas in ya head that Bob had extended his hold over ya. How do ya know he didn't give up, a long time ago?"
"How do I know he did Mum? I can't go back to Alec until I'm sure," Rose told her.
"Rose, he can't have made it over twenty five, surely? How do ya know it wasn't eighteen and ya got it wrong? All this time, you and Alec could've been together and got married," Jackie tried to convince her.
"Yeah and I could've been living in fear he'd come after me Mum," Rose reminded her.
"I dragged you into that situation Rose and I never should've done. I let him fool me but I did the right thing and got ya out, before he could do anything and I swear I had no idea what he'd put in that agreement. If I had done, I'd have torn it up."
"He would have taken it out on you then," Rose replied sadly. "Okay, if Alec calls me back, I'll talk to him but I've really done it this time Mum, he might not want me back."
"He will Rose, don't give up, he won't give up on you," her mother tried to assure her.
Alec had gone round to see John, after he'd spoken to Jackie. He'd called the night before and had already told John what had happened.
"Well, what did Jackie say?" John was dying to know.
"She was going to try to get Rose to call me back," Alec told him.
"Alec, you call her back, what are you waiting for?" John wondered.
"I have to give her time John, why did she go all quiet on me?" Alec asked him.
John couldn't answer that, for a change.
Jackie waited all night for her cue to leave the room so Rose could talk to Alec. John and Alec's dad were waiting for Alec to give in and pick up the phone rather than wait for Rose to call so it was stalemate. Neither of them gave in over the next few weeks as it approached Rose's birthday.
Alec had started at his new station and got on with most of the staff there, although he was in competition with another detective constable, even though there was enough funding to train both of them. The female English officer was determined she was going to do better.
Alec had decided to just let her get on with it, he was still wondering what he should do about Rose so if she was trying to get a reaction over the competition, she was out of luck, he thought.
"Don't you want to know what I'm doing up here?" he was asked one night while they were both on duty.
They had hardly spoken so he wasn't quite sure why he was being asked.
"No, not really, you'll tell me if you want to. Sorry, I have other things to think about," he replied, looking up from his desk, which unluckily for him was opposite hers.
The detective sergeant in charge of their division was amused they'd ignored each other for the last few weeks but he'd heard that Alec had moved back to his home town in the hope his girlfriend down in London would join him but that hadn't seemed to happen.
He wished Tessa Henchard luck in trying to get the love-struck new arrival to talk. He'd tried to talk to Alec, asking him firstly if the one-bedroomed flat that the personnel department had approved payment for would be big enough for him, if his mysterious London girlfriend did actually materialize.
Alec thought it was just his luck the female DC would decide she wanted to talk to him, after trying to beat him to assignments with other divisions within the station, being the first to answer questions during briefings and numerous other situations, like coming up with ways to improve efficiency.
Just what was she doing in Paisley, he'd wondered before, not that he was going to ask her now. He still regretted not trying to make it in the Metropolitan Division in London, despite Rose insisting he went to the college in Glasgow. Well so much for that, it had lost him any chance of them getting married instead of making it happen.
Why had he allowed himself to get transferred to Aberdeen? Rose had never been keen on visiting, even though it was a good distance from where Bob would spot her. The fear Bob had held over her had been unbreakable and now, having heard nothing from her for weeks, he doubted she'd speak to him, should he call when she was home. He'd only phoned Jackie a few times and each time she'd had no news for him.
Maybe it was time to stop, he wondered as Tess, as she liked to be called, was trying to get him to guess why she was there. He gave in, thinking she might then leave him alone. He'd not been remotely attracted to her, deep down inside, he still held out hope Rose would get over her fear and come up to live with him.
"Fine, tell me why you're here," Alec almost lost his temper with her.
"Well if you don't want me to tell you?" Tess huffed.
"Sorry. I really never meant to be rude, it's just I've been having some personal problems," he apologised.
He knew he'd been off with a few people recently but most of them had just ignored him, since Tess had wanted all the attention.
"Woman problems?" Tess teased him. "We all have problems Alec. Me, I came up here because of personal problems, I was getting nowhere where I was so I asked for somewhere different and somehow, I got talked into coming up here. At least you got back home. I was told there were some great opportunities here, with plenty of funding for training programmes."
"Yes, there are plenty of opportunities, so why are you competing against me?" Alec finally asked when she'd finished complaining. "I came back to try to get my girlfriend to come up from London to join me, she never liked where I was before."
"She won't come up here?" Tess stated the obvious, as Alec was about to find out she did quite a lot of that.
Alec shook his head.
"I've been trying, it's complicated," he replied, trying to go back to reading a file of cold cases the sergeant had thought would keep the pair of them occupied for the night, barring any emergencies. "Speaking of which, I was going to ask the sergeant how I would go about resolving the situation?" he added, getting up.
"How's he going to help you with your love life?" Tess wanted to know.
"You will find out, if it works," he replied.
"You want to what Alec?" the sergeant stared first at Alec, then across at Tess as others pretended to go back to work. "Let me get this right. You want to investigate suspected child abuse in the area? What the hell are you thinking about Alec? Are you and Tess still in competition with each other and you think this will help you win?"
"No Sarge, it's something I've wanted to do, since before I even joined the police. Can I tell you something, confidentially?" Alec asked, hoping the man wouldn't shout it out loud.
"Go on then Alec," the sergeant relented. "It had better be good because usually, specially trained officers usually handle that sort of case. Why is it so important to you?"
"Because when my girlfriend was thirteen, she was dragged up here to live, by her mother who was going to live with someone she met in London," Alec began. "Her mother knew nothing about him, he took advantage of the fact she had a blonde teenage girl. He started trying to get her involved with others her age, then she started to suspect something was wrong."
"Go on," the sergeant told him as he stopped what he was doing.
"I tried to help her, all my family did. He tried to stop her seeing me and going out with me but she defied him, with some help from her mother but it got too much, it went too far," Alec explained. "We realised what he was up to."
"You mean child grooming?" the sergeant was now treating it seriously.
"Yes, of sorts but we had no proof. Her mother saw nothing wrong because he was telling her it was what families did, get together with friends and their kids. She'd been alone, after her husband died and she was taken advantage of. Three years after they arrived, her mother left in a hurry and went back to London after he made her sign an agreement that he took responsibility for her daughter – my girlfriend."
"So, he was trying to get your girlfriend involved with whatever his friends and he were into by any means necessary?" the sergeant asked. "She should have reported it at the time."
"They were scared Sarge, that he'd go after them. It prevented my girlfriend from coming up here because she had no idea at what age he wouldn't try to get her back," Alec explained, hoping Rose would understand he was finally going to do something about it.
"This agreement, was it legal?" the sergeant wanted to know.
"Yes, my uncle has a small law firm, not in family law but he said such an agreement would be legal. The thing is, it's past any age preventing her coming back but she is still scared he could go after her," Alec replied.
"Then how was coming back here going to help?" Alec was asked.
"To help her face it," Alec admitted. "I wanted us to get married, a few years ago but she said no. We've been engaged a few years but now, I don't know if we still are, she won't talk to me."
"I'm sorry to hear that Alec," the sergeant was sympathetic. "Do you want to report this man?"
"She won't tell me his surname, Sarge," Alec had to admit. "I know where he lives, if he's still there but he and his friends were careful. Besides, they are all grown up now."
"They could also report the fact they were being groomed," he was reminded.
"Sarge, they were being groomed before my girlfriend came up here, they must have been taught it was normal. We thought he was missing out, found my girlfriend and her mother where he was working and saw his opportunity to join in. I want to go after him, on my own."
"Sorry Alec, I doubt that would be allowed, especially as you have no real proof. The most you could do is confront him and give him a warning but maybe he's stopped all that? Maybe he did give up on her a long time ago?" the sergeant wondered.
"I tried to tell her that Sarge but she wouldn't believe me," Alec replied sadly.
"You should talk to someone in that department, they would have to get involved," the sergeant insisted.
"I can't Sarge, I don't want to give their names and I don't know his surname, she won't tell me," Alec reminded him.
"Then I don't see much you can do Alec, except maybe go confront him, unofficially. Why haven't you?"
"In case she's right and he's not given up. I want her to come back up here but not to live in fear of him," Alec replied.
"Alec, if she came up here as a teenager, maybe that was all he was interested in?" the sergeant wondered.
"No Sarge, it was more than that. He wanted to keep us apart because she wouldn't go along with whatever he got her and her mother up here for," Alec admitted.
"I see then?" the sergeant replied. "Well, if all you told me is true, going to confront him, I would say he would not have the nerve to make a complaint, if you were to give him a warning to stay away from her. That's if she comes back. You can't turn the clocks back Alec but you can make it better for her to face coming back."
"Then I should try?" Alec asked.
"Take your new friend with you," the sergeant advised him.
"Then I'd have to tell her Sarge and I can't," Alec replied. "I have to face him on my own, for keeping us apart all this time."
"How long have you known her Alec?" the sergeant wanted to know.
"Twelve years but the last few, we've been apart a lot," Alec admitted.
"You don't have to give any names Alec, take someone with you so you won't do anything stupid eh?" the sergeant gave him more advice. "Do it in your own time though."
Alec went back to his desk, making Tess look up from where she'd been pretending to look at some files.
"So, are you going to tell me what that was all about?" she asked him.
"Her name is Rose and her mother got her into something when they came up here," he admitted. "I want to face the man who made her go back home and who's making her afraid to come back."
"On your own?" Tess asked, a bit surprised he'd told her even that much. Alec looked at her. "You want me to go with you? Why?"
"Because the sergeant thinks I need someone to stop me going too far," he admitted.
"Would you? Do you think you need someone with you?" she wanted to know.
"I don't know. I just want to make him pay for keeping her away from me all this time and I'm angry, real proper angry at him. I have to do this for her, to get her to come back Tess."
"Okay, I'll go with you," Tess agreed. "Before we start work tomorrow?"
"Fine, meet me a this address," he replied, scribbling Bob's address down on a sticky note.
"Do you live near there?" she tried to find out.
Alec knew what she was up to.
"I used to do. My aunt still lives near there though. I don't want to drive him out Tess, I just want him to admit what he'd tried to get her into. He was always aiming it at me, to try to get me to leave her to him and he almost succeeded a few times," he admitted.
"I'm sorry Alec, I had no idea. What are you going to tell her, if you get him to finally back off?" Tess wanted to know.
"That I still want us to get married," Alec replied. "I don't want him to win."
The next afternoon, Alec set off to meet Tess, hoping she'd turn up but if not, he'd just have to keep calm and finally face Bob himself. He'd waited a long time to be able to do this though and he was determined he wasn't going to back down.
He parked just on the road, looking up at the apartment block as the memories of walking with Rose to and from it came back. All the times he'd let himself in, only to face Bob and the steel look on his face and wondering if Rose would be allowed out. He snapped out of it as a car stopped behind him.
Tess got out and knocked on Alec's car window.
"Come on then or we'll be late for work," Tess told him. "Shame we don't wear a uniform."
"We can't go officially," Alec told her.
"You might not be able to but nothing's stopping me," Tess replied.
Alec was tempted to use the code he remembered after all this time but as he pressed the intercom he'd also used so many times, Tess made him move. Alec knew she had a reputation for being bossy and now he was getting to see it first hand.
"Who is it?" a grumpy voice asked them, Alec trying to remember what Bob's voice sounded like.
Alec didn't know that Tess had been doing some homework as she asked Bob to confirm who he was. Why hadn't he thought of looking the man up, if Tess could do so?
"What do you want?" she was asked.
"I'm DC Henchard from Paisley police, I have some questions to ask you," she spoke into the intercom.
Alec was now wishing he'd come on his own but would he have gone upstairs? The memories of sneaking kisses in the lobby and the lift on his way to and from taking Rose back came flooding back.
"What questions?" Tess was asked. "What's all this about? Wait a moment, have you found her?"
Tess now knew what Alec had meant.
"It's concerning her, I need to ask some questions," she reminded Bob.
Alec was trying to get to the intercom but Tess wouldn't let him.
"Stop telling him Tess," Alec insisted as she let go of the button to let Bob speak.
"Well it is concerning her," she reminded him. "Do you want my help or not?"
Alec gave up trying to battle her as he heard the door being released.
"He's only letting us up because he thinks we've found her," he told Tess as they waited for the lift.
"So, did you used to come back with her?" Tess teased him. "Were you caught on the cameras?"
"Stop it Tess. No, we tried to avoid them," he replied, his arms crossed and not looking forward to coming face to face with Bob again.
He'd promised Rose he'd do something about it and he was, it was just a bit sooner than he'd expected. They arrived at that floor and Alec indicated which flat it was.
"You've not forgotten then?" Tess asked, getting a piece of paper out of her pocket.
"How did you get his name and the number he lived at?" Alec wanted to know as he pressed the buzzer.
"Really Alec, you should try visiting the library, they have a massive volume of the electoral register," she replied smugly.
"Don't remind me of the library, I first met Rose there," he chastised her as the door opened.
Tess now wanted to know more about this Rose but seeing the look on Bob's face as he noticed Alec told more of a story.
"You," Bob tried to close the door again but Alec had his foot there. "What are you doing here? You claimed you were the police," he then looked at Tess.
"We are the police, do you want to answer my questions out here?" Tess replied, seeing now why this Rose was scared of the man when she was a teenager.
Alec had to admit that when he'd been sat with her during interviews, she was quite good, not that he'd tell her she was.
"So, where is she then?" Bob asked as he stepped aside to let them in. "You remember being here?" he asked Alec, indicating to the living room.
"Away from you," Alec replied, letting Tess go first. "And yes, I'm also in the police. Why did you do it? Why did you keep us apart by making her mother sign that agreement?"
"She told you?" Bob laughed. "Jackie always was easy to fool, she brought her daughter up here."
Tess could see Alec clenching his fist, hoping he wasn't going to do anything stupid.
"You never wanted Jackie, did you?" Alec asked him.
"You were always clever, both of you but I could have got her to see things my way, if you'd not been with her," Bob told him.
"Not in a million years, she was far too clever to be fooled," Alec replied.
"She would have done what she was told, when I'd got Jackie to agree to me having a more active role in her upbringing," Bob laughed. "Then she took Rose away and do you know what my consolation was?" he asked Alec. "It was you didn't get her either."
Alec was about to come face to face with the man, pointing his finger at Bob when Tess pulled on his arm.
"He's not worth it, leave it," she told him. "Just tell him why you're here."
"Why are you here, after all this time?" Bob asked Alec. "Oh, you joined the police, to get your revenge?" he laughed. "What do you expect to happen?"
"I want you to admit you got her mother to sign that agreement, then when she got Rose safely away from you, you stopped her coming back," Alec replied.
"I never stopped her coming back, it was the opposite. She had the choice," Bob reminded him.
"To come back and face being given back to you?" Alec half laughed.
"Only until she was twenty one, I'm surprised she never figured that out," Bob replied.
Alec sat on one of the dining chairs. She could have come back over four years ago and they could have got married, without fear of Bob finding her.
"Lost your steam now?" Bob taunted him.
"You were trying to groom her," Tess hadn't given up. "You had a group of friends who were trying to groom their kids."
"You can't prove any of that lassie," Bob laughed. "I took Rose and her mother off a London council estate, gave them a better life, you can't prove otherwise."
"Leave it," Alec told her. "You didn't win, she got away from you."
"Did you win? I don't see a wedding ring," Bob laughed again.
"We got engaged but she was scared you would get her back," Alec admitted. "Now, you are going to stay out of her life for good and I'm going to bring her back. If I see you anywhere near her, I will make you regret it, understand?"
"He threatened me," Bob turned to Tess.
"Who are you talking to? I'm not here and we should get to work, DC Hardy," Tess reminded Alec.
Alec got up and went to the door.
"How are you going to make me regret it, if she comes back?" Bob wanted to know.
"She knows your name and her mother knows the names of your friends. I'll haul them all in on child abuse charges and that's just for starters," Alec replied, seeing Bob didn't look half as smug. "They'll not go down on their own."
Once he and Tess got outside, Tess stopped him.
"Were you okay in there?"
"I'm fine, it was just being there and the thought he almost won," he replied.
"Well, it's over now so call her during your break Alec, don't let all that be for nothing," Tess told him.
"No, it won't, I'm going to get her back," Alec replied.
