Neo spent most of his morning in a blur. Charlie had requested her friend email through his findings on Harry Bennett so that Neo could present it to his team without having to go through her. It was a clever way of keeping under Palmer's radar, but he still received a few knowing glances. Thankfully, his team kept their opinions to themselves.

Before too long, he was heading towards the Phillips' house, on the ruse of asking Alice Phillips a few more questions about the night her husband left.

Charlie's car and an unknown people carrier were already parked on the drive when he arrived. He let himself into the house when no one answered the door.

The moment he walked in, it became apparent why no one had answered. A loud wailing was coming from upstairs, so Neo headed in that direction.

A busty nurse stood at the bottom of the stairs with a young man in a pale blue uniform. Despite the noise from upstairs, they seemed detached, almost unaffected.

Neo guessed they'd seen similar scenes played out hundreds of times before. People's suffering was easy to get used to when you were surrounded by it, day in and day out. He'd seen the same thing happen in his profession, seen the same thing happen to himself in his first few years of service. At least he'd had his kids to pull him out.

'DCI Denzel, I'm here to oversee Mrs Phillips' move.' He introduced himself.

The nurse smiled brightly. 'I'm Tina, this is Alberto. We're from the respite facility in Shrewsbury.'

'Is everything okay up there?' Neo thumbed towards the stairs.

Alberto shrugged. 'Happens. No want to go. Need convincing.' He replied in a heavily accented voice.

'Bert's right. It's an emotional day. The woman - Charlie - is with her now, and once Mrs Phillips is more settled, we'll get her belongings packed and ready to go,' Tina reassured him.

Neo sent them off to make everyone a cup of tea and made his way up the stairs. He'd expected to find Charlie in Jerry and Alice's bedroom, but it was in one of the smaller rooms that he found the two women.

He knew, stepping in, that the room belonged to one of the Phillips' daughters. Judging from the slightly dated bedspread and curtains, he wondered whether he now found himself in Lucy Phillips' bedroom.

Splashes of colour littered the wall, as though she herself had spilled paint. Multiple posters of bands, films, and iconic places covered the rest of the space. Everywhere he looked, framed photographs showed her life. As short as it had been, it showed how loved she was.

'Why do I have to go? I don't want to go?' Alice Phillips cried.

'I know, but Jerry would want you taken care of and I'm trying to do that,' Charlie whispered.

'But I can't leave my girls. They need me. And Jerry, I have to have his tea ready for when he gets back. He has to have his sausages and gravy on a Wednesday. If I'm not here, who'll cook him his tea?' Alice sniffed.

'Alice, Jerry isn't well at the moment, remember he's at the hospital.'

'No, no, my Jerry is just at the pharmacy. He works so hard to provide for us. Always making sure we're taken care of,' Alice rambled.

Charlie sighed and took the old woman's hand. 'Alice, please listen to me. You need to go with the people downstairs so they can look after you until Jerry is better.'

But Alice was already shaking her head. 'I can't leave. I can't leave my girls. They need me and I have to be here when they get home.'

Charlie's eyes found Neo's, red rimmed and holding back tears. He could only imagine what she must have been feeling surrounded by the memory of her friend, having Alice talk as though Lucy were still alive and Jane wasn't missing.

Neo walked into the room and picked up a framed photograph of two smiling girls. Lucy and Jane beamed up at him, barely teenagers, reminding him painfully of his own kids.

'Are these your daughter's Mrs Phillips?' Neo handed the photograph to Alice.

She wiped at her eyes and peered at the picture, a small watery smile pulling at the corners of her mouth.

'My beautiful girls. Lucy was fourteen when this was taken and Janey pie was thirteen. We'd gone camping. Of course I was worried because of Janey's medication, but Jerry always knew about these things.'

'I know they would want you to be taken care of until Jerry comes back. Will you go, for your girls?' Neo held his breath as Alice ran her finger over the glass, her smile never slipping as she took in her two girls.

'Okay, I'll go and then I can come back.' She turned to Charlie and patted her cheek. 'You make sure to water my plants and tell Lucy and Janey to come visit me.'

Charlie nodded her head. 'I'll tell them,' she promised, wishing that it could be that easy.

A knock on the door made everyone jump except for Alice, who was too content to stare at the picture of her girls.

'I've make tea downstairs. I get Mrs Phillips settled so Tina can pack. Give you a few moment.' Alberto nodded and helped take Mrs Phillips downstairs. Unlike before, she was much more settled and seemed to enjoy the attention the young man was giving her.

'These are my daughters. The one on the left is Lucy, and the other is my Janey.'

Charlie listened to Alice warbling on all the way down the stairs, but she remained seated on the edge of the bed.

'How are you holding up?' Neo sat next to her.

Charlie bowed her head. 'I didn't think it would be this hard. But being here, especially now, it just brings it all back. Lucy, George, Jack. I feel like I'll never escape what happened sometimes.'

'It's the anniversary of the day they went missing tomorrow.' Neo realised, feeling like an idiot. He hadn't put the dates together in his head.

'21st May was the last day I'd ever saw the three of them alive.' Charlie stood and walked over to Lucy's chest of drawers.

Even after twenty years, the room was exactly as she remembered it. Nail polish and hair bobbles were strewn across the top, shoes piled up in the corner and Lucy's scarves were all tied to the bedpost.

'I remember that day so clearly. We all had our maths exams in the afternoon, our last exam, and then we met up at Felton Pond. It was supposed to be a celebration before we all went our separate ways.'

'You all had different plans?' Neo asked.

Charlie snorted. 'Very much so. Me and George were going to do A levels, Lucy had just got a job in the bank, and Jack got an apprenticeship at a mechanic's in Shrewsbury. They had so much to live for.'

'What happened that night?'

'You read the report you know what happened.'

Neo took her hand. 'I read a report written twenty years ago by officers being pressured to find a killer. I want to hear it from you and I want to listen because maybe this is how you can escape it.'

Charlie nodded her head, and Neo tugged her back to the bed.

'Four of us got there around eightish, got a local drunk to buy us some drink in exchange for two cans for himself. Between our GCSEs and the entrance exams I was sitting, I barely saw them before that.'

'Four of you?' Neo frowned. The original police report had said they'd all arrived together. In fact, the paper didn't have Charlie's statement in it at all if his memory was right. He'd thought it strange, but after hearing about Palmer, it made sense.

That statement would have likely been done under conditions that would have made it invalid and proven Charlie's accusations correct. No doubt it had been shredded under Palmer's watchful eye.

'Jane had been ill for a few weeks. I don't think she'd been in school much. She arrived later. Pinched a decanter of her Dad's good port for us. Never thought she had it in her. Then we drank until I was sick.' Charlie kept her gaze on the window, but enjoyed the feeling of Neo's hand around hers.

She'd never talked so much about that night to anyone other than the police. Not even her parents had pried the details out of her. But talking to Neo, knowing that he'd seen things same as her, made it easier. Her black memories were nothing compared to what a DCI would have encountered.

'Jane got me home and the next thing I knew they were missing.' Tears escaped her eyes and she buried her head in Neo's chest.

Neo only hesitated for a second before he placed his arms around her and held her close.

'It couldn't have been easy on you,' Neo murmured, handing her a handkerchief.

She took the material, surprised that he carried something so delicate. Somehow the idea of the large, uptight, DCI having a handkerchief that he could just dish out on demand made her want to smile, despite her tears. The material was soft as she patted away her tears, very much aware of how her cheek was pressed against his chest.

'I couldn't sleep after they went missing, thought I could still hear them. Lucy calling George an idiot, Jack calling them both morons, and them laughing. Tried sleeping tablets for a while, but I must be allergic because all they do is make me vomit.'

'Why don't you come to mine for dinner tonight?' Neo heard himself offer.

Charlie lifted her head. 'I wouldn't like to impose, besides I'm already causing enough stress in your life.' She went to pull away, but Neo's arm was like a vice around her.

'Samira is taking the kids to dinner, so it would be no trouble. After the day you've had, I don't think you should be alone,' he explained. It seemed a perfectly reasonable thing to ask, and yet he had butterflies in his stomach at the thought of being with her alone.

'Ahem.' A cough sounded from the door, making them jump apart. A blush swept over Charlie's cheeks as she saw the female nurse standing by the door.

Neo felt disappointed that their moment was broken. He'd enjoyed having her in his arms. It was a feeling that he was craving to experience again.

'I am sorry to interrupt, but I just wanted to clarify something. You said that Mrs Phillips suffered from Alziheimer's, is that right?'

'That's what Mr Phillips has told us,' Neo answered, whilst Charlie nodded.

'The thing is, we'd usually expect to see Donepezil or maybe Galantamine as a treatment.' Tina held up the medication she'd found in the bathroom. 'These are Chlorpromazine HCL and they aren't used to treat diseases such as Alzheimer's or dementia.'

Charlie frowned. 'Chlorpromazine HCL?' Somewhere in the back of her mind she'd come across that name before, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

'It's an antipsychotic medication used to treat certain mental disorders.' Tina supplied.

'Like Schizophrenia,' Charlie said. The memory of where she knew the name came back to her in a flash, an old case that didn't have a happy ending.

'I can see that they're included in her weekly pill medication, along with the usual blood pressure tablets and aspirin. But with your permission I would like to have a doctor check her over as there aren't any names on the prescriptions for some of the medications,' Tina admitted, handing over the offending bottle as proof.

Charlie took the pill bottle, turning it over so the label stared up at her. The writing on the front was something alien to her, but Tina was right; where the patient name should have been, it had been left blank. She handed it to Neo for him to see.

'Jerry used to be a pharmacist. He may have had contact with people who could have gotten him this medication. But why?' Charlie couldn't understand the new revelation. She'd known Alice since she was six years old, but she'd believed Jerry when he'd said about her suffering with Alzheimer's. It was a logical thing to assume given Alice's unusual behaviour.

'If I may. Judging from Mrs Phillips' manner, it's likely she's had these neurological conditions for sometime. Back even just a few years ago, she could have been institutionalised and small communities such as this one may have even ostracized the family because of it. It's not as uncommon as you think for families to hide this type of mental health problems,' Tina reassured them, taking the medication and heading back.

'You have my permission to get her examined. I understand you may not be able to share the details, but I just want to know she's been taken care of. She's gone through so much already.' Charlie twisted Neo's handkerchief in her fingers. The Phillips had been through enough already, she'd be damned if she saw anything happen to Alice now.

'Of course, as you're paying for her stay, I will personally see what we can do about getting you access. In the meantime, would you like to come downstairs to say goodbye?'

Charlie nodded, feeling a lump form in her throat. Neo placed his hand on the small of her back as she followed after Tina. The small contact between them made the short journey easier.

'You listen to these nice people, okay?' Charlie patted Alice's hand. 'And I'll come by tomorrow to visit you.' She smiled, her lips straining with the force it took to keep it there, whilst Alice patted her cheek.

'That's it dear, you come by and we'll have tea and cake. Maybe Jane and Lucy can join us, but they're always running off these days to goodness' knows where. I never seem to know where they are these days.' Alice continued talking all the way to the car and was still talking even as Charlie waved her away.

The house felt empty with just Charlie and Neo.

'Wish we could pinch some of Jerry's alcohol, might have made me feel better.' Charlie toyed with the three matching decanters in their own metal tray.

'I thought you said that Jane took one?' Neo looked at the three identical decanters in confusion.

Charlie frowned and stared at them. 'Someone must have brought it back or maybe they bought another one to replace the one they lost?' She shrugged and grabbed her keys. 'If it's still alright with you, I think I would like some company tonight.'

Neo nodded, but his mind was a million miles away, twenty years away, in fact. Because he was certain of one thing; there hadn't been a decanter found at the crime scene.