Vera

How long do you think you'll be?

No idea.

Keep in touch.

If I can.

Hall table.

See you soon petal.

Bye.

I love you.

Love you too.

Find us all right then?

Well I'm here aren't I?

Aye, in a great mood too.

What have we got?

Call came in at seven this morning.

A pair of twitchers found a burned out car

just down in the quarry,

and didn't think much of it at first.

But when they took a closer look,

they saw a body on the back seat.

We got an ID for this body?

The fire did too much damage.

But the vehicle's registered to a Dr. Lucy Yo.

Anyone try to contact her?

No answer from her mobile.

I spoke to her husband, Rob McShane.

Now he's not heard from her since last night.

Okay.

Call Jac, tell her to get over to the house,

in case she turns up.

Malcolm.

Grim find for a Monday morning.

Or any morning, for that matter.

What can you tell us?

Adult female, somewhere between 20 and 40.

Approximate height, five foot five.

What, nothing else?

There does appear to be a recent injury

to the left side of the skull here.

I'll know a lot more once I get her back to the mortuary.

Well your lot are gonna have one hell of a job

getting anything off of this.

Well I imagine that's precisely what

whoever started this fire was hoping for.

Fire service reckon it was arson.

Time of death?

Some time last night.

And one last question Malcolm.

Was she already dead when the fire started?

I hope so.

Did Malcolm give us a verdict?

Well he can't say for certain it's murder,

but it's looking more than likely.

Now if that is our GP,

it's a bit odd isn't it, a quarry, middle of the night.

And what was she doing on the back seat, hmm?

Not bird watching, that's for sure.

What if she was killed somewhere else

and then driven over here in the back of her own car, hmm?

But then there'd be

another vehicle involved, wouldn't there?

An accomplice.

What makes you say that?

Well whoever drove that car's torched it,

so how did they get back to wherever.

Miles from anywhere.

You say there's a husband?

Rob McShane.

Ah, well come on, let's go talk to him then.

Morning ma'am.

Jac.

How we doing?

Pretty anxious.

I told them you found the car, but nothing else.

Them?

Oh, Dr. Yo's sister Tasmin,

she was here when I arrived, ma'am.

Right, well.

Mr. McShane.

Have you found her?

DCI Stanhope, Northumberland and City Police,

and this is DS Healy.

Have you found Lucy?

Your daughter, love?

Eh, yeah.

Might be best if she wasn't here.

Let's go play in the garden.

Now you've been told we found your wife's car, sir.

Yeah.

We also found a body on the back seat,

but we don't know if it's Lucy just yet.

Why not?

Because the car had sustained significant damage.

What sort of damage?

It had been burned out, love, which is why, at the moment,

we can't identify the body,

but the car could've been stolen love.

Let's not jump to conclusions.

And until we know otherwise, Lucy is still alive, all right?

Good.

Now I need to ask you some questions.

When did you last see Lucy?

Last night, about seven.

She was heading out, an out of hours call.

She went to see a patient?

What's the patient's name?

I've no idea.

The called would've come through from the surgery though.

And how did she seem when she left?

Fine.

Bit distracted, but that's 'cause she'd been called out.

Now was there anything going on in Lucy's life,

any problems we should know about?

No.

Good.

Now DC Williams is going to stay with you.

But before I go love,

I need to take a personal item of Lucy's,

a hair brush or a toothbrush.

It's for DNA.

Right, Jac.

I need you to stay here.

Make sure they've got everything they need, all right?

Yes ma'am.

And try and get the sense of their relationship.

Find out if he and Lucy had any issues, but discreetly.

And get uniform to take this over to Malcolm.

I want that tested today.

We don't want them in limbo any longer than necessary.

Where to now?

Well, have a guess.

To find out the name of this patient.

I'm afraid we've got nothing available today.

Try tomorrow.

Unless you have an appointment we can't help you,

we're short-staffed.

Well that's why we're here pet.

Are you sure it's Lucy?

No, but her husband hasn't heard from her

since last night so, as you can imagine, we're concerned.

And I take it you've had no contact this morning.

No.

When she didn't turn up for work we tried calling,

but her mobile's been switched off.

Now her husband told us

she had an out of hours call last night.

Said you would have the patient's details.

I'd have to check the system.

Well let's do that then.

Such a lovely girl.

Has she worked here long?

She joined us about six months ago.

Good doctor is she?

Yes, she's very popular.

And how about the patients?

What about them?

Well, is she popular with them?

Yes.

I mean some of the older ones

are a little unsure of her maybe.

And why do you say that?

Well, Lucy's very professional,

but she can come across as a bit cold.

And the oldies like a bit of chat.

Oh aye.

Lucy just wasn't that interested.

And then there were the stupid rumours.

Rumours?

It was nothing, just one of Lucy's patients.

And?

Well she was in her 90s, she was very poorly.

But Lucy saw her on the day she died,

and you know what people are like gossiping.

And what's this patient's name?

Mrs. Howeth, Francis Howeth.

But it was Fran's daughter, Pat Cringle,

she was the one who made a complaint.

So have we got the name of this patient?

No, and there's no record

of any out of hours call last night.

Even if there was, Dr. Yo wasn't on this weekend.

It was Dr. Parmer.

Dr. Parmer's the senior GP.

He might've asked Dr. Yo to fill in for him.

All right, so where is Dr. Parmer?

He works part-time, he's off today.

His wife's got chronic arthritis.

Dr. Parmer is her primary carer.

Well, we'll need his address love.

Oh hello love.

We're looking for a Dr. Parmer.

Oh, he's out the back.

Come in.

Dad, it's the police.

Good morning.

DCI Stanhope, Northumberland and City police.

DS Healy.

Jesus.

Now hold on, we don't know yet that it is Lucy.

No, of course.

But let's pray that it isn't.