"I could do with a sit down," Rose hinted, hoping he would join her.
"The car's unlocked if you want to get in Sir," the officer told him.
Alec indicated for Rose to go first, figuring that was her way of telling him he was driving her crazy pacing about or did she want to talk? He opened the back door for her then got in the front.
"Want to talk about what that psychic said?" he asked her.
"He's a fake, I thought we'd agreed that?"
"Well I'm sure I would have remembered if we had met before or maybe it was aimed at you? Did you know someone who looked like me in the past he could have seen you with, in the papers maybe?"
"Not in the papers, no. Alec, I'll be honest with ya, yes, I used to know someone who looked a little like you but he's gone now."
"When you say gone?" he wondered.
"As in not coming back, not ever. I thought I'd got him back but he left again."
Alec wondered what man could be off his head leaving her - twice. Maybe he'd stand a chance with her but would it be fair reminding her?
"That man would not have known, would he?" he dared ask.
"I doubt it, the first time was before I became famous and the second time was only briefly. Actually, make that three times."
Alec heard a sad tone in her voice and tried to turn around.
"I'm sorry to hear that Rose. Was that the reason you were going to leave after you introduced yourself?"
"Forget it Alec, it doesn't bother me you look like him. He left me once, not by choice, the second time, it was a sort of message. The third time, I went to find him but he couldn't stay. I thought for maybe a minute he'd come back and not told me, then I saw your name. Sorry."
"There is no need to apologise Rose, I am sorry I disappointed you."
"What? It was my own fault Alec, don't apologise. We just weren't meant to be together. I went a long way to find him last time as well but he thought I'd settle for someone else. I can't tell ya any more."
Alec wondered what she meant but looked in the mirror to see another car pull up behind them. Ellie had just got out when the forensics van pulled into the car park and Ellie handed Brian the keys. Alec was already out of the car and holding the door open for Rose, which amused Ellie he was showing some manners, even if they weren't directed at her.
"What are we looking for?" Brian was asking Ellie, since Alec had all his attention on Rose, well so she thought.
Rose was also wondering why he was paying her so much attention. Did he actually feel sorry for her?
Alec quickly told Brian what his small team were looking for.
"Miller, stay here and supervise, Rose and I are going to pay Mark Latimer a visit as to why he was waiting for someone that night. It's a pity the camera doesn't move."
"Why, what else were you expecting it to pick up?" Ellie asked, a bit annoyed he was going off and leaving her here.
"Call whoever is down in the boat yard and have some of them climb the path, a rag was found just in the bushes," he told her as the officer with them handed the evidence to Brian. "Get that tested for fingerprints, it's got no blood on it but whoever hit Danny could have used it to wipe any from the oar. We think there are signs a motorbike could have been by the path."
"Who would be up here on a motorbike?" Ellie wanted to know as Brian went off.
"Maybe someone camping?" Rose suggested. "Hey, it could be who we talked about?"
"Who did you talk about?" Ellie asked.
"Miller, also have the officers see if Danny dropped his phone, if he was being chased."
"What? Hold on, I think you need to explain a few things."
Rose quickly told her what she and Alec had been talking about since lunch.
"What? You think the suspect from your old case is somehow involved?" Ellie asked.
"It was Rose who suggested it and she could be right Miller. There are a lot of similarities we don't like."
"So she's suggesting the killer came here at random and killed Danny? What for?"
"He thought Alec was here and came looking for him. Say he did do, he was just camping for the night and Danny saw him?" Rose asked.
"As Rose says Miller, say Danny was meeting someone up here, he either ran off for some reason and Ashworth was watching? He could have got into a conversation with Danny, maybe Danny was upset? Then Danny recognised him and Ashworth did not want Danny telling anyone, especially me that he was in town?"
Ellie was trying to keep up, as if one crime scene wasn't enough, someone was following Hardy from his old case and they had a second crime scene with not enough staff to process it.
"Sir, we can't keep on with two crime scenes, they can't cope," Ellie told him.
"Well, I will see the chief super on Monday and maybe Rose can help out with that?" he replied.
"Alec, if I remember rightly, you more or less told me Torchwood wasn't taking over," Rose reminded him.
"Not as such but you have a lot more recourses than we do. Maybe you can arrange for your labs to help?"
"Yeah, I'll see what I can do, my stepfather's always saying if there's any way we can help other agencies and what happened to Danny concerns him, because of my younger brother."
"Isn't he your half brother?" Ellie corrected her.
Alec saw the look on Rose's face.
"We don't refer to him as that. To him, I'm his real older sister, it's complicated. I'll do what I can Alec, if your chief agrees. Right, we go see the boy's father then?"
"Yes. So Miller, let me know what they find up there at the hut and if they find the oar that struck Danny, if it was an oar? Has anyone looked for gaps where a smaller boat could have been or a cut chain yet?"
Ellie wondered if he knew he never gave anyone a chance to do anything?
"I'll find out while I supervise up at the hut shall I?" Ellie asked him, Rose suppressing a giggle.
Alec was opening the car door again for Rose, much to the amusement of the officer with them. Ellie thought if he kept on doing that, she would throw up.
"Ellie, about the boat oar," Rose called as Alec waited for her getting in, wondering if he should sit next to her or not. "Get them to look in the boats themselves, whoever struck Danny could have tossed it over the side of one and it's got mixed up with others."
Alec knew she was definitely wasted as a Torchwood agent. Who was she, really? She was no ordinary agent, that much was certain. No, Rose Tyler was something else and he was a reminder of who she'd lost, yet she was still willing to work with him.
Ellie was wondering who really was in charge around here, the annoying DI she'd met on the beach or Rose Tyler. As he closed the door when Rose got in, she was surprised he'd not got in the back with her. Ellie went off to find Brian and see if Hardy was wrong Danny had met someone there but what was he doing up here if he wasn't?
Rose and Alec arrived at the Latimer house, Alec letting her out again as she didn't have the heart to tell him she was capable of getting out herself. Mark opened the door, expecting to see their friend Ellie with the detective. Mark invited them in and Alec stood for a moment.
"Mark, Beth, this is Rose Tyler, she's acting as a consultant on the case. You can talk freely in front of her."
Beth was the one to speak.
"Seriously? What's she doing here?" she asked Alec.
"It's okay Mrs Latimer, I'm just here to help the police, I work for another agency. DI Hardy thought I would have a fresh look on the case."
"Well have you found anything yet?" Beth asked Alec.
"Beth, calm down," Mark told her.
"We are currently searching another two locations in connection with that happened to Danny, it's too early to say anything else yet but we are searching for the object that killed him," Alec told them as Rose took the spare chair and he sat on the arm, which didn't help Rose forget he wasn't the Doctor.
"What was he hit by?" Mark wanted to know.
"We believe it may have been a boat oar. The location where we think he was killed, he could have been chased into it and he was hiding. He could then have been trying to run away and he was struck. We don't know at this time if it was unintentional or not."
"You mean the boatyard?" Beth's mother asked.
"Possibly," was all Alec would admit.
"Then how did he get to the harbour?" Beth wanted to know.
"He was transported by boat," Alec replied, thinking he could thank Rose for that. "Do you own a boat Mark?"
"What? Yeah, I have a boat, in the harbour. What's that got to do with what happened?"
"We'll need to see it, to exclude it from the investigation," Alec replied, Rose thinking the head CSU would thank him for that at the weekend. "Mark, may I have a word outside?"
As they left, Beth turned to Rose.
"What are you really doing here?"
"Mum, she's trying to help, aren't you?" Chloe asked Rose. "I read about her Mum, she's in some organisation called Torchwood."
"I've heard of that," Beth's mother agreed. "Doesn't it have something to do with aliens?"
"Great, that's all we need, someone who chases aliens," Beth replied.
"That's not all we do Mrs Latimer. We have a lot of different programs in research and helping other agencies. I have a brother just a bit younger than Danny. I'll give you my number, if you want to talk?" Rose offered.
"Will it get back to the police?" Chloe asked her.
"No, I won't share without permission. Have you got any questions?"
Alec was outside, asking Mark a few questions.
"Tell me again where you were the other night, Mark."
"I told you, I was out on a job," Mark replied, Alec thinking he looked tired but he had some room to talk.
"Don't lie to me Mark, you were seen on CCTV standing by a car up on Briar Cliff that night."
"Oh, so you were snooping on me then?" Mark huffed, seeing Beth standing at the kitchen window.
"We were just checking CCTV for any signs of Danny. Well?" Alec asked him.
"I'm all confused, the days are getting all mixed into one," Mark replied, rubbing his face. "What's Rose Tyler really doing here then?"
"She's trying to help and she's been most valuable so far. Mark, this is only about where you were, is there something you don't want Beth to know about?" Alec asked him.
Just then, Alec's phone rang. He frowned when the display said 'Miller' but who did he expect? He'd not even got round to swapping numbers with Rose yet. Why was he even working with Rose? Somehow, it just seemed right, that she'd come from nowhere and was offering to help with the case.
"What?" he just answered, since he did that with everyone these days but maybe not when Rose got his number.
"Sir, CSU found two sets of fingerprints, one near the sink. They belong to Mark Latimer."
"Interesting," Alec remarked, turning to see Mark was trying to look innocent.
"Sir, the other set we need to identify, they're not on our records," Ellie continued. "They could belong to the owner or the cleaner," she suggested.
"Then we need to eliminate them and get more fingerprint samples, make a start. Miller, Danny had to be meeting someone he knew so no-one gets out of it, I will ask his parents who he was likely to be meeting. We should get your boy, what's his name and your husband eliminated."
Ellie almost lost her temper.
"Are you serious Sir? Do you want me to get the local vicar in as well?"
"Did Danny know him?" Alec asked her.
He got no reply.
Rose touched his arm as she joined him, having got nothing out of the three women inside.
"She doesn't like that, does she?"
Alec raised his eyebrows, Rose wishing he wouldn't.
"She does not like me, full stop. Just because she's a detective does not make her family exempt, we had to take fingerprints from Danny's family. It's not easy Rose, it has to be done though, they may have been up there at some point."
"To ask him what he was doing in the car park? You never mentioned it earlier."
"Yes, sorry, I neglected to say anything but at that stage, I had not asked you to get further involved. You can back out Rose, I can get the driver to drop you at your hotel?"
"Alec, I'm in, I just have to clear it but I'll tag along, to observe. Pete will let me anyway, let's say I'm doing it for my little brother? If it's the same man from your last case, he has to be stopped. Everything's pointing to it though, he's getting a taste for it."
"I know Rose. Are you certain you want to get involved if it is him?" Alec asked her as he turned back to Mark.
Rose nodded. "Let me talk to Mark."
"What are you really doing here Miss Tyler?" Mark asked her.
"It upset me, with having a younger brother and I thought I could maybe help, even if only in a small way. I'm really sorry for your loss and I know what we'd go through if it was my little brother. I grew up on my own, without a dad and when my mum met Pete Tyler, everything changed. He lost his first wife so I do understand what it's like to lose someone."
"Thank you Miss Tyler, I think so far you're the only one that does understand," Mark replied, nodding at Alec.
"He's the best person for the job, despite what happened, it was just a technicality and this time around, well he's got me," Rose smiled.
"DS Miller is our friend, we'd rather it was her who was in charge to be honest. Do you two already know each other?" Mark wanted to know.
Why did everyone assume they did? Rose wondered.
"No, we only met earlier, I'd just arrived and went to say I was in town. Mark, I'm a fully trained agent, I can help find out what happened to your son, you have to trust me and DI Hardy."
"Well, if you're working with him then? I suppose I have to trust you. Will you keep us informed?" Mark asked her.
Rose turned to Alec.
"They have a family liaison already but yes, I see no reason why not. You never answered the question Mark, what were you doing up at the hut car park?"
Mark looked around at the kitchen window where Beth was looking out.
"Mum, come away from there," Chloe was trying to tell her.
"What do they want to speak to him for?" Beth replied.
"I expect it's important enough to ask him on his own," her mother told her. "They may be checking where Mark was that night."
"He's already told them Mum, why don't they believe him?" Beth almost cried.
"Beth, it all has to be checked," her mother replied, looking at Chloe.
"Come and sit down Mum. I read about Rose Tyler, she's not just the stepdaughter of the Vitex millionaire, she works for an agency. Give her a chance."
"Well she has a nerve coming here," Beth replied, seeing Rose talking to Mark.
"What aren't you telling us?" Alec was asking Mark. "There was no callout, was there?"
"I went out, for a drink with a friend," Mark finally admitted, his hands in his trouser pockets.
Rose studied people, out of habit and knew he was hiding something.
"Who did you meet?" Alec wanted to know.
"Ah, I can't remember," Mark replied.
Rose thought he had to be kidding.
"This was only a few nights ago," Alec reminded him.
"Everything's all mixed up," Mark claimed.
"Mark, it's important you remember," Rose told him. "You may have seen someone on their way to meet Danny. Alec, you have to tell him what we think happened."
"Rose, we don't normally go into such details," Alec replied. "Well okay but Mark, this goes no further, not even to Beth. We think Danny met someone, maybe down by the harbour, then he was taken up to the hut on Briar cliff and ran off. We then think someone else was there, someone Danny recognised as should not be there and he was chased to the boatyard below and I'm sorry Mark but that person picked up a boat oar and Danny ran into it as it was either raised or swung."
"What?" Mark asked, trying to take it in. "He ran from one person he knew and was chased by another? That means both persons saw each other."
"Maybe not, if the second person was watching the hut and saw Danny come out with whoever took him up there," Rose replied, Alec thinking maybe she was wanting to take over after all? "That person saw whoever took Danny up, yes but not the other way around. Do ya know why Danny would be sneaking out to meet someone?"
"He has no grown-up friends, if that's what you mean," Mark replied. "Maybe he and Tom sneaked up there?"
"Why would he go to the harbour to meet Tom?" Alec wanted to know, since he'd learned it was only across the field to the Miller house.
"Why would he go down there to meet an adult?" Rose asked him.
"This is getting too much," Mark complained. "I met a mate, that's where I was that night."
"Does this mate have a name?" Alec asked him.
"I can't remember," Mark replied, Rose feeling sorry for him.
"Mark, I need you to come down to the station tomorrow morning and you had better have remembered who you met with," Alec told him. "We found your fingerprints in the hut, can you explain that?"
"I mended a burst pipe up there, a week or so back. I got an emergency call and picked up the keys from a woman in a caravan just down the coast."
Rose wondered how he could remember that and not who he'd met. She knew as well as Alec did the man was hiding something. They finally left, Alec offering to drop her at the hotel.
"There's nothing you can do at the station," Alec told her as he held the car door open.
"Yeah, I suppose not? Will you be at the hotel for dinner?"
Alec thought he could try and make the effort or Miller would be feeding him fish and chips again.
"I will do my best to finish early. Mark Latimer worries me though, if he won't account for where he was that night."
"Yeah, why's he doing that? Want me to be there tomorrow?"
"No, it's fine, you came down for a rest. I will see you tonight hopefully and we have something to talk about."
"Oh, ya mean about what that man said earlier?"
"Yes. Was he right?" he asked her.
"We should talk later, I had another reason for coming down here."
"Are you contacting your agency?" Alec wanted to know.
"You need extra resources for two crime scenes?"
"Is that asking too much?" Alec asked as the car pulled up opposite the hotel, Alec having told the driver where to go.
"Well, we're always willing to help other agencies," Rose smiled as Alec got out to help her.
"I'm sure you are. I will see you later?"
Rose went back to her room to call her stepfather, who would be surely mad at her for getting involved so soon. Alec got back to the station to find a cross Ellie Miller.
"So, is Torchwood taking over?" she asked as she followed him into his office.
"Think about it Miller? They can have a team here on Monday to work alongside our own CSU, I'm sure the chief will agree when I put it to her on Monday."
"Well I hope that means we can get finished at a decent time?"
"Have you spoken to your husband yet? Oh and Mark Latimer will be here in the morning to tell us where he was that night."
"Seriously?" Ellie asked, already annoyed he'd called her husband and son into question.
"What's your problem Miller eh? Just because I took Rose Tyler with me maybe? She can be of immense value to us, she can keep that psychic away for a start, she knows how to deal with people like that and she has come up with several theories so far."
"Such as?" Ellie wanted to know, since he'd not told her any of them in great detail.
"That Danny ran away or walked away from one person to be confronted by another, someone who did not belong here and Danny recognised him. Sit down," he gestured to her, thinking he must be going soft or was it because he'd just left Rose?
Ellie sat opposite with her arms folded.
"So, you really think it's the suspect from your last case? Care to explain?" she asked.
"Rose and I both think for some reason, he came looking for me or followed me here. He may think I know where his wife went after the trial collapsed. She turned on him and wanted my help in return. I set her up in a cottage just down the coast but I have had no contact with her. If Lee Ashworth thinks I'm helping her, he's watching for me to lead him to her."
"What? Why were you helping her?" Ellie wanted to know.
"To keep an eye on her if Ashworth came back. They are both guilty Miller, if that evidence had not been lost they would have been locked up, then they may have admitted where the other cousin is. They will make a mistake Miller and I think Ashworth already did, by Danny recognising him and Ashworth was not ready to come face to face with me."
Ellie couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"You dragged your old case into this?" she asked him, just to make sure.
"Ashworth got himself into it Miller, if he was up near the hut, he saw who Danny was with. Had they not been there, Danny would still be alive so the person who took him up there is just as responsible for his death. Ashworth may have been seen by Danny and they talked, Danny recognised him and ran off, to hide in the boatyard," Alec continued.
"You think Ashworth picked up an oar and swung it at Danny?" Ellie asked.
"Rose and I think it could have been accidental, he could have been swinging it when he couldn't find Danny, who came running around the corner of a boat and collided with it."
Ellie shuffled in her chair.
"So Ashworth threw the oar into a boat, then he put Danny in a smaller boat and took him to where he was found? That's a bit far-fetched, didn't you find that girl in the river three days after she disappeared?"
Alec didn't want to be reminded of that.
"The weather was bad, it had been raining, heavily. We think he was trying to put us off by leaving Danny where he would be found. He could have put him in one of the boats, he wouldn't have been found for days. We still need to find who Danny went up there with, they could have seen Ashworth, so could Mark Latimer. If Ashworth was camping out for the night up there, someone may have seen a bike, Rose was looking for tracks but they could have been covered."
Just then, Ellie's phone rang.
"Right, I'll let him know," Ellie told the caller. "Sir, they found an oar with blood on it, it's going for testing. If Ashworth's so clever, won't he have wiped his prints off it?"
"Yes but we found a rag at the top of the path, which will have his DNA on it. All we have to do is place Ashworth near the hut and we have him," Alec replied, thinking this was going to be easier than he thought.