Robert Lines
Robert Lines, often just called Bob, was a policeman. His titles over his career included sergeant during the 1970s and inspector by 1989, a rank he still held in 2008.
Biography
20th century
As a sergeant in Smallmarshes, Lines informed the Third Doctor on the disappearance of Marc Marshall and the emotional state in which they found Barbara Redworth. However, he would not let the Doctor see the cottage where Redworth was found until the following morning. (PROSE: The Scales of Injustice)
Some time after Line became a Detective Inspector for the Brighton CID, he was helped by the Sixth Doctor in thwarting the Master's attempt to hack into Dow-Jones and Fort Knox. In return, he aided the Doctor's fight against SenéNet in 1989. (PROSE: Business Unusual)
In 1991, he met with Melanie Bush when she returned to Earth after her years of travel with the Doctor. He listened to her describe her experiences, then assured her that her parents missed her and would be "overjoyed" that she was home, even offering to give her a lift to Pease Pottage. (PROSE: Missing, Part One: Business as Usual)
Lines retired from the police in 1993. On his retirement day, Trey Korte came, seeking safety from the Magnate. When Trey fell into a self-induced coma, Lines contacted the Doctor. (PROSE: Instruments of Darkness)
21st century
By 2008, Lines was working for West Ealing Police as the Chief Inspector. He oversaw the disappearance of Ashley Stafford, conducting a missing persons report on BBC television together with Ashley's parents, Jay and Heidi Stafford. After Chrissie Jackson called the police when she recognised Ashley as Luke Smith, Lines lead a police squad to 13 Bannerman Road, where they separated Luke from his adopted mother, Sarah Jane Smith. While Sarah Jane was taken in for questioning at the police station, Luke went to live with who Lines believed were "Ashley's" parents. After reading files on Sarah Jane from UNIT, Lines suspected her "powerful friends" of a cover up, but had no real evidence to hold her, so Sarah Jane was allowed to leave, so long as she didn't try to contact "Ashley". (TV: The Lost Boy, PROSE: The Lost Boy) Even though Lines investigated Sarah Jane Smith, and Luke's life with her, he did not think about investigating the past of the Stafford family. (PROSE: The Lost Boy)
Other realities
A version of Lines, known as Praetor Linus, existed in an alternate timeline where the Roman Empire never fell. He was stationed in Sussex and knew that timeline's Sixth Doctor. (PROSE: Spiral Scratch)
