Rose's mother was questioning if her daughter should be in the same town as the possible twin of the Doctor.
"I'm fine with it Mum," Rose tried to tell her that evening.
"Have you got a new boyfriend there?" Tony laughed.
"Tony, don't ask your sister such questions," his mother scolded him.
"But Mum," the boy protested. "Some of my friend's sisters have boyfriends."
"They maybe have but we don't talk about it in front of Rose," his mother reminded him.
"Why? Because uncle Mickey didn't come back?" Tony asked.
"He wasn't my boyfriend," Rose told him. "Well he was, a long time ago. You'll understand when you get older. Tony, I'm going away to try to help someone, someone I might have known."
"Well at least ya accept it might be him Rose, ya never know," her mother replied.
"Well I'm not gettin' my hopes up Mum. I'll make sure I introduce myself but he may not want anything to do with me. He needs someone even if he really is just a detective."
Her secretary had only rung two hotels and been told there was a detective staying there. The only reason she'd been told was she had informed the owners Rose Tyler was coming to town and she wanted to feel safe. Rose had thanked the woman for being discreet as to why she really wanted to know.
"It was no trouble Miss Tyler," Angie had told Rose after getting confirmation and forwarding the email to Rose. "I never specified how long you would be staying and I asked a Ms Fisher not to disclose you would be staying there."
"Yeah, thanks. Just forward anything important, if not, send it to Gwen, she's taking over while I'm away."
Rose still hadn't got over the fact she'd seen the other Gwen Cooper on the screen of the Tardis as well as this one, reminding her of Gwyneth the serving girl.
After breakfast the next morning, Rose put what she'd need for a few weeks into her sports type SUV and set her satnav for Broadchurch. She hadn't decided just how to introduce herself to the detective short of walking into the police station and letting him know she was in town. Maybe she'd try it and see what happened?
Meanwhile, Joe Miller was trying to avoid asking his wife questions as to how Danny had died. He wondered if it was indirectly his fault for letting Danny go off the other night and Ellie hadn't said exactly how he'd died. Before she set off for work the next morning, usually having weekends off and Tom, being upset didn't want her to go, Joe got her in the kitchen.
"Ell, should we be worried about Tom?" he asked her.
"Just make sure he doesn't go out on his own, not that he'll want to for a while. All I can tell you was maybe Danny's death was an accident."
Joe thought back to when Danny had stood at the edge of the cliff. When he'd looked out again, there had been no sign of him and just maybe, the cliff edge had given way? Now, he did feel guilty.
"Ell, can you say where Danny was found?"
"Didn't you see the news? He was laid on Harbour Cliff Beach, well someone had placed him there. I have to go now and I don't want my new boss getting any more grumpy for being late."
"Well, invite him for a meal one night, it might make him less grumpy," Joe grinned, now he knew he wasn't responsible for Danny's death.
It was obvious to him someone else had come along, whoever it was got into an argument with him and maybe hit him accidentally with a heavy object. Now though, what was he going to do? Find another boy who needed some sympathy and get them to trust him? Danny had given him a taste of it, someone for him, not him and Ellie.
Lee Ashworth had heard the news down the coast a few miles from Broadchurch. From where he was working, he could see a row of cottages from a distance and began to wonder if Claire was hiding there. The police, especially Hardy had no reason to come after him, maybe he didn't need any help finding his wife? He thought he'd feel full of guilt about the boy the other night but after Pippa?
Maybe he'd be safe to go around the area, Hardy would be too busy chasing suspects and there would surely be no shortage of them in a town that size. Maybe he should pin the blame on the man he saw talking to the boy?
Rose arrived at the hotel, asking Becca to keep her arrival quiet as there would already be some press in town.
"So, there's a detective staying here?" Rose mused as she was given her room key.
"I thought it a bit odd someone would ask that but when I was told it was you, well I hoped it encouraged you that you were safe here? I've just been to the newspaper office across the road, to sign a book of condolence."
"Well I'd love to sign it but I don't think it's a good idea me walking into the newspaper office," Rose smiled. "Umm, do ya think ya can give me directions to the police station?"
"Sure, it's down on the seafront, just go down the path at the side of the hotel and turn left at the bottom. Then it's just round the corner, up some steps. Do you have to report you're in town or something?"
"Not exactly, I know they're busy with what happened. I just thought I'd introduce myself, let them know I'm here."
"As opposed to letting the press know?" Becca smiled, the first time all morning.
She'd met the boy's father that night, maybe if Mark had stayed home, Danny wouldn't have obviously sneaked out and got himself killed? She intended texting Mark later to get him to meet her, she needed to make some sense out of what she was feeling, was it some sort of punishment for them meeting? Mark had suggested it and she'd finally given in after he kept flirting with her when he came to collect Chloe when she'd been helping out.
Alec had got back from chasing after Kevin the postman, trying not to feel dizzy when making himself a mug of tea and wondering what the hell he'd done to deserve walking into another killing of a child. As to whether it was classed as murder or accidental death, he'd no idea until he got the results in. Whoever was responsible, Danny certainly hadn't just walked into something on his own, he'd been hit with something.
At least this time there were no girls involved and the boy had been left where he'd be found easily, it wouldn't take them three days. Three days they'd wasted in Sandbrook because of Ashworth and his wife messing them around. Claire of course had tried to take advantage when her husband had walked free from court, he'd only partially helped her leave the town and had left her in a rented cottage a few miles away and told her to keep contact to a minimum unless for some reason her husband tried to contact her.
That was his priority, using her to make Ashworth trip up and make a mistake and no doubt he would eventually and so would Claire. He was certain she wasn't as innocent as she'd made herself out to be. His desk phone rang and he reluctantly answered it. He could have had the day off, relaxed a little but no, someone just had to go and spoil it. When he heard what the desk sergeant wanted him for, he just knew the day was going to get even worse.
"Sir, I have a someone in reception who wants to speak with you," Bob had told him, other phones ringing in the background.
"Well who is it man?" Alec asked, having not learned the man's name.
Bob knew the gruff new detective would never believe him in a million years so he wasn't even going to try.
"Sir, I think you should come down," Bob insisted as he saw Rose taking a seat after she'd walked up to the desk and waited for Bob finishing yet another call.
"Can I help you?" Bob had asked as he finished writing yet another message for those investigating the recent death of a young boy. He'd stopped as he was about to ask who she was. "Miss Tyler?"
"Yeah but don't shout it out," Rose tried not to laugh as it was something the Doctor often used to say.
"Of course not. What can we do for you today?" Bob asked her, which was why Alec had grunted down the phone there had better be a very good reason he'd been disturbed after he'd chewed Miller out for assuring the postman they'd caught up with it was nothing to worry about.
"Want me to go with you?" Ellie offered as he left his office, without his coat she noticed.
"No, I am only going downstairs. It seems the desk sergeant thinks I have nothing else to do than see every person who comes in asking for me."
"Who's been asking for you? Someone we've already interviewed?" she asked him.
When she didn't get an answer, everyone stopped to look at her.
"Get back to work," she warned them.
Alec decided to take the lift even though it was only one floor, since his annoying DS had made him take the stairs earlier. He emerged on the ground floor to the sound of phones ringing and not enough staff to answer them. All day, phone engineers were putting new wires in and he'd seen his DS seemingly telling one of them not to be nosy.
As Alec got downstairs, the engineer who she'd told earlier approached her desk.
"Finished?" she asked.
"It's not about that. That boy who was killed, Danny Latimer."
"You have some information?" she asked, about to call Bob and get Hardy back upstairs.
Alec had taken a look around as he saw everyone was busy and spied Rose sitting by the door. No wonder the desk sergeant didn't want to say why he was wanted. Rose got up when she saw him.
"Miss Tyler? May I ask what you are doing here?"
"You mean in the police station or Broadchurch?" Rose replied. "I thought I would just let you know I'm in town."
"Yes, that was thoughtful of you but we are in the middle of a murder investigation. You've not come as a Torchwood agent to try and take over have you?" Rose did then let out a laugh. "Oh, you have?"
"No, sorry. I imagined that would be your reaction, that's all. While I'm here though, if ya need any help?" she offered.
"Thank you for your offer but that won't be necessary Miss Tyler. We have more staff arriving on Monday. Thank you for letting us know you are here."
Bob was answering Ellie.
"I'll tell him, he's just talking with someone," Bob told her, thinking if he wanted to keep his job, he'd best not say who Hardy was talking to.
"Well tell him to hurry up about it," Ellie replied, the phone engineer sitting opposite and getting glares from his workmate.
"Sir," Bob called over from the desk. "DS Miller needs you for something, urgently."
"She found who killed Danny?" he asked hopefully.
"Not exactly Sir, someone just told her he knows who did."
"What?" Alec asked, since no-one had come in while he'd been there. "Who has she been talking to?"
"Apparently one of the phone engineers Sir. He told her he knows what happened."
"Well tell her to bring him to one of the interview rooms then," Alec replied. "How does he know?"
Bob looked around, not sure whether to say anything in front of the Vitex heiress but he knew she worked for Torchwood.
Alec went up to the desk.
"Sir, he told DS Miller that Danny told him."
"What? So it's started already, all the cranks crawling out of the woodwork. Miss Tyler, this is more your field is it not?"
Rose had a grin on her face.
While Bob was telling Ellie to bring the man down, Alec led the way to one of the interview rooms.
"I take it you can tell the cranks from the genuine?" he asked her, indicating for her to sit down.
"Yeah, I've had first-hand experience with a genuine psychic," Rose bragged. "She saved a lot of people."
Alec thought he just bet she'd seen the genuine article.
"Well see what you make of this," he replied, Rose thinking he was going to crack a smile.
She thought this was going to be interesting to say the least as they waited.
"So, any clues yet?" Rose asked casually, as if he'd tell her if they did.
"The boy may not have been killed where he was found. There was nothing around him that would have caused his death," Alec admitted, thinking why not?
"So, how did he die?" Rose thought she would push her luck since he seemed to want to talk.
"This goes no further, understood?" he asked her, wishing Miller would hurry up. "A blow to the head with a blunt instrument. A piece of wood, maybe an oar or a cricket bat but that would have only knocked him unconscious. We are not ruling out it was accidental, he could have run into something but why place him on the beach?"
Now he was questioning himself for starting this. Just why had he felt he could tell her?
"Maybe the killer came to town, knew you were here and thought after your last case it would throw you off" she suggested.
"You mean they thought I would suspect it was the same person or a copycat?" he replied. "The Sandbrook killer left the country shortly after he was set free. I'd know if he was back."
"Not if he slipped in when he found out you were here?" Rose grinned.
"You said you were not here to take over the investigation," he reminded her.
"Sorry. Can I call you Alec?"
"I hate that name but if you must?" he relented, though he'd hated it more since Tess made a point of using it to berate him on the phone for not calling his daughter, not that Daisy would answer him.
Rose could think of a few names but restrained herself and calling him 'Doctor' would get her thrown out.
Ellie was on her way down with whom she'd discover was called Steve Connelly.
"Why are we going downstairs?" the man asked.
"Because the DI wants to hear what you have to say. You'd better not be wasting our time," Ellie replied.
Ellie stopped dead in the doorway, seeing her new boss sat next to a blonde and not just any blonde.
"Excuse me Sir but what is she doing here?" Ellie asked him.
"You know who she is Miller. I asked her to join us, this is her field of expertise. So, who are you then?" Alec asked the man as Ellie sat next to him, thinking Rose Tyler was already taking liberties.
"Hold on, is she in the police?" Connelly asked him, nodding towards Rose.
"No, she's from another organisation but she is also a expert on people claiming a dead boy told them who killed him," Alec replied, Rose trying not to smile.
"Sir, I think you should hear him out," Ellie insisted.
"Well?" he asked the man opposite. "What do you have to say?"
After a slow start, Alec asked him how the dead boy had told him things.
"I have this spirit guide," Connelly started to tell him.
Alec shook his head, turning to Rose.
"Do you know the Latimer family?" Ellie asked him, a few questions later.
"No, I don't think so."
"Get him out of here Miller. Miss Tyler here deals with people like you. You stay away from the family, understand? If I find you go near them, I will arrest you."
"Well?" he asked Rose as Connelly was being led out.
The man turned as another officer came to join Ellie.
"You both knew each other before," he told Rose and Alec.
Ellie let the other officer take the man out.
"Is that true?" Ellie wanted to know.
"Of course it's not true Miller. I don't believe a word he told us."
"Well what are you doing here Miss Tyler?" Ellie asked her.
"I just came to let you know I was in town, then you got that crank and I was asked to join you. So you are?" she asked Ellie.
"DS Miller, Ellie. What brings you here?"
"Just a break but maybe I can help out? I mean if that man's gonna be persistent?"
"There won't be any need, we can handle him. If he gets out of hand, we'll let you know."
"Fine. Well that made me hungry, I missed lunch earlier. Anyone want to join me?" Rose asked them, hoping at least Alec would say yes.
Alec knew she was just seeing if he wanted to talk about what they'd just been told. Maybe he should?
"I'm fine thanks," Ellie replied, thinking if Rose Tyler was asking who wanted lunch with her, she'd want some male company.
She'd followed the rise of Rose Tyler, from her mother marrying the Vitex chairman and her finishing school then joining Torchwood, becoming one of their top agents. She'd read that a few years ago, one of her team members and herself had gone on a mission and she had come back alone. It had never been revealed who that was or where they had gone, it was all hushed up.
She went back upstairs then onto the balcony, seeing the two of them cross the road to the outdoor catering area though she thought the caf on the corner just outside would be more to Rose Tyler's liking, or did she like to go back to her roots?
Rose and Alec had sat at a table and Rose picked up the menu, since all the seating seemed to be reserved for a few of the stalls.
"So, what really brought you here?" Alec asked her as she chose something and passed the menu to him.
"I thought I'd already said? I'm not here as a Torchwood agent, honestly but I can be if needed."
"Like you could not resist hearing what that fake psychic had to say? You said you had met the genuine item?"
"Yeah, a long time ago. Trust me, he's making it all up."
"Well DS Miller was saying something to him earlier when he was near a desk, he must have got the information from there. Ready to order?"
They waited until their meals arrived and Alec soon discovered she could talk and eat at the same time.
"So, this is where they sent you?" Rose smiled as they ate. "How long have you been here?"
"Ah, just over a week. I was on leave before I came here, things were getting bad where I was. I expect you've already read up about me?"
"I get more access than the public," Rose replied.
"I can imagine? So, are you here because you wanted to meet me?" he asked, thinking she'd never answer that and he'd have to consider asking Becca to spend some time with him as certain things were beginning to show that he needed some female company.
"Alec, I followed the Sandbrook case, I was a bit concerned when this incident happened. I don't just chase aliens, I try to help people. If ya want me to back off, just say."
"I did not say that Rose," he replied, using a napkin and hoping nothing was on his beard he'd decided to keep.
He'd only just met her yet he could bring himself to use her first name and not Miller's.
"I know you're staying where I am Alec. Care to meet up later or are you planning on working late?"
"I don't suppose I have to work all night? So do you want to know what we have so far?"
He saw no harm in sharing information with another agency and if she wanted to keep him company, all the better.
"Yeah, maybe, if it's okay? Alec, I know what happened to you back in Sandbrook. Do ya think by any chance Pippa's killer followed ya here?"
Alec put his cutlery down across the plate and poured some more tea.
"Seriously? Why would he do that? As far as I know, he left the country after he walked free. I have someone watching out for him coming back."
"Alec, not everyone who comes back into the country lets everyone know. What if he had a motorbike and slipped off the ferry? Anyway, can ya show me where Danny was found?"
That gave Alec something to think about. Had Ashworth slipped back unnoticed?
"Sure, we can take a walk across but the CSU don't think he was killed there. He'd been hit with a heavy object, maybe by accident, that's still to be determined but there was nothing around that could have been used. We also retrieved CCTV of him skateboarding down the High Street earlier that night, the skateboard is missing," he told her as they got up.
"Sounds like someone wanted him to be found then?" Rose asked. "Maybe it's not him from Sandbrook?"
"It took us three days to find her. There had been a heavy rainfall, maybe she'd been left on the riverbank but the river flooded. She could have been left anywhere really but why the woods of all places?"
Rose wondered why he was asking her?
"To hide something?" she suggested. "I'll be back in a tick."
Alec stood waiting while she went into the ladies room, wondering why he felt so at ease with her. She was a trained operative from a top agency, maybe she just did it to everyone, well except maybe Miller, who hadn't looked pleased she'd had to sit opposite him in the interview room.
They walked across the harbour then across the car park to get to the police tent where Danny had been found. They were let through the tape when Alec showed his ID, many of the officers not yet knowing who he was. The man he knew as Brian came out of the tent when Alec made him aware he was there.
Brian looked at Alec, then at Rose.
"Were you wanting something?" Brian asked him, his face mask hanging loose.
Rose thought this was a far cry from watching CSI on TV and their own way of doing things at Torchwood. If she was working officially, she'd just walk in and say she was taking charge but she couldn't take this away from Alec, not after he'd failed in Sandbrook.
"What have you found out so far?" Alec asked him, not introducing Rose and hoping the man didn't think he'd brought his girlfriend to see where the boy had been found.
"There's a lot to go through Sir. We're sending sand to be tested from around where the boy was laid, it just takes time."
"How long had he been there?" Rose asked, her instincts taking over.
Brian looked at Alec.
"Well answer her. She's here as a police consultant. You said he didn't die here? If the boy had been carried, someone would have seen them."
"Not if he'd been brought here in a boat?" Rose suggested.
"That phoney mentioned a boat," Alec reminded her, Brian wondering who they were talking about.
"Lucky guess, there are tons of boats around here. Although? Well whoever it was wouldn't take one from the harbour, would they? They'd have to scramble over other boats, carrying Danny. Where else are there any boats around here?" Rose wondered.
"About a mile up the coast, there's a small boatyard," Brian replied.
Alec already had his phone out, calling Ellie.
"Yes, I know there's a boatyard up there," Ellie replied.
Her ex brother-in law or whatever he was kept a boat chained up just by it and her sister let people borrow it to make extra cash.
"Well get someone up there and look for any missing boats. We think Danny was taken in one, then whoever killed him dragged the boat onto the beach and lay him here."
"When you say we?" Ellie queried.
"Stop it Miller and get someone up there."
"Anything else up there besides a boatyard?" Rose asked her since Alec had put his phone on the speaker.
"Is Rose Tyler with you?" Ellie wanted to know.
"Yes, answer her question," he told her, already getting tired of it.
"There's a hut on top of the cliff, a holiday rental. Why?" Ellie replied.
"If Danny was hit with a heavy object, it could have been a boat oar. Get some officers up to the boatyard and send a car down to the scene where Danny was found, Miss Tyler and I will take a ride up to this hut. Tell the officers they are looking for a boat oar that may have blood on it and check if any boats are missing."
"Yeah and check if any boats have had chains cut. Someone may have borrowed one and tried to make it look like it's not been moved," Rose added.
"Anything else?" Ellie asked sarcastically, since Hardy was going to investigate with Rose Tyler and leaving her to arrange everything.
"No, we'll see what we can find. Rose pointed out that whoever killed Danny would not have carried him from one of the car parks. He had to been brought here by boat. Rose also suggested the killer wanted Danny to be found, leaving him on the beach and not where he could have been killed."
"So is Miss Tyler working with us then?" Ellie wanted to know.
"For now. I will see the chief on Monday. I doubt she will object. Find out who owns that hut and arrange to get the keys." He then turned to Brian. "You know the hut we are talking about?"
Brian nodded. "Sir, we don't have the resources to look at two scenes."
"Well take whoever you have spare when DS Miller finds who has the keys," Alec told him, wishing he and Rose didn't have to do all the thinking around here.
Brian shook his head and went back in the tent. They went back to the car park to see a marked car and Rose got in the back, Alec getting in the front.
"What do ya hope to find up there?" Rose asked they drove off.
"Signs Danny was there. You were the one to say he'd been moved. Maybe he was up there and went down onto the beach, we should look for a path when we get there. Why was he skateboarding down the middle of the High Street though?"
"He might have been meeting someone?" Rose suggested. "Then whoever he met drove him up there."
"Why would he be meeting anyone at that time?" Alec asked.
"It had to be an adult then?" Rose mused.
"Someone he knew which puts paid to your theory," Alec replied, wondering why he got on better with her than he did with his DS.
Maybe it was because Rose hadn't walked on that beach yesterday morning and told him he'd taken her job? Then she'd not been the one with a reporter nephew who had released Danny's name. He had gone crazy when the reporter had the nerve to apologise.
Rose didn't agree with what he'd just said.
"It could still be him. Maybe this time, he thought he'd throw you off by taking Danny where he'd be found? Anyway, back there, maybe there was another reason he hid the body?"
Alec was thankful she was keeping any names out of it. He knew Claire had been up to her neck in it, she had to have known what Ashworth had done to Pippa. He bet anything she'd been the one to encourage him. Maybe Pippa had seen what happened to Lisa and they had to keep her quiet and it went too far?
"Rose," he half turned towards her. "When we have found out what happened here, maybe I could ask you to help me with the other one. Until then, let's concentrate on this one."
Rose was about to say something back but she was cringing at the driver managing to get down a narrow lane. They got down to the bottom, turned a corner and came to a car park. Alec seeing a brownish coloured hut to the right.
"Come with us," he told the uniformed officer. "Rose, take the front with the officer, I will look around the back."
Just then, his phone rang. It was Ellie.
"Sir, I found who owns the hut. He says the cleaner has the keys. She lives on the caravan site just down the coast."
"Well take someone with you and get them, we should check it out. What's happening down at the boatyard?" he asked her.
"Officers just arrived and they're searching for an oar with blood on it. Do you think it was still an accident?"
"Whoever killed him could have been swinging the oar and Danny ran into it?" Rose asked.
Alec thought she was wasted as a Torchwood agent.
"Hold on. So that means whoever met Danny may not be the one who killed him?" Ellie asked.
"Maybe he met someone and wandered off on his own but what was someone doing down there with an oar Danny ran into or was he hit on purpose?"
Alec wished he knew. Now they may have to look for two suspects. The one who brought Danny up here and the one who hit him. The officers here were not equipped to go after two. Maybe if he asked nicely, he may get Rose to bring some specialists in?
They split up, Rose looking through the windows while the officer checked the door and they met up with Alec on the corner.
"Guess we wait for the keys?" Rose told him as he stood with his arms folded.
All thoughts of him being the Doctor's clone were fast fading until he'd done that.
"So, tell me more of your theory," Alec suggested.
"Danny was meeting someone he knew well? Maybe they argued and Danny went off? Who would he be meeting though?"
"Someone up to no good?"
"Sorry but it sounds like that other killer to me," Rose told him.
"You can say it, everyone will know who I am by now. Officer?"
"Yes Sir, we were told. DS Miller mentioned it to someone."
Alec thought he might have known she would waste no time.
"Ya have to admit the similarities between the two cases? I hate to say this but whoever he met, it was obvious."
"Obvious in what way?" Alec asked, wondering what was taking Miller so long.
Then he realised she didn't mean the caravan park near the police station, the one he was considering asking about renting one to get him out of the hotel. Maybe that wasn't such a good idea though, being on his own unless Rose was willing to share?
He was brought back to reality.
"You mean grooming him? We suspected the suspect in Sandbrook was doing that. I need to make a call."
He went off towards the car park, leaving Rose with the officer, who was wondering what the hell Rose Tyler was doing working with the new detective.
"Craig," Alec greeted the DC back in Sandbrook he had given the task of keeping tabs on Ashworth. "Has Lee Ashworth got back in the country?"
"Not as far as I know Sir. Is there reason to think he has?"
"Yes, a very good one since you know where I am? Call the border authorities and passport control, you were supposed to be informed by them if he came back."
Rose had wandered down and tapped him on the arm, Alec covering the phone.
"Alec, if he had a bike, he may have evaded customs and to get on a ferry, you can turn up at the last minute."
Now he suspected Ashworth had come back more and more. Had he lured the boy to the hut then Danny had run off or had Danny been with someone else, seen and recognised Ashworth and been chased down to the boatyard?
"Rose, come with me, call the officer up there."
Rose went back a bit and called out. Once they were joined, Alec went to the bushes at the top of the path that had been partially hidden.
"Whatcha looking for?" Rose asked him as he found a stick and poked the bushes.
"Signs a motorbike has been here."
"Ah! So ya think I'm right? I'll look for tyre tracks?"
"He will have covered them but when CSU get up here, they can go down the path, Danny may have dropped his phone down there."
"His phone's missing?" Rose asked, thinking he'd forgotten to tell her that.
"Did I not say? He may have dropped it if he was running down the path. What if Danny saw Ashworth, they spoke and Danny told him he knew who he was?"
"Then he chased Danny down the path, Danny hid between the boats and Ashworth picked up an oar?" Rose asked.
"Yes, then maybe Danny ran into it?"
"Is that accidental death?" Rose wondered.
"Maybe? If Ashworth was intending to dispose of Danny though?"
"Well he wouldn't want Danny to tell everyone he was in town, especially if he was following you?" Rose wondered.
"Why would he follow me?"
"You went after him?" Rose suggested.
Then he realised. Ashworth was looking for Claire after all.
"He wants his wife back and he thinks I know where she is."
"Do ya?" Rose smiled at the thought of him hiding someone.
"Yes. I don't like this Rose, not at all. Ashworth comes to town and we get another child killed. You may be right, he came looking for me but he did not want me to know he was here yet."
"Yeah, he must have been hoping you'd lead him to his wife? How did he know though?" Rose wondered.
"I got her to turn on him. I promised she would be safe from him so I got this transfer and put her in a cottage just a mile or so away."
"Oh. Well he took a lucky guess then or not. Alec, he didn't need to be a detective to work out you were hiding her."
Alec was now regretting helping Claire Ripley, as she now wanted to be known as. He was grateful he'd sent the officer down the path.
"Sir," the officer called from below. "I may have found something."
He officer came back up, holding a rag in his gloved hand.
"Put it in an evidence bag for testing. Let's hope they also found something down in the boatyard."
He got his phone out to find out where his DS had got to with the keys for the hut. Ellie though was not having an easy time.
"Yeah, I clean up at the hut," the woman was telling her.
"Well we need the keys, police business," Ellie told her, holding up her ID card and wishing Hardy hadn't sent her.
"Is this to do with that boy who was killed?" the woman asked.
"If I can just have the keys please?" Ellie reminded her.
"You'll have to sign for them."
She finally got away and drove up to the hut, wondering what Hardy was hoping to find inside.