with her and starts squatting in an abandoned flat on the Square. Mary takes Rod's rejection badly and after witnessing him with another woman, she starts using drugs again, much to Rod's concern. Mary spends the subsequent months in a downward spiral, and although Rod makes yet another attempt at helping her out, this fails. He washes his hands of her and by May of that year, Mary flees Walford. Rod remains in Walford, as does Mary's father, who employs Rod as his bookkeeper and organizer of his haulage company and later Rod takes over Barry Clark's (Gary Hailes) market stall. Rod is later forced to act against his principles, when he is threatened by Brad Williams (Jonathan Stratt), a dodgy member of The Firm, and is forced to stitch up local publican Den Watts (Leslie Grantham). The Firm wants Den to take the rap for the torching of The Dagmar, so they coerce Rod into providing false testimony to the police, which implicates Den. Den flees Walford and manages to escape arrest but when The Firm decides they wanted Den dead, Rod is later forced to coerce his whereabouts from Den's best friend Pete Beale (Peter Dean), which leads to his arrest and a spell in prison. It is around this time when Rod starts to become close to Donna Ludlow (Matilda Ziegler), who has also recently become homeless, and she eventually comes to live with him in his squat. Donna is particularly vindictive and everyone on the Square has washed their hands of her after her malicious games were uncovered. Rod cannot resist a lost cause, and like Mary before her, he tries to get Donna back on the 'straight and narrow'. Donna isn't as receptive as Mary though, and it isn't long before she has managed to get herself addicted to heroin. Rod tries to get Donna off the drug but this only infuriates her, and in order to get revenge for his meddling, she plants heroin on him and then informs the police that he is a dealer. Despite this, Rod continues to try to help Donna, even rescuing her from a vicious gang rape when she turns to prostitution and contacting her adoptive parents to come and sort her out. His efforts are in vain though, and by 1989, Donna has become so depressed and affected by her drug use that she purposefully takes an