How had he managed to get her and her partner to attend to him last night? He supposed it served him right for running dangerously out of his pills and collapsing on the bathroom floor but it could have been worse. He could have woken up with Becca Fisher sitting by his bed or rather laying her head on his legs when he woke up in hospital after vaguely remembering seeing a blonde staring over him in the back of the ambulance.
Had Becca insisted on going with him, she would have been told what was wrong with him, the other blonde could have told the hospital she was his wife or something and she certainly wouldn't have stayed all night, would she? No, it just had to be Rose, whom he didn't even know her surname when she had the advantage over him and he was too stubborn to ask his DS.
The taxi had arrived at the hotel and Alec fished a note out of his wallet, at least nothing had been disturbed but Rose must have been trying to get some basic details, like if he was married so the staff could inform his ex wife of his demise had they been unable to save him.
He got out of the cab, hoping the driver wouldn't say anything about Rose being familiar with him and making a show of kissing his cheek, well half kissing it and he'd be daft enough to half kiss her back but if she'd been making a point with the driver, she'd done a good job. He just hoped Miller didn't use that cab company when she needed a taxi.
Of course Becca was just coming out of the bar as he tried to sneak past but she would have locked his door last night as he'd been rushed off so of course, the key would be hanging behind the desk.
"Well you look a lot better than when you were taken out of here last night," she greeted him cheerfully, too cheerfully for his liking. "Care to tell what happened to you?"
"Went out to dinner and had too much to drink," Alec lied, thinking he'd best not stray too much from the truth, Joe Miller had insisted on that last glass of wine and that and his lack of pills were a deadly combination.
Becca seemed to believe him as she handed the key over.
"Yeah, tell me about it, been there and done that," Becca laughed. "I thought it must have been something like that? So have they just let you out?"
He was going to reply with a no, he'd got out and gone to work in the middle of the night but decided not to bother.
"They kept me in for observation," he replied, turning slowly to the stairs.
Well it was sort of true, Rose had been observing him all night until she'd fallen asleep on his legs.
"What time does the post arrive?" he continued.
"Soon, expecting something?" he was asked.
Would he be asking otherwise he thought?
"I'll get changed and get some breakfast, if there's anything for me I'll get it on the way out."
He went upstairs and thought the hospital would inform his friend, then he'd probably call and give a lecture that he should be more careful next time but at least he didn't have to be in a rush to get his prescription dispensed. Why had Rose said she'd vouch for him? Then she'd had the nerve to make it look like her saying in front of the cab driver she'd see him later like they had a date.
Rose was just wanting to go to sleep for a few hours after staying at the hospital all night but called Ellie's number. Ellie was trying to get ready for work and hoped Rose wasn't putting off her interview.
"Hi Ellie, about my interview," Rose started. "Can I put it back until later, say around one?"
"I thought you were cancelling it?" Ellie admitted. "Come in at one then, were you on the late shift last night?"
"Yeah, these stupid hours, I wish I could get a regular shift, some social life I have," Rose laughed.
"No male paramedics you fancy?" Ellie joked as Joe was putting Fred in his seat.
"Nope, even if I did, knowing my luck they'd either be on the same shift as me or going to work as I come off. See ya at one then?"
She thought she'd go down early and try and catch Alec, she had to tell someone what was on her mind about Ellie's husband besides Steven. It was his fault anyway for reminding her Joe Miller had a temper but would Alec just say she was wasting his time? Still, he owed her for getting him out of the hospital, she could have left him there but that wasn't her.
She set her phone alarm for half eleven and lay on the bed and was out like a light despite feeling hungry.
Alec tried to act normally once in his office, though it was just his luck Miller noticed the redness behind his ear when he made the mistake of showing her something on the monitor.
"Crikey, what happened to you?" she had to ask him.
"I slipped in the bathroom last night. Blame your husband, he kept filling my glass."
"You've been all glued up. Yeah, sorry, he tends to forget people have to get home, you should have told him you were driving," Ellie tried to apologise. "If I'd have got Rose to come as well, you could have said you were driving her home."
Alec wished she'd stop doing that. "She probably had other things to do," he replied.
"Oh, so how did you get to hospital?" Ellie asked him. "Don't say you never went or did the paramedics see to you?"
"Drop it Miller. I thought your friend was coming in for an interview?"
"She put it back, she was working late last night. Oh, she came to see to you, didn't she?" Ellie laughed.
Alec just made a face. "Get all the questions ready you have for her, about what Mark Latimer told us. Did you check with Chloe?"
"I've not had the chance and it's not fair I ask her until Rose confirms they attended. Chloe's got enough on at the moment, she's still in turmoil over what happened to Danny, then I'm quizzing her about the drugs and the money. She swore she knew nothing about the money though."
"So you said," Alec replied. "Come on, since your friend's put the interview back, we can make use of the time re-interviewing others."
Ellie moved. "And I thought we'd have a quiet morning in so I can catch up on the paperwork," she replied sarcastically.
"You can do that when we come back, I can interview her on my own."
Ellie thought as if she'd leave her friend alone with him, after their little display on the beach and then him going back to the newsagents when he saw an ambulance there. She knew he had to fancy Rose but she hoped her friend had already been put off him.
Once she was awake, Rose grabbed a coffee and some toast and called a cab to take her down to the harbour, it was a few minutes walk to the bus stop and one wasn't due and it took ages since it stopped at the bus station in the town first. She just hoped it wasn't Lucas, who would have been sure to ask Alec Hardy a few awkward questions when she'd been dropped off but she'd not been able to resist trying to get the annoying driver to stop being so gross.
Rose got dropped off, relieved it was another driver who stayed fairly quiet and she walked into the police station at twelve fifteen, hoping Alec was in. If not, she could go across the road and get a drink while she waited until one and catch him afterwards.
"Hello Rose, come for your interview?" Bob asked, since Ellie had left word. "Bit early aren't you?"
"Yeah, I was wondering if DI Hardy was in? Can you find out?" Rose asked him as Bob picked up the phone. "Just him, I don't want to see DS Miller just yet."
Bob held his hand over the phone speaker, giving her a questioning look.
"Sorry, he'll ask why," Bob told her.
"I have to tell him something he needs to know about and I'd rather not talk to DS Miller," Rose had to admit. "Please don't let her know."
Bob spoke into the phone when Alec answered, him being surprised Rose was early or was she checking up on him?
"So, what does she want?" Alec asked Bob as he took his specs off and rubbed his eyes, plus they were hurting his sore ear which was why he'd been squinting since they got back.
"Sir, she said she had something to tell you, not DS Miller. Should I get her to come back?" Bob asked him as Rose was now sitting opposite.
Rose could tell Bob was having a hard time convincing the detective it may be worth his while seeing her.
"Oh, okay, I'll be down but why just me?" he was asking himself more than Bob.
"She didn't say Sir, just she wanted to talk to you," Bob replied, glancing across at her.
Bob hung up and motioned Rose to the desk.
"He's on his way down. It's not a social call is it?" he grinned.
"Nah, it's to do with something that happened. Promise not to tell?" Rose asked, looking around. Bob nodded. "We had a bit of an argument over at the harbour newsagents the other day and I wanted to know why. I didn't want it to get in the way of my interview."
Well it was sort of true, she tried to convince herself. The stairs door opened and Alec came through, seeing Rose talking to the desk sergeant he thought was called Bob and hoped they weren't talking about him.
"You asked to see me?" Alec spoke up as he approached. "This way."
"See ya later Bob," Rose told him as she followed Alec to one of the informal interview rooms.
"This had better be good," Alec told her as she sat down and he closed the blinds to and the door.
"How's the ear Alec?" Rose smiled at him as he sat opposite.
"You came to ask me that? I thought you had something to tell me?" he asked.
"Yeah, I told Bob it was about the other day but it's not. I'm just concerned over something and Ellie's my friend so I'd rather not talk to her," Rose replied, wishing she'd now gone for that coffee instead.
"Then I would have thought she'd be the one you would talk to?" he questioned.
Rose shook her head. "It's sort of to do with her. Did she tell ya I used to be partnered with her husband before he stopped working?"
"She mentioned it, since she's always talking about you," he admitted. "Go on, you have an interview soon and Miller will come looking for you if the desk don't tell her you have arrived. So is it about her or her husband?"
"Both I suppose but she can't know I've spoken to you, promise?" she asked, looking serious.
"Since you probably saved my life last night and you got me out of the hospital, you have my word I won't tell her anything that's not directly to do with the current investigation, to a certain degree."
Rose thought that was all she was going to get out of him.
"Well Joe and I worked together when I got transferred here, I'd just qualified and I didn't know anyone. Ellie made friends with me, I'm her youngest son's godmother but it's nothing personal against her. It's just she may or may not know Joe's got a bit of a temper, well when I say a bit, sometimes I never knew if he was joking or not."
"Why would she not know her husband has a temper?" Alec wondered.
"I went to their house a lot, especially after Fred was born and there was no sign of it. She never said anything to me or asked me if he had a temper when I worked with him so I just assumed she wasn't aware," Rose explained. "Anyway, when we worked together, he was in charge but we could still laugh and joke a bit but sometimes, he'd slam on the brakes at the last minute at traffic lights if we weren't on a call, otherwise he'd expect drivers to move out of the way and he'd get really annoyed if they ignored us."
Alec raised his eyebrows. He'd seen no signs the man had a temper the night before.
"Carry on Rose. You do know I'll get to know your surname when we interview you formally?" he half smiled.
"You never asked before, you were too busy chewing me out on the beach and being nosy at the newsagents," Rose smiled back. "It's Tyler. So, like I said, he could get a bit mad but sometimes, he really creeped me out, when we'd get where we were going, it was like nothing had been wrong, if he'd turned the siren on to clear traffic even if it wasn't that much of an emergency."
Alec was getting more interested.
"Anyway, the day he was going to tell me Ellie was expecting, he'd said she had something to tell me and it was up to her and after work, he'd sometimes drop me at the big supermarket by the roundabout so we were heading there that night, a good few hundred yards from the traffic lights but as we approached to turn left, they changed to amber and a car was turning right. I thought he was going to slam the brakes on like he always did."
Alec folded his arms and motioned for her to continue as he looked at the time.
"Afraid I'll be late?" Rose grinned.
"No, go on," he insisted. "Did he slam on the brakes or did he go through the lights?" he asked, thinking this could be bad since the man was married to a detective.
Rose was dying to tell him to guess. "The car turning right may or may not have jumped the lights, I had no idea if there was a filter on that side but it didn't look like Joe was going to stop as they turned red. He went through and taking no notice, there was a few feet between the lights and the turn but suddenly, another car came from the right and Joe had to slam the brakes on to avoid colliding with it."
"What?" Alec asked, wishing he was writing this down instead of boosting his ego thinking she'd actually come to check on his welfare. "So did he stop in time?" he continued.
"Well I'm still here," Rose grinned back. "The traffic was still going forward in the other lane and on the other side of the road, I don't know much about those lights and if they have filters, we didn't go that way much, it wasn't on our route in the ambulance. Anyway, the other driver just carried on, cars were passing us and Joe was shouting out of the window at the other driver as he set off after a few seconds of sounding the horn."
"So what happened then?" Alec asked her, wondering if it was going to get more interesting or she'd demanded to be let out of the car and walked up to the supermarket.
"I'm gettin' to that bit," Rose reminded him. "Sure we're not gonna be late for my interview?"
"Miller will wait, she'll probably try calling you and she'll wonder where I went to," he replied dryly, thinking he'd get the blame anyway even if Rose hadn't come in early to see him.
"We carried on into the car park and he pulled into a parking space at the side of the supermarket, he usually stopped at the drop-off point. I joked about it and he said I was capable of walking and I think I said something like after he'd scared the life out of me on the way in and I told him he was partly to blame. I was getting out of the car and suddenly, he got out as well and looked across to the next row of cars and when I asked him, he pointed to the car that he'd almost collided with."
"He went across?" Alec asked her, really wishing he was taking notes but so far, Joe Miller had just flaunted traffic regulations when he wasn't working but it had to be a few years ago and there was no proof since she didn't know how the traffic lights had worked at the time and they could have been altered since then.
"The driver had already got out so Joe leaned over inside the car to the glove compartment and said he was looking for some paper to leave a note on the other car's windscreen. He couldn't find any and I joked I didn't have any so he said he was gonna leave it."
"Did he?"
Alec wanted to know the outcome now he'd listened so far and it was saving him going through endless witness statements yet again to see who was still lying where they'd been that night after Nigel Carter had messed them around, he didn't trust any of them.
"I just went off into the supermarket and assumed he had," she replied, wishing she'd never been there and now, wishing she'd kept it to herself but Alec Hardy was expecting there to be a point to this. "I was inside about half an hour and when I came out, I was gonna use the taxi phone when I noticed a crowd outside, more than usual."
"What do you mean? That they weren't waiting to be picked up or talking?" he asked her.
Rose shook her head. "They were all facing to the side of the supermarket where Joe had dropped me off. I went towards the door, keeping hold of my shopping trolley and suddenly, two men went dashing off."
Alec was getting restless in his seat. Now it was getting more interesting.
"What were they running towards Rose?"
"I couldn't tell at first but it was towards where Joe had parked earlier and I began to think he'd waited for the other driver coming back to say something to him but it had been just as much his fault and I'd told him that when he almost collided with the other car," Rose continued. "Anyway, the two blokes who'd run across were just pulling two men apart when I was able to see what was going on. One of them was Joe."
"It should have been reported at the time," Alec pointed out.
"You are kidding? Do ya know how many people argue in car parks over spaces and bad driving?" Rose asked him. "Joe was shrugging the man holding him off and the other bloke let the other driver go, they were just at the side of the trolley shelter and the other driver shook his fist at Joe, shouting something to him and walked back to his car. Joe went back to his and just got in."
"You should have called it in Rose, he was an ambulance driver," he reminded her.
"Yeah and Ellie would have come out to it, now ya know why I wanted to tell just you."
"That's all well and good Rose but I can't use any of this, not now and since you have no idea what the other car registration was, have you?" Rose shook her head. "So you never went over to him?"
"You're joking Alec? Get back in the car after that and ask him for a ride home, yeah, right," she laughed. "I just went back inside and called a cab and everyone was walking off when I went back outside. Joe had gone, well he'd moved but when I got home, I got a call from Ellie."
"Because he was late home?" Alec wondered, thinking at this rate he wouldn't get to hear if there was anything else to it before Miller started calling one or both of them to see where they were.
He just hoped if Miller called the desk, she wouldn't be told they'd gone off to another interview room without her.
"She asked if we'd been late finishing so I said he'd just dropped me at the supermarket, she knew he did sometimes but she knew he should have been home half an hour at least before then. Then she said he'd just walked in and she asked him where he'd been."
"He denied dropping you there in case someone had reported the incident?" Alec asked, giving up hope of Miller not looking for them, it was now inevitable unless he broke this off until later. "Rose, as much as I would love to hear the rest, I have to go wait at the desk for DS Miller. You wait here and I will tell her I saw you in reception and asked you to."
"Yeah, this could take a while longer if ya don't think I'm wasting your time?"
"I think no such thing but I can't do anything about it. Why are you telling me this?" he wanted to know.
"I know how Danny died Alec, someone obviously got violent with him and strangled him, someone he knew well enough to let get close to him and he was overpowered. Do ya think I'm telling ya all this for fun?" she replied.
"No Rose, I don't think anything of the sort but we should continue this later."
"Well after I get out, I'm off for something to eat, I'm starving. I missed my breakfast thanks to someone," she smiled.
"I never asked you to stay Rose. Allow me to buy you a late lunch and you can tell me the rest?"
"In a public place? I've got a better idea. Come round tonight and I'll cook something for us and you can tell me how you got ill and I'll tell you why I came to you about Joe. I'm worried Alec, he's got a temper and Danny knew him."
