Crashing Waves

5

"Miller." I stood at the door whilst Hardy called for Ellie, luckily with his voice she snapped to attention and came over pretty quickly. "I need you to get a statement off of Walker." He glanced at me, making sure that I wasn't going anywhere. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't now anyway. I'd told Hardy about it, and was about to tell Ellie.

"Of course. Is this to do with?" Ellie stopped, letting him carry on.

"In a manner of speaking. But this case is now a priority." He spoke softly, leading us into his office.

"Ok. Just to say, Alice's alibi checked out." I nodded. Chucking a 'I told you so' look at Hardy.

"Hmph." He had nothing to say, so shut his door and took a seat in his chair, letting Ellie and I sit on the joint couch. He began to set up a camera pointing at the wall, for anonymity purposes. I'm glad he didn't ask.

"What exactly is this about?" Ellie asked, looking from Hardy to me.

"Walkers ex boyfriend was likely to be responsible for the break in." Hardy said, without any context.

"Your ex?" Ellie looked confused.

"He was abusive." Hardy stole my reply yet again.

"If I'm gonna do this, I wanna talk for myself." I spat, making Hardy sit back down and hit record, telling the camera the date and time of the interview.

"Tell us about your ex." Hardy said, curt.

"Alan." I said, finally speaking his name after a few days of trying to forget it. "He hit me, among... other things." I looked down, seeing Ellie's hand cover my own. "I didn't tell anyone because he said if I did he would kill me, and so I ran."

"Why didn't you tell anyone? I mean, Devon and Cornwall Police are usually good at handling these sorts of cases." Ellie asked me, and I shook my head.

"No one knew I was dating him. He liked to keep to himself, and when he got drunk one night and..." I trailed off, trying not to think about what happened. I closed my eyes, sighing, noticing Hardy clench his fists as I opened them again and kept my sight down low. "He became controlling. I guess that night I got to see the person I was really dating. But yeah. He got worse, and the other night, when he went out, I just left." I looked up at Hardy and took a deep breath, feeling Ellie's arm come around me.

"And now he's here." He pointed out the obvious, making me scoff.

"He knew I wouldn't be able to live without work." I said, continuing. "He was probably there whilst we were searching the house." Ellie rubbed my arm, making me feel a little better about the whole situation.

"Sir, we need to post uniform outside the Traders-"

"Interview terminated 14:03." Suddenly Hardy stopped the camera, standing up and rubbing his eyes.
"Walker is going to stay with me." He sounded adamant.

"Are you sure that's not a conflict of interest?" Ellie said, making me look back at him. Was it?

"No. Traders doesn't need police posted outside all day and night and I don't want him turning up on your door with Tom and Fred." He said, making Ellie agree.

"Oh, they're my two sons. You must meet them sometime. Maybe have you over for dinner." Ellie cheered up all of a sudden, I could tell her sons meant the world to her.

"No. No dinners. Not until this is sorted." Alec was getting annoyed at Ellie now.

"We'll talk about it tonight." I said, standing up. "Right now we need to look at the other evidence that was in Mrs. Edgeware's house. Prints, DNA etcetera." Getting my mind off it was the only way I could cope right now.