The team investigates …

Who?

Chapter Four

The remains of the house at Bishopston Road looked no better in real life than they had on the CCTV images thought Toshiko as she walked round the rubble that had once been a family home. The brick and concrete structure was still wet from its earlier dousing by the fire brigade and she was careful as she walked about, eyes trained on her scanner. On the other side of the mound of debris, Owen was sifting through some of the possessions that had been thrown every which way by the blast. He straightened, looking at an object in his hand but then threw it back down.

"Anything?" Owen asked as he skirted round towards her.

"There's residual neutrino energy, concentrated around this spot." She checked against a plan of the house. "It was the kitchen, here at the back. I should say whatever it was exploded out towards the road and up. That's why the back wall is still standing."

"Not natural then?"

"Definitely not. Interestingly, that policeman friend of Gwen's spotted that. He put in his report that the place didn't smell of burning and it doesn't." Toshiko glanced up. "He did well to notice that."

"Or got lucky." Owen's opinion of the local police officers was low to subterranean. He kicked at a half melted kettle and it rattled as it rolled. "Need anything more here?"

"I want to check this area again." She move gingerly over the loose scree and almost fell as her foot slipped. Owen was beside her immediately, holding her arm to steady her. "Thanks," she said, smiling at him.

"What are we looking for?"

"Whatever it was that exploded. Neutrino energy is used by lots of races, usually in weapons, and finding some trace would help us work out what it was doing here."

"I thought it was random." Owen had stopped and was looking at her. "You mean these people might have been targeted?"

"Possibly. Or Jack was."

-ooOoo-

The coffee shop was not busy when Gwen pushed open the door. The earlier breakfast clientele had left and it was too early for the mid-morning shoppers wanting coffee. Three tables were occupied and Gwen spotted Andy Davidson immediately. He was at his favourite table towards the back, a table they had shared many times when they had been partnered together; he said there was more leg room. She mimed getting him a coffee and he nodded; the one he had been drinking was going cold.

Armed with the drinks and a couple of jam doughnuts, Gwen walked up to the table and sat opposite Andy. He still had on his uniform and fluorescent jacket; he looked bulky with all the equipment hanging from his belt and the Kevlar vest all officers now wore. "Here, just as you like it." She pushed the coffee towards him. "Thanks for meeting me, I know you'll be keen to get to your bed."

"That's all right. I'm on changeover, start days tomorrow." He bit into the doughnut and dribbled some jam down his chin.

"It's still good of you. You must be tired; I always was after a run of nights." She sipped her coffee, thinking back to her uncomplicated days as a police constable. They had been good times, made better by this man who had taken her under his wing and taught her a lot. She must not forget how much she owed him.

"So what do you want? Mulder got his memory back yet?" He grinned and slurped his coffee, wincing when it was too hot for comfort.

"No, he hasn't. I was wondering if you knew any more, about the explosion?"

"It's not ten o'clock yet, Gwen. Takes longer than that for the system to kick into gear. Besides, I thought you lot at Special Ops," he put heavy emphasis on the title, "had access to everything."

"I've read some of the reports, yeah, but that's not the same as your instincts. You've been a copper a long time, what's your opinion?" She looked at him over the rim of the coffee cup, a little flattery usually worked with Andy.

He looked back at her, knowing he was being manipulated. "Didn't seem natural to me, put that in my report. I've been to enough fires in my time and this one was wrong. Probably some spooky-doo stuff of yours. That was why Captain Jack was sniffing around, wasn't it?"

"We don't know. We know he went there but not what he found." Andy snorted, which Gwen took as humour. "Anything else strike you as particularly odd?"

"Not really. The family, Ingalls was their name, seem ordinary enough. They'd lived there for a couple of years and the neighbours liked them." He sipped his coffee and thought a bit harder. "Ely's not the best of places, that part of it anyway. Had a load of mindless vandalism in the past couple of years and reports of kids finding things."

"What kind of things?" Gwen got out the notebook she still carried, a habit drummed into her on her time on the force, and made a couple of notes.

"Not sure. One of the neighbours, older woman a few doors down, said her son found things in the garden and in the street. Always took them to James Ingalls. He was a science teacher at the comprehensive that the kid attended and he and the kid would look at them together." He laughed grimly. "She was upset that Ingalls always kept them, thought he might be doing her son out of some money."

"You remember her name?" Gwen had been scribbling notes as Andy spoke and looked up now.

"Not offhand. Hang on." He put down his coffee and reached into a pocket for his official notebook and flicked through it. "Here it is. Mrs Simmonds, number 26. Kid's name is Alfred. How can any mother call their kid Alfred in this day and age?" He shook his head and replaced the notebook.

"Thanks for that, could be useful." She smiled at him, a genuine wide smile and she saw him melt. It wasn't one of her best qualities, using people to get information, but you had to do what was necessary when working for Torchwood. She finished her coffee and made to get up.

"You off then?" he asked, hoping she'd stay for longer. He knew she was using him but when he got smiles like that he didn't mind. "You haven't eaten your doughnut!"

"Not hungry, you have it. Gotta go, sorry. I'll see you." She smiled again and walked out of the café. When she looked back through the plate glass front window, Andy had half the doughnut in his mouth and more jam down his chin.

-ooOoo-

For the second time that morning, Gwen pulled up in Bishopston Road. She found a parking spot closer to the ruined house this time and looked across at it as she locked her car. The crime scene tape fluttered in the breeze and a few neighbours and a radio journalist she recognised were gathered outside. A lone policeman was guarding the scene. She left them to it and went round the corner into Penally Road where Toshiko and Owen waited in the SUV.

"Thanks for waiting for me," she said, climbing into the front passenger seat. "I thought we could pool knowledge before I go and see this neighbour." She had called them after her chat with Andy and they'd agreed she should tackle Mrs Simmonds; she always got more out of people than the others. "Tosh, have you got anything more?" Gwen was sitting sideways in her seat so she could see Owen, who was beside her, and Tosh in the back.

"Not a lot. Owen and I found the seat of the fire and it was definitely alien. We found this," she held up an evidence bag with a piece of metal inside, "which should tell us what it was and the race that made it. There wasn't a huge amount of neutrino energy released so I'm expected it to be have been a small weapon or other device. Maybe a grenade, something like that."

"So something that a kid, finding it in the street, would pick up and examine?"

"Yes, easily. After your call, I checked our database and there's a pattern of items falling in this area. We've found a lot of minor ordnance ourselves and made it safe." Toshiko pushed her glasses back on her nose, an endearing habit. "And I also found that James Ingalls sold items to a market stall holder who's know for purchasing alien artefacts. Nothing big, items that small time collectors find intriguing."

"So he was stealing from the kid," put in Owen, his tone admiring.

"We don't know that," said Toshiko, glaring at him.

"I'll see what I can find out from the neighbour. Might try the kid as well, I should be able to speak to him when school breaks for lunch," said Gwen who had long given up on Owen; he always believed the worst of everybody.

"See if you can get a description of the items he found, especially recent ones. The grenades I've come across wouldn't stand much handling so I don't think Ingalls can have had it for long," put in Toshiko.

"That makes it easier. Okay, I'll go and see what I can find. You two going back to the Hub?"

"Yeah, nothing more we can do here," replied Owen, "and the press are snooping around."

"I saw the radio reporter when I was parking," agreed Gwen. "I'll make sure I avoid her." She paused. "Do you think this clears Jack? That he had nothing to do with the explosion?"

"This was nothing to do with Jack," said Toshiko confidently. "I wondered if it might have been a targeted attack but that's complicating matters unnecessarily. The alert Jack responded to this morning must have been caused by a build up of energy in the grenade, or whatever it was, prior to it going off. He had located it in the kitchen but was unable to retrieve it before it blew up."

Gwen was relieved. When Jack had asked her if he had caused the explosion she had answered truthfully that she didn't know. Only later had she realised how it must have sounded to him, that she believed him perfectly capable of murdering a family including an innocent child. Of course he was capable of it, more than capable, but only if there was no other option. No other way to save a much greater number of people. She regretted not having explained that to him; she would do so when she got back to the Hub.

"That's good to know. I'll see you two back at the Hub. Owen, see if you can help Jack with his memory."

"If I have to," he agreed, pulling a face.

Gwen got out of the vehicle and started walking back to Bishopston Road. A few seconds later the SUV shot past her, Owen's driving only slightly less erratic than Jack's, followed a minute or two after by Toshiko in her own car, driving much more sedately.

We're back in the Hub next time, where Jack gets some memories back. (And yes, Ianto will be in the next chapter, promise!)