Dalgliesh (2021) s01e02 Episode Script

1
No evidence of strangulation
or suffocation,
no external marks of violence
of any kind,
but it's unlikely to be
a natural death.
If it was poison,
I'm assuming it wasn't corrosive?
Correct.
No carbolic acid this time.
Time of death,
based on rectal temperature
and the degree of rigor in
the lower limbs,
around eight hours ago.
- So, about midnight, then.
- Taking a common-sense view, of course,
- she died when she drank that nightcap.
- Well, print man only found
- her prints on the glass.
- Is there a suicide note?
Haven't found one yet.
Cover her up, please.
I need my cigarettes.
Sit down.
- Did she look like she'd been murdered?
- Nurse Pardoe!
I want to know if it looked like murder
or suicide.
She looked horrified,
and she looked terrified.
I wish I'd never gone in there.
- Why did you?
- Because her light was on,
and I'd got up to use the bathroom.
I'm sorry for the loss of
your friend.
DS Masterson will be taking
witness statements.
Was she murdered?
It's too early to say.
Maybe someone's picking us off,
one by one.
- Please be quiet!
- Which of you was the last to see her alive?
It might have been me.
She came into the kitchen
when I was making a cup of tea,
before bed.
I poured some boiled water
into a glass for her.
Well, well!
It was just boiling water.
- Bag the kettle and send it for testing.
- Yes, sir.
Well played, Dalgliesh. They send
you here to investigate one murder,
you let another one happen
right under your nose.
I don't know yet
that it IS a murder.
- Surely it's more likely to be suicide?
- I put in a call to
the Commissioner. He's hardly likely
to trust me with the home's safety,
- now there's a serial killer on the loose.
- I don't think it's helpful
- to speak in that way.
- Nor do I. I ought to tell you
I saw her light on, Fallon's.
It must have been around 2am.
I was on my way to bed after nursing
a patient in the main hospital.
Thank you. DS Masterson will
take statements from you all.
Please don't leave
the hospital site.
And what are you
going to bloody do?!
I I was making a cup of tea,
and she came in and
and got her cup. She cut some lemon,
and then I poured the boiled water.
Did you feel the kettle,
before boiling it?
No, there was enough water in it,
so I
- I just turned it on.
- Did you have something against Fallon,
- like you had something against Pearce?
- No!
I didn't have anything
against Pearce.
- She was trying to help me.
- Oh, is that right?
Jo was very private. She was
sophisticated.
She was the best nurse in our year.
Did that bother you,
that she was the best?
I suppose it did
bother me sometimes,
but I'll be leaving as
soon as I'm qualified.
I'm getting married. He's a vicar.
There'll be plenty for me
to do around the parish.
Anyway, the hospital aren't keen on
married women staying on.
What was her relationship
like with Heather Pearce?
Civil.
Pearce once threatened to complain
to Matron about Jo keeping whisky
in the kitchen,
but I don't think Jo held a grudge.
And what about her relationship
with Nurse Dakers?
She was generally pretty kind
to her. Kinder than
most of us.
I must have turned out the light
at around midnight.
I woke up at
about half past five,
- when Matron knocked on the door.
- So, you didn't go and visit
anyone in the middle of the night,
didn't go to the nurses' corridor?
- No. Why on earth would I have done?
- It was Courtney-Briggs that got you
- this job, wasn't it?
- No! Well, he was one of my references.
Still, you're close, are you?
No.
Well, I
I consider Stephen a friend but
he's a married man
I don't understand,
why is this relevant?
- Did Jo have a boyfriend?
- She didn't tell me she did,
but I think there was someone.
She would often go to London,
whenever she had free time.
She mentioned some personal
letters to me.
I can't find them in her room.
You don't know what those
- might have been about?
- No, sorry, I don't.
Do you think someone murdered her?
- Is there anything else you'd like to tell me?
- Actually, there is.
But it's not about Jo,
it's about Pearce.
I remember you said
no detail's too small.
A couple of days before she died,
I went into her room
to ask her if she wanted some cake,
and I noticed that she was reading.
Apart from her Bible, she never read,
not even magazines.
And it could have been a textbook,
but it felt like she didn't want me
to see it. She pushed it under the covers.
And I was thinking,
perhaps that's what was missing
from under her pillow
on the morning she died.
So, why don't you tell me
where you were last night?
I was in my room,
with the door locked, Sergeant,
asleep.
So, no medical students there, Nurse?
- No.
- No-one else came to join you?
No.
I was alone
all night.
- Do you mind if I join you?
- Oh, please do.
It's funny, one doesn't really
think of policemen eating.
I don't know how any of us
are managing to eat.
These poor girls,
I can't stop thinking about them.
Think about them, then,
and give us all some peace.
May I ask you something?
A letter arrived for Nurse Pearce
- from her grandmother, posted a few days ago.
- Oh, her poor family.
It's clear Nurse Pearce had told her
she was very upset about
the death of a patient,
a Mr Dettinger.
Pearce was on my ward for
the last rotation
and she was assigned to
Mr Dettinger.
He was one of
Mr Courtney-Briggs' patients.
Crohn's disease,
with severe complications.
So, she would have spent
a lot of time with this patient?
Yes,
and that's why she was
affected by his death.
In fact, I'm relieved.
My nurses all have to get used to
death, but I like to know
they also care. Excuse me.
Patient of Courtney-Briggs.
Pearce nursed him until he died,
aged 59, at the beginning of
last week. She'd clearly grown
close to him. Next of kin,
Louise Dettinger, his mother.
She's in London.
I tried calling, but there's no
reply. As soon as you finish with
the statements,
I want you to go and find her.
- I want to know if
- You are joking?
Pearce was troubled in the days
following Dettinger's death.
I want to know if she said anything to him.
Yeah, but if I go to London,
I'll be out of action for
- the rest of the day.
- You'll be IN action, doing what
- I've asked you to do.
- Look, she's the one we ought to be focusing on.
She's got opportunity for both of them
and a clear motive for
the first. If we just dug
a little bit deeper
I haven't ruled her out.
I'm not ruling any of them out.
Josephine Fallon, I'll check.
- Do you have a library card?
- No, actually, it's missing.
Yes, she is a member.
Would you like me to check if her card's
- been handed in?
- Does the record say which books were taken out
- on her card and when?
- Yes, two books, in the last few weeks.
Simone de Beauvoir, and
Yes. I remember this.
Very unusual request.
I spoke to her myself.
She asked for an account
of the Nazi war trials.
We didn't have one, of course,
so I had to order one
- from the County Library.
- When was this?
She came to collect it
four days ago. In fact,
she must have returned it yesterday,
but not in the correct way.
She left it on a pile
of children's books.
Not very responsible.
- I still have it, if you'd like to see it?
- Yes.
Can you describe the woman
you dealt with?
She was medium height.
Long, fair hair, in plaits.
Heather Pearce.
Yes. Nicotine sulphate.
That would be consistent with
what I found.
I'll be testing
the stomach contents, but
yes, the vomiting,
the dilated pupils,
cyanosis — all evidence of seizure.
She died from respiratory failure,
all of which is consistent with
nicotine poisoning.
You didn't find anything unusual
under her fingernails?
- Sand?
- No. No sand.
Time of death, I can confirm,
between midnight and 2am,
at the latest.
And I'm afraid
there's something else.
She was pregnant.
About 13 or 14 weeks.
Cause to take her own life, perhaps?
She didn't take her own life.
What would your boss say,
if he could see you now?
He'd fire me.
He's not into human frailty. He
thinks he's a saint, but he's not.
- You don't like him?
- He's an arrogant son of a bitch.
Sexy, though.
- He's old enough to be your grandad!
- He's not.
Anyway, it's not about age.
- It's about power.
- Oh, yeah?
Is that why you like me, then?
Sex isn't frailty. Sex is power.
It's one of the only powers
women can match men for.
Blow for blow.
And I'm very good at exercising it.
Why do you bother with
medical students, then?
That wasn't a student in my room.
It was Stephen Courtney-Briggs.
If you're going to pick a dog
pick the top dog.
- Christ!
- What, too old?
Nah, I just don't like the thought of him
having been where I've just been.
We could have any of them
in that place.
Even the females. They're all
so bloody lonely and desperate.
- You haven't, have you?
- Gearing and her smudgy mascara.
Brumfett yapping and sniffing
round Matron's heels.
I don't know how Matron stands it.
I'm a good nurse,
but I'm crap at exams.
Courtney-Briggs
will make sure I pass.
And now
I have power over you Sergeant.
Yeah, right!
Oh
One word from me and you're sacked.
Well, one word from me
and you're off the course.
Sexy, isn't it?
Any of you recognise this?
Yes. It's my rose spray.
I bought it last year.
She didn't?
Oh, no.
Oh, no
But how did she know about it?
I I keep it in here,
right at the back. It's
It's hidden from sight.
- Look, you can see the mark, where it was.
- Where did you find it?
Why would she even look in here?
- I I didn't hurt her.
- No-one's saying you did.
But it's what you're thinking.
I hardly knew her. I've only spoken
- to her a few times.
- Would anyone else in Nightingale House
- know about the rose spray?
- I can't think why they would.
Yes.
Morag Smith, the cleaning girl.
I asked her to
clean that cupboard out.
It must have been
in November. Well, she would
certainly have seen it.
You should talk to her.
I mean, she's odd.
- In fact
- Sister.
I I didn't go anywhere near
Fallon, or Pearce.
- I haven't done anything wrong.
- I need to get back to my ward.
Actually, Sister Brumfett,
I need to speak to you.
Me?
- I can speak to you after I finish my
- It'll have to be now.
I want you to know I object
to the way you speak to me,
to all of us.
I suppose it's because we're women.
You're taking advantage of
Matron's good nature.
She's allowing you far too much
freedom, licence.
Remind me, Sister,
did you serve in the war?
- No, I was still training.
- You say you were called to the hospital
last night by Mr Courtney-Briggs.
When you arrived, was he there?
- No, he'd gone.
- Gone?
Well, home, I assume.
Or to one of the restrooms.
And coming back at around 2am,
you heard someone moving on
the nurses' corridor
and you went to investigate.
Well, I thought someone, at least,
ought to be vigilant.
And you saw the Burt twins.
Yes. They couldn't sleep.
I noticed Fallon's light
was still on, but I didn't
- think anything of it.
- She discharged herself yesterday, didn't she?
Against your advice.
You didn't think to knock on her
door, to check if she was all right?
If she needed anything,
it was sleep.
I certainly wasn't going to disturb
her in the middle of the night.
Which entrance to Nightingale House
would you normally use
- when coming back late at night?
- Yes, I would normally use
the back entrance to Mary's
to Matron's staircase, but your
constable was at the front door
and the weather was so dreadful,
so I went in that way,
and up the main stairs.
I'm not sure whether you know this
by now, and I don't normally
break confidentiality,
but Nurse Fallon was pregnant.
- Yes. Did she confide in you about it?
- No, but I've been nursing
for too many years
not to spot something like that.
Perhaps she couldn't live with the shame.
She wouldn't be the first.
Or perhaps it's true
what everyone's saying,
that she did kill Pearce and
she couldn't live with that either.
Perhaps Pearce found out about the
pregnancy and threatened to tell.
Have you thought of that?
From what I hear,
Pearce was adept at blackmail.
Thank you for your thoughts, Sister.
You can go now.
- You're late.
- Mrs Louise Dettinger?
- Who are you?
- Detective Sergeant Masterson.
I'm with the Metropolitan Police.
I'd like to ask some questions about
your son, Martin, and his time at
the John Carpenter Hospital.
- Would you?
- Yes, I would, actually. I've come a long way.
Heatheringfield. Is there something
wrong with your phone?
Oh, for fuck's sake!
He should at least
have telephoned me.
Who?
Tony, my partner.
- We've got a competition tomorrow.
- All right, look, I need to ask you
some questions about your son's
stay at the hospital, all right?
Particularly about a nurse called Pearce.
She was assigned to him.
Leave that!
Did you ever meet Nurse Pearce?
Did you ever visit your son?
I visited every day.
He died, you know.
- You don't say?!
- My only one.
- Do you dance, Mr Big Policeman?
- No, thanks.
- Now, look, I've got to ask
- You can go away, then
and you'll never hear
what I've got to tell you.
- Masterson and I will stay here tonight.
- Good. I won't pretend
I'm not relieved.
Fallon was murdered, wasn't she?
Yes.
Courtney-Briggs, he looked, erm,
stricken when he saw her body
this morning.
- Was there a connection between them?
- There were rumours about
some sort of relationship.
He has been known to stray. Perhaps
I should have told you. It
It really was just a rumour.
What Sister Gearing said about
Morag Smith, I hope you won't
It's like Dakers,
she's an easy scapegoat.
Have you spoken to her yet?
I'm going to find her.
I think I know where she'll be.
Does Courtney-Briggs ever
talk about the war? I mean,
- specific incidents or people?
- Not really.
I know he served.
Occasionally, he speaks about it
in terms of surgical practice.
Why?
What is it you've got to tell me?
Spin.
Something odd did happen when
Martin was in that hospital.
What?
- Oi! What?!
- Too rough!
Naughty!
He thought he was good
when I taught him.
- He thought he was very good.
- Who did?
Stephen Courtney-Briggs.
Help!
Somebody help me!
Help!
Somebody!
- What happened?
- Someone hit him over the 'ead.
- Lock all the doors.
- That's a deep cut.
Lock them. Check who's missing.
- Call Mr Courtney-Briggs. Use my office.
- Yes, Matron.
- He'll be with Sister Brumfett, on her ward.
- Not Courtney-Briggs.
Not Courtney-Briggs.
- It's all right.
- Not Courtney-Briggs.
It's all right.
You're all right.
You're all right. Stay still now.
You were hit very hard.
Remember anything?
- Did you see who hit you?
- He was probably hit from behind.
Well, the wound will need stitches.
We'll need anaesthetic.
- I'll do it in outpatients theatre.
- No anaesthetic.
It'll need stitching immediately.
- You're losing a lot of blood.
- No
Martin served in the Army.
Intelligence Corps.
Clever.
He came all the way through
without a scratch.
And then afterwards, they sent
him to Germany, Felsenheim.
- Felsenheim?
- One of the war trials.
The Nazis, in the dock.
It went on and on and on.
I wanted him home. Days and days,
staring at those barbarians.
Watching them, listening to them.
And then, there he is,
lying in a bed
in the John Carpenter
and who does he see?
Who does he see?
- No!
- What the hell?! What's the matter?
I said no.
As you wish. Let's see if
you're still saying that
after the first stitch.
They do say that a needle
pushing through damaged flesh is
as painful as being run through
with a sword,
and you need 12, 13 stitches.
- If I were a sadist, it would be my lucky day.
- Tell me about
your relationship with
Josephine Fallon.
You think I killed Jo?
That's right, you don't trust me.
- Did you?
- No, I did not.
We did see each other,
for about a year.
I don't expect you to believe me,
but I was extremely fond of her.
It was her who called it off.
I've never fought for a woman before,
but for her, I did.
- Why did she call it off?
- Said it had run its course.
I'm certain there was nobody else.
She wasn't like that.
- When was this?
- About three months ago.
I had no reason at all
to want to hurt her.
She was discreet.
She wouldn't have talked.
Yes, I was hurt when she
finished it, but not that hurt.
Ready?
Oh, come on, come on, come on,
come on, come on.
Oh, shit!
Jo Fallon was pregnant.
- You didn't know?
- No.
13 or 14 weeks. What would you
have done if she'd told you?
I'd have helped her.
- To get rid of it?
- No. You don't think she killed herself bec?
My wife and I, it hasn't
happened for us.
Her fault, not mine.
I was trying to make peace with it.
Never becoming a father.
- Where did you serve in the war?
- What?
- Where exactly did you serve?
- Is this the Gearing thing again?
Christ's sake! Cairo.
You know, I don't have to answer
- any of your questions.
- I've checked. Everyone who's supposed to be in
- Nightingale House is here.
- Thanks.
I'm done here. I'll be in the hospital,
unless you want to arrest me.
Are you all right?
They told me you got hit.
- Someone attacked me in the woods. I'm fine.
- You look terrible.
- You didn't get a look at 'em?
- No.
Well, I think I've got something
that's going to make you feel
a whole lot better. You were right.
Dettinger.
Something DID happen
while he was on the ward.
- He recognised someone.
- Who?
This is going to sound insane.
So, he was at the Nazi war trials,
right? Germany.
A place called Felsenheim.
"Funny sort of hospital, this, Ma.
- "They've got Grobel working here, as a sister."
- A sister?
He was on Brumfett's ward,
wasn't he?
And there's more. When his mother
told Courtney-Briggs what he'd said,
he gave her a discount off her bill,
halved it, and told them
not to mention it to anyone.
So, Dettinger recognises Brumfett,
working in this English hospital,
bold as brass. He says something
to Pearce. Now, there's nothing that
Pearce likes more than a bit of
blackmail, so she confronts
Brumfett. And Brumfett takes
the first opportunity to kill her.
She had time, just between breakfast
- and going to her ward.
- Felsenheim.
- Where the hell did you get that?
- It was borrowed from the library
by Heather Pearce, on Fallon's
library card. Read it to me.
Yeah, Felsenheim.
- Here she is.
- Irmgard Grobel.
Jesus Christ!
One of eight
working at a medical facility,
accused of murdering
122 Polish prisoners by lethal injection.
Bloody hell!
Found guilty.
Sentenced to ni
12 years. Leniency exercised
because of her age, 19.
Well, that's her, then.
Brumfett's this Grobel.
Though it does seem incredible
that he'd recognise
that mousy little bint after,
what, 30 years?
- I guess he did.
- But he didn't say her name, Brumfett?
What?
No. Well, not according to
his mother, but
it's got to be her, hasn't it?
Why would he have seen another sister?
It was nonsense.
Dettinger was an extremely sick man,
delirious, a lot of the time. But I
didn't want her running to the press
and linking my name with
some insane scandal,
or the hospital's. So, I gave her
what she wanted and reduced
- her bill, to shut her up.
- And you didn't think to tell us this?
I wanted to close it down.
I didn't think it was relevant.
- We decide what's relevant.
- Would Dettinger have seen any other sisters on
- the ward, apart from Brumfett?
- Probably. Sister Gearing is often
conducting What's going on?
- You're not saying he was right?
- Fetch Brumfett from her ward.
- I'll find Gearing.
- Sister Brumfett's not on her ward. She finished
- at four this afternoon.
- But I thought What?
Matron said
She said she was on her ward.
- What's happening?
- Do you know where Brumfett is,
- or Sister Gearing?
- No, I've been in my office.
Sir!
- Sir, they're not up there.
- Brumfett finished her shift
- at four o'clock.
- Did she? I'm sure she wasn't supposed to.
Fire!
Fire!
Wait here, girls.
I think it's the gardener's hut!
It has spread!
Go back, all of you!
Call the fire brigade.
- Where's Morag, she up there?
- I didn't see her.
Where is she?
- You're here.
- Of course. Locked in, ain't I?
What about Sister Brumfett?
Keep the girls upstairs.
There won't be anyone in there.
You don't think?
Morag, get back! Right back!
Get right back!
- We need to do something!
- No, no!
Oh, fuck me!
Go and secure the house,
make sure nobody leaves.
I haven't touched anything.
It's on the bed.
"I killed Heather Pearce.
"She had found out something
she had no business to know.
"I killed Josephine Fallon because
I knew she was bound to discover
"the nature of that secret and
reveal it to the authorities.
"I am filled with remorse
for the pain I have caused.
"I can no longer live.
"Please forget I ever existed.
Ethel Brumfett."
We don't want to stay.
We don't like this place.
We don't want to stay
in this place.
Well, go, then.
Run back to the farm.
It's not like you'll be missed much.
It's not places which are evil,
it's people.
I feel sorry for you.
I'd rather be me than you.
I'd rather be me than
have to live with a heart
that's hard and corrupted
and graceless.
Wow.
Whole sentences.
Ethel Brumfett,
that wasn't who she really was.
She was born in Germany.
- Her real name was
- Irmgard Grobel.
You know.
She told me years ago.
So long ago,
when we first started training.
I think she really needed
to tell someone.
Just one person. She was horrified
by what she'd been involved in.
She never told me exactly what,
but she did say that she was
very young and that she was only
doing what she was told to do.
After a while,
I stopped thinking about it.
Sometimes, I'd even wonder if
I'd imagined the whole thing.
And she'd served her sentence.
Every day, she was atoning for what
she'd done. She was a brilliant,
brilliant nurse.
- When did you find out?
- Not long ago,
but I did manage to get the Yard
to raise someone from Records
just now. They've located her file.
The courier's on his way with it.
You see, she didn't
serve her sentence. Not all of it.
She absconded after 14 months,
with one of the British soldiers
who was supposed to be guarding her.
So, her case is open.
She's wanted.
It wasn't just her reputation
and her vocation
she risked losing, it was
her freedom.
Extraordinary, really, that
she should be recognised,
after all these years.
She must have changed a lot.
There was nothing remarkable about her,
was there? Extraordinary that
one of her guards
would fall in love with her
and risk his freedom
to run away with her.
There was nothing romantic
about her.
Nothing inspiring, or
irresistible. Or perhaps there was.
There'll be a photograph in her record,
so we'll soon see.
Stop it.
It was you Dettinger recognised,
wasn't it? That face across a room.
Easy mistake to make to think
you were a sister. That
uniform, it's very like the ones
sisters wore during the war.
I didn't kill those girls. She did.
I wasn't even here when
she killed Pearce.
I was horrified, incensed,
when she told me what she'd done.
And to kill Fallon
All I said was that Fallon was bound
to find out about the book. I didn't
mean for her to She was obsessed.
She was obsessed with me.
She couldn't bear the
thought of losing me.
It must have been very hard for you.
All those years, knowing the power
she had over you.
She loved it.
She never, ever left me alone.
Everywhere I went, every job I took,
every holiday, every Christmas,
she was there.
- I hated her.
- So, you killed her?
No.
Or did you simply persuade
her that she had to do this one
heroic thing for you?
I will find out the truth.
It would be better if you told me.
Where were you when you were 19?
University?
Cosy rooms, toast by the fire?
I was being made to work for people
who terrified me.
I didn't want to kill those men.
Those poor, trusting men.
They thought I was
inoculating them against TB.
They'd file in, one by one.
Smile at me.
Thank me for being kind.
Some of them would try to touch me,
but not many.
They'd lean close,
breathe in, as I pushed
poison into their veins.
I can still feel it.
Their breath against my face.
You're like me. You don't just see
the everyday, the banal.
Human beings running about
this little planet,
thinking everything they do matters
and has meaning.
You
You see the underneath.
Our souls.
You know me.
I've served my time.
A higher justice.
Human beings do matter, and
every human being
has a right to justice.
Let me go.
- Yes, Sergeant?
- Well, we found drag marks, sir.
Most of them have been pretty much
washed away, but
well, there's one definite track
where it looks like a body
- could have been dragged.
- Good.
Start a search in
Sister Brumfett's room.
Then start in here.
Don't.
Irmgard Grobel, I'm arresting you
on suspicion of absconding from jail
and on suspicion of the murder of
Ethel Brumfett.
You do not have to say anything
unless you wish to,
but anything you do say
will be taken down in writing
and may be used in evidence.
Do you understand?