Hardy
To Hardy's simmering frustration, he spends the next hour explaining to his CS that no, he isn't shagging an underage girl, that the girl in the picture is his daughter and he can prove it, that no, he doesn't know where or when the picture was taken, nor does he know who would have sent the postcard, or why it was sent to everyone in the station, and that yes, he more than fully understands the implications if this were to be sent to the media while he's in the midst of investigating another potentially high-profile case.
Miller's hovering over Sal's desk when he comes storming back to his office and he pauses when their eyes meet.
"I thought you'd gone," he says.
"What? Without knowing what's happened?" She's teasing but there's a serious look in her eyes that he recognizes.
He invites her into his office with a tilt of his head and closes the door behind her.
"Seriously, Miller, you should have been out of here an hour ago."
"Don't avoid the subject. What did your CS say?"
He shrugs, loosening his tie and undoing the top button of his shirt before he sinks into his chair.
"The usual. Who, what, when, where, why and how. None of which I know, of course."
"Well, Sal and I traced the e-mail address to a cyber-cafe on the Common, not far from Tony's, actually. The account was created fifteen minutes before the e-mail was sent."
He's staring at her with a puzzled frown. "How did you find all that in such a short period of time?"
"Turns out your wee Sal is a bit of a hacker."
His eyes widen. "Please don't tell me she hacked into a private company's electronic records from the Stonebridge police network?"
Ellie's lips curve upward. "We slipped across the street to the coffee shop. She said your CS likes to lecture so she figured we had at least an hour."
He scowls. "There was no need to go to all that trouble."
Ellie raises an eyebrow. "No? Somebody sent a message that was intended to smear your reputation. You don't want to know who did that?"
"Hell, yes! I wouldn't give a shit if it had just been me, God knows my reputation has been ruined before. But they dragged my daughter into it and that's something I won't forget in a hurry. It's such a ludicrously easy charge to disprove, though, it's obviously just somebody taking the piss. Most likely Webster. I told you he was getting stroppy about Sal being the lead DS for this case."
"Yeah, well, maybe, but you can't prove it."
"No, and I don't think I'll have to. I'll speak to the team members who are here today and the rest of them on Monday." His face is grim, eyes angry.
"What's that going to accomplish?"
"That I'm willing to let this one go. Bad judgement, joke gone wrong, sent it to the wrong mailing list, all that horseshit. But I'm going to make it quite clear: if anyone involves Daisy again, there'll be no second chances."
Ellie frowns, staring off into the distance. "That won't be good for team cohesion," she says slowly, "if everyone's in trouble for one person's stupidity. Especially when you don't know which person. Suspicion tears everything apart." She grimaces, and Hardy knows she's thinking about Danny Latimer and what his death did to the town and the people she loves. He suddenly remembers Jack Marshall's body being washed by the surf.
"Yeah," he says softly, "yeah, it does. Don't worry. I won't muck it up."
She looks at him with dismayed skepticism. "Maybe I should stay and do it."
"Get out," he growls then reluctantly chuckles.
She grins and they subside into thoughtful silence.
"Still," she says, "a bit unpleasant, yah?"
He nods, then glances at his watch. "You better get going, Miller. You still have a drive ahead of you."
She raises an eyebrow. "Never seemed to bother you when we were chasing after Sandbrook."
"That was a case."
"More like an obsession."
He ducks his head.
"I didn't mind," she says and he glances up at her. "Well, I mean, I minded, but not really. We got them in the end."
He nods. "I wasn't sure I would live to see it."
"I guess it gave us both something to live for when we didn't have much reason other than our children."
He lifts his head, eyes wide, and looks at her in silence.
She shifts uncomfortably. "Well, you're right. I'd better get going."
He stands. "I'll walk you to your car."
She sighs. "What did I tell you about being nice to me?"
"It's not for you, Miller. I need some fresh air."
As they walk to the car, he confirms that her phone number is the same, assures her he'll be in touch, and watches her leave.
He stands in the empty parking spot and stares after her for a long time.
Ellie
Ellie commandeers a boardroom at the Broadchurch police station and sets up a murder board. For nine cold cases, she thinks as she reviews each piece of information, the evidence is painfully slim. Everything fits on one board, and she sees why Hardy called a task force together to help.
Even with the additional six cases, there's still nothing to go on.
Hardy receives her report with a gusty sigh and somber silence on the other end of the phone.
"What are you going to do now?" she asks.
"Wait," he growls, "and keep warning the sex workers in the city. He's going to kill again, Miller, and we're not going to be able to stop him."
The Saturday after her return from Stonebridge, Ellie and the boys go to Beth's house for dinner. Beth still moves sometimes like she's wounded, still looks at the world with a bewildered expression, but she's coping, healing and learning to live with the scars and the gaping emptiness left behind. Mark moved out months earlier and Ellie ruefully admits Beth's dealing with being alone much better than Ellie had.
Of course, Mark hadn't confessed to being in love with, and then killing, an eleven-year-old boy.
It's almost a year since Joe's acquittal, almost two since Danny's death, and Ellie's baffled by how quickly the time has passed while still feeling like no time has gone by at all.
But for now, it's still February and all they can do is live one day at a time.
She smiles at Beth as they leave Tom and Chloe to entertain Fred and Lizzie while they clean up.
"Tell me about Stonebridge," Beth says, filling the sink with water. "You've been so busy since you got back."
Ellie grimaces as she begins drying dishes. "I can't tell you much, only that I'm helping out on a case. Oh, but I can tell you who the DI is: Alec Hardy."
"No! When did he land there?"
"Around the same time I got the job here."
"I was wondering where he ended up."
Ellie smiles. "Funny how things work."
Beth gives her a thoughtful look. "Yes, it is. Tell him..." she pauses and her face crumples before she shakes her head and regains control. "Tell him I said hello, and...I'm glad he's doing well." She pauses, thinking. "I'd like to see him again. Thank him for everything he did for us."
"I think he'd tell you that isn't necessary. Especially since Joe still got off, in spite of his efforts."
"Nonetheless. You will tell him, won't you, Ellie?"
Ellie nods, her face solemn. "I'll tell him."
Beth smiles, then says, "Now, I was talking to Joan down at the newsagents, and she knows of a bloke who'd be interested in a date."
Ellie groans and rolls her eyes. "No more blind dates, please! At least not for the foreseeable future. This thing with Stonebridge is going to take up a lot of my time, plus I'll have to travel there regularly and most likely at very short notice."
"Of course. Just let me know when you need me to take the boys."
Tom's on half-term and Ellie's dealing with her usual quota of petty theft, poaching-or attempted poaching, in Nige's case, and she wonders when he's going to simply give it up-and the odd domestic argument that escalates into violence. It's peaceful and she's grateful, but beneath it all she thinks of those nine women, and the man responsible for their deaths still roaming free.
She's waiting for the day the perpetrator kills again, because Hardy's right.
It's only a matter of time.
Hardy
Hardy slides into his usual seat at his pub and gives his order to the bartender-the no-longer-new girl with the sweet smile who never seems able to remember what he drinks. He nods in thanks when the drink arrives and slouches over it, lost in thought. He's not listening to the conversation around him tonight, he's too caught up in wondering what to do next to find that vital clue to the serial killer case.
He feels a clock ticking, much like he had for Sandbrook and Danny Latimer. This time, though, it isn't ticking down his life but rather how long before the predator he's seeking kills again. Another one, more like an alarm clock really, is ticking towards the time they'll have no recourse but to involve the media. Getting publicity may bring in tips and leads they won't find on their own, but he remembers only too well what happened with Sandbrook and the Latimer case, and the damage that a sensationalized press can cause.
He lifts his glass in a toast to Jack and closes his eyes against the memory.
He's startled back to his surroundings by someone sliding into the chair beside him.
He stares, surprised and wary, then says, "Missy."
She smiles. "Nice to see you again, too, Alec. You know, I still like that name."
"Does this mean you'd like another drink?"
"Love one."
Hardy signals the bartender who reluctantly approaches and takes Missy's order. The look on her face is far from the professional welcoming one she'd shown to Hardy. She sets Missy's drink in front of her with clink, a scowl and a significant glare at him.
Missy picks up her drink with a rueful smile. "You may be persona non grata in here from now on."
"Me? What about you?"
"I know the owner."
"Ah. Well, put in a good word for me, yah?"
"Not a problem." She takes another sip of her drink before she leans closer and murmurs, "I've been asked to help you with the case you're working."
Hardy's eyes widen and he stares, taken aback.
"Don't say anything," she murmurs and smiles flirtatiously. "Not here. Can we go to your car?"
"I always walk here," he says and knows he looks as stunned as he sounds
Missy rolls her eyes. "Of course you do. Well, we can go for a walk if you promise not to walk too quickly." She tilts her head towards her feet.
He looks down and his eyebrows rise at the sight of the high stiletto heels she's wearing. He's so used to women in sensible police boots he forgets that women sometimes wear shoes that have nothing to do with practicality.
"Awright," he says.
They finish their drinks and Hardy settles the bill, very aware of the bartender's angry stare following them as they leave the pub.
They don't speak until they're a couple of blocks away.
"What did you mean back there?" Hardy says.
She hums, then says, "I've been working as an informant for the last year or so. My contact asked if I could help."
"Can you?"
She shrugs. "For a fee."
"Of course," he says drily.
"You should be more grateful," she snaps. "I haven't worked the street in years."
He stops in his tracks. "Na, na, na, this isn't some movie or something you see on the telly! There's a real man out there, murdering women and putting yourself into a vulnerable situation isn't the way to help, no matter how much money we might be paying you."
She laughs. "Calm down, Scotty, for God's sake! You're not talking to some inexperienced undercover cop, you know. I survived the streets before, I can do it again, but there's not much I can do if I'm not actually there."
"That is a stupid idea," he snaps.
"Look, I understand the women have all gone missing around the same time. I figured I'd stroll the Avenue in that time frame and see what I see."
He points a stern, commanding finger at her. "No picking up customers?"
"No picking up customers." She frowns. "Although if he's watching, that might start to look suspicious after a while." She laughs at the expression on his face. "You can learn a lot from movies and shows on the telly."
He hesitates. He doesn't like it, but he's desperate and he hears that clock ticking down to the moment there's another dead woman beside the river.
If there isn't one already.
"Awright," he says, and hopes he hasn't just made a horrible mistake.
Hardy catches a double homicide the next day, and works relentlessly to close the case. Straightforward, really, he thinks three nights later as he finally drags himself out of the station. It took longer to physically locate the guy than it had to determine who was responsible. But it's been three days of little to no sleep and wearing the same clothes, and he's in desperate need of a shower and a shave.
Besides, he needs to go home before he forgets where it is and what it looks like, although his long hours away might explain why he's often slightly confused whenever he walks in, as though things are familiar but somehow different.
He's almost at his flat when his phone rings. He sees Daisy's number and his heart skips a beat. This is not a normal time for her to call.
"Hello, darlin'," he says, hoping he doesn't sound as worried as he feels.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
She's strident and tearful and he's suddenly in full fight or flight mode.
"Tell you what?" he demands.
"About Mum! About what's-his-name! About how she's the one who lost key evidence because she was shagging somebody who wasn't you!"
"Daisy!"
"I hate her! How could she?"
"Don't speak about your mother like that!" he says sharply.
Daisy's sobbing in earnest now, and his heart breaks.
"Where are you, darlin'?" he asks, gently now. "Are you at home? I can be in Sandbrook in a few hours and we can talk. I'll tell you anything you want to know."
She pulls in a sobbing gasp of air and says, "I'm not in Sandbrook. I'm here, at the train station."
He jogs into the station, eyes wild, scanning the space, desperate to get to her.
He'll deal with her mother later.
He sees her almost immediately, his poor, broken-hearted girl, and he rushes to her and wraps his arms around her. They stand in the middle of the quiet train station as he hugs her close, making soothing noises against the top of her head.
Finally, she says, her voice soggy and muffled, "You stink, Dad, and you're all sweaty."
He grins and loosens his grip. He looks into her eyes, his hands on her shoulders. "I've been working for three days straight. Of course I'm stinky and sweaty."
"And scruffy," she says and wrinkles her nose.
"Haven't had time to shave."
"It's okay," she says with a watery sniff. "It looks good on you."
He raises an eyebrow and gives her a skeptical look.
"Figure I'd better butter you up," she says with a tentative, trembling smile, "since I've come to live with you."
"I don't know, Tess!"
"No? Well, I know I didn't bloody tell her! Who else knows the truth, Alec? If I didn't tell her, and I know Dave didn't tell her, that only leaves you!"
"For God's sake, Tess, I ruined my career so she'd never find out! Why would I tell her now?"
"For exactly this! So she'd run to you! Damn it, Alec! I'll be there in the morning to pick her up!"
He pinches the bridge of his nose and closes his eyes. "She says she's not going back, and she doesn't want to see you."
"Well, too bloody bad!"
"Fine," he growls, "but don't come crying to me if she refuses to speak to you. I seem to remember somebody telling me to give her time to come round. Maybe you should be listening to your own advice."
"Don't you give me any bloody shitty platitudes!"
He bites back the words he wants to say, and pulls in a deep, calming breath before saying, "I don't know who told her, but she knows now. We have to do whatever we can to help our girl through this. We're not going to be able to do that if we're fighting each other."
"I'll be there in the morning, Alec, and I'm taking her home."
"Fine."
Tess arrives at ten and the meeting goes as well as he expects. It starts with calm tones and ends with Daisy screaming "I hate you!" at her mother and slamming her bedroom door so hard one of the pictures he'd put on the wall slips off its nail and crashes to the floor.
Tess' face crumples and Hardy puts an arm around her and says, "You have to give her time."
Tess wrenches herself away from him and glares. "What would you know about it?"
He gives her a speaking look and she has the grace to look embarrassed.
"Look," he says, "she forgave me, didn't she? When she thought it was all my fault."
"Stop acting like I'm the only one responsible for the end of our marriage! As if you had nothing to do with it! If you hadn't stopped paying attention to me, I never would have turned to Dave!"
"Oh, so it's my fault you decided to shag another man and to put that before your duty to your job? And I paid attention to you-"
"Please! You never even knew about Dave until we had to tell you about the pendant!"
"Of course I knew! Just like I knew about all the others!"
Tess gasps and there's sudden, tense silence as she stares at him, eyes saucer-wide. Hardy is almost viciously satisfied that he's finally managed to puncture that smugness that surrounds her, that had surrounded her even as she and Dave stood in his office, confessing all.
"Dave was the only one," she whispers weakly.
He shakes his head. "It doesn't matter anymore," he growls. "Look, go home. Give her time. She forgave me, she'll forgive you."
Tess grabs her purse, pale and shaken but with a determined set to her chin. "If you did this, Alec, believe me, I'll make you pay."
He gives her an incredulous look and ushers her out the door.
He checks on Daisy then calls Miller.
"She's living with you now? Why?"
He thinks carefully before saying, "She's had a falling out with her mother."
"Are you up for this, Hardy? You barely take care of yourself!"
He huffs what might be a chuckle. "I do a little better now," he says. "I need someone to take over as DI for a few days while I get Daisy settled. For the task force, I mean. One of the other DIs here can take care of anything else that might come up."
"I can't. Tom's on half term."
He groans and rubs his forehead. "Awright. I'll see if I can get one of the others. Definitely won't be Tess."
Miller's silent and he imagines the expression on her face. She was probably cursing him right now.
"If I bring the boys, can you fit us all in your flat?"
"Do I have a choice?"
Ellie
Tom isn't thrilled with the idea of going to Stonebridge during his half-term, but Ellie insists. They'll be back before school starts again, and she refuses to leave him behind even if he could stay with Beth.
Tom pouts all the way to Stonebridge, and she begins to have second thoughts when they arrive at Hardy's flat.
Daisy is subdued, her eyes red, but she's welcoming enough. Ellie notices paper with Hardy's angular, scratchy writing scattered on the coffee table.
"Schools," he says when he notices her curiosity, "and lists of things to do." He looks at Tom and Fred and nods a wary greeting. "Tom. Wee Fred has gotten so big."
Ellie beams. "Growing like a weed, he is."
"Well, we're going to put all three of you in my bedroom, if you can manage. Daisy's in her bedroom, of course, and I'll be on the sofa."
"You going to be up to looking after three children while I'm at the station?" Ellie asks. She tries and fails to keep the amused grin off her face.
"I have help," he growls.
Her grin only gets bigger.
The next morning is a little chaotic. Both Tom and Fred wake with her because they're in a new place and Tom's nervous about being left with Hardy, of all people. They, of course, wake Hardy from his fitful sleep on the sofa, and they all, in turn, wake Daisy. Between rotating through the single bathroom, Hardy making breakfast for everyone, and her getting ready for work, the morning flies and before she knows it, she's out the door, leaving a rather bewildered-looking Hardy with two teenagers and a three-year-old.
She laughs all the way to the station.
Sal takes Ellie's presence in stride. Webster, on the other hand, is scowling and confrontational when she tells him she'll be covering for Hardy for a few days.
"How long is ol' GB gonna be gone?" he growls.
She frowns. "GB?"
"Hardy," Sal says with a speaking look at Webster.
Webster pulls a face before he turns to Ellie with a patently false wide smile on his too-handsome face. "Just our affectionate pet name for him," he says smoothly.
Ellie raises an eyebrow but decides to let it go.
"He'll be back in a few days," she says breezily. "I'm just holding down the fort on the serial killer case. Another DI will be handling everything else."
Webster sniffs. "Should be a breeze, then, because nothing's happening with that one."
Now it's Ellie's turn to give him a wide, patently false smile. "Well, let's see if we can change that while I'm here."
She has Sal and Webster walk her through the case again, showing her the linkages on their murder board.
There are no moments of sudden inspiration, but she watches Sal carefully, and nods to herself. She understands why Hardy kept her as the lead over Webster. She has a devotion to the case that seems to be lacking in the other DS. It's a level of dedication that's necessary in a situation like this, working a case that could take years to solve, if it's ever solved at all.
She stands back and looks at the board and feels something niggling at her, but she can't quite grasp it. She remembers the feeling from the Sandbrook case and she smiles. She looks with shining eyes at Sal and Webster and thinks maybe they'll be able to find something to break this case before Hardy's back.
It isn't today.
She returns to Hardy's flat no further ahead on the case than before, and sees his car is gone. She parks and walks into the building, nodding hello to the building's maintenance person as they pass in the lobby, and hopes someone is in the flat to let her in.
Tom opens the door and she greets him with a smile and a hearty 'hullo'. She gives him a kiss on the cheek, picks up Fred who's run to meet her, then goes into the kitchen to see a harried Daisy attempting to cook.
"Hello, Daisy," she says cheerfully. "Where's your dad?"
"Sandbrook." She shoots Ellie a half-defiant, half-devastated look. "He's gone to get my stuff. I don't want to see my mother, so he left me in charge."
"And you're doing a smashing job."
"I'm burning supper."
Ellie shrugs. "I do that all the time."
Tom makes a face and nods. "It's true. Dad's the cook in the family."
He realizes what he's said and looks stricken, and Ellie's heart breaks again.
But she gives him a determined smile. "Yes, he was. I've been trying to improve."
Daisy gives them a puzzled look and opens her mouth, but she must see something in their faces because she hesitates, then says, "Well, do you think I can salvage any of this, then?"
She lifts the lid and Ellie peeks in and makes a face that makes Daisy giggle.
Ellie says, "How about I run out and get something while you get rid of the evidence?"
They eat take-out from the small restaurant on the corner, and Ellie listens as the kids tell her about their day. Hardy had left around ten for the two and a half hour drive to Sandbrook, and left them with a key, money and strict orders on how far afield they could wander, especially with Fred. So they went to the park on the next block, then walked to the small shopping centre Hardy told them about, and went to the cinema. Both Tom and Daisy look shifty when Ellie asks what movie they'd seen and she has a strong suspicion it was something completely inappropriate for a three-year-old. She lets it go. It's easy enough to find out another way.
They wash up and are in the living room watching telly when Hardy returns home. Daisy and Tom help him carry Daisy's things into the flat before he sits down in the kitchen to finish the leftovers.
He raises an eyebrow as they all troop in and join him at the table.
"Nothing interesting on the telly, then, aye?" he says with a puzzled scowl.
They solemnly agree, and Daisy and Tom share an amused smirk.
As he eats, he looks at Daisy and says, "Your mum would like you to call her tonight."
"No."
Hardy glances at Ellie and she quickly shoos Tom and Fred ahead of her into the living room. She hears his low growling voice and Daisy's lighter tones as they talk, Daisy getting steadily louder until finally a chair is scraped back and Ellie hears her say, "Until you tell me the truth, I'm not talking to her and I don't know why you'd want me to, after everything!"
She storms through the living room, into her bedroom, and slams the door behind her.
Ellie soothes Fred, who's startled into a brief bout of crying by the sudden noise, then leaves him with Tom and goes into the kitchen. She leans against the door jamb, arms crossed. Hardy's sitting at the table, leaning back in his chair, staring off into the distance with a down-turned mouth.
"Awright," she says briskly, "care to explain to me what's going on?"
He looks at her with bewildered eyes and gets to his feet.
They go for a walk, and Ellie listens in disbelief and growing anger as Hardy explains about Tess and Dave and the pendant, about taking the blame so Daisy wouldn't learn the truth about her mother, and Tess could still have her career. It had taken Daisy a long time to really speak to him again after the marriage ended, and they hadn't really started back to each other until after he'd closed the Danny Latimer case.
"After you were somewhat vindicated, you mean, in another high profile murder case."
"She's a child, Miller. If you could have hidden the truth about Joe from Tom, wouldn't you have done whatever you could to do that?"
"Oh, don't go trying to compare our situations!"
He rolls his eyes. "It's not a competition, for God's sake!" They walk in silence for a moment, then Hardy says more quietly, his face pinched, "She's always been her mother's. She loves me, but there's a special bond between those two. I couldn't take that away from her. Besides, she was only twelve-too young to be told the mother she idolized had potentially destroyed her career because she decided it was more important to get laid than to deliver vital evidence to the police station. Daisy didn't forgive me because I solved another murder. She forgave me because I'm her dad."
"I wasn't talking about Daisy. I was talking about Tess."
"Tess stayed out of it."
"Did she?"
Hardy stops and gives her the stoic look he uses when he's trying to hide his emotions. "Whatever she did during that time doesn't matter now, does it? The bigger question is how Daisy found out."
"Who all knew?"
He blows out a breath. "Well, me and Dave and Tess, of course, and whoever else they may have told. Claire, since she stole the pendant. Possibly Lee, if Claire told him. Maggie Radcliffe and Ollie Stevens."
"Maggie and Ollie-? You mean you told them the truth for that article?"
He nods. "Ollie never told you?"
"No. But then, Joe was arrested what? The same day as the article was in the paper? There wasn't exactly time for it to come up. There were bigger things going on."
He nods again.
"Was it on the case file anywhere?" she asks.
"In our notebooks and our reports. I didn't know if we'd ever find enough evidence to take Ashworth to trial again, but if we did, I didn't want the defense to be able to claim misconduct because we'd falsified police records. I mean, I took the blame publicly, but the case file is accurate."
"Did you ever tell your CS?"
"Not directly, and she never questioned me. I didn't want to get her involved. Plausible deniability and all that." He shrugs. "She was good to me. Tried to keep me on, but the public outrage made it impossible."
"So how did Daisy find out?"
He shakes his head. "That's for tomorrow."
Hardy
He broaches the subject the next evening after supper, while Miller and Tom do the clearing up in the kitchen with Fred playing at their feet.
"I promised to answer your questions," he says as he settles on the couch beside her.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"You were twelve," he says helplessly. "You needed your mother more than you needed me."
"I hated you, you know. For leaving us. For leaving me. And people talked, you know. You and Mum thought I didn't hear the gossip, but all the kids at school told me how you'd screwed up, how those girls would never get justice, and all because of you. You let me think you'd messed up and then didn't have the balls to face the consequences, when all along, it was Mum who didn't have the balls!"
"Daisy," he says sharply, "whatever you may be thinking and feeling right now, she is still your mother, and you will speak of her, and to her, with respect."
He's never spoken so sharply to her before, and her eyes widen as she flinches. She rallies, lifting her chin, her mouth set in a stubborn line.
"Even after what she did?"
"What she did, she did to me, because she fell out of love with me. She's never stopped loving you, and she never will. I want you to remember that."
"Did you stop loving her?"
He hesitates, but he'd promised to tell her anything she wanted to know. "Eventually," he says finally. "Not then, and not for a long time after. But yes. Eventually."
He glances towards the kitchen and meets Miller's sympathetic eyes as she leans against the door jamb, listening.
He turns back to Daisy. "How did you find out?"
"I got an e-mail. Well, several e-mails, actually."
Hardy frowns. "An e-mail? From whom?"
"I don't know. It just said it was from a 'friend'." She scowls. "Don't look at me like that! I'm not so naive as to believe some random e-mail from somebody who won't even use a name! But the subject lines kept talking about the truth about Sandbrook, and who was really to blame and how my parents were lying to me, so I finally opened one. It told me everything, and there was a link to the Broadchurch Echo, to that interview they did with you, and a scanned copy of a handwritten note attached, from one of those little notebooks you and Mum always carry around. It confirmed what the e-mail said. It was your handwriting, Dad."
Her eyes fill with tears.
"Awright," he growls and pulls her against him. She burrows her head into his shoulder, and he rests his cheek against the top of her head, making soothing noises as she sniffles.
Hardy invites Miller to go for a walk once Daisy's calmed down.
He takes her to his pub.
They settle at a table and he sees the surprise on the bartender's face-the same one who sent him death glares when he left with Missy a week ago. He goes to the bar and orders their drinks and impassively meets the bartender's cold stare with a bland face and a raised eyebrow. He doesn't see Missy and he hasn't heard from her, and as desperate as he is for a break in the case, he hopes she's had second thoughts about working the Avenue in an effort to find information.
He sets Miller's drink in front of her as he sits down.
"Tell me about the case," he says.
She grimaces.
"That much progress?"
She nods morosely. "I thought for sure I was going to find something today, because something's bugging me. But no."
"Well, I wasn't really expecting miracles, Miller."
She pulls a face, sips her drink, then says, "Who do you think sent the information to Daisy?"
He sighs. "Somebody in Sandbrook, obviously, if they sent her a scan of my notebook. Somebody with a hate on for Tess, just as obviously. I called her earlier and told her what Daisy told me."
Miller frowns. "So, somebody would have to go into the file room, pull the correct evidence box, take a picture of the correct page in your notebook, and then put everything back before being caught?"
He shrugs. "That, or log into and search the electronic records, in which case there'll be a trail."
"Electronic records?"
"Sandbrook moved to an electronic archive for their files of closed or cold cases. My notebook would have been scanned and logged in at some point after the initial case fell apart."
"Pretty stupid, then," she says. "Whoever did it is going to be found out pretty quickly."
"Good," he growls. "I hope they make whoever it is very uncomfortable before they're sacked, with prejudice. Besides destroying everything a young girl believed about her mother, they've violated police protocol."
Miller gives him a shrewd look. "Do you really think this is someone who's angry at Tess?"
He stares into his drink, his head lowered, his mouth set in his usual stern frown.
She waits him out.
Finally, he looks at her, and his dark eyes are steady as he shakes his head.