AN: Thank you so much for your reviews and I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Louise

It was Monday. Three days after the auction and DI Drake was still missing. The Guv was storming round CID yelling every three minutes for some leads. No-one had anything. Chris had made the suggestion of bringing Dexter in for questioning but Gene had shot that down at once.

"We can't nick him, we don't have evidence that he knows anything about Bolly. And we can't just bring him in for questioning. If she's dead-" Gene's voice cracked and found that he couldn't go along with that line of argument. "If she's alive and he has her, we have to let him go and he'll go back to her. We don't know what she's told him, whether he knows she's a police officer or what. We don't want to endanger her life further!"

If she still has a life, everyone thought but no one dared say aloud.

The phone rang. Gene answered it.

"DCI Hunt."

"Hunt? Good. It's DCI Matthews."

"How can I help you, Matthews?"

"It's about your missing DI."

Gene sat up, almost dropping the phone. Everyone in CID stared into his office.

"We may have information for you. Don't get excited, it may not be her and if it is…"

There was a pause that seemed to go on for eternity.

"If it is her, then our information isn't good news. Come round to Fenchurch West and I'll show you."

Gene hung his head. When he was sure he could talk without his voice shaking, he said, "Thank you very much. I'll come immediately."

He hung up and raced towards his Quattro, praying to every God he could name that he wasn't about to identify Alex's body.

The Gods- for now at least- were listening as Gene was nowhere near the morgue. Instead, he was in an interview room, sitting next to DCI Matthews. Across the table, a four year old girl with long blonde hair sat, swinging her legs beneath her chair.

"Tell DCI Hunt, what you've told me, Louise," said DCI Matthews kindly.

"I was playing with my brother in the next street and he saw a van. He was looking at the numbers on the front because he knows things!" She looked at them, wide-eyed. When she thought they looked impressed enough she continued, "He knows things like when the car was made and stuff. I don't know though so I walked off. Nearby though, there were some people having a bonfire."

"Did they see you?" asked Gene?

"No, they were looking the other way."

"Did you hear what they were saying?"

"No," said Louise and hesitated. Finally, she said, "There was a lady."

Gene didn't speak. DCI Matthews asked Louise what the lady looked like.

"Very pretty."

Definitely Bolly then, thought Gene.

"Anything else?"

"She was wearing a princess dress! It was dark blue and her hair was like this!" Louise bunched up her hair on top of her head and pulled down a few locks, trying to replicate Alex's 'do. Gene felt his heart sink.

"What was she doing Louise?"

Please don't say lying down, Gene prayed, don't let her be dead.

"She was standing in a hole. These men were pointed water pistols at her!"

"What?" exclaimed Gene, "Are you sure?"

"They looked like water pistols," said Louise, "like Tommy's. Only they were smaller because you could hold them in one hand and they were black."

She means guns thought Gene. Poor girl, she's witnessed a murder and is too young to understand.

"I didn't see anything after that," Louise was saying. "We turned around and ran off. It was tea time, you see."

There was a pause and Gene felt Matthews look at him sideways.

"Did you hear anything, Louise?"

"Yeah," she said and began to cry. "I didn't like it, I didn't like the noise. It was loud and scary."

"It's OK, Louise, the noise can't hurt you. What kind of noise was it?"

"A bang!"

Gene thought he was going to be sick.

"Did you turn around again?"

"No," said Louise tearfully. "I was too scared and so was Tommy so we ran home and told Mum. She said we had to tell you."

Gene could stand it no longer. Without saying anything, he ran out of the interview room and into the gents. He kneeled in front of the loo and heaved.

When he was finished, he flushed the loo and left the cubicle. Matthews walked in.

"Louise's brother, Tommy, tells us the same story, only he knew that they were guns and is able to tell us the vehicle registration. The wasteland is here, on Fenchurch West patch."

As Gene washed his hands, Matthews spoke again. "The girl didn't actually see the bullet enter Drake-"

"What and that means she's still alive?" said Gene angrily. "Thank you for your help, but please do not give me false hope. The girl and her brother not seeing Alex actually fall does not mean she isn't dead!"

Matthews muttered an apology and turned to leave.

"I want to go," said Gene. He knew it was Matthews' patch but this was important. "If Boll- if DI Drake is there, I want to find her."

Matthews eyed Gene. "Alright."

It was obvious where the grave was. The wasteland was grubby, covered in dead grass and litter. There was a patch of ash indicating a fire all though nothing of the fire remained. Close to, a square of newly turned over soil lay, as though it had recently been ploughed… or something had been buried there.

Gene, Ray and Chris took their spades from the Quattro and began to dig. It was one of the most horrible experiences of Gene's life, knowing he was looking for the worst thing in the world but knowing that he had to find it. Not some kids playing about, not some other coppers from some other station, he, Gene Hunt along with Ray and Chris, her friends, had to find Bolly's body.

However Gene had underestimated the emotional turmoil he was going through. They hadn't been digging long when Gene keeled over.

"Guv?" said Chris in concern, putting a hand on Gene's shoulder.

"Get off me, you poof!" snapped Gene. He leaned on the spade, willing it to go in the soil, but he couldn't bring himself to push it in.

Ray insisted he go and sit down. Gene refused and started an argument that he lost because, in truth, he couldn't continue. It was too much.

He stood by the Quattro. He watched Ray and Chris dig and then stop, around the one-feet mark.

"What is it?" he said, running to the side of the grave. "What is it, what have you found?"

Chris wasn't looking at him. He had turned away and Gene could tell by the way his shoulders were shaking that he was sobbing. Ray faced him, tears welling up in his eyes. For once he didn't seem embarrassed by them.

"Guv- it's her."