He stared at his phone, cursing himself for even daring to put her number in his contacts. He'd convinced himself he'd left it there in case Daisy wanted it, like she'd ever lose or forget it, since it was probably engraved on her brain after all the excitement of Rose and Jamie sending her wedding photos the public were not privy to on that video chat app she'd tried to teach him to use.
He scrolled through his contacts and stopped at Rose's name and number. Should he call or delete it? Maybe he'd be best deleting it and have done with it? That would be the most sensible thing he'd done since he'd met her over a year ago.
There had been no more news about her, well nothing new anyway. The papers re-hashed wedding photos every now and then in case anyone out of the seven billion people on the planet had dared to miss them the first time around.
He'd only just managed to stop his daughter going on about the wedding on the weekends they met up and then he'd had to insist and offer to pay for her to have them printed off at a photo shop's automated machine. He suddenly jumped as his phone rang but he was annoyed it was Tess.
What had he expected after the events of the day? That Rose herself would call with the offer of help?
"Alec, what's going on down there?" Tess wanted to know.
"As if you did not know Tess," he replied.
"It's typical of you to walk into another child being found Alec. What were the chances of that?" she then wanted to know.
"Your point being?" he replied. "Get on with it Tess, I've had a hell of a day. The DS I'm working with has not stopped reminding me that I took her job from her."
"You never?" Tess almost laughed. "No wonder she's pissed off at you then? So, have you established what happened or have you been too busy arguing who's going to be in charge?"
"Stop it Tess. Watch the main news later on at ten, you'll find out just as much as everyone else, won't you?"
"Don't take it out on me Alec," Tess reminded him. "Well, who's the victim?"
"Eleven year old Danny Latimer, lived in the town. He was found on the beach but he wasn't killed there, we've established that," he admitted.
Well he thought the chances were slim the boy had been killed there, judging by the way the body had been laid out on display. It was like the killer was a bit of an amateur but knew some things, enough to try and throw them off.
"We're just waiting for forensics to finish up and CCTV to be collected from cameras owned by businesses," he added, to convince her they were already doing what they could. "He did a paper round, I'm going to walk his route in the morning, see where it took him."
"It's not likely it's someone who got the wrong paper delivered Alec," Tess started her usual sarcasm.
"Was there anything else Tess? I'm tired, I got woken early this morning," he just replied, instead of giving her chance to go on at him.
He thought he was over Tess going on at him.
"I suppose there's no possibility of any connection to your last case?" she asked out of the blue.
"Not unless the Ashworth's have changed their style," he replied. "Does Daisy know?"
"Yes, she's a bit upset, since she knows it's similar to your last case. I don't suppose you'll be coming up next weekend unless you clear it up quickly?" Tess then asked him.
"I will call her and explain," Alec told her.
"Why don't you call Torchwood and see if they can offer any help Alec, since you're well in with them?" she then suggested.
"There's nothing they can do Tess, don't even go there," he warned her.
Since it was getting late and he had to go out early the next morning, he put his phone on the bedside table and went into the bathroom. No, he'd have to mange without any help from Rose or Torchwood, if he was to stay sane, Rose would just be a distraction and she may bring Jamie with her. Then what? He'd achieve nothing.
It was late and there was no sign of Jamie as Rose tried calling him.
"I'm sorry Miss Tyler," the night security officer on reception was telling her. "There's no answer from his desk phone. I can try his work mobile for you."
"No, it's okay Carl, I've tried both his mobiles. Can ya check if he's still logged into his computer?"
She waited but she already knew the answer. Jamie was sulking that Alec was in the news again, for all the wrong reasons. She had thought she might get a call but maybe Alec didn't want to cause any trouble. Well he had, whether intentional or not, Jamie had seen the newspaper headlines and was blowing off some steam before he came home by burying himself in his work.
Well she hoped that was it. Carl had got back to her.
"He's still logged in Miss Tyler. Should I get someone to check on him?" the guard offered.
She and Jamie knew the night security, Jake had hand-picked them for the job.
"Yeah, can they tell him to get his ass home?" Rose laughed. "We're supposed to be going off for the weekend."
"I'll have them call you back when he's been told. They should use those exact words?" Carl sounded serious.
"Yeah and that they came from me," Rose agreed.
Jamie was blowing off some steam after he'd insisted Rose went home. He had a lot to think about but why was he still jealous of someone who had come to their wedding over a year ago? Then there was Rose, going on about starting a family. When had all that started? Jackie hadn't yet given him a lecture about how she wanted to be a grandmother, which she would have done. Unless Rose had told her not to go on about it?
He stopped what he was doing when he heard a noise outside, possibly a security patrol, he thought. They would probably stick their heads around the doorway and ask if everything was okay, nothing got past Jake's men anyway. Well not unless those creatures Rose had told him about decided to invade and materialise in front of him.
Then he'd only get worried if the Cybermen also came back and declared war on them. He laughed to himself and looked up as two security officers were watching him.
"Hey fellas, what's up?" he greeted them.
"Good evening Doctor Smith. Everything okay with you?" the larger of the two asked him.
"Fine. Oh, my wife called, right?" Jamie then grinned, looking at his phone and seeing he'd left it on silent. "Bet she told you to kick my ass home?"
"Those exact words," both men replied.
"Ah, sorry, didn't realise the time," Jamie used the excuse. "You know what it's like? Okay, I'm going."
Rose was happy when she got a call back to say Jamie had been reminded to get himself home but she knew Jake wouldn't let her forget she'd had to call in the first place. She had just gone in the bedroom when she heard the outer door opening.
"Rose, where are you?" Jamie called as he locked the door and threw his keys down on the side table. "Got a bit carried away after you left, sorry love."
Rose waited then stood in the bedroom doorway, in her nightdress and silky robe.
"I shouldn't have had to get someone to check on ya Jamie," she reminded him.
"Then why did you Rose? So we can have another discussion about starting a family?" he wanted to know.
"What is it you have against the subject?" Rose wondered as she sat in front of the mirror and picked her hairbrush up. "If ya don't wanna go off tomorrow, we'll stay home or go some place else."
"Such as Broadchurch?" he replied, throwing his jacket over the purple velvet chair, followed by his tie.
Rose had always thought he was messier than the Doctor sometimes and there was no Tardis to clean up after Jamie. She wasn't going to get pulled into this argument, she decided.
"There are plenty of other places on the south coast Jamie," she reminded him. "Southend, Bognor to start with."
Jamie made a face.
"Who makes up the names of some of the places?" he asked as he took his shirt off, which usually got a response from his wife.
He knew he was in trouble as she remained seated, with the brush still in her hand.
"Okay, I'm sorry I didn't come home earlier Rose. I thought if I stayed late, we could take Monday off as well?"
Rose wondered if she'd got it wrong but she somehow doubted it.
"Well maybe? Jamie, I was worried you were avoiding me," she admitted.
"No, it wasn't that love," he replied, leaning down to kiss her cheek. "You're not going to chase me with that brush, are you?" he then laughed.
"Not unless ya want me to?" she teased him. "Sorry, I'm just a bit off. I mean when I saw what happened earlier. Why did it have to happen where Alec had just moved to? I wonder how long he's been there?"
Jamie wondered what difference that made. The event would have taken place, no matter how long the detective had been there.
"Forget it Rose, Pete won't send anyone to help, it's just down to Alec to solve it on his own. Well unless there's evidence of alien activity," he then laughed, hoping to take her mind off it.
He knew of only one thing at present to take her mind off the current events and that meant being serious about starting a family. Then he realised he was being cornered when she'd suggested going off for the weekend. Well, wasn't she being the sneaky one?
Was that going to be the only thing to get her to forget about Alec Hardy as well? He was well and truly stuck, she knew it. Maybe he should just make things easier for her or had that been on his mind earlier when he knew full well what the time was?
Unless she got her own way and they had a baby, she was never going to give up. It must be her way of saying she was committed to himself as long as they started a family but did he want it that way? Did he want to be cornered like that?
He knew she wanted this weekend away from everything but why had Alec Hardy have to come into the equation at the last minute? She had chosen it to get them in the mood, he knew what time of the month it was, he kept up with that so he was prepared for her change in mood.
"Well, do I cancel in the morning?" Rose wanted to know as she got into bed.
"We might as well go," he agreed reluctantly. "I don't think our presence in Broadchurch will be appreciated unless we turn up with a load of alien tech?"
Rose wasn't sure if he was joking or not, when it came to being jealous. She'd had enough experience of it. She could justify not telling him more about The Doctor, she had no idea what he would do if he ever found out everything so it had to remain a well guarded secret.
She supposed she'd been thankful Mickey had never said anything. Jamie was bad enough Mickey had been her old boyfriend, she had no choice but to remain silent. Jamie got into bed and lay with his hands behind his head, like he was thinking. Rose often wished he'd stop doing things that reminded her of the time she'd spent with the Doctor.
"One thing Rose," Jamie finally broke the silence. "Let's not argue tomorrow, okay? I mean over starting a family. We'll both know when it's time, won't we?"
Rose thought he had no idea how she felt about it, did he? She shouldn't have to keep going on about it, he should take the hint and at least consider it. Not wanting to hold a grudge, she lay on her side and put her arm across him, noticing he'd put a t-shirt on.
They set off the next morning and booked into the hotel, just as Alec had got back from walking the paper round of the deceased boy. DS Miller greeted him with a carton of coffee she'd brought in with her. He just grunted as he took it from her.
"There's another CCTV camera overlooking a hut, on the side of the cliff. Do you know where that is?" he asked as Ellie Miller stared at him.
Ellie thought no wonder they'd been keen to get rid of him at his last job, he didn't give anyone a chance to say anything. She could have sworn he was the one from the Sandbrook case but what would he be doing here, apart from stealing her promotion from her?
Had he been sent here just to annoy her if no-one else was willing to take him? His name sounded familiar other than that though. Hadn't there been a young girl with that surname in all the papers about being the bridesmaid of the Vitex heiress? She pitied the poor girl for her father spoiling the headlines with his own that he'd let a killer walk free.
"Yes, I know where you mean, up on Briar Cliff," Ellie replied, snapping out of it. "What were you doing up there – Sir? Was it on Danny's paper round?"
Alec thought of saying no, he was out for the exercise but changed his mind, it would just make her worse.
"Oh, the newsagent called to say he remembered something," she then told him.
Alec got up and went for his coat. Why was he even putting it on? He should have ditched it before he got it back from the cleaners, after it had been taken off him when he'd got Pippa out of the river. He'd thought of calling Rose, to say it had been him but she had probably already known who it had been. Had he mentioned it at her wedding?
He took the piece of paper from his DS and waited to see if she followed him. They were just leaving when the chief stopped them.
"Alec, a word," the chief hinted for him to remain.
"I'll wait downstairs," Ellie decided, thinking she wasn't wanted.
"How are you coping so far?" Alec was then asked.
"Fine, why would I not be coping?" he replied. "Has DS Miller made a complaint?"
"She's not happy about things," the chief admitted. "I stuck my neck out to accept your transfer Alec, she's bound to be resentful. I need your reassurance you can handle this, after Sandbrook."
"That's why you need me on this," Alec told her. "Would DS Miller be able to handle a murder investigation?"
He saw the look on the chief's face.
"Don't let me down Alec. You'll have more staff from Monday, they're being brought in from surrounding areas. Be ready for them," she suggested.
He caught up with his DS and they went to interview the newsagent, Alec thinking it was a waste of time but they went off in search of the postman, who had been seen arguing with the boy a week or so previously. By the time they got back, there were wires everywhere and a phone engineer was caught snooping around a desk.
"What are you doing?" Ellie wanted to know.
"Ah, fitting new phone lines," the engineer looked surprised.
Ellie gave him a warning then went to Alec's office. As they were arguing over something, there was a knock on the door and Ellie got up.
"Have you finished?" Ellie wanted to know when she saw who it was.
"It's not that. You're investigating that boy's death," the engineer stated.
"Why are you asking?" Alec wondered, taking his glasses off and rubbing his face.
"It's about Danny. He wants you to know he was put in a boat," the engineer told them.
"There are dozens of boats out there," Ellie reminded the man.
"He lived by the sea, he is bound to have been in one," Alec told the man.
"No, you don't get it," the man insisted. "After he was killed."
Alec got up to confront the engineer.
"Who told you that?" he wanted to know.
"Danny told me," came the man's reply.
"Get him down to the interview room," Alec told his new DS.
"You think he can tell us something Sir?" Ellie sounded surprised.
"If he's not making it up," Alec replied. "You go ahead, I'm going to call an expert. Is it written down anywhere that Danny may have been put in a boat?"
"No Sir, no-one's even suggested such a thing," Ellie told him. "You think he could have been put on the beach after being transported from where he died?"
"You tell me Miller? He was not killed on the beach but the question remains as to where he was killed. Have someone chase up that CCTV footage from where I was earlier and find out who owns that cottage."
The phone engineer was waiting outside Alec's office but he knew he had them. It had suddenly come into his mind and they might believe him, that was if they didn't call Torchwood in. Then he'd get some recognition and write another book and this time, people would buy it, this was a high-profile case, unlike the others.
"Which do you want first?" Ellie forgot to call him 'Sir'.
"Just get someone on both Miller. If Danny wasn't killed on the beach, what better place than a remote cottage on the top of a cliff? The CCTV may have captured Danny and his killer up there on Thursday night."
"Sir, you want me to take the phone engineer downstairs before or after carrying out your orders?" Ellie dared ask.
Alec just looked at her and she knew the answer, she would just have to get used to his way of working. He then got his mobile out of his pocket. He'd made a note of the Torchwood number after the wedding, in case he ever needed them.
"Who did you say you were calling?" Ellie wondered who the expert was and why they needed one.
"Think about it Miller. We said nothing of Danny not being killed on the beach. Either the phone engineer is the killer or he guessed about the boat being involved. My bet is the latter but we have to make sure. That is why I am calling the experts in. I'm going to call Torchwood, Miller."