"Yes right Tyler, Monday morning, you can start making enquiries."
"On my own Sir?"
"That was the idea Tyler, you can handle it?"
"Well yes Sir, thank you."
"Don't thank me yet. If something else comes along that is more important, you can pass them on to one of the other DC's. I'm sure they just love old cases."
"If you don't mind me saying Sir, why has no-one looked into them before?"
"Maybe no-one else cared enough? We only have so many resources Tyler, you were replacing no-one, we just lost a DS and a DC but things are quiet, just hope they stay that way. Yes, what do you want?" he asked Tess as she opened the door and Rose picked up the folders from his desk he'd just put down instead of handing them to her, in case Tess read something into it, which she would have done.
All week he'd seen her glance across at his DC and thought better than to call her into her office, he had silently been daring her to. For the first time in a long while, Tess hadn't got her own way in choosing who he was partnered with and he liked it that way. They had gone out a few times to investigate a few shop break-ins, he could have sent Tess or Harris if he'd wanted to but he liked standing by Rose's desk telling her to have a car outside in ten minutes and the look on Tess's face as they had walked back in.
Rose had her suspicions he was taking these petty cases on purpose, to rile his wife but she'd seen Tess look over several times in her direction, looking for an excuse to pick faults with her and Tess had already been to see the chief about her and been told to stop thinking Alec was chasing anything that resembled a female.
"Really Tess, is that all you've got?" the chief had told her that morning when she'd finally had enough and Alec had said he didn't know if he would home for Daisy's party, since Tess had engaged the services of an entertainer after all and a big tent outside.
"He's getting far too friendly with Tyler, they're always talking when they come back in. When he had Jones as his DC, Alec would come back in ten minutes before but now he comes in at the same time."
"Tess, I have better things to do than play your guidance counsellor, sort it out of home and stop singling Tyler out. She's a good DC, give her a chance."
So back in Alec's office, Rose had got up.
"Is that all Sir?"
"Yes Tyler, you follow those cases up."
When she'd gone, Tess wanted to know what it was all about.
"I thought you were leaving early?" Alec asked, putting on his specs since Tess was giving him a headache.
"Are you putting her in charge of a case?"
"Don't be daft Tess, just some old cases that may deserve a second look. I will supervise the whole thing."
"I bet you will. So, you will be at Daisy's party? Don't let her down Alec."
"What time does it start?"
"Four until six so don't be late."
He planned to get there around five thirty, as it was winding down, his daughter would never even notice his absence.
The Monday after Daisy's birthday party, a row had erupted in her office when she'd pulled him up about being late and the chief had got to hear about it so now, he was considering placing Tess in another division but until then, they had both been told to keep their rows at home. Annie had pointed out that if things were getting this bad, one of them would get moved but Rose secretly hoped it wouldn't be Alec, she didn't fancy breaking in another DI.
The previous week, when they'd been out, Alec had praised her driving, saying she was better than Jones had been and he'd started being driven into the underground parking area and waiting for her but Rose suspected it was for his wife's benefit.
For the next two weeks, nothing much happened. Rose got a lead on one of the cases but the main suspect in a disappearance had vanished himself so Alec told her to leave it and go onto something else. Rose however was getting tired of being stared at by Tess and had rearranged her desk again, having her boss creep up on her from behind was slightly better than staring at his apparently jealous wife.
She'd had several conversations with her now two friends, Annie Walker and Peggy Ashby in the canteen and Peggy kept hinting about Dave Harris bragging he was seeing a married female officer behind his wife's and her husband's back but he was careful not to reveal who it was or what rank she held. The three friends though deduced it was one of several, two in their own department and Tess was the number one suspect.
Tess was still there, despite the threats from the chief if she complained one more time about Rose coming back in with Alec, she'd be the one to get moved and she may not get the same hours and he'd said if she promised to behave reasonably, they could both stay, since he couldn't be bothered finding room for either of them elsewhere.
Rose had been there exactly a month when all hell was about to break loose, affecting not just the station but the whole town. What had started out one Sunday morning in late September as a missing persons report was about to rip everyone apart. Two young cousins had been missing when the youngest girl's parents had returned home that morning from a wedding.
With it begin Sunday, uniformed officers had attended, dog units had been brought in and by late afternoon, Daisy had been taken to her grandmother's house as both Alec and Tess had been contacted along with every available DC and DS who answered their phone, Rose being one of them.
She'd got to the station just after four, finding the phones ringing off the hooks but Alec had called her into his office. Tess had been put in charge of co-ordinating the search, a large map of the area on the wall.
"Tyler, now is the chance to prove yourself. I will be making a visit to the parents of the youngest cousin, apparently, the eldest did not get on with her father and spent most of her time there. I want you to observe and see if there is anything suspicious about how they react."
"Sir? You think they are involved?" Rose asked, having quickly read the initial report.
"Nine times out of ten with a child abduction, a family member or friend is involved, if indeed they are actually missing. They could have just gone out early before the Gillespies got home and not realised they were causing any problems but it is now after five and they have been gone since at least nine this morning."
"Of course Sir, finding them soon is important. I've done missing children cases before, all of them ended with them being found, thankfully ok."
"That is how I intend this ending Tyler. Now get a car and I will get the address."
Tess could only stare as Rose went to her desk to get a car, being told they were all out.
"Well get one now, I'm not telling DI Hardy there isn't one."
"All I can do is have a patrol car collect him in ten minutes."
"Yeah, well I have to go with him so make sure there's room for me. I suggest you get someone who has their own car to bring one back and make it available during this investigation, otherwise he won't be happy about it."
Tess was listening, maybe she was good at her job after all but did she have to do it with him?
Once out on the estate at the Gillespie house, Rose stood silently while Alec sat talking to the parents of the youngest girl, Pippa, who had just turned twelve, the same age as Alec's daughter. She was doing as he asked, watching their reaction to the questions he was forced to ask them and Rose felt sorry for them. The father, Ricky, stormed out and Alec went after him, leaving Rose to comfort the girl's mother.
"I'm really sorry about what happened, Mrs Gillespie but DI Hardy and his team have an excellent record at this kind of thing."
"Aren't you part of his team?" Cate Gillespie asked, pouring herself a large whisky.
"Yes but I've only been with them for a month, I transferred from London."
"Why would you want to come here, of all places?"
"I had no choice, I was assigned here but I've had experience on missing child cases."
Alec had caught up with Ricky and persuaded him to go back inside. As Alec was going back in, one of the other DS's from another division handed him some keys, reluctantly.
"I've been told to give you these, I've got to start using my own car so your DC can drive you around."
Alec took them, seeing the look on the other man's face.
"Who are you then?"
"DS Hartley, B division. We're all in this, Sir."
"Any news yet?"
"No Sir, I'm sure your DC will keep you up to date."
The DS turned and got into a squad car, to go back and get his own, not very pleased he was having to do so, since it was automatic and better than his car. He'd had a call from the transport sergeant as the one he'd taken out a few hours earlier was one of the few automatics and DC Tyler had requested one, trust a woman.
After assuring the anxious parents they were using every available unit to locate the two missing girls, Alec then had Rose drive him to the older girl's house, learning her parents were separated and her mother drank more than Cate Gillespie. Alec knew right away she'd had nothing to do with their disappearance, which he talked about with Rose on the way back, Rose asking him if they were going back to the station before they set off.
"No, you drop me off home then go home yourself, keep the car and come and pick me up at eight in the morning, my wife has to take our daughter to school."
"Should all parents be worried Sir or do you think this is a isolated incident?"
She was beginning to grow on him, not just because Tess hated her but she asked all the right questions.
He shook his head. "Could be, we should not treat it as such, I will give a statement to the press in the morning, warning parents to keep a close watch on their children."
"So what did you make of Lisa's mother Sir?"
"She didn't get on with her parents, goodness knows where the father is. In the morning, get more information about him, this could be just about her and the youngest got caught up in it somehow and they are both hiding. Also, I want someone to go interview the neighbours, particularly those immediately next door, even if uniforms have already asked them if they have seen the girls, get those two, Walker and Ashby onto it. I also want a family liaison to keep the Gillespies informed."
"I can keep them informed Sir, it would be better coming from me," Rose suggested, trying to keep in her head what he'd just told her, having left the satnav to find his address he'd mumbled to her as she asked him.
"No Tyler, you are going to be busy enough. Once the neighbours have been interviewed, then we look further a-field."
It was beginning to rain as Rose reached their destination, a semi on the outskirts of town but about ten minutes from where she lived. She was getting to find her way around the town, having driven him around a few times. She was quite pleased he'd told her to keep the car but hoped an alert wouldn't be put out for it when it wasn't returned.
"Tyler, call the station and tell them you are keeping the car, we will be starting an hour earlier from now on and my wife as I said will be dropping Daisy at school. You have somewhere to park?"
She had been lucky to find someone advertising for a flatmate, a two bedroom one with one of the civilian secretaries who had about to give up hope of finding anyone to share with and had agreed with her boyfriend to move in with him at the end of the month but she'd put Rose's name on the rent book so now, it was Rose who would be advertising for someone.
"Yeah, there's a car park for residents, I got out of the boarding house but now, my flatmate is moving out so I'm not sure I'll be able to afford the rent on my own, maybe I'll be lucky? I can pay next month's but after that, I might be back at the boarding house."
"I hope you find someone then, it would be a shame if you have to move again so soon. What about your housing allowance?"
"What housing allowance Sir?"
"You are away from home."
"Yeah, I get a living allowance, is that it?"
"I expect so, Tess sees to all that. Has she been bothering you again?" he asked, as they sat outside his house, two cars in the driveway and Rose just knowing she was watching out of a window as they talked.
"No, thank goodness though I can feel her staring at my back."
"I wondered why you had moved your desk around. Don't let her bother you."
"Well she does, I don't like being accused of something I've not done. She may as well just come out and say it."
"Take no notice of her, the more I tell her the worse she gets. She will soon realise how paranoid she is now this case has landed on our doorstep. No-one will have the time to listen to her. Goodnight Tyler, don't be late in the morning."
"No Sir, goodnight."
She flipped the windscreen wipers as he unfastened his seatbelt and was sure she saw a curtain moving. Tess had looked out of the window and seen an unfamiliar car and had surmised Tyler had got her way and a car had been found. Trust Alec to insist she drove him home, now his DC knew where they lived.
The next morning, Alec was out on time as Rose got there with two minutes to spare, it was still raining. They got to the station, Rose talking to Annie and Peggy, who were absent the day before and were only too happy to get some action. She also organised someone to find out about Lisa's father but what interested her most was when the two DC's got back and said they were suspicious of the next door neighbours, Claire and Lee Ashworth.
"I tell you Rose, they are well creepy," Peggy was telling her as they waited for Alec to call them into his office, him giving a statement to the local press who had been called.
"What da ya mean by creepy?" Rose asked as the other two leaned on her desk, Tess being busy in her office.
"She seemed really scared of him, you know? She said she'd been in with him all night but we don't believe her, do we Annie?"
"No Rose, I don't think Hardy will believe it either but I heard he wants to expand the search."
"Yeah, he's with the press, asking for anyone who has seen them or knows anything to call us. I think it's really bothering him, his daughter is the same age as the youngest."
"Funny how it's not seemed to affect her, I thought she'd keep her kid off school. She still insinuating things?" Annie asked.
"She stares at me every time I follow him out, she's paranoid, even he says it."
"So you think it is her, with Harris?"
"Nah, we don't have any proof."
"That's what we do Rose, we get proof," Annie smiled, just as three reporters came out of Alec's office.
They were summoned inside and Alec agreed they would follow it up but he'd just ordered the search to include the local woods, which were vast.
"It's the obvious place for two reasons," he was telling them. "Access, ease of getting in and out without being seen and also if the girls are hiding out in there."
"It's been raining Sir and we have no evidence they took anything with them."
"Good point Tyler. Walker, Ashby, go back to the Gillespie's and ask if any of Pippa's clothes are missing, or Lisa's, if she was staying overnight. Also, try and get a better description of what they were wearing, the night before they disappeared. We also have to try and establish a time-line, what time they left the girls and ask the Ashworth's again if they saw anyone hanging around, we will go with the wife's alibi of him for now."
It was late afternoon before Alec got Rose to drive him back there, forensics still searching the house.
"Why are you putting us through this Hardy?" Ricky wanted to know, his arm around his tearful wife as now, a team had been called in to start digging up the back garden.
"Nine times out of ten, in these cases, we have to start with the missing person or persons home, we can't leave anything unchecked. There was a case recently where a mother had hidden her own child and police searched her room several times."
"You're accusing us of hiding our own daughter and niece?" Cate managed to say, Rose knowing she had been drinking again.
"I am not accusing you of anything, we have to be as thorough as we can, that's all. I am appointing DS Henchard as your liaison, she will be in touch with you shortly, to keep you informed. She will also pass on any concerns you may have and answer your questions."
"We don't know her, can't DC Tyler do it?" Cate asked.
"DC Tyler can help you best by staying on the case with me and finding your daughter and your niece. We will do whatever is necessary to bring them back, you have my word."
As they all stood outside in the garden while a team were digging it up, they did not see the next door neighbours, Claire sitting on a lounger drinking tea and her husband sat on the ground, smoking.