They were lucky they finished digging up the youngest girl's home before the rain came down again, finding nothing. Alec apologised and said it had been necessary, Ricky not agreeing, telling him and Rose to get out. Rose now had the job of dropping Alec home, since she had the car but they had gone back to the station.
"That was awful Sir," Rose told him as he called her to his office, Tess having just left, agreeing Daisy would be picked up by her grandmother and stay with her until she could be collected, they were taking no chances, along with every other parent in the town. It had hit the local evening news and Alec feared the national papers would pick up on it if the girls weren't found in the next day or two.
"How long did it take your old station to find those missing kids?"
"A few days, one boy was found in a cellar, him and his mate had been playing and no-one knew he'd been hiding and another was down by the river, his dad was a fisherman and he was waiting for him coming back."
Alec turned off his monitor and sat back. Rose thought he looked tired, probably from all the arguments he got from his wife as much as the case was getting to him.
"She's your daughter's age Sir," Rose dared state, looking at the open folder on his desk of all the information other officers had gathered while they had been out, another file for Lisa.
"Yes. Do you think I am too close to this Tyler?"
"No more than your wife is Sir. I think it makes you the best person for the job."
"Come on Tyler, there is nothing else we can do today. Tomorrow, we join the search in the woods, I have a really bad feeling we will find something there."
"Why do you say that Sir?" Rose asked, getting up.
"Call it a gut feeling Tyler. Drop me home then get some rest."
"I'm not helping, am I? With your wife."
Since no-one was in the squad room except a few night staff, who didn't really know them, he got up and sat on the corner of the desk, nearer to her.
"Listen to me, Rose. What is happening between Tess and I was happening before you arrived, you just accelerated it, it would have still happened, maybe at a slower pace but whoever had been assigned here would have got exactly the same treatment as you are unfortunately getting, for which I am very sorry."
He had called her Rose. It must be serious then. After she dropped him home, she called her mother, hoping the news hadn't yet reached London.
"Rose, how are things going there, really? Mickey picked something up on the internet, he has an alert on one of those social sites for Sandbrook."
"Oh trust him, what did he do that for?"
"Maybe because he still hopes you will come back?"
"I'm over him Mum, I wish he'd just move on. So what did he read?"
"You tell me, something about two missing girls. Is it true?"
"Yeah but don't spread it around, the DS here already hates me."
"I thought you worked with that DI?"
"I do but she's his wife."
"Is she the one warning everyone off? Does she think there's something going on then?"
"Yeah, you could say that but it's not true, trust me."
After getting something to eat, Rose was looking out of her living room window on the first floor. It was pouring down with rain and they all had to take a turn the next day searching the woods and it would be horrendous, the river would be bursting it's banks. It had already been on the news about it so she wasn't looking forward to it and hoped the rain would ease off by the time they got there.
Even some of the male DS's were taking a turn, one of them was Harris she had earned earlier. She wondered if DS Henchard was also taking a turn but it was most unlikely. Maybe though if she was organising it, she would prevent her husband from going but if she was the one meeting Harris, why was she sending him out? Maybe it was to throw everyone off the scent, what better way?
Unluckily for the team going out the next day, the rain didn't really ease up so braving the weather, Rose leaving her personal belongings in her locker except for her ID. Alec was doing the same, in case he had the misfortune of wading in the river, not that he was expecting to but you never knew. Borrowing two high visibility coats, Rose drove Alec and DS Harris out to the command post at the edge of the woods, where several marked cars were parked and an ambulance crew on standby.
The canine unit were still out but the rain was hampering them somewhat, Rose hearing them in the distance, having been given some clothing belonging to the two girls that Tess had secured from having been to visit the Gillespies. A lot had been going on, unknown to Rose, who had just been doing what her boss had told her and she wouldn't have been surprised to see Tess there but it was another DS, called Thompson who had marked segments of the woods on the map and highlighted where had already been searched.
The rain though was making it even more difficult, bits of wood and branches from trees were floating down the river and there had already been several false sightings before Rose and Hardy had got there, parts of tree trunks looked deceptively like a small child. Rose had been separated from Hardy though, he was on the other side of the river, well the expanded river but all she could see were figures with large sticks putting them into the water and prodding the debris from further up stream while others behind were still searching the woods.
She could though make out the bluebells which were still just about hanging on but fading fast since they were almost out of season. She was with another team, moving along the bank but she was concentrating on the muddy ground, glad she was wearing boots. Alec had found himself nearer the edge, being careful not to slip into the water as he wasn't carrying a stick when he thought he saw something. Seeing no-one around him, he leaned on a nearby tree, holding one of the lower branches but caught Rose's attention that she stopped.
The uniformed officer she was with saw her and looked across, Alec still trying to see if it was part of a tree or not.
"Have you found something Sir?" Rose shouted across.
With his free hand, he waved. "No, it's nothing, carry on," he shouted back, wishing he could have worn his specs but he'd left them in his office along with his phone and everything else.
Rose waved back and was about to move off when she heard a splash and saw Alec let go of the tree branch and wade into the river.
"Quick, someone go help him," Rose told the officer with her.
Before he could get a response, Alec was picking something up and Rose panicked.
"Please, no, don't let it be one of the girls."
"Out of the way, let us through," two other officers were telling her, Rose not even bothering they were ordering her around as Alec tried to make his way through the water, holding what now everyone could see was a small body. Alec seemed to go under for a few seconds as he lost his footing and Rose yelled for someone to go in and help him but two of the officers were already trying to take the body from him and were almost at the river bank.
Other officers had arrived and were pulling the two officers out but Rose saw Alec struggling to keep his balance now the body had been taken from him and as he tried to get out, four arms reaching out to him, he slipped and went under again. Rose couldn't stand it any longer and jumping in, waded behind him and dragged him up, Alec spluttering and Rose pushing him out as the hands caught hold of him and then someone reached for her and pulled her out.
One of the officers was on the radio, telling the command post to get another ambulance and the coroner as now, everyone could see it was the youngest girl. Alec was sat on the riverbank, someone put a thermal blanket around him and Rose found herself sitting next to him with one around her shoulders, her yellow coat having been dragged off her without her offering any resistance.
The rain was easing off as two ambulances made their way to where they were but the coroner was already there as word reached those at the command post and everyone was being called back. Back at the station, Tess had been given the news it was Alec who had found the girl.
"Of course it had to be him," Tess was telling anyone who was listening, marking the area with a large red circle.
"Are you going out there Ma'am?" Annie Walker was asking her.
"Is there any need, I'm sure he'll be on his way back soon."
"Have you not heard Ma'am? He went under the water a few times, DC Tyler pulled him up and pushed him onto the riverbank while two other officers tried to grab hold of him."
"Well of course she had to, it proves what I was saying since she arrived."
"Ma'am, I'm sure she would have done it for any fellow officer in the same circumstances. She sent a message, can you meet him at the hospital and take him some dry clothes and his personal belongings from his desk?"
"I suppose so. Walker, you finish off here, I'll be back.
Annie and Peggy looked as she went to Alec's office.
"What a callous cow," Annie remarked quietly to her friend. "I hope it is her having the affair, can you believe her? If we're right, maybe we should let Hardy get to know?"
"No Annie, we can't do that, not until we have proof. Let's call and see how Rose is?"
Rose was getting in the back of an ambulance with Alec, who had suddenly passed out when he tried to get up.
"I'm going with him," she told Dave Harris, who had suddenly found himself in charge of the scene once the command officer had left to finish up at the hastily erected tent at the start of the woods.
"Right you are then Tyler, call us when he wakes up."
Dave Harris still felt sorry for the man, even though now, he'd successfully caught Tess in the corridor and asked her to go for a drink with him since her daughter was being cared for by her grandmother and she'd said yes after the last week they had been sneaking around but he was sure Tyler and her two friends were onto them.
"Sir, can you call his wife, have her meet him at the hospital with some dry clothes and his belongings?"
"Leave it with me and get yourself checked out while you're there, I'm responsible for you."
"Yes Sir. I left my things there as well."
"I'll ask one of your friends to bring them, I doubt DS Henchard will want to do it."
"No, she doesn't like me."
"What did you do to her?"
"Become her husband's DC, Sir. I have to go now," Rose replied as the ambulance attendant tried to close the door as she sat opposite Alec, wrapped in a warm blanket and Alec with a breathing mask over his face.
"Will he be ok?" Rose asked the attendant, who was monitoring him.
"Just swallowed a lot of water, goodness knows what was in it with this rain. How are you feeling Miss?"
Back at the station, Annie had gone to Rose's locker when Tess approached her.
"Walker, are you taking those to Tyler?"
"Yes Ma'am, DS Harris said she'd asked for them. He's bringing the car back. I expect DC Tyler will be back later when she's been checked out."
"Yes, I expect she will come back with DI Hardy, I don't know why I'm wasting my time going home and getting his some clean clothes, his own will soon dry out."
"Ma'am, he went under more than one, from what I know."
Tess went off, shaking her head – of course he had to make a show of it. Now, it would be difficult to get away to meet Dave before she went to collect Daisy, who was staying at her grandmother's and she could make the excuse she had to work late with the missing girl being found and she was the one who would have to go tell the family and she hoped the press wouldn't beat her to it.
Dropping a large carrier at the hospital desk for her husband, Tess turned around and saw Annie asking about them.
"Walker, I left a bag for DI Hardy, come with me to tell the family."
"Yes Ma'am, I'll be right with you," Annie replied, telling the nurse who they were for.
Rose had been checked out, she was fine, just wet but an officer had brought her a pair of trousers and a jumper and she'd managed to dry her underwear under the dryer in the staff ladies room while they checked Alec out, who was still unconscious. She went to join him when the nurse brought two bags in, one with some clothes for him and one with a few of her things in, Tess had been handed his wet clothes.
"How's he doing?" Rose asked the nurse worriedly.
"He will be fine, we got all the water out of his lungs, we'll keep him overnight for observation. How are you feeling?"
"Waiting to be discharged. Well I think I am."
"I'll go check for you, DC Tyler is it?"
"Yeah but call me Rose."
The young nurse smiled and went off, thinking the poor womanl looked worried about her boss and since his wife had just handed over a carrier bag and gone off, someone had to be with him and his DC looked more concerned than she had done.
It was after four when Alec woke up suddenly, waving his arms around and almost pulling the wires out of himself.
"Where am I?" he asked as he realised Rose was leaning on his side having dozed off.
"Tyler?"
"What? Oh, sorry Sir," she said, getting up as fast as she could and hoping his wife hadn't seen. "How are you feeling?"
"I am fine, get someone to get me out of these things," he replied, taking the breathing tube out of his nose and pulling a face.
Rose pressed the buzzer she'd been told to use when he woke up and wondered why she'd not been discharged herself.
"What are you still doing here?" he asked as he lay back on the pillow.
"Waiting to be discharged."
"Why?"
"I jumped in behind you to push you out, the others couldn't get a grip of you, it was all muddy on the river bank and as I got in, you went under again, I pulled you up."
"Then I thank you. Did I drag you under?"
"Almost, that's why they sent me with you." Well it was half true. "Your wife brought you some dry clothes, I have them here."
"What about you?"
"A WPC brought me some dry clothes, I'm fine Sir."
The nurse came in and checked Alec's vital signs.
"I'll just get the Sister."
"I'm fine, just let me get dressed," he protested.
"Sir, you took a lot of water, we have to make sure you didn't pick up anything nasty. I'll be right back."
"What about me?" Rose asked.
"Oh, you can go any time you like Rose, you're all clear."
"How long has that been?"
"Oh, did no-one come back and tell you? Sorry, you could have left a while ago."
Rose suspected the nurse had done it on purpose, since she'd said Tess had just left his things at the desk.
"You go Tyler, I'll get them to send a car for me. Go on, go get yourself sorted out."
"I'll wait and see what they say about you."
"Thank you, for saving me. I don't remember what happened when I got out."
"The rain was easing off, someone put blankets around us, we were sitting on the riverbank when you fell back, just as the ambulance got there. DS Harris took over and he insisted I got checked out as well."
"What did they do with the girl?"
"The coroner took her to be examined. I called the station but there's no news yet. DS Henchard has gone to tell the family."
Alec wished now he'd not appointed Tess as their liaison officer.
"That should be our job Tyler. Do you have my phone?"
"It's here but I think you should wait, if she's with the family."
He knew she had a point, Tess wouldn't want to be interrupted and if she wanted to take charge, rather her than him, the family would be insufferable. Ricky Gillespie almost had a go at him outside their home yesterday that two uniformed officers had to grab hold of the man as he'd taken a swing at him but he doubted Tess would have put it gently to them and where was the other girl?
"Any news about Lisa?" he asked Rose as they waited.
"No Sir, sorry but as far as I know, they're still searching." Well she hoped they were.
The ward sister came in, followed by the nurse.
"We'd like to keep you overnight, just to make sure."
"I'm fine, I will go straight home, Tyler here will make sure I do."
Rose saw him looking at her.
"Yeah, I'll call for a car and make sure he goes home."
Rose somehow doubted his wife would be pleased to see him.