Ashes to Ashes

Who are you? Can you tell me what any of this means?

I'm a bit of a superstitious person and I happen to agree with you, Alex.

You are back for a reason. Gene Hunt is at the heart of this, you were right.

You fooled everyone into believing in you.

But I have the unpopular job of showing the world what you really are.

I know what you did. Three years ago.

The things you've done, they won't want to believe it, but in the end,

they will see.

Where is everybody?

How much longer you going to be? Cos you're doing my head in!

Sorry, love. Got to drag this place into 1983.

Got one of your migraines, Shaz?

Just shut up.

Who did this?Don't know, ma'am.

Right, this is CID, not the Radio One bloody roadshow!

Listen up. Keats is in today, wants to interview you all about the efficiency of the ship I run.

What are you looking at?

Nothing.

'My name is Alex Drake.

'I was shot and found myself in 1983. Is it real? Or in my mind?

'Either way, I have to solve the mystery of what all this means and fight to get home.

'Because time is running out.'

Have I got a treat for you, my friend. In the interview room.

No, I've got to open the post.

Sod the post. Come on, come on.

Look at the puppies on them!

Who are they? I pulled them for speeding.

They were in Daddy's car so they're desperate for me to lose the paperwork.

I've got to go and open the post. What is wrong with you? I'm talking a couple of hand jobs-here, minimum.

I don't want a hand-job.What do you want?Love. Look it up.

Pillow biter.

What?So did somebody get out of the wrong side of the bed this morning?

Yes, they did. Since D&C have taken such a keen interest in our progress,

I now find myself with five times the paperwork. You can't have five times nothing.

If I'd known about Driller Killer there, I wouldn't have opened a second bottle of whisky. What is it?

Sam Tyler.

I told you, Bolly, I'm not talking about it.

But why? I'm not asking you to be disloyal to his memory, I just...

Sam Tyler was a friend of mine. Sam Tyler died. End of.

It is not a subject for small talk. I know how fond of him all of you were.

I just wanted to find out a little more about him.

How he died.Are you deaf?

Who put this on my desk?

Who put this on my desk!?

Shaz? What's the matter? Sorry, love. I only put it down for a minute.

Oi! If you're riding the cotton pony, you can bloody go home and do it.

Don't be disgusting. Shaz? Shaz? What's happened?

Just leave me alone! What's wrong with her?

Ever since you've stopped giving her one...

Right, sit down and do some bloody work!

I've got D&C coming down on me like a ton of bricks

and all you bastards can do is bicker like girls. It stops now.

Right, can we just have five minutes peace and quiet while I feed my hangover a small Scotch?

Thank you.

What the...

Guv!Christopher!

Looks like you got your hand-job after all, mate.

I'd say a young woman, between her late teens and late twenties.

No rings.When did she die?

About three days ago. It's just starting to decompose.

Oh, good, it's not my aftershave, then.

Was the hand removed pre or post-mortem? Post. But only by an hour or so.

Anything under the fingernails?

What's your guess at the instrument used?Hard to say.

Very sharp blade. Not hacked.

Right, all done?

I've probably got 18 forms to fill in about this.

There was one interesting thing.

What? You see the raised welt on the palm?

Like a burn. That's precisely what it is.

Like she's been branded.

Shaz, get me the missing person reports for the last week. We need to ID that hand.

You two, look over the unsolved murder files of young women over the past two years.

Pay special attention to the mortuary reports and photographs.

I've got arrest forms to fill in. I'll get to it later. You'll get to it now.

You can't pull rank on me, Alex. Not any more.

I'm telling you, Bolly, this is a one-off.I'm not so sure.

Branding a victim is a very specific psychological trigger.

If they've killed before, they could have left the same on other bodies,

a calling-card that wasn't being looked for before.

I don't buy it. If this nutter has done this before, why haven't we been sent body parts before?

Maybe his situation's changed and he wants us to know.

If we don't pick up on this clue, he might feel the need to send us another one.Another murder?

An interesting theory. Sorry. Not my case. Sorry. Can we be of assistance, James?

Just continuing my interviews. DI Carling, please.

Ma'am?Yes, Chris?

It's Shaz. She's not been herself these last few days.

What's the matter with her? No idea.Have you asked?

She won't give me the time of day. All right, I'll have a word. Thanks, ma'am.

Chris? You were friends with Sam Tyler, weren't you?

Not sure about "friends". He was more of a mentor, really. An amazing bloke.

Were you there when they found his car in the river?No.

The blaggers split up and so did we. It was the Guv and Ray who found his car.

Right. Thanks.

Why do you ask?No reason.

Ma'am? I think I might have something. Look under her left arm.

It's a crescent.

Her name's Fiona Day. They found her body in a shallow grave in Hoxton.

Shaz, who was the investigating officer?

The investigating officer was Gene Hunt.

It's not much, but it's home.

It's hotter than a Majorcan minge in here!

Sorry. Poor blood circulation. Tell me about leaving Manchester.

When we came down south with the Guv, we didn't know what we'd find.

I'm not saying we played it completely by the book. I'm glad you're not saying that.

But we created something special down here. We're a team.

Drake?Yeah.

Even she has her moments.

Your loyalty does you credit.

It's not loyalty, it's the truth.

Listen, Ray, I haven't come here to bury Fenchurch East or Gene Hunt.

Just tell your mates that I'm just a man trying to do a difficult job.

If they help me, I think I can make it work.

All right?

Fiona Day. You didn't find a single suspect?

There was an ex-husband, but he was as devastated as anyone, had a cast-iron alibi.

I found nothing. Except for the mark under her arm. That wasn't brought to my attention.

I went to her funeral. You went to a victim's funeral?

I felt I'd let her down, Bolly. Still do.

There must be some connection. Take it wide.

Get in touch with every force in the country, tell them to dig out their old pathology reports.Guv.

'The first beetles to arrive are males.

'They use the dung to attract a mate.

'The bigger your ball, the better your chances...'

'What "T" can be used as an occupational name and a given name for both genders? ''Tyler.

'Meaning door keeper of an inn.' 'What "M" means to kill with premeditation?'

'Murder.''Speak up, please, Sharon.'

'MURDER! MURDER!'

So that's six young women murdered over a three year period.

Each of them branded somewhere with the shape of a crescent.

I can't believe nobody picked up on it.Nobody was looking for them.

What connects the cities? There's London, obviously.

Bristol, Sheffield, Norwich and Newcastle.They've all got crap football teams.

Maybe the killer was a travelling salesman.

Maybe he's covering his tracks, keeping it arbitrary.

I don't believe in "arbitrary". There's a sequence, a pattern, we just haven't found it yet.

So what about the girls? They're all dark-haired, slim.

Turning tricks? No evidence that they were.

The only thing that really links these girls is their death.

There must be something else that links them.Social club? Don't think so.

Each victim was buried in a shallow grave on waste ground.

And the branding. What's that all about?

Forensics said that the edges were quite defined, you know, like the brand wasn't homemade.

Chris, the package the hand was in? Sent from a post office six streets away. No fit on the handwriting.

Nobody has a thought about anything else until we nail this. There's a pattern here. We find it.

When are we at our most vulnerable? Ray?

I'm never vulnerable. When we're in love?

When we're just out of love, Bolly.

When we're feeling scared and we think we're going to spend the rest of our lives on our own.

Who are we talking about here? Fiona Day was recently divorced.

Friends said she was devastated over the failure of her marriage,

she feared loneliness, and was hoping for a fresh start. Debbie Saunders, divorced two years.

Nelly Jones, divorcee.

Martha Davis, divorcee.I still don't see how this helps us.

You're a scummy sort of guy, Ray. I beg your pardon?! Where do you go to meet women?

Same places as most blokes do. Bus stations, pubs, art galleries. Art galleries?

Scientifically proven. Lonely birds love art.Ray...

Where else?

I don't know. And I refute the insinuation that you...

Where else?

Dating agencies. I mean, so I've heard.

They're popping up all over the place for men to meet women.

So I've heard.Shaz. Where's that Cosmo you were reading?

Oi! If you don't stop whistling, I'll rip your lips off.

There was an article about it. You haven't been to one?

Of course not. They're for sad losers, those kind of places. And the lonely and the vulnerable.

I read that article on female circumcision, Ma'am. Very interesting.Here it is...

The Crescent Moon Dating Agency. Founded by Elaine Downing.

She sets up new branches, gets them up and running, then franchises them out.

What sort of sad bastard uses an agency like that?

Sad bastards like Ray, I reckon. I have not used a dating agency!

If you suggest that one more time, I'll kick your arse!

You'll have to kick mine first. It lists the agency's offices.

Hoxton, Bristol, Sheffield, Norwich, Newcastle.

A new one has just opened up in Fenchurch a couple of months ago.

Let's go and hang her upside down and see if any murderers fall out.

You can't go in there like a bull in a china shop, we'll scare our killer off.

I've got a feeling he's about to kill again.

Maybe he'll choose a woman from this Fenchurch branch. Your alternative is?

Well, I could go in as bait. Pretend I'm a lonely woman looking for love.

No change there, then.

I could have got the bus. Quite happily have got the bus.

Fenchurch East has got a comparatively poor clean-up rate. How do you feel about that, Chris?

It's only because we don't fill in the paperwork half the time.

The Guv says we were put on this earth to catch bad people, not to push pens.

Nothing wrong with pens.

Would you say all your arrests have been above-board and legal?

Define "legal".

Created by, permitted by, in conformity with, or relating to... the law.

Yes. Well... I suppose... technically.

I see you've put down on your assessment form that you're ambitious.

I think I am, yes.

Only you've been with DCI Hunt for some years now.

Isn't it time you got out from his shadow, spread your wings a bit?

I guess I'm not an ambitious man, then.

I can't think of anywhere else I'd rather be than in the Guv's shadow.

I wish I could say the same about a senior officer.

I envy you.

Doesn't look much, does it?

I'm not sure about you doing this on your own, Bols.