Rose was ready the following morning, well as ready as she ever would be for a long journey with the hapless James Noble and she wasn't looking forward to either ignoring him or have him trying to get her to talk about if she liked him or not.

James was nervous as he pulled up behind the block of flats where Rose lived, not his choice of address, he daren't even leave his car so he got his mobile out and told her where he had parked. He supposed all the locals knew each other's cars and left them alone but he wasn't going to risk it.

Seeing Rose walking towards him with a large suitcase, a large holdall and a laptop bag disguised as a flight bag with a Police Box design, something James thought seemed a bit odd, he got out of the car to help her.

"Hi Rose, here, let me help you." He opened the back door of the car and lifted her case up.

"I planned on making two stops if that's ok with you, it's a long way. So, this should be good then, a week by the sea at the paper's expense, brilliant! Not that we'll get much chance to go in the water or sunbathe, well maybe except on Sunday, we can sneak a day off on Sunday, can't we?" he asked hopefully.

"Well you're the boss, you tell me."

The smiled disappeared from his face. How was he going to survive this? What had his sister been thinking, sending him for a week with Rose Tyler? Donna knew what the blonde did to him and at this rate, he would be a nervous wreck before they even got there.

"Yes well, don't want you to think I'm a slave driver do I then? Sunday off, definitely, do what you like fun day. Hope you packed your swimsuit. Not that you'd want to go on the beach with me, at the same time, I mean you could if you wanted, I wouldn't mind but well, I think I'd best shut up now."

Rose thought he had made a wise choice. This was going to be unbearable but it wasn't as though she had a choice, Donna was playing matchmaker despite her protests and she didn't trust her to handle Alec Hardy on her own. She was sure she could handle the detective this time, a little bit of her anger with him had subsided, just as long as he didn't screw this one up as well but if he did – well she wasn't going to be responsible for her actions.

Poor James looked a bit rejected and just started the car and drove off. Well at least she hadn't said no altogether so he could still live in hope that she might lay down next to him on the beach and let him put sunscreen on her shoulders and her back and maybe a few other places if no-one was looking. He gave himself a mental slap at the thought. First he was going to have to get her to actually talk to him.

Finally, they found the hotel and James found a parking spot just opposite the hotel, funnily enough outside the local newspaper office. They left everything apart from their valuables and walked across the road and James strode up to the desk. The woman behind it did a double take, looking at him.

"Right, yes, you have a booking for us, two rooms, James Noble and Rose Tyler?"

Becca Fisher checked the bookings screen and nodded, reaching for two keys. "Second floor, rooms 203 and 204, opposite each other. Dinner is 6-7 and breakfast 8-9. Just a word of warning. I know you two are reporters and the detective in charge of the murder is staying here so please, he's already a grumpy arse so don't upset him, for your sakes as well as his. I'm going to have to appease him somehow but I've had a lot of cancellations and I need to fill the rooms. You do understand, don't you?"

James gave her his best smile. He couldn't think why it never worked on Rose when it sent other women into flirting with him.

"Right, yes, we take note. Keep out of the detective's way – got it, haven't we Rose?"

Rose just rolled her eyes. Becca was already singling James out as a potential replacement for a certain town's plumber she'd had a fling with the other night when his son had been killed, something she was not proud of and there was going to be no repeat. As far as she knew, she could already be a suspect and so could her choice of partner for that night. If word got out, she would be in a mess, they would have to alibi each other and things could get very sticky, especially with his wife.

Rose hoped he would take up with the flirty Australian hotel manager, it would keep him from flirting with her. Rose went to her room after they got their luggage and James found the car park and said reluctantly she would share a table with James at dinner, just to go over their plan of attack. James was going to do background on the town and the Latimers, Rose was going to see who the main suspects could be. It was only a small town, how many could there possibly be?

Meanwhile, Alec Hardy had been having a hell of a day, keeping the Latimer family updated, battling with his new DS and establishing whereabouts for the night of the murder. His day was about to get even worse. His DS, Ellie Miller had come in with fish and chips, wrapped up in paper and shoved them in front of him saying eat them or starve, so reluctantly he had accepted them. He would suffer later and then if things couldn't get any worse, they had called a press conference to update the media the following morning and he just prayed his nemesis, Rose Tyler wouldn't have found out and make an appearance.

If she did, he was going to crawl under a rock and hide. James and Rose had eaten dinner, Rose tolerating his attempts to get her to talk and even offered to buy her a drink, which she couldn't really refuse. Sat across from each other in the small hotel bar, which was quiet for a Friday night, James decided he was going to get a response from her about them at least trying to be friends.

"Rose, it's going to be a long week if we hardly talk to each other. What about a truce? I'm not asking you to spend all your time with me if you don't want to but will you just give me a chance? We have that press conference in the morning and I know what Alec Hardy did to you the last time you met, the man's a jerk Rose, he doesn't deserve you getting all upset over him."

Rose managed a smile. She supposed he was right. Hardy did get her worked up and he had got himself caught up in another murder, he wasn't going to get any sympathy from her. She still wanted justice for the families at the end of the day and that never happened last time. This time she would make sure it did.

Saying goodnight to James, Rose was going up to her room to write some notes for the next day, questions she wanted to ask and hoped she would get some answered, not the run-around from Hardy. She had to laugh when she thought back to what the hotel owner had called him earlier and would have to check herself before she said it out loud in his presence. She walked out of the bar and came face to face with her prey as he was getting his room key.

"You! What the hell are you doing here Tyler? I should have known you wouldn't miss a chance to screw me over again. Pleased with yourself are you?"

"Don't know what you mean detective. I was only doing my job, reporting the facts. Just because I write them doesn't mean you have to agree with them. The public did though. So what are you doing here?"

Hardy felt like slapping her or kissing her, he couldn't decide. She had got under his skin and his feet the last time and it had taken some time to shake her off.

"Really Miss Tyler, I thought that would have been obvious. Solving a crime, didn't they teach you anything in kindergarten? Oh sorry, I mean journalist school, you must have missed that class."

"You think you're so impressive Mr detective but I'm here to tell you, I won't be half as easy as I was on you last time if you mess this up. How did you even get this job?"

He wondered that himself. "I guess there was someone left who didn't believe I was beyond redemption. I'm here to put things right."

Rose stifled a laugh. Someone had felt sorry for him and pulled him up out of the jaws of Police oblivion. She was surprised he hadn't got buried so deep he'd be training new recruits, not that it was such a good idea to teach new recruits his policing skills, which were sorely lacking in the solving of a crime. He might manage to bore them to death.

"Well I'll be there for that event, if you ever manage it, just as long as there's not vital evidence at risk of being lost."

Hardy nearly lost his temper. "I was cleared on that in case you've forgotten. Oh wait a minute, you had conveniently forgotten. Where have you been hiding yourself? Been polishing press releases?"

"Very funny detective. Thanks to you, I've got someone in tow this time, my editor thought I needed keeping out of trouble, you two should get on just fine."

Hardy sighed. As if he didn't have enough with her. "So who is she then? Your just as evil twin?"

Rose did laugh this time. "No, your lesser evil twin, his sister is the editor and she thinks you two could be from the same batch."

Hardy raised his eyebrows. It was bad enough that Tyler thought he was an actor the first time they had met.

"I'm still not talking to you, either of you. If he does look like me, I hope he knows what he's got in store from you. Goodnight Miss Tyler."

Rose watched him walk off in front of her, noticing he went for the stairs, not the lift and followed at a reasonable distance. He did have rather a cute bum though. She was on the first landing when James called after her.

"Rose, there you are! I've had this brilliant idea. Why don't you go to the press conference in the morning and I'll go snoop around the murder scene. What do you think?"

He was bailing out on the press conference, which suited her just fine. "Yeah, ok James, good idea. Don't want to swap places do you?"

"Huh? Oh, no ta, rather go look at where it took place, if indeed it was there."

Rose was interested. "You don't think it happened there then?"

"Well no actually, I think the body was just left there, make it seem like the boy was killed there. I'm going to take a look on the top of the cliff, see if it's possible to fall and land in that exact spot or if someone threw him off."

"Yeah, well if the boy fell or was pushed, the Police would have taped the area off, to get clues. Great work James, we'll make a reporter out of you yet."

Rose patted his back and continued up the stairs. James grinned then thought about what she had said.

"Oi! I am a reporter thanks very much and I'm your boss so don't be cheeky Rose Tyler."

Rose was giggling all the way to her room but he caught up, him and his long legs.

"Do you really want to end up doing press releases on a permanent basis? he grinned, catching his breath.

"I was only kidding with you James. Goodnight. Oh and about earlier, yes, we'll have a truce."

"Great, thanks Rose. Goodnight then."

He was half hoping she would give him a kiss on the cheek but she was at least talking to him now and this next week wasn't going to be so bad after all.

After breakfast the next morning, Rose managing not to have another encounter with the delightful Hardy, James set off with his notebook and his camera to go look over the crime scene on the beach and Rose bided her time until the press conference at eleven, opting to go take a walk down by the Police station she found on the map and spied some catering stalls just opposite and hoped to catch Hardy coming out. She did but he got straight into a car that pulled up outside, a woman driving and Rose figured it would be his partner. Poor woman.

Rose got a taxi to the local school that was hosting the press conference and waited with everyone else for Hardy to enter the room. Why was her tummy churning up butterflies? She had been to loads of press conferences with Hardy in charge, why should this be any different? Maybe because another family were being paraded in front of the media, she knew what it had done to the last two families she had made friends with, one mother still didn't know if her daughter was alive or not.

She looked at the woman who was clinging hold of a teenage blonde haired girl, she looked older than Lisa, both women were clearly shaken at the thought of facing the press but in her book it was always best to get the press off your back early on in the investigation, get it out of the way but there were also disadvantages such as the news-hounds would get bored and go on to something else and that was where Rose excelled.

Rose always waited until the rest of the press left town then she made her move. She kept her distance from the families, writing nothing but words of sympathy for them and crept her way in so they would trust her and at the same time criticising the way it was being handled by the Police. Last time, Hardy had drawn the lucky straw and received more than his fair share of it on her part. Other papers had then followed but Rose had come out on top, being present in the court as the case was thrown out.

Hardy sat at the end, stone-faced and looking slightly off his game. Rose hadn't noticed last night but he looked pale. Surely this wasn't getting to him already? He had let his appearance slip too, he'd not had that scruffy beard the last time she had seen him, how long had he had that? Still, it made him look older but not necessarily any less attractive if you liked that sort of thing.

Rose looked at her notes, the questions she had ready to fire at him. She was debating whether to cross one or two off, such as his inability to solve his last case having a vast impact on his ability to solve this one and the fact a killer was still at large. She would see how things went. Hardy was introduced as the chief investigating officer and he made a short statement, preparing himself for the onslaught of questions and dreading them from a certain blonde. He didn't expect any special treatment from her and he didn't get any. Rose made her move and stood up.

"Rose Tyler – The Herald. DI Hardy, do you think other children are at risk? Have any more kids been reported missing? Teenagers perhaps?"

Hardy knew what she was getting at, bringing up his last case.

"Miss Tyler, no, no-one else has been reported missing and no, I don't think any other children are in danger. We believe this was an isolated incident, maybe Danny saw something he shouldn't have done and was silenced. If anyone was on the beach that night, we ask them to come forward with any information, however small."

"DI Hardy, do you think he actually died on the beach?"

Everyone looked at her. It was a bit blunt but the boy's family would be asking the same question and may or may not already know the answer.

"Miss Tyler, we can't release that kind of information at present. This is a complex, slow process where evidence has to be examined and things have to be processed. We are not prepared to confirm where the incident took place at this time."

He knew he should have expected nothing less from her.

"DI Hardy, do you think Danny Latimer was killed by someone he knew? Isn't it common for children to know their attackers?"

The sound of hushed voices went around the room, the school gym.

"I have no comment to make on that at this time, thank you Miss Tyler."

She knew she had him, she had followed every second of his last investigation and knew all his tell-tale signs. She was getting too close and he knew it but to everyone else, including the family sat with him, it was just another question. In the Sandbrook case, it had been someone very close to the families who was under suspicion and it seemed the remnants of that were back to haunt him.

Other reporters asked menial questions to Hardy and then the boy's mother made a personal plea and Rose remembered back to the other two mothers making similar ones then one of them had shut herself away and refused to leave the house or speak to anyone and the youngest girl's mother had taken consolation in the bottom of a bottle and some days barely knew what was going on. Rose had spent a lot of time with her, trying to persuade her to seek help but to no avail. The woman still kept in touch and Rose expected her to take some sort of interest in this latest incident, especially with Hardy in charge.

Rose thought back to last night, he hadn't really answered her question. Who had he bribed to get back in charge of such a case? Were they really that short of detectives? Maybe he was sent here to keep out of everyone's hair and just got unlucky. She was going to enjoy seeing him worm his way out of this one.

Everyone began gathering their equipment and putting their phones away. Rose had already sent messages to her office for Donna's approval and that done, she could go meet up with James to see what he'd been up to. Hardy was taking his time but keeping an eye out for the blonde whom he saw sending text messages to her editor, probably.

Rose was about to leave and try and catch up with Hardy when someone approached her.

"Hi, you're Rose Tyler, right?"

"That's very observant of you since I introduced myself. Who are you then?"

The young man held his press badge up. "Olly Stevens, Broadchurch Echo. I've read all your stuff, the last big case you covered that involved Hardy. Can I buy you a cup of coffee?"

Rose thought he looked young, maybe around her age or a bit younger but very keen and was going to put a stop to this right now because if Hardy saw her colluding with the local press, she had no chance.

"Sorry, got to go meet someone."

"Well maybe another time then. I could show you around the town maybe, buy you a drink later. I admired your work on Sandbrook, maybe we can discuss it over dinner?"

Blimey, he didn't give up, Rose thought. "No, I don't think so. I'm here with someone actually, another reporter but thanks for the offer."

"Oh, well maybe another time. Are you going to be sticking around a while? Maybe I could fill you in on a few things?"

"That's why I'm with someone, he's doing all that."

"Oh, you're with a man? Right, well if you change your mind, you know where to find me."

Rose sighed. Now she had let her prey get away from her while this local reporter had kept her talking and she wasn't too happy about it. She rang James and asked him to come out and pick her up, giving him the school's address.

She walked out into the car park and saw Stevens talking to the woman who was with Hardy, who she had learned was called DS Miller. Hardy was looking as disinterested as usual and was sat in the car, pointing to his watch. Rose had to smile, he'd not changed one bit.

She remembered how off he used to be even when his then wife was working with him he never cut her any slack, no wonder she had left him. They had been on the verge when they had worked the case, barely tolerating each other. Hardy could have got his revenge and had an affair himself if he'd wanted but even though she had been hot on his heels, she never saw him make an attempt to get her into his bed. Would she have even gone?

James came to pick her up. A few people were standing around, Hardy had been driven off and Rose was getting hungry, it was after twelve. Telling James she had sent her report off to Donna, they drove down to the harbour and parked up, spotting a café at the end of a row of apartments and went in.

"You were right Rose, no-one was up there, just a few prints, probably the Police but no Police tape so they're not interested with that area. How did you get on then? Did Hardy tell you to get lost?"

Rose smiled. "Not exactly but I gathered a few things. They definitely don't think it happened there but where did it then? We need to talk to people who might have known him, anyone. His school friends and maybe his teachers but since school's broken up, that could be difficult. There's a newsagents over there, I wonder if Danny ever did a paper round?"

"Oh, good thinking Rose! Yes, he would have wanted to make a few quid to buy things, being a young boy. I used to have a paper round, gramps said I actually made the headlines myself a few times, getting into scrapes." He saw Rose's face.

"Well enough about me then. Maybe he was in the scouts or something? Maybe they have sea scouts here, being by the sea?" he mused.

"Yes James, maybe he was, I'll let you follow up on that, let's go back to the hotel and get our laptops out, look at the local area and see where it might have happened. We know roughly what time so it would have to have been somewhere quiet, remote. I'll go talk to the newsagent, why don't you go take a look at that little church hall over in the corner of the car park there?"

"What for?" James asked, turning around.

"Because maybe it's the sea scout hut?"

"Oh yes Rose, that's brilliant! We have over an hour left on parking so I'll meet you at the car in half an hour, then we can decide if we're going anywhere else. After I've looked at the church hall, I'll walk to the end of the pier and take some pictures of the tent, get a different angle."

"Ok. If I have no luck with the newsagent, I'll walk up and meet you."

Rose and James set off in the same direction, splitting up at the entrance to the car park. Just her luck though, Hardy was stood outside the shop talking to an older man. James was walking off towards the hut so she just carried on walking and pretended she wanted to buy something. Since she didn't smoke, she couldn't very well ask for some cigarettes so she would go in and buy some mints but Hardy spotted her and grabbed her arm as the newsagent went inside.

"Just where do you think you're going Miss Tyler?"

"Excuse me detective, it is a shop you know, anyone can go inside."

"Not if you're going to bother the man. He won't talk to you, he won't even talk to me so I'm doing you a favour, don't even try."

"I'll judge that for myself detective, he may tell me something he won't tell you. I'm not just going to go in there and tell him I'm a reporter am I?"

"I don't know, are you? Miss Tyler, don't you ever get tired of being smug?"

"No detective, don't you get tired of thinking you're right and everyone else is wrong all the time?"

"I don't know, it's never happened yet."

"Now who's being smug detective? You think you're so impressive."

"Well maybe it's because I am impressive. You don't know me very well Miss Tyler, you only judge me on my failures, not on my merits."

Rose laughed. "Oh, you've got merits then have you? Name me one or two?"

Hardy let go of her arm he hadn't realised he still had hold of and saw out of the corner of his eye that the newsagent was watching them with great interest. She wouldn't get anything out of the man now he had seen her talking to him.

"I can elude you when I want to and I never came on to you, that's just for starters."

Rose couldn't reply. That was a good point, he never once even suggested they got together even though he knew his wife was cheating on him and he could be elusive when he wanted to be.

"That was a lucky shot, one you may not be able to repeat. Just out of interest, why did you never come on to me back in Sandbrook?"

"Because you're my public enemy number one Miss Tyler. Nothing will ever change that. Now, I have things to do and I wouldn't bother going in there, he's seen you talking to me, he'll just throw you out. Good day Miss Tyler."

She watched the detective walk off, probably with a smirk on his face. She would soon wipe that off. She looked through the window and the newsagent looked like he was daring her to set foot through the door. She decided against it and looked to see if James was around but he must have gone to the end of the pier while she was talking to Hardy. Maybe if they hadn't had an audience, she might had snogged that smug grin of his off his face and maybe she would have got the newsagent to idly chat to her but Hardy had blown any chance of that now. She bet the newsagent was looking smug as well having sussed out the big city reporter.

She found James taking photos of the crime scene and greeted him.

"Watcha James, no need to make them look so artistic you know, they're not family snapshots."

"Hi Rose, how did you get on? Find anything out?"

Should she tell him Hardy had completely stuffed up that once and for all? "Nah, couldn't get him to talk."

James smiled. "Was that anything to do with Hardy talking to you outside?"

"Moron."

She huffed and sat down. James stood in front of her. "Here Rose, smile!"

He snapped a picture.

"You print that spaceman and I'll kick your butt back to Chiswick."

"Now, now Rose, that's boss spaceman to you, you're as bad as my sister, you spend way too much time with her, anyone would think you're her favourite reporter and everyone knows she doesn't have favourites, well so she says. You however, if she did have favourites, would be the one, getting all the prime juicy stories."

Rose laughed. "Yeah? Is that why she punished me by sending you down here with me because she didn't trust me with Hardy?"

"Ouch! So I'm your punishment am I Tyler? That's nice to know, I'm very hurt by that remark."

He sat beside her. She had given him another shove off message. Rose realised she was just taking it out on the poor bloke, they were supposed to be calling a truce. She linked her arm with his.

"Sorry James, that was completely uncalled for. Hardy just rattles my chain, that's all, it's nothing personal against you. Will you forgive me if I buy you an icecream? Banana flavoured?" She knew it was his favourite, Donna had told her in an attempt to get her to go out with him.

"So, you're trying to buy me off with banana icecream are you Rose Tyler?"

"Yeah, so is it gonna work then?"

James pretended to sulk. "Maybe but it will take more than that."

"Such as?"

"Mmm, now let me think. Where shall I start?"

Rose smiled. "You're such hard work James Noble." She reached over and kissed his cheek.

James smiled back. "Well that's a start."