"Rose," he began, reaching to touch her hand across the table. "I know I may have said there is nothing I can do about what you have already told me but I can listen. How long have you been bottling this up?"
Rose tried to move her hand but his was placed firmly on it.
"Since the day after the car park incident. When I got home, I got a call from Ellie asking if we'd been working late and that Joe hadn't got home."
"You told me that already," he tried to smile.
"Yeah, I know," Rose replied, giving up trying to move his hand. "Well the next morning, he never said a word to me about it. I could hear him telling her he waited for me coming out of the supermarket. He lied to her Alec, to cover what had really happened and she can't have found out about it. He didn't want her to know he'd lost his temper and he used me as an excuse."
"I get you feel he used you Rose," Alec told her, moving his chair slightly. "What you are trying to say is that you feel he should have apologised to you or at least thank you for playing along?"
"Well something like that. He'd never asked for me to cover for him before, goodness knows what he told Ellie when I'd hung up. He never said a 'thanks for covering for me last night' or gave me a reason why he'd told her he was waiting for me. It was like he'd totally forgotten about it but now, I wonder if he was waiting for me to say something and he suspected I saw what happened. What if he was daring me to tell Ellie?"
"Well maybe? Why though? If he lost his temper and thought you saw it and you told his wife, what was he expecting?" he asked her.
"I might be friends with them but not that much. Maybe that was the first and last time he did something like that but if she found out? If someone had called the police and she'd turned up?"
"Then maybe he should have thanked you? So what makes you think he knows you saw him? Do you think he was using that against you to ensure your silence?"
Rose tried to move back and he knew he had hit a raw nerve.
"Oh, you do? You think he was using that to keep you quiet, that you had seen what he was capable of and if he knew you'd seen him? Rose, that is mental blackmail, you should have told someone," he continued.
"I told Steven, just after Joe left and I got partnered with him. He felt sorry for me but all he could do was just tell me to try and forget it and that nothing had come of it."
"That's as maybe but now, you think if he had a temper and he knew Danny and that the boy maybe somehow crossed him? If like you said, Joe lost his temper at a man cutting him off when he was as much to blame, what did Danny say to him?"
He wasn't liking where this was going but without any proof as such, it was just Rose who was worried she may be right.
"Danny wasn't killed on the beach, was he?" Rose dared ask.
"What makes you think that?"
"You keep saying we work together?" she questioned him.
"No, we believe he was killed at the hut up on Briar Cliff, some time between 10pm Thursday night and 6pm Friday morning. So if you are right and you suspect Joe Miller had been somehow losing his temper, why did no-one see them meeting up there? How did his wife not notice he was gone?"
"Have ya asked her, if he went out?" she wanted to know.
Alec looked at her.
"So officer's husbands are not classed as suspects?" Rose tried to smile. "He'd worked a few crime scenes Alec, he knew how the police gathered evidence."
"What are you trying to say? That I should just ask her?"
"You could cover it up by asking all female officers where their husbands were that night," she replied.
"Do you know everyone there already hates me?" he asked, moving his hand to sit back.
He could see the look on her face that she'd not wanted him to move his hand.
"Can't you do it tactfully or is that not in your nature?" she teased him.
He knew he'd made a big mistake accepting her invitation but his curiosity had got the better of him.
"The chief would never agree. Are you trying to say you know he lured Danny up there and strangled him? For what reason?"
"I'm not saying that Alec. I knew he'd not been killed on the beach, if he'd been there overnight, someone would have spotted him before that, there would have been late night walkers. He had to have been taken there, someone probably used a boat, to get him from the hut, there are boats down at the bottom."
How had he missed that one? More importantly, why had she been the one to point it out?
"I'll have someone see if any boats are missing then? Whoever it was could have had access to one or cut a chain. Back to Joe Miller. I should not be discussing this with you."
"Who else have you to talk to? Ya can't talk to Ellie can ya?"
"Thank you for pointing that fact out. Why should I discuss it with you?" he wanted to know.
"Alec, you trusted me last night, to save you. Yeah, maybe you had no choice in it but I stayed with you and as you pointed out, I didn't have to. I said I'd tell no-one Alec, you can trust me enough to tell me things."
Maybe she was right? Who else could he trust? He'd done nothing but argue with her since the day they had met and she still kept coming back for more.
"Well okay then but just the basics and it goes no further understood?" Rose did a mock salute. "Take that grin off your face and come over here."
"What?" asked a confused Rose.
"You need someone to confide in, about Joe Miller. I need someone to confide in that I put my surgery off for a reason. I may not get through it and I have to find out who killed Danny. I can't go to the chief with what you told me. If you are wrong, what then?"
"You know I'm not wrong about him, don't ya?" she asked, debating if she should get up as he moved his chair back.
They could carry on being enemies but that wouldn't help his condition.
"Do I make ya feel worse when you get mad with me?"
Alec looked just as confused as she was.
"Sometimes. What are we going to do about it? You don't help you know? Every time we meet you get me a riled up, you know that."
"Listen who's talking," Rose grinned. "Steven just rolls his eyes, I know he wants to say something. He'll end up telling me to do something about it, maybe he already has and I just ignored him."
"Miller told me not to mess you around, she gave me quite a lecture after I had lunch with you."
"Well she wouldn't have given ya one without a reason," Rose smiled. "Ya must have given her one?"
"I did no such thing," he defended himself, trying to remember if he actually had done. "She's your friend."
"That's no excuse Alec. What did ya say to her?"
"Forget it. Geez Rose, you're at it again. If I had never collapsed last night, we would not be having this conversation. So I put my surgery off and now I regret it, I have you on my case now as well as my own GP."
"Well excuse me for being concerned about you," Rose huffed, thinking now she was definitely not going to do as he had suggested and go over to him.
What did he even want her to go over there for anyway?
"I never asked you to did I?" he replied for what he thought was one time too many.
"Now who's at it again?" Rose huffed as she got up and pushed her chair back. "I'll go get dessert then?"
Alec was about to reply he would rather she was the dessert but in her present mood she would probably slap him bad heart or no bad heart.
"Fine, then I will be out of your way," he called after her instead, knowing this had been a worse mistake than last night. "I had no inclination last night that Joe Miller had a temper," he added as she disappeared into the kitchen.
"Well I did, before he blew up that day," Rose called back to him as she went into the fridge.
Alec suddenly got up, willing himself not to get dizzy and Rose having to revive him yet again and went up behind her. He put his hand on her shoulder.
"Sorry, maybe I should just leave?"
"You don't have to. This is what we do, in case you've not noticed?" she asked him.
"Why is that? I mean I know the reason I get mad with you."
"I have no idea. Maybe I don't trust you enough?" she replied.
"Why not? Because I took your friend's job?"
"That's not fair Alec. Yes, she thought she was gonna get it and I was happy for her but the chief must have had a reason to give you it instead?"
"She did. I came here to lie low, on medical advice and instead I get a dead boy on the beach and you," he half smiled.
"That's supposed to make me feel better?" she asked him, turning around and resting her hands on the counter behind her.
"She was the only chief willing to take me on after my last case and if she found out I was ill, she would throw me out. You are the only other person who knows. I have no choice but to trust you but when we constantly get to each other? I could have stayed in Sandbrook and let my ex wife carry on having a go at me."
"She did?"
"Why do you think I was in a hurry to leave and take a job meant for someone else? I did not know it would be your friend who lost out to me, all I was told was that a vacancy had come up and I didn't get turned down for it. At that point, I was in no position to refuse it. Hell Rose, my own daughter's not even talking to me, how could I have stayed there?"
Rose suddenly straightened up.
"I had no idea, sorry. See, told ya I didn't help."
"You did, last night when you saved me because of me being stupid and putting off my surgery. I have less than a fifty percent chance of surviving it. I planned on solving this case and go for it in a month's time, if I don't put it off again. I was meant to go this Friday, then Danny was found on the beach."
"You should have gone for it. I heard what they said in the hospital Alec. Okay, Danny's death was a shock but no excuse to stop you from killing yourself trying to find out who did it but what if I'm right, about Joe?"
"I know you want to be right," he replied. "Hell Rose, what do you want me to do about it with no proof?"
"I don't know? Maybe find some? Let me talk to Ellie, I'll say I was thinking about the time Joe told her he was waiting for me that night, see if she'll tell me what happened afterwards?"
"That's not a good idea Rose. Do you want to fall out with her over it? She had just got back from holiday, right?" he asked.
"Yeah, they'd been to Florida, she took the extra week 'cos she was sure she was getting that promotion. Every time she goes on long flights she gets jetlag, she takes pills for it."
"So she takes them and goes to sleep, early?" he asked. "So, she does not know if her husband was there all night?"
Rose stared at him. What had she just started?
"No, she'd have had no idea. Alec, surely he wouldn't go out and leave the two boys? Tom's watched his younger brother for a few minutes but for Joe to sneak out and find Danny?"
"Rose, I should not tell you this but we have CCTV of Danny skateboarding down the High Street. He must have arranged to meet someone and maybe Joe Miller either was that someone or he knew who Danny was meeting?" Rose looked at him. "Maybe Tom saw him leaving?"
"I doubt that, it was late but Danny sneaked out and his parents had no idea he was missing. If Joe knew his wife would not wake, it was safe enough for him to go out. If I take this to the chief, it could go either way. She would say if his wife was asleep that she could not prove if he was there or not and the CPS would question it, without further proof."
"There's a camera up by the hut," Rose replied.
"We know but he was not on it," he admitted, not willing to say that the boy's father was waiting for someone.
Then he had an idea, to ask Mark Latimer if he saw any lights on in the hut.
"What I told you would be enough proof," Rose replied.
"I'm sorry but it's very little to go on. No-one would remember a fight in the supermarket car park and even if they did, they may not be willing to get involved. If two men broke Joe and another man up, they are not likely to admit they did so. Rose, I wish that was enough but it's not, not on just your say so. I believe you are right, that he could have lost his temper with Danny but there is no proof he was even up there that night with Danny."
"I told ya, he knows about how evidence is worked," she reminded him.
"So does any other senior paramedic Rose. So does any female officer's husband or boyfriend if they talked about it, there is still nothing to say he was there. Don't get any dessert out for me, I have to be careful what I eat and I really should be going."
"Back to your hotel room to be on your own?" she asked him. "Should you even be on your own?"
"I could ask Becca Fisher to keep knocking on my door, if you insist?" he joked.
"Or you could stay a while longer? I'm still worried about you putting off your surgery. Can't ya get it changed again?"
"Then what hmm? No, I have to get whoever killed Danny locked up first. If I've not found out who that is by the time my appointment comes up, then I will have to risk putting it off again. I am not going to let another killer get away."
"You already are Alec. I told ya who I suspect but that's not what I meant. You may kill yourself in the process."
"You are over-reacting."
"Am I?" Rose asked him, leaning back on the counter again as Alec stepped nearer.
"Yes, you are. If you are so concerned about me, maybe I could stay as long as we are not going to keep talking about your theories?"
"You know I'm right? You said there was something else I wasn't telling ya."
"What? Oh I may have done but you are not going to tell me, are you?"
"I can't Alec. I can't get over finding Danny on the beach, that's all. Steven said I should get help but I don't want it getting back to my boss. I was gonna go see the vicar but I went to see you instead."
"That was your decision Rose."
"Well excuse me for trying to help ya see I think Joe Miller's got something to do with it rather than how finding Danny affected me."
She folded her arms then tried to move but he stood in front of her.
"Well go then, if ya'd rather be on your own all night but that was why I stayed with ya last night. I didn't want ya to wake up and no-one was there for ya."
He reached for her arm. Why did they keep doing this? He should leave, he knew he should so what was stopping him?
"I did thank you for staying with me, did I not? I brought you flowers and chocolates, to say thank you and yes, I should have accepted the invitation to dinner as such and I apologise for not doing so."
What was happening to him, he was actually apologising. She tried to shake his arm off, not too much, he was thinking. She was looking at him, then his hand was on her arm. She reached her other hand over and put it on top of his.
"Why do we keep fighting?" she asked him.
"You are asking me?" he smiled. "I know it upset you, finding Danny on the beach. Was he face down when you arrived?"
Rose nodded. "Steven turned him over, carefully, in case there was any chance Danny had only just stopped breathing."
"I know you both would have tried but he had been gone a while before he was found, the coroner confirmed that, I should have told you. What was he doing up at the hut in the first place and if you are right, why was he meeting Joe Miller?"
"Danny was Tom's friend, maybe Tom would know?" Rose suggested.
"Miller was bad enough when I suggested he led a reconstruction tomorrow night," Alec tried to smile.
"Oh, I hadn't heard anything," Rose replied, absent-mindedly stroking his hand.
Alec noticed but didn't say anything. "Miller was putting it out, if she remembered. Tom is going to skateboard from just above the Traders Hotel down to the harbour to see if anyone remembers seeing Danny. I requested an ambulance to be in attendance. What time are you on duty tomorrow?"
"You're looking for volunteers?" Rose smiled.
"The supervisor said he would see who was around at that time. Maybe you and your partner would say something?"
"I'll ask Steven when I get to work but yeah, it's the least we can do, since we found Danny."
Alec knew she wouldn't be able to resist it, he'd not even had to try to get her to do it.
"Rose, if you really are worried about me, why don't you start by telling me why finding Danny affected you so much?" He moved closer, putting his other hand on her shoulder. "Well?"
"I'd never found a child like that before, okay?" she replied, trying to move but not too much.
"It doesn't get any better Rose, trust me. I had seen children die before but until I found that girl in the river, well that was the worst I had faced and the man who left her in the woods is still walking around somewhere. I can't let someone else get away who left a boy on a beach to be found."
"I didn't know it was you who found that girl Alec, sorry. We had a job to do and it didn't hit me until afterwards. I thought I'd shake it off but it won't go away. Does it ever?"
He moved her hand and put his on her other shoulder. He leaned closer, brushing her hair with his nose, as if to whisper to her.
"No Rose but you have to try. It helps talking to someone who has been through it. You can talk to me, unless you would rather go see the Reverend Coates?"
"I expect he has a lot of experience with things like that? Not first hand though?"
"I doubt it. Why don't we sit down and you tell me how you feel about it?"
"Yeah, I've had you standing here all this time and I was telling you to take it easy. Sorry."
"I was as much to blame. Why do we keep fighting Rose?" he asked, now brushing her hair back with his hand.
She grasped his hand. "I have no idea but you said you know why you did it, care to tell me?" she asked, brushing her cheek against his hand.
"You annoyed the hell out of me because of the way you handled yourself. It reminded me of my ex, how efficient she appeared to be until she screwed up the investigation we were both working on. I never told anyone but she lost the only evidence we had to lock up the man who killed that girl, Pippa. She was twelve Rose, the same age as Danny and I can't let it get to me."
"It has though, hasn't it? Then they say I need help," she smiled. "Who's gonna help you? We could help each other, call a truce?" she suggested.
"And ruin my hard-ass reputation?" he smiled, touching her cheek with his finger, seeing it was having an effect on her as she didn't flinch. "Well maybe if you promise not to tell anyone I gave in?"
"That might be difficult," she smiled, turning to him. "Don't ya wanna know why I got irritated with you?"
"Then enlighten me, after you let me try to kiss you."
"You re so full of it, Alec Hardy," she giggled.
"Maybe so but I can't ruin my reputation altogether, can I?" he asked, kissing her cheek lightly and seeing her reaction, repeated it. "So, are you going to slap my face and tell me to leave if I try?"
"There's only one way to find out, Alec," she teased him.
"Well in that case, if you don't slap my face, you have to promise to let me help you get over finding Danny."
"Only if I can help you and you can start by calling to get an earlier appointment for your surgery."
He moved away slightly, since Rose's arms had somehow got around his waist without him even noticing.
"I can't Rose, I have to solve this case."
"You will and you'll do it a lot quicker if you get better. I might not be the one to find you next time and if you died and I wasn't there, how do ya think that'll make me feel?"
Alec hadn't thought about how it would affect anyone, not even his daughter. Now here was this young woman who had annoyed the hell out of him trying to tell him she cared.
"Well?" she asked him as he considered.
"I will call them, on one condition."
"What's that?" she asked, half knowing what the answer would be. "You want me to go with ya?"
"Would you?" he asked, kissing her cheek again then touching it.
"What do ya think? I went back last night because I couldn't bear to think if you didn't make it, no-one would be there for you."
"You are a very caring person Rose. Now, are we going to stop talking long enough for me to kiss you?"
