2

Natalie slammed the car door shut before heading towards the white forensic tent that currently hid the corpse from general view. Sam lagged behind; talking on his mobile he warned the police constable acting as family liaison that bad news was more than likely.

"Joy." Natalie reached the forensic officer as the blonde removed her latex gloves.

"Don't ask me for time or cause of death. Not yet. All I can confirm at the moment is the body is that of an adult human male. I've got to get him back to the lab."

"Who found him?" Sam asked; determined to avoid going anywhere near the corpse. Joy nodded to where two teenagers sat with a young police officer.

"Kids."

"Right, I'll talk to them." Sam decided before heading up to the bench where the youngsters were sat. The girl looked up at him, mascara streaked along her cheeks as she tried to hide the fact she was crying.

"This is DI Sam Casey. He is from Major Incident Unit." The uniform officer spoke. Sam smiled slightly at the girl.

"Yeah, I need to ask you both some questions. Is that ok?" He sat next to the teenage boy as the girl nodded. "What's your names?"

"I'm Tiffany Roberts. This is Dean Smith."

"Ok, how old are you?"

"Fifteen." Tiffany sniffed. "God, I really don't believe this. I really want to go home."

Sam nodded, he knew he couldn't interview her without another adult present. He took her home address. "Dean?"

"Sixteen. We were only going to get some chips. That's all." He took his baseball cap off and put it on again. His Afro hair sticking out in all directions. "My brother is going to go spare."

"Your brother?"

"I lives in his flat. Me mum buggered off with the milkman and your lot put my dad inside."

Sam frowned. He felt sorry for the young lad; knowing that having absentee parents was tough.

"What's his name?"

"Mickey. Michael. We've got a flat on the estate. He was pulled in by you lot when his friend Rose went walkabout a few years back. He hadn't done anything, before you ask but no copper gonna believe him."

"Dean." Tiffany whispered.

"Turned out Rose had gone off with her new boyfriend. How is me telling you what I saw gonna do any good? Coppers never believe us."

Sam sighed. He understood the defensiveness but it wasn't really helping matters.

"That boy has friends and family worried sick. We need to find out who he is and give those that love him some answers. We need to stop this happening again."

"Can we go home? Please?" Tiffany asked, her small frame swamped in a hoodie. Sam nodded. He knew he'd have to talk to the kids again but it was dark and getting late so he asked the uniform officer to take them home.

Xxxx

Ronnie took his glasses off as he dumped the file back on his desk. He hated cases where the victim was a kid. He pinched the bridge of his nose, thinking of his girls and Natalie's boys. They were around the same age as the victim. The thought made him feel sick.

"Ron?" He looked up to see Angie watching him. "The Guv called. She's on her way back. The body is in transit now."

"Drowning. Poor kid." Joe shook his head.

"We dunno if that's the cause of death at the moment. We dun even have a definite ID."

"No, but." Joe shrugged as Matt made coffee.

"Don't assume anything. Not until we know more details anyway. All we know now is he'd been buying booze and making a general pain of himself. We need to fix no our what happened between the incident at the shop and those kids finding the body in the water." Ronnie took the mug from Matt as the younger man sat down.

"Someone knows what happened to that boy." Matt paused. Ronnie nodded.

"Yeah, we just need to find out who."

Xxxxx

a/N slight cross over with Dr Who - I dint own that either.