What Remains

Hello?

Hello?

Hello?

Hello?

Hello?

All right? Yeah. Huh?

Whoa! It's OK.

Mmm... Your turn.

Peggy?

No-one's home. Try another flat.

So you'll be here next week?

Assume that I will be, and if I don't turn up,

take it I ain't coming.

You going to get that?

Have a good week.

Top flat's been empty for years. I'm not sure who currently owns it.

Kieron, by the way. Vidya.

And the banging and cursing noises are Michael.

Welcome to Coulthard Street. Thank you.

Is there a keyholder for that flat? Someone who could let us in?

Or we could knock on Joe's door.

He might have access, although I'm sure he's left by now.

Your first? Yes. Very excited. And nervous.

Be good to have a baby around the place.

Hmm. He's a schoolteacher. Usually gone by this time.

Sorry, I really should... Oh, no, no. That's fine. Go.

Thanks for your help. Welcome. Again.

Any joy? Apparently, it's been empty for a couple of years.

Can't find anyone with a key.

Right. Well, that's it. We're going in.

Hello?

Loft.

Michael?

Go downstairs, babe.

What about golf? Golf? You can see me playing golf? Actually, I can.

Diamond-cut jumper, those silly little socks. You'd look quite natty.

Ah! Too many rules.

And they make you tuck your shirt into your trousers.

Like being at school. No, not golf.

Pottery? And before you laugh, if done correctly it can be quite sexy.

I don't think pottery qualifies as a hobby. Isn't it a craft?

Glass blowing?

I know you're taking the piss but that would at least be interesting.

Tell me we've run out of stairs.

Hi, I'm Helen. I'm the Crime Scene Manager.

DI Len Harper, DS Alice Yapp. One P or two? One.

Two for me, thanks.

Neighbours stumbled on some mummified remains

looking for a water leak.

Female, according to the clothes. Hard to put a date on it.

Anything between two and five years is the current guesstimate.

Flat on the back.

Didn't die in pain.

Heart?

Heart attacks have a tendency to fall forward.

Pills? Lay back to sleep, never wake up.

Yeah, maybe.

OK if I take these?

We've filmed, help yourself.

Back in a tick.

Is it her?

Sorry, er, hello.

Detective Inspector Len Harper. And you are?

Vidya Kahn. Downstairs.

You found the body?

My boyfriend, Michael. We didn't know her, if it's her.

What do you think? 25, 30?

Thereabouts.

It's hard to tell when they're a bit overweight.

Oh, it's a baby.

Oh! Congratulations.

Detective Inspector Len Harper.

Hope I didn't get you out of the bath, Miss...?

Markham. Elaine. And it was a shower.

What's happened?

Er, can I ask you if you've lived here long?

Four years, I guess.

Has anyone occupied flat number five in that time?

There was a girl...Melissa?

Melissa Young?

Is she in some sort of trouble? Cos she left years ago.

Do you remember roughly the last time you saw her?

I know it's early but if you could fire up the old grey matter?

Er, maybe a couple Christmases back.

Kieron downstairs, he had a drinks party. I remember her being there.

After that...

She disappeared?

Kind of.

Oh.

So, she, what? She comes up to the loft for some reason.

Hits her head, unconscious, perhaps dead.

The hatch would be open - no-one found her?

Obscured from view. Someone calls out, she doesn't answer.

They close it up.

What about the smell?

December time? Be cold up here.

No insulation on the roof, quite airy.

Maybe you'd get a whiff of it on the top floor, but nothing below.

Let's make sure we're talking about the right person first.

Hi, it's me. Can you check a missper for me?

Melissa Young. Last known address Flat 5, 8 Coulthard Street.

Thanks.

What've you got?

Mild titillation.

I'll take it outside.

Yeah, hello?

Detective Inspector Len Harper.

What do you want, pig?

Is there a grown-up home?

How do you know this ain't my flat? Well, property prices.

Plus the spots on your chin are a bit of a giveaway.

Who's this?

No-one, I'm dealing with it.

Where's mum and/or dad?

Work.

Can I trust you to pass this on?

Be grateful if they could call me. What's this about?

One of your neighbours discovered human remains in the loft.

A body.

You serious? What, like a murder?

I'm not sure yet.

OK then. Yeah, thanks for that. Cheers.

She wasn't reported missing.

After two years?

How's that possible?

Maybe no-one noticed she was gone.

Hi.

Interesting one.

The afternoon update on the police press line includes

a "seriously decomposed" body in a residential property.

"Seriously decomposed,"

is that a medical term?

I think they meant to say severely.

Sounds gruesome, either way.

Er...

OK. Yeah, I'll play.

Get on it.

You can do it yourself when you get home.

'...was to make sure customers could pay back what they borrow.

'And Rebecca Pike will have more on this at 5:30.'

The police were here?

They stumbled on your dirty little secret, Joe.

The body you stashed in the loft. What are you talking about?

Melissa Ann Young, born June 1980.

Owned the flat outright -

inherited it from her mother, who passed four years ago.

No employment since 2005.

Utility bills all covered by direct debit.

No brothers or sisters but yes to an aunt, deceased,

and a solitary living cousin in Aberdeen.

Very much living alone, then.

Someone must have noticed that she wasn't around any longer.

Ten, twenty years ago perhaps. But today?

No, sorry, I don't buy that.

You can have all the internets and headphones and home shopping you like,

people still interact with one another.

That's not a generational thing, it's human nature.

We've searched online, networking sites and found nothing.

Do we have anything that suggests this is an actual crime scene?

Not without cause of death.

We have mummified remains.

So, sorry to disappoint you

but unless the pathologist comes up with a bullet hole,

it's not a murder, Len.

Why would that disappoint me?

Because you're looking for an excuse to extend your leaving date.

Oh, no, Len, please, please don't leave -

not until you have solved this case for us.

Sorry, who is that even supposed to be?

Damn thing!

Thank you.

Evening, Joe.

Is it true?

They found a body?

Apparently so.

Awful business. What was her name again?

Melissa.

Of course, Melissa.

I often wondered what happened to her.

Met the new lot yet?

No. Er...I'd call round, but dinner's on.

Are they nice? Yeah, I've only seen her.

She's pregnant. Interesting.

With any luck that might be enough to drive the lesbians away.

Peg, it's me.

Where the hell are you? It's dark.

Call me back, will you?

Let me know what time you'll be home.

Why didn't you spin it? Washing machine's spraying water.

Everything's shit! Nothing works properly.

Oi...

have a lie down, I'll finish that.

I can't - no bed.

That was my next job.

Whoa!

Hilarious!

Bad taste? Yeah, a little bit.

Little bit.

You look good in a mask.

I mean... No, that didn't sound right.