Charlie tapped on her leg as Neo's car sped through Marton. This couldn't be happening. First Jane and her family. And now Jerry was missing.

'What exactly did Gwilt say?' She peered over at Neo, seeing his knuckles flash white where he held the steering wheel.

'A neighbour spotted Alice Phillips wandering around the garden in her nightdress. She was having a hard time convincing Mrs Phillips to get back in her house, so she called the police. Doesn't help the fact Mrs Phillips has a knife.' Neo ground his teeth together. Just what more could go wrong.

'What the hell is Alice doing with a knife? And where is Jerry? There's no way that he would have left her alone, not voluntarily.' Charlie placed a fingernail between her teeth but didn't bite. She'd worked hard to break that habit and she would not let it go to waste, no matter how badly she wanted to relieve her stress.

Neo was saved from answering as they pulled up in front of the Phillips' house. Blue flashing lights bathed it in light, giving the place an ominous feeling.

'She's out the back but Chief, she's really panicked.' Gwilt fell into step with them as they made their way around the house.

'Get everyone that doesn't need to be here out. Have the paramedics on standby.' Neo turned to Charlie. 'Do you think you can calm her down?'

Charlie bit her lip. Though she'd kept in contact with Alice and Jerry, she was by no means close to either of them. Their shared history kept them together, rather than any close bonds.

'I can try.'

If either Neo or Gwilt heard the uncertainty in her voice, they chose not to comment on it.

As the crowd dispersed, Charlie got her first good look at Alice.

Her purple nightdress fell to her slipper clad feet and was streaked with mud. Her hair hung loose and wild around her face. And in her hand she held a long knife that glinted in the morning sun.

Every time someone moved closer, she brandished the knife like a weapon, her lip quivering with fright.

'You're up.' Gwilt nodded in Charlie's direction and she scowled.

'Just do your job and keep everyone back,' she countered.

Gwilt's lip thinned, but Neo just pointed him back and silently he left, but not before throwing Charlie a dirty look which thankfully she missed.

Neo placed a hand on Charlie's lower back and guided her forward.

'Mrs Phillips, I'm DCI Denzel, we met a few days ago.'

Mrs Phillips lifted her knife. 'Stay back. I want you off my property, you can't be here.'

'I understand, but we're here to help you,' Neo reasoned.

But Mrs Phillips just whipped her head from side to side. 'You can't help because she has them. My daughter, my husband. The woman in white, she'll come for me next.' Her lip quivered as tears began pouring down her cheeks.

'Mrs Phillips, do you know who I am?' Charlie stepped forward, breaking Neo's contact with her. His comforting hand had been distracting, but she missed it when it was no longer there.

Mrs Phillips' beady eyes locked on Charlie and her knife lowered just an inch. Charlie wasn't sure how much Alice recognised her, but she went with it.

'I'm Charlotte Hoggins, I was friends with Lucy, do you remember?'

'Charlie?'

Charlie let loose a sigh of relief. 'Yes, I'm Charlie. Now why don't we head back inside. You must be cold.'

She took a few steps closer, reducing the distance between her and Alice, but halted when Alice raised her knife again.

'No, no, then she'll take you too. My Jerry, he went to find her and now he's gone.' Mrs Phillips shook like a leaf in the wind, her nightdress rippling.

Charlie held up her hand. 'It's okay, Mrs Phillips. Can you tell us where Jerry is? Did he tell you where he was going?' she probed.

Mrs Phillips blinked a few times before she pulled a note out of her nightgown pocket.

'He said he would be back. She must have taken him like she took my daughters.' She held the note up and Charlie took it.

Without looking at it, Charlie passed it straight to Neo. There was no way she could take her eyes off Mrs Phillips when she was this close and still wielding a knife.

Neo unfolded the letter and read. 'He went to look for Jane and her family at Felton Pond.'

Charlie risked a glance at Neo before focusing back on Alice.

'How long ago did he leave, Mrs Phillips?' It was important that they nailed down a time. If Mr Phillips had been gone all night, there was a good chance that he may have got lost in the dark.

Mrs Phillips wiped at her eyes. 'I don't know. He never likes to wake me, so he leaves me notes. But he never leaves for long, he can't leave me. Where is my husband?' she wailed.

'Alice, you need to listen to me,' Charlie urged, gaining the woman's attention. 'The DCI can find your husband, but I need you to come with me so that he can go. Do you understand?'

Neo and Charlie watched patiently as Mrs Phillips thought about her options. She turned to Neo and lowered her knife.

'Please find my husband. I can't lose him.' She passed the knife to Charlie, who threw it further back into the garden and started guiding her back towards the house.

Her eyes locked with Neo's.

'I'll find him,' he vowed.

'Go,' was all she said before disappearing inside.

Neo didn't waste any time as he motioned for Gwilt to follow him.

'Jerry Phillips left to search for his daughter. We need to get down to Felton Pond now,' Neo said, already opening the car.

He turned to the medical team, just standing around. 'Mrs Phillips is inside and needs medical attention. Approach her carefully, she suffers from Alzheimer's,' he barked, pleased when he saw them mobilise.

With both men in the car, they sped down the road, Neo flicking on their flashing lights.

'This is DS Gwilt. We have a missing person, last known location, Felton Pond. Can all spare teams converge on the location to begin the search.' Gwilt fired rapidly into his phone, snapping it shut when his message was delivered.

Gwilt pushed a hand through his blond curls. 'You think the old man is still there?'

'There's nowhere else I'd be,' Neo admitted. If his kids had gone missing, he would have been out in all weather day and night searching for them.

'But why would he decide to go last night?'

'I don't know,' murmured Neo.

There could have been several reasons Jerry Phillips felt the pressing need to go searching in the dead of night. Neo could think of at least four just off the top of his head. But they were only ideas, just bits of thought. Neo had nothing concrete to go off of other than the note Jerry had left his wife.

'I noticed you arrived with Charlotte Hoggins. Just wondering if there is anything I should know about?' Gwilt kept his head staring straight ahead, but Neo could see the smirk on his face.

'It was just a coincidence. If you're looking for gossip, then look elsewhere.' Neo rolled his eyes. Maybe it was a small town thing, the way they hunted down gossip like it was some kind of currency, he thought.

'So you didn't spend the night with the lovely Charlie?'

Neo whipped his head towards his DS. 'Since when is she the lovely Charlie?'

'Since that's what Barry likes to call her,' Gwilt responded.

Neo shook his head. 'And what exactly have you and that bloody pathologist been talking about?' It was so like Barry to get his information from as close to the source as possible. Just what was Barry up to this time?

'Just a little harmless bet.' Gwilt shrugged.

'Right and I like to dress up as the tooth fairy on weekends and hand out £1 coins in return for molars.' Neo deadpanned.

Gwilt laughed. 'Barry's betting on you and Charlie getting it on before the end of the case. I'm betting against him.'

Neo sighed, not all that surprised. Both men loved to gamble and would have tried to bet on the weather if it had given them good enough odds.

'You too are unbelievable.'

'So have I already lost my £50?' Gwilt cheeked.

Neo huffed, 'You're safe with that one.'

Gwilt risked a glance. 'And how long will it be safe?'

Neo was saved from having to answer, as they pulled up alongside Mr Phillips' car.

'You stay here and wait for the rest of the team. I'm going to take a quick look. If we're lucky, he'll just be trundling back to his car.' If only, Neo thought to himself, but Gwilt didn't respond to his obvious optimism.

Neo took off, trudging along the worn path. It was muddy and riddled with puddles but it was better than the knee height weeds on either side. The council had put in walkways a decade ago to encourage tourists to the area. But the busloads of people had never really arrived and the path now felt disused, barely holding back mother nature's attempts to reclaim it as her own.

The fog was still clinging to the ground, the sun only peeking through in patches. He squinted around, trying to decide where he needed to go when he spotted something bobbing up and down in the water.

Neo's stomach dropped even before he knew what he was looking at. He ran to the edge, already seeing the skid marks down the banking towards the rocks.

It took all his energy to get down the embankment, using the reeds to hold himself up. The mud squelched under his feet as he slid first one way and then another. It was a small miracle when he finally reached the boulders lining the pond without falling and sliding straight into the water. The jagged surface of the rocks would have hindered his ability to save himself, never mind Jerry Phillips.

Not giving himself time to think how stupid he was being, he shucked off his coat and stepped off the rocks and into the water.

The cold water attacked him quickly, making his lungs freeze and his head spin, but he got to Jerry without panicking too badly. The older man had a deep cut on his forehead and was caked in mud, but luckily his coat had got trapped on a jutting rock.

'Chief!'

'Over here!' Neo shouted.

A few splashes later and a team of people joined Neo in the freezing water. Together they towed Jerry back to the bank and with a stretcher and a combination of pulling and pushing, they got him back up the bank. It then took another five minutes and a rope to get the rescuers up the banking as well.

Neo panted, but raced to catch up with the medics.

'How is he?' he demanded.

'The cut on his head is deep, possible swelling on the brain and a few broken ribs. Two fingers appear to be broken and his left arm. He's also got hypothermia. We've alerted the local hospital. If you'll excuse me, Chief.' The paramedic shut the door in his face and Neo watched the ambulance speed away.

Someone placed a foil blanket around his shoulders and he found himself being bundled into an ambulance.

'I'm fine,' he snapped as one of the medical team tried to force an oxygen mask over his head.

'It's routine, Denzel, you know this.' The paramedic huffed but took the mask away.

'Being the good officer again, I see.' Gwilt sidled up to him, his own foil blanket folded around him.

Neo just hung his head in his hands. 'We got lucky. We could have easily been pulling out a body.'

Gwilt put a hand on his shoulder. 'But we didn't. Now it's down to the medics. All we can hope is that he'll pull through. Come on, let's get some clean clothes.'

Neo remained silent but trailed after Gwilt. His mind couldn't stop seeing Jerry's body in the water. It was a miracle that he'd still been breathing.

'I want pictures taken of the whole area,' Neo said, his mind lingering over one detail.

'Why? The guy slipped?' Gwilt twisted to look back at him.

'His entire head was covered in blood, but none of the rocks had blood on them. So where did the blood go?'

Gwilt frowned. 'It did rain last night.'

'There should still be something. The reeds overhang a lot of those rocks. It should have protected them.'

'What are you thinking about?' Gwilt queried, already texting the team to send someone out.

'I'm wondering if Mr Phillips got his injury when he slipped. Or whether he was pushed?'