Silent Witness

This programme contains some scenes which some viewers may find upsetting.

Just tell me! I'd tell you! This is my home!

CAR ALARM BLARES

We've got a suspect fleeing the scene.

Tony Hamilton, married bloke she was seeing.

Her mate says she was pregnant with his baby.

She was pregnant?

"Was" being the operative word.

I want the bastard for murder if she dies

but first we need evidence she was pushed...

She's not going to die.

Look, DI Porter, I think the less you tell me now, the better.

Hi Suzie.

I'm Dr Alexander.

Nikki.

If this hurts, tell me and I'll stop.

Don't worry.

Can't feel a thing.

How's your mum? Is she all right? She's good thank you.

That's it.

Just turn around and sit down.

There you go.

Thanks. Oh!

Don't worry, I'll get your bag for you. There you are.

Thank you.

# Testator silens

# Costestes e spiritu

Nikki...?

Scott! Wow.

Hello.

Auckland five years,

Sydney three years, Manila four years,

er...Bangkok nine years, and London...

two weeks. Two weeks?

What brought you home?

Er, my mum. She, er, she died.

Oh, I'm sorry. No.

Listen, do, do you want to get a coffee or something?

Yeah. Yeah?

Guy with the duffel coat, hood up, rain or shine,

always sat at the back. Oh, God. Him. "Weapons."

SHE GASPS That's it. Weapons! Genius.

OK. My turn. Go easy on me.

No chance. Professor Roach.

I mean, we were heading off round the world together then,

one tutorial with the battle-axe later, we're not.

Suddenly you had to get on with your life.

The Institute of Pathologists would not wait.

I mean, what ever happened to Roach? Do you still see her?

We came up against each other in court. Got messy.

Who won?

See, you were always formidable.

I don't feel very formidable...

Even then. 21 going on 41... Shut up.

It was a turn-on, actually. OK, enough.

PHONE NOTIFICATION

It's work.

Do this again?

SHE GETS UP

DOOR CLOSES

CAR ALARM BLARES

You made me jump.

ID, please.

Thank you very much. Need these?

Nice gaff - and soon to be on the market.

You going to put in an offer?

I might dust down the old decks.

IMITATES DJ SCRATCHING RECORDS

The deceased is Max Walsh, a record producer and DJ,

hence the... IMITATES DJ SCRATCHING RECORDS

No, me neither. You own a set of decks?

Oh, brought the ruckus back in the day.

OK. Photographic evidence, please.

Nah. Why are you in such a jolly mood?

Oh, just ran into an old friend.

Male or female? Male, as it happens.

"As it happens." Defensive. Very interesting.

DS Calvin Jones. Nikki Alexander. Hi.

All right? Erm, just down here.

It looks like suicide,

but, as he was semi-famous, I just want to cover the bases.

Who was that?

Sophia Haddon, Walsh's PA. She found the body.

So, what've we got?

Blood distribution's confined to the bath, ie he wasn't moved

after he was cut, and no signs of a struggle.

Wow, this was no cry for help.

No? No.

You've got to cut through the tendons to reach the arteries,

and they're more likely to clot than bleed out.

So how did he manage it? Where there's a will...

I'll have a better answer when I've cleaned him up.

Here we go. One knife short.

So, no forced entry at front or back doors which have multiple locks.

Everything points to suicide?

Right down to the turned-over photographs downstairs.

Morphine sulphate.

Typically used in the management of chronic pain.

The PA says Walsh recently

got the all clear after the removal of a tumour.

But if he was in remission... Why wasn't that a happy ending?

See you later.

David.

Why don't you try and get him out today?

Nothing too ambitious -

just see if you can get him to do something useful.

Define "useful."

I'll do my best, OK? Thank you.

Have a good day.

'Come here.

'Steady. Steady.

'Wa-hay!

'Perfect timing.'

Just turn that off, Dad. How about we resurrect the pool?

It's her birthday tomorrow.

Would've been her birthday.

Is that a "no", then?

You know, I could've gone to Uni last year.

So, why didn't you?! Cos I wanted to be here when you got out of prison!

Well, you should've gone.

The body is that of a 42-year-old male identified as Max Walsh.

On the right arm

there's an L-shaped incision along the length of the ulnar artery

that completely severs the tendons of the finger flexors.

And the same L-shaped incision is also present on the left arm.

And that's...weird?

In the context of self-inflicted wrist wounds, yes.

After cutting the tendons in one arm,

he wouldn't be able to grip the knife to cut the other.

So, one of the cuts should be shallow and messy?

Yeah. But they're as deep and precise as each other.

There's some sort of adhesive substance

in the hair of the left armpit.

Hmm.

Right armpit's clean.

I'll take samples.

Thomas.

What?

Is it possible he put that there himself?

No.

Not that far down.

Gag reflex would have kicked in.

Most likely it was placed there after he died.

Making this murder.

Nikki?

SHE TYPES

Is this a case you worked on?

Irene Dawes. A retired nurse.

When? Found dead in the bath three months ago.

My findings at the inquest argued for suicide.

But now you've got your doubts?

She was holding a quartz nurse's watch and it's set to the same time.

And Irene also had cancer.

Christ.

The killer either knows the details of Irene's suicide and copied them...

..or he killed her, too.

What does your gut tell you?

My gut tells me I've missed a murder.

I was called out to the death of Irene Dawes

just over three months ago.

She'd been dying a slow, painful death.

So suicide wasn't a stretch?

No.

But her son didn't buy it. He's a Catholic priest.

And he remained unconvinced even when we found

searches about morphine fatality in her web history.

What was in those blister packs?

Morphine sulphate tablets.

Which Max Walsh was also taking.

Exactly.

And this?

Did he want the hands to bisect the watch,

does the time mean something to him?

Pass.

But there's another commonality.

At both scenes, there were pictures of relatives turned face-down.

Textbook suicide hallmark.

If that's his thing, faking suicides, there could be other killings we haven't linked yet.

Or that weren't even investigated as murders.

Making this the work of a serial killer.

Both victims were terminally ill.

Maybe he sees killing as an act of mercy.

Who was the DS on it?

DI Pamela Rankin.

You know her?

OF her.

How did a suicide get a DI?

Irene's son has some friends in the force.

HE SIGHS Right.

AlL right, I'll call Rankin tomorrow.

Tomorrow? This has to be handled...

You're going to have to talk to her...

I'm not telling a DI she missed a murder until we're sure.

Then we'll make sure.

MESSAGE TONE

KNOCK AT WINDOW

You OK? Yeah. You know, the watches stuff's compelling, but it doesn't prove Dawes was murdered.

I know what you're doing, and I appreciate it.

But I've got to face this, and I've got to find out what I missed.

Course you do.