As Alec and Ellie continued their investigations in to the Sandrook murders they uncovered some startling new information...
Alec meets up with Ellie at her old home where she has just had an awkward meeting with her estra
nged son Tom. She's supposed to be coming with him to interview Tiffany Evans, the woman who Cate Gillespie says was sleeping with her husband Ricky on the night of their daughter Pippa's murder, but Alec can see that the meeting with Tom has shaken Ellie..
Hardy: You don't have to come with me to question this woman
Ellie: No I want to. My life's all gone to shit. At least fixing your mess gives me a distraction.
The pair tell Tiffany they are from South Mercia Police, the force that Alec was with when he was originally investigating Sandbrook.
Ellie asks her if she was a bridesmaid at the wedding of Martin and Esther Kelly on 14th April 2012 and she confirms this was the case. Alec then asks her if she had sex with Ricky that night..
Tiffany: No I didn't, I mean he tried it on, he was after me all night. He even followed me back to my room when I went to change my shoes, because my heels were killing me and he had this little silver hip flask, he kept trying to make me have a drink with him, but I threw him out, it was a bit much, he was there with his wife. The last I saw he was heading back for the car park.
Ellie: And how long was he in your room for?
Tiffany: Five or ten minutes. Didn't see him for the rest of the evening.
Back in Broadchurch Alec states that Cate Gillespie was wrong and that Ricky wasn't with another woman at the wedding reception. Ellie points out that there is still the fact that nobody saw him for two hours to consider and "who takes a hip flask to a wedding?"
Ellie: Do you think he was going to drug her?
Hardy: Not had any reports of him trying that sort of thing on anyone.
Ellie: Well Claire said that's what Lee used to do to her. Do you think it's something all four of them used to do?
Hardy: I don't know, when we're done at court today we'll talk to her.
After another horrendous day in court at the Danny Latimer trial Ellie drives Alec to see Claire Ripley at the cottage. Claire doesn't know that they are coming. Alec is keen to hear from Claire what she told Ellie about Lee drugging her.
Hardy: I want you to tell me what you told Miller about that night.
Claire: That was supposed to be between us.
Ellie: There are no secrets between him and me.
Claire: Oh, is that right.
Hardy: Claire, I don't care what you've said before. I want the truth now.
Claire: Right that night I went to see a friend Marie like I told you before. Except I didn't stay over. I came home and I had a drink with Lee and I think he spiked my drink with Rohypnol. I was out for a long time and when I woke it was morning and he was cleaning.
Hardy: What sort of cleaning?
Claire: Bathroom, washing linen, hoovering, washing the floors, he said he fancied a spring clean.
Ellie: So he's drugged you, now he's cleaning the house and the next morning two girls get reported missing from next door but you don't think to tell anyone?
Claire: No, I didn't want to think it was possible.
Ellie: And what about now? Do you think he could have killed those girls?
Claire: No.
Hardy: This is now the third version of that night that you've come up with. Why couldn't you tell me this before?
Claire: I didn't want you knowing what he used to do to me?
Hardy snatches Claire's phone and scrolls through to find the number - that we know is Ricky Gillespie.
Hardy: Who's number is that?
Claire: I don't know? It was an incoming call. I think it was a wrong number?
Hardy: No, it is an outgoing call.
Claire: Yeah, that's because I called it back to check and it just rang and rang.
Hardy: This area code, that is where you lived with Lee.
Claire: Now I feel like I'm being questioned.
Hardy: Too bloody right. You were my key witness and now you say you were lying all along.
Claire: No I'm not lying.
Hardy: What then?
Claire: I'm just trying to protect him.
Hardy: Him or yourself?
Claire: That's not fair.
Hardy: So this is now definitively, this is now what happened that night?
Claire: Yes.
Hardy: Really?
Claire then tells Alec and Ellie that Lee called round while they were away in Sandbrook and that she let him in to the cottage to have sex with her. Ellie is horrified.
Claire: You left me alone Alec, and you, I've told you, he's like a drug to me. I can't stop myself. I can't.
Alec and Ellie get up to leave the cottage disgusted with Claire. They ignore her saying she doesn't want to be her own and go.
Claire is left alone looking shocked by what she's just admitted to.
Upon arrival back at Alec's house they see Ricky Gillespie waiting for them. Ellie introduces herself as Alec's work colleague and Ricky says he's come to apologise over the scene in the restaurant in Sandbrook and claims he realises that he's over reacted . Alec points out that it's a long way to come to say that. Ricky then admits that he's seen Ollie's article about Lee Ashworth living in Broadchurch and asks Alec if he's seen him. Alec says he has and Ricky wants him to tell him where Lee is. He clearly believes that Lee is the killer, but then Lee suspects that Ricky is killer too..
Alec explains that Ellie is going through the case to see if the police missed anything and tells Ricky that if he really wants to help he should talk to her and tell her anything he knows. Across the bay Lee Ashworth is watching them talk.
We then see a flashback of Lee playing hide and seek in a woodland with Pippa and Lisa, Ricky then playfully pounces on Lee startling him.
Back at Alec's house Ellie is chatting to Ricky..
Ellie: Tell me about your daughter Pippa
Ricky: She was my baby girl, you know. She was sporty, a good runner, played netball for the school team, demon at table tennis, competitive, didn't like losing. I always spoilt her, only child.
Ellie: What did she want to be when she grew up?
Ricky: Kept changing, the last few months it was a hair dresser.
A flashback shows Claire, who was a hairdresser at the time, braiding Pippa's long hair and smiling at Ricky who is watching the pair.
Ellie: The night both girls disappeared you were at a wedding with Cate and you were together all night?
Ricky: Yeah, I had to look after her. She was pissed. A sign of things to come eh?
While Ellie and Ricky are talking Alec begins to feel unwell.
Ellie: Tell me about Lisa
Ricky: She was my niece, tricky relationship with her dad, still uses her mum's surname.
Ellie: And she babysat for you quite regularly?
Ricky: Every other week, sometimes she'd stay over, other times I'd take her home.
Ellie: Did she have a boyfriend?
Ricky: No one regular.
Ellie: Did you fancy her Ricky?
Ricky: She was my niece.
Ellie: I had to ask.
Ricky: No. You didn't.
Ellie and Hardy both exchange looks. Do they believe him? Lee has already told them that Lisa told him that Ricky had tried it on with her in the car on a trip to take her home.
Ellie: How much did you look in to Ricky at the time?
Hardy: He had a solid alibi, he and Cate said they were at the wedding together.
Ellie: But now she's changed her story and the florist confirmed it. It looks like he's lying.
Hardy: Looks that way.
Ellie: So who are our suspects? We've got Ashworth, Ricky, Claire and that stalker on the estate.
Hardy: Possibly Cate.
Ellie: Yeah, that's right, don't trust anyone.
Alec tells Ellie to take Fred and go home, but Ellie wants to go over the files again. She's determined that she's going to solve the Sandbrook case. She sets about turning Alec's house in to a make shift incident room, pinning photos, maps and files to the walls as she meticulously goes over the evidence. Outside on the deck, Alec is feeling ill again and collapses to the ground, as he lies on the hard ground he has flashbacks of wading through the river with Pippa's body. Ellie is too busy with what she's doing to notice he's taken ill and as he comes round he manages to take some of his pills. He struggles to his feet and heads off to visit Jocelyn Knight to write his will.
When Alec arrives back home the following morning he finds Ellie asleep on his sofa, she's been working on the case all night and his house now resembles a police station.
Ellie has unearthed some new evidence whilst he's been gone, they need to investigate Thorps an agricultural services firm situated in the area of Sandbrook around 5 miles from the home of the Gillespie family. Ellie found the name of the company written on the back of an old vechile check form along with "Thorps Services Gary Thorp / Lee Ashworth?" There was no note of Thorp being cross checked and Hardy has never heard of it .
In Alec's absence Ellie also went through the files that Lee Ashworth has dropped off. It was all either useless or totally irrelevant. Alec agrees and says that Lee's just trying to put them off the scent.
Ellie then reveals she has a surprising new suspect, Lisa Newbury. Lisa's body has never been found and Ellie wonders if she may have killed her cousin Pippa by accident and then did a runner.
The last use of Lisa's bank account was on 3.54pm on the day she disappeared before she went to babysit. The last call she made was at 5.17pm on her mobile to her mum and then no more cash withdrawals or calls made after that. But her phone was on for another 18 hours last signal trinagulated in Portsmouth. How did her phone get to Portsmouth?
Later Hardy receives a call from Lee asking him if he has told Ricky where he is. Alec says no and asks why. We then see that Ricky has tracked Lee down.
Alec rushes to where Lee and Ricky are as Ricky reigns blows down upon the man he suspects of killing his child. Alec pulls him off and helps an injured Lee. Lee tells him there's no point in reporting the beating to the police. Alec sees that Lee is sleeping in a derelict farm building. He tells Lee that he knows he's seen Claire.
Hardy: Do you two ever use Rohypnol?
Lee: Once.
Hardy: Where did you get it from?
Lee: Ricky Gillespie. He used to go to Amsterdam and bring back all sorts of stuff.
Hardy: Ricky gave you Rohypnol?
Lee: He did.
Hardy: Have you ever heard of a business called Thorp Agri Service?
Lee: No.
Hardy: Are you sure about that?
Lee: Unless it was one of the businesses that Cate did the books for.
Hardy: Did you ever sleep with Cate?
Lee: No.
A flashback scene reveals otherwise, showing Lee pressing Cate in to a doorway and she outs a finger to his lips to keep him quiet until Pippa has left the house.
Back at Alec's place Ellie says she wants to go back to Sandbrook, she wants to look at Thorps and have a look at the woods and the river where Alec found Pippa.
Upon arrival at Thorps Ellie says that the Portsmouth connection to Lisa could be that she travelled there to catch a ferry to France. She's still running with the theory that Lisa could have accidently killed Pippa and fled. She also points out that Lee has been in France until recently.
The business looks unoccupied and they sneak in the back way to have a look round. The place is deserted and stinks. They find blood, no doubt from an animal that's been taken there. They then discover an industrial sized furnace for incinerating the bodies of farm animals and it now seems that missing teen Lisa Newbury could have been disposed of in this furnace.
Hardy: Do you still think Lisa Newbury is alive?
Broadchurch continues tonight at 9pm on ITV and 10pm on TV3
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