Vera

- Okay, lads. - Cheers, mate.

Where on earth have they got to?

They'll be here.

The number you have dialed is currently unavailable.

All right, shut it down.

Get that kiln open!

Ma'am.

They found the body in one of the incinerators.

No idea who it is.

Who's in charge?

Abattoir Manager. Iain Hobswain.

Right. Let's see what we're dealing with.

Where is he?

Other end of the plant. Just follow your nose.

- What time do you call this? - Stone the crows.

He's back from his secondment.

Bet you've been counting the days.

Yeah, don't flatter yourself.

What can you tell us, Marcus?

Male. Average build.

Got flexion of the elbows, knees and neck.

Typical of severely burned bodies.

I'd put his height at around 175.

Age?

Rough guess.

It's amalgam fillings, so suggests he was middle-aged.

And there's this.

A wedding ring.

And that's about all I can tell you for now.

So no chance of an ID?

Well, we might get a profile from the marrow in one of these long bones.

But I wouldn't hold out much hope.

Heat does bad things to DNA.

What about injuries? Other than...

High temperature thermal incineration makes it difficult

to determine the cause of death.

Postmortem might give us some more answers.

Right. Meantime, I want your team all over this.

Prints, bloodstains, the lot.

Uh, ma'am, it is an abattoir.

Yeah, well, think of it as a challenge, Marcus.

Mr. Hobswain?

I'm DCI Stanhope. I'm running the investigation.

Oh, that must have knocked you for six when you found him.

If we hadn't had that power outage, he would've been bone meal.

- Body's unrecognizable. - Aye, I saw it.

Mm. So we're gonna have to rule him out as one of your employees.

He's not. Well, he wasn't.

- Well, how can you be sure? - He's not one of ours.

And how did he end up in one of your kilns?

I've no idea.

Look, I run a reputable business.

And right now, it's losing money.

Well, the sooner you show us around the premises,

the sooner you'll be back up and running.

Stunning, bleeding and hoisting. Carcasses are butchered and chilled.

Any waste we can use gets rendered down. The rest is burned.

Slaughter halls are run to FSA regulations.

Clean and dirty areas to avoid contamination.

So it would be hard to hide a body.

- He didn't come through here. - Mm. What about deliveries?

Around half our ABPs come in from outside. Incinerated on site.

- ABPs? - Animal byproducts.

Factory waste, fallen livestock.

If they've got the right paperwork, we'll burn it.

Leading edge facility. Automated handling.

So it would be possible for a body to come through undetected?

All our deliveries are stringently checked.

Industry standard for best working practice.

I'm going to need names and addresses of everyone who works here.

Porters, butchers, the lot. And a list of your current suppliers.

Well, that's gonna take a while.

Well, you'd better get on with it then.

It's got to be an inside job. Somebody who knows the set-up.

Well, he's got deliveries coming in from all over.

That body could have come in from anywhere.

Right, get the team in for a briefing.

I'm gasping for a cup of tea and a bacon sandwich.

Male, adult. We're guessing middle-aged.

Burned to a crisp in an abattoir incinerator.

No ID, no established time of death.

We think the body went into the furnace at 6pm yesterday evening.

They're routinely inspected at the start of every shift.

Yeah, but we've only got their word for that.

The shift workers are all accounted for.

So either he was killed on a visit to the premises

or the body was brought in from outside.

I've been on to Missing Persons.

No one flagged up as reported missing.

Well, this fella's wearing a wedding ring.

So let's assume he was married.

The only camera on site was in the incinerator loading bay.

What, no surveillance anywhere else?

- No. - Hm.

Anyone would think they'd got something to hide.

Yeah, well, Brenkley was fined five years ago by Trading Standards.

Iain Hobswain was found guilty of illegal horse meat sales

- and failure to keep proper records. - -Was he?

Yeah. Four months suspended.

Well, maybe he still hasn't cleaned up his act.

Kenny, I want to know what's on that footage.

- Pick-ups, deliveries. - Ma'am.

What's he really been up to on those night shifts?

Fractures in both legs. Probably post mortem.

The muscles and tendons are charred,

resulting in the exposure of the underlying bones to heat.

- He was definitely dead before he went in. - Well, that's something.

- And you know that because? - No soot in the airway.

And you're still none the wiser, cause of death?

Ante mortem gunshot wound.

One shot, close range, back of the head.

- He was shot? - Mm-hm. 7.65mm ammunition.

It was a lucky find, considering the state of the body.

Marcus, get that bullet over to ballistics as quick as you can for testing.

Time of death?

The gut and intestines are still reasonably intact.

I'd say they were shielded from the worst of the heat.

I'd say he was cremated, at most, a few hours after he died.

And is DNA out of the question? We still don't know who he is.

Give us a chance. I'm getting to the good bit.

Burnt bodies adopt what's known as a pugilistic attitude.

So their arms, they go into a boxing stance.

Now, if you look at his hands, they're balled into fists.

So his fingertips were protected.

We're running a trace for the match.

Marcus, I think you just made my day.

Now tell me you didn't miss me.

Well, don't let it go to your head. It's big enough as it is.

Shot by a bullet to the back of the head.

A few hours at most before he was found.

Must have made some noise that. Someone would have heard it.

Not necessarily, the din in that place.

Now the question is, was he shot at the abattoir,

and his body hidden on site? Or was he killed elsewhere...

- Ma'am. - And then brought in. What?

Forensics ran the victim's prints.

Now we're talking!

- He must have got a record. - Yeah.

Police Elimination Database.

Our dead man was a copper.

So could we just rewind to yesterday morning?

Uh, your husband left for work as usual, did he?

Must have been about 8:30.

It's a 20-minute drive.

And you were expecting him home at what time?

He promised me he wouldn't be late.

For once in his life.

- We had his send-off to get to. - Send-off?

Retirement bash over at the club.

Sawton Social and Welfare.

Your husband was due to retire, was he?

It was his last day at work.

Thirty-eight years he'd been a copper.

This was meant to be our time.

And you've no idea where he might have got to?

I... I tried calling Hayley, my daughter.

- Her phone was switched off. - I was working. Double shift.

- Drink this. - I'm all right.

It'll make you feel better, Mam.

Why would anyone want to kill him?

Well, that's what we're trying to find out, pet.

So was there anything?

Any recent behavior of your husband, or your dad,

that might have given you cause for concern?

He was tired, that's all.

Tired of the grind.

Well, what about work?

Anything giving him any problems?

Harry never talked about his cases. He...

He didn't bring it home with him.

Well, any fallouts at all? Friends, family?

- Surely this can wait? - I'm just trying to get a fix

on your dad's state of mind, love.

She's still in shock. Look at her. She's barely slept.

Well, we'll contact a police liaison officer

and they will talk you through what happens next.

I'll stay here with her. Make sure she's okay.

Copper goes missing. Why wasn't it flagged up to neighboring stations?

Well, I'll find out what time she called it in.

Killed on the day he's due to retire,

after 38 years on the job.

Never turns up for his send-off.

Can't say I blame him.

Hm! Well, that might not be much to look at.

But here's where we'll get the measure of the man.

DCI Vera Stanhope, Northumberland and City Police.

Oh. Is this about Harry?

He was due here last night. Retirement bash.

Yeah, just wanted to give him a good send-off.

- Mm. Regular, was he? - Oh, him and Rita.

Every Friday, rain or shine.

So were you concerned when they never turned up?

Well, Rita called. Told us he hadn't come home.

Jesse would've gone over if we hadn't been so pushed.

- Jesse? - Other half.

Pair of them went way back.

Right, so could you give DS Healy a statement, love?

Have you got a minute? Just a few questions I need to ask you.

Hm...

Good mates then, you and Harry? Hm?