Silent Witness (1996) s10e07 Episode Script

Ingenious bit of parking.
Yeah, isn't it? Traffic logged it first thing on Saturday.
The doors are unlocked, and the keys are in the ignition.
So why didn't they steal all of it? Tank's empty.
Odd? Yeah.
Trade plates? Yes.
It's an Irish import.
It's new and it's not been registered.
It'll take a while to get an ID.
You know it's connected to the? Yes.
There's blood on the front seats.
Oh.
What a shame.
Why? Such a nice car.
Where's the body? Hello, Charlie.
Hello, Leo.
How you doing? Not bad, not bad.
Now, this is Alison Garland.
Her fellow pupils found her in their lunch break.
How old is she? 14.
She was last seen alive in her Maths lesson, which finished at one o'clock.
Was found here at 1.
30.
Rigor hasn't set in yet.
So the timescale fits.
And this was in her hand.
Multi-bladed penknife.
And we found some cannabis in her pocket.
GIRL LAUGHS 'Daddy, stop it.
That tickles.
' How long do you think he's been here? No signs of decomposition.
Couple of days at most.
Is that puke? Yes.
No ID.
Right, I'd love to be able to tell you that he had a crash, smashed himself up, vomited, staggered out of the car and fell.
But There's no damage to the car and the airbags are intact.
And it doesn't explain that there's a lot of blood and I can't see any cuts on his front.
Oh, dear.
Dear, dear.
Which seat was the blood on? Passenger, mostly.
Right.
Stabbed, transported, dumped.
Body is that of an adolescent girl.
Appearance consistent with the stated age of 14.
Breasts are fully developed.
She has some bruising on her upper left arm.
And there is a transverse scar pattern on her lower left arm.
These look self-inflicted.
There is also what appears to be a ragged incision over the radial artery.
There are also trail marks around the wound, suggesting that the blade was serrated, consistent with the penknife found in her hand.
Suicide? No evidence to the contrary.
There is some bruising to the left breast.
Yes, and there are some tiny red marks to the inner thighs.
Possible signs of recent sexual activity.
I think I'd better take a full range of sex swabs to check for semen and DNA.
So, she had sex with someone before her death.
Or she was raped.
Couldn't live with what had happened.
Either way Hi.
Coffee? When did you first have sex? I was just 15.
Really? Way too young, I know.
Is that because you wanted to or because you felt you should, or? Both, I guess.
Why? It's just something I don't know anything about.
Girls that age Well, you're not really supposed to.
Hmm.
Sounds like I got off lightly.
Leo PHONE RINGS Leo Dalton.
Right.
Yes.
New case come in.
All yours.
Hello.
Mm-hmm.
Just in there.
Thanks.
Hello.
Hi, DI Vincent? Upstairs.
Thanks.
Hello.
Hiya.
Is the body up there? No, no.
When we got here the ladder was down, so maybe the intruder was looking for something.
It's just a load of old junk up there now.
Detective Inspector Vincent.
Nikki Alexander, pathologist.
It's through here.
Her name's Kay Owen.
Local newsagent called us.
She was worried she hadn't been in for a few days.
Did she live alone? Yes.
There's a son we're trying to contact.
Bruises and abrasions to her face and neck.
Her clothes have been torn.
Time of death? Well, I have to do the PM.
But I'd say a couple of days.
It's a nasty head wound.
I'm thinking burglary by deception.
There's been a guy running around pretending he's a meter reader from the Gas Board.
Has he ever been violent before? No, but maybe he's escalating.
Escalating? It'd be great to catch him.
This is my first case as SIO.
I don't want to screw it up.
Did anybody know Alison at all? Were you in Alison's class? .
.
Anything about Alison? Did you know Alison? Did you know Alison? Can you tell us anything about her? Leave him alone! Did you know Alison? Yes.
Was she in your class? Yes, she was a friend.
When was the last time you saw her? Just at school.
Is there any reason why you think that this might have happened? I don't know.
She's going to be missed.
Can you give me any more information? Did you know Alison? Did anybody know Alison? We're not a failing school.
We used to be a failing school but now we're an average school.
But average is still very, very difficult.
I saw her here on Friday.
She was signing up to volunteer as a class rep for next year.
Why would she sign up as a class rep if? Oh, this is Dr Caroline Anscombe, psychologist attached to the school.
Superintendent Ferguson.
Leo Dalton, pathologist.
Do we know what happened to her? We can't be certain yet, but the evidence so far suggests that she killed herself.
There is evidence that she had a sexual encounter shortly before she died.
We need to establish whether or not This is Walter Best, my deputy.
Superintendent Ferguson.
Leo Dalton.
We need to find out as much as we can about Alison Garland's movements yesterday morning.
She spent the lesson gossiping with her friends, so she seemed perfectly normal.
What time did she leave? SPEECH FADES It was about one Did you know her, Dr Anscombe? Yes.
I met her twice.
Both routine matters.
There was an incident in the playground and a misunderstanding on a school trip.
I really don't believe she killed herself.
She'd been cutting her wrists for quite a long time.
I'm just saying that maybe you didn't know her as well as you thought.
Well, thank you, Dr Anscombe.
This is a shock.
A terrible tragedy.
We can only feel a desperate regret at the loss of a valued pupil at such a young age.
At this time, our thoughts are with Alison's family.
And with you, her friends.
Now, the police will want to talk to some of you.
And, for the rest, if you know anything, please come forward.
Detective Superintendent Ferguson here informs me there's a letterbox outside the drama studio incident room should you wish to leave a note.
That's all.
Now, go back to your classrooms and wait for your teachers there.
Who would do this? I'm afraid you can't touch her, Mr Owen.
Right.
Fine.
'I tried to get Mum to move out closer, but she wouldn't.
' She just laughed when we suggested the idea of sheltered accommodation.
When did you last see your mother, Mr Owen? It must have been six or seven weeks ago.
I can give you an exact date later if you want.
We'd been talking for ages about coming down.
But we never seemed to have the time.
And you said you were at work on the day she died.
Yes.
One of those team-building weekends.
You know, all that guff about the company being one big happy family.
All right, mate? Yes.
Thanks for looking after him.
That's OK.
This is my son, Stephen.
Hi.
When he heard what had happened, he insisted on coming along.
My dad says I can't see my gran.
Well, the thing is, she wasn't very well just before she died and she probably doesn't really look like she used to.
Maybe she'd want you to remember her as she was when she was alive.
She used to let me wind the clock up and we'd watch old films together.
We'll come back later, yeah? OK.
Dad Mmm? INAUDIBLE Did someone kill her? Um We're going to try and find out what happened.
Come on then.
Is she really dead then? How many? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
This is going to be a stubborn stain, isn't it? We've got an ID on the trade plates.
His name's Chris Duncan.
That is a crinkle-cut chip.
Quite distinctive, aren't they? Duncan Prestige Motors.
Must have eaten it shortly before he died.
Might help with time of death.
Can I help? Police.
Chris hasn't been in for three days.
Isn't that a bit unusual? No.
He often goes on sales trips.
Are any of your cars missing? No.
What, they're all here? Yes.
Well, apart from the 280.
The boss sometimes takes it home at night.
So when exactly did you last see him? Friday.
I left about six.
He told me he'd close up.
And did he? PHONE RINGS Yes.
I came in Saturday morning.
The place was locked up as usual and the alarms were set.
Does your workshop always smell so strongly of disinfectant? I don't know.
Maybe someone spilt something.
A lot of blood here.
The chip shop owner reckons that Chris Duncan was in there last Friday at seven.
So he went across the road, he bought his chips, he came back.
He had his chips.
Whoever killed him, locked up the showroom and knew the codes to set the alarms.
Right.
So who would know those codes? Only two of the staff, and they've got alibis.
Anybody else? The family? Well, she kind of used to follow us around.
She was sweet.
Yes, she was a friend, but she never really had a lot to say for herself.
Kind of quiet, but I think she wanted to be one of us.
Yeahshe was a nice girl.
She's going to be missed.
Oh, I didn't offer you tea.
It's fine, thanks.
No.
It's OK.
I can make some.
When did you last see your husband, Mrs Duncan? Um, it was, umFriday morning.
He was supposed to be back at eight.
Did he seem all right to you? Anything wrong? When he didn't come home, what did you do? I I watched television and then I went to bed.
It didn't strike you as odd when he wasn't back in the morning? No, Chris has always been a workaholic.
If the children wanted to see him, they had to go to the showroom.
And lately he's been away a lot.
He's, um Sometimes for days on end.
He said He told me he needed some time on his own.
And it's quite common, isn't it, you know, with men of Chris's age to feel that life hasn't quite turned out as they'd hoped? Is there any other family we should contact? No, I'll have to I'll have to tell the children.
Are they here? No.
My daughter Hannah is in France on an exchange visit.
And my son is at university in Bristol.
Would you like someone to? No.
I can manage.
Thank you.
Would you like some tea? It's fine, thank you.
Goodbye, Mrs Duncan.
Bye.
The blonde one is Alison Garland.
The other girl's name is Kelly Wetherby.
She's one of the pupils I counsel.
Nasty.
Did she mention she was being bullied? Yes.
But she didn't name names.
You didn't think to ask.
I asked if she wanted it reported.
My job is to help Kelly to fight her own battles.
Wherever she goes, there will always be Alison Garlands.
Well, there's one less now.
This wound to the back of the head looks severe enough to have caused loss of consciousness.
Minor cuts and abrasions to the elbows.
There is a large wound on her left shin which looks infected.
This is the bruising to the arm and this is the wound to the shin.
The injuries to the arm are recent and probably occurred at the time of death.
The yellowing around the shin wound suggests it occurred more than 18 hours earlier, maybe three or four days before death.
The injury was healing, but it wasn't going well.
So what are you saying? I think we have two sets of events.
And whatever struck the shin seems to have left a pattern.
Pattern? What kind of pattern.
See? Distinct parallel lines.
I found out her son pays a care company to help her.
There's supposed to be a girl coming in every day.
We're trying to locate her.
Either way, as far as the assault goes, we still think a doorstep con is the most likely explanation.
I don't think so.
If someone came knocking pretending to be the gas board, they'd have been disappointed.
There's no way she'd have been able to get up and answer the door.
Which means whoever did this had a key.
Why didn't you tell us? Let her speak for herself, Mr Wetherby.
Did she do this often, Kelly? Yeah.
How often? Once a month? Once a week? Once a day? The middle one.
What was the school doing about this, huh? Dad! Mr Wetherby, please.
Was there any particular reason for this, Kelly? Yeah.
Alison was an evil troll.
Why didn't you tell me it was Alison? Cos then Well, this would have happened.
He would have gone into the school and made a huge fuss about everything and then Alison would have killed me.
HE PLAYS DRUM BEAT INDISTINCT CHATTER Hi.
They've clearly never heard of Jamie Oliver here.
Do you still think she killed herself? I think it's a good possibility, yes.
What, big strong bullies don't kill themselves, only their victims do? Even I know it's more complicated than that.
Do you have children? So what do you think happened? I don't know.
But I wouldn't jump to conclusions.
I'm not jumping to conclusions.
I'm just saying Some lad just pitched up at the gates and sold a bunch of CDs to the press.
Who was it? Gerard Brown.
Apparently he told them that Alison Garland was his bitch and that all the songs were about his love for her.
How romantic.
Do you know him? Yes.
But everybody here calls him Fish.
CHEERING What's going on? Why's he called Fish? Because he doesn't like to be called Gerard.
You all right there? I'm not sure you're supposed to be up here, are you? Did you have sex with Alison Garland yesterday? We found a sample of semen on her body.
You didn't use a condom.
Well, maybe I did have sex with her then.
What time did you meet her? Ten.
Half-ten.
She wanted to buy some grass, innit.
And you left when? About ten minutes later.
Ten minutes.
A fine romance! It was payment in kind.
We had an arrangement.
And you didn't do anything that made her unhappy, did you? Everything I did made her very, very happy.
Can you tell me how you had sex with her? How did you hold her? What position were you in? What's the matter with you? I ain't telling you that! I'm afraid you have to.
Did you hold her arms? Did you hold her by the waist? How tightly? Look, she was up for it, all right? Did I say that she wasn't? So where were you between midday and two o'clock yesterday? Another meeting.
Sylvana.
I think you'll find her in History.
Can I go now? No.
Because I'm holding you on suspicion of rape while we wait for a semen match.
We don't want you doing a runner.
Oh, and we'll need some DNA for confirmation, OK? Use that for DNA, you little pervert! What, man? Chris Duncan's stomach contents consisted of chicken, chips and chocolate.
And this is an analysis of the vomit we found on his jacket.
Tofu.
Bio yogurt.
Brown rice.
What did you have to eat on Friday night, Mrs Duncan? I don't remember.
Was it something like tofu, rice and yogurt? They showed up in the chemical analysis we did of the vomit found on your husband's body.
Can you explain that, Mrs Duncan, or do we have to wait for your DNA to do that for us? Will you keep my children out of this? Is that a confession that you murdered your husband? I'd like to speak to my lawyer.
Kay? Kay? Who are you? Rosa Cassalle, I'm her carer.
What's happened? Fish is my boyfriend.
Sylvana, I'm sorry, but he claims to have had sex with Alison Garland yesterday morning shortly before she died.
We're holding him on suspicion of rape.
Sylvana? I'm not going to call her a slag, because she's dead.
And I'm sorry.
I really am.
But it was so obvious she was an unhappy person.
He also claims that he was with you at the time of Alison's death.
Is that right? I met him about ten to one.
We went for a burger.
He paid for my fries and then we went back when we heard about Alison.
Why would Fish need to rape anyone? I mean, you've seen him.
GIRL: What have we got here then? INDISTINCT CHATTER .
.
Slapper.
Oi! Miranda.
This is my daughter, Miranda.
You told me to catch the bus and meet you outside half an hour ago.
I'm sorry.
It's been chaos here.
This is Leo Dalton.
He's a pathologist.
Can I have a word? Sorry.
I thought you should know that Fish has been detained.
The semen found on Alison's body matches his DNA.
So they had sex? Or he raped her.
Fish.
A rapist? It's possible.
You obviously don't think so, surprise, surprise.
He's not a violent type.
Well, may be not in public, no.
You clearly think I don't know anything about these kids.
'Her name's Rosa Cassalle.
' She's works for the care company looking after Kay.
I thought you might have some questions relating to Kay's injuries.
I got a warrant to search her flat and we found this.
Her son confirms it belonged to Kay.
But if Rosa's the burglar, why would she want to come back to work? Where have you been, Miss Cassalle? Glasgow.
Who can confirm your whereabouts? I was working with a photographer in Kirkbride to build up a modelling portfolio.
Kay said if I didn't give it a try, I might regret it for the rest of my life.
And you lied to the care company.
Yeah.
How was Kay when you left? She was fine.
Well, not fine.
Her back.
It gave her pain the whole time.
But she never liked to take too many drugs.
She really needed residential care.
I did everything for her while I was here.
That was pretty rough on you? Not really.
I loved her.
Last time I was there, she gave me one of those machines to make tea.
I drink coffee, but she wanted me to have it.
KNOCK ON DOOR Who is it? It's Leo.
Hi, have you got a second? Yes.
Um, I'm not quite sure how or why, but we seem to have got off to a bad start.
Peace.
Thank you.
Come in.
It's Leo.
Hi, Leo.
Hi.
How you doing? Fine, thanks.
Sorry.
I didn't mean to sabotage your evening.
No, no.
Um Gerard Brown, Fish, claims he had consensual sex with Alison.
We can't prove otherwise.
He says they had sex at ten o'clock, and a witness gives him an alibi for the time of death.
Sit down.
Oh, thanks.
If the motive or even part of the motive for Alison killing herself is being raped, it seems strange that she went back to class and then killed herself.
Well, teenagers are strange.
Well, you're arguing against yourself now.
No.
My reasons for her not killing herself are different from yours.
The point is we agree.
Or I assume we agree? You see, I know everything there is to know about Alison the body.
But if I were to be certain about cause of death, I need to know about Alison the schoolgirl and at the moment, I'm going round in circles.
Why did she cut herself? Is it an act of despair? Maybe it is, maybe it isn't.
It depends on the cuts.
Yes, I thought you might say that.
In which case .
.
feel free to say no, but I need to ask you a favour.
Are you looking for anything in particular? Or do you want me to just leave you to it? Hannah! Sorry, this is my sister.
Ma'am.
I'm afraid we're going to ask you to identify your father's body.
We'd normally ask your mother, but Can I come? No, you can't.
Mum wouldn't want that.
Sorry about all this.
It has to be done.
Harry? We found this in the cupboard.
Mmm.
Definitely blood.
She kept it.
I can't believe she kept the frame.
You know what she's like.
If you want to talk about it .
.
now would be a good time.
Do you know how this came to be broken? I've been away at university.
Don't know anything about it.
I've just come back from a French exchange trip.
Thanks.
I think I prefer my office to yours.
OK.
There are over 30 separate marks.
These have almost entirely healed.
Could be a couple of months ago.
This one is more fresh, say a fortnight.
When girls cut themselves, it's about communicating something.
Same as an eating disorder? Yes, but it's rarely a prelude to suicide.
This is completely opposite of that.
And yet none of these wounds is more recent than two weeks.
They were healing.
She'd stopped cutting.
Is that the? The fatal wound, which is different to anything else she had done before.
But you see, even if cutters do kill themselves, they don't normally use a knife.
That would be somehow inappropriate.
It would take an enormous act of willpower to inflict a cut that deep.
She would have had to really want to do it.
She'd stopped cutting a fortnight ago.
It means she was feeling happier.
Wasn't it about a fortnight ago that she started talking about a boy called F Fish? She met Fish, maybe fell in love and didn't feel the need to cut any more.
In which case, you're right.
She didn't kill herself.
Can I help? I want to see the body, but my brother won't let me.
You shouldn't be here.
If you have any more information about Alison, you should talk to the police at the school.
We're here about my dad.
I'm Hannah, Chris Duncan's daughter.
Look, I think that's blood.
She can't move because of the injury to her shin.
OK, but So, she goes to get out of the bed and this, which is on wheels, would have been next to the bed.
So she would have lent on this and it would have shot sideways and carried her with it.
I think she grabbed at the dressing table, but her hand landed on the cloth and it slid out under her weight, and it carried her with it, and she would have turned and slipped on the carpet and hit her head on the chest of drawers as she went down.
No burglary.
No assault.
Thank you for clarifying things.
I paid through the nose for those care people to come in.
We must have a case for negligence.
If you think that's what she would have wanted.
I'll talk to my solicitor.
Come on, Stephen.
So that's it then.
Nearly.
We've established cause of death.
But I can't sign off on the post mortem report yet.
We still haven't accounted for the injury to her shin.
Well, I'd better be getting back to the station.
Thanks, Nikki.
Chris Duncan is murdered, yeah? Less than 24 hours later, Alison Garland, a girl in the same school, not to mention the same class as his daughter, is also found murdered.
That's one hell of a coincidence.
Are you now saying she was murdered? I'm not convinced that Alison Garland's wound was self-inflicted.
Why not? Forensics are ambiguous, to say the least.
Added to which the psychology that self-harm leads to suicide just doesn't add up.
Well, the psychology, eh.
I know it's not hard evidence, but I've had tech run up the wounds on Chris and Alison on their dissection microscope - should show up more than the standard PM.
Now, this is Alison's wound .
.
and this is Chris's wound.
It's the same knife.
Hmm.
Can you check the knife found in her hand against one of his wounds? No match.
What? Have you tried it against one of her own wounds? No match again.
Where are you going? I want to find Alison Garland's tox report.
How can Alison's death be murder? You don't just sit there quietly and let someone slit your wrists, do you? The tox report shows traces of a volatile, such as ether or chloroform.
The killer must have used that to subdue her.
And apart from the knife, what else links them? It's the school.
Well, I've just released Fish on bail pending further investigation.
Caroline's not convinced that he raped her.
Caroline's not running this investigation, is she? You know as well as I do we can't prove rape.
The only witness is dead.
He's got an alibi for the time of Alison's death.
He's got no reason for killing Chris Duncan.
That we know of.
Perhaps the key to this is the Duncan family.
How are my children? The vomit on your husband's body contains your DNA, Mrs Duncan.
So I must have killed him, then.
Are you confessing to the murder of Christopher Duncan? Yes.
Why? What can you tell us about Alison Garland? Who? We have strong evidence that your husband and Alison Garland were murdered with the same weapon.
So if you killed your husband, you killed Alison as well.
I don't have anything else to say.
John, these are DNA readouts.
This is your father and this is from the blood on that broken picture we found in your hallway.
They're not a match.
This is not your father's blood.
But it's very close.
It's a close relative.
A parent, or a sibling, or a child.
And it's male.
Please will you take your hat off? Will you bend your head down? Would that be consistent with having your head smashed into a glass frame? Yes, it would.
Tell us what happened, John.
We had a row a couple of weeks ago, when I was back from university the last time.
What was the row about? Cars, I think.
Yes, that was it.
Cars.
You had a row about cars.
What about cars? I dunno.
Five minutes later, it was all forgotten.
Why didn't you tell us about this before, John? John Duncan has an alibi for both murders.
He was in his college bar right under the CCTV cameras.
And we've got 20 Karmic witnesses who'll testify Mary Duncan was teaching yoga when Alison was killed.
So, neither of them could have killed Alison Garland and Chris Duncan.
What is Mary playing at? She may not have killed them, but she knows something.
Does she know John has an alibi? No.
She hasn't had any contact with her family since she was arrested.
Where do you think John was on Friday night? He was at college.
He wasn't at home.
That's right.
We can prove it.
These are stills from the CCTV cameras at his college.
You thought he did it, didn't you? He didn't? No.
SHE SOBS When Chris didn't come home that night, I went to the showroom and found his body lying face down on the ground.
Yes, I thought it was John.
So, I cleaned up all the blood.
I locked up.
I got the body in the car.
I don't think I really knew where I was going to take it.
I thought maybe a rubbish tip, or a gravel pit or something like that.
Anyway, before I could figure out what to do, I ran out of petrol.
I managed to get the body down this bank.
I'm quite strong, you see.
Don't think I really knew what I was doing.
I just hoped .
.
maybe he wouldn't be found.
Why did you think your son had killed your husband? Can I go now, please? No.
We need to verify your story.
And then we'll think what charges we can bring against you for wasting our time.
So that's all we've got.
The knife and the school are the only connection.
Chris Duncan was a parent volunteer on a school field trip last year.
A pupil told me in confidence that Duncan caught Fish trying to sneak into Alison's room and hit him.
I spoke to the staff informally.
Talked to Fish.
He laughed in my face.
Said I was crazy.
And Alison, of course, denied everything.
So I thought it was a rumour.
The trip to Yorkshire? Yes, there were real problems finding enough adults to go along.
Was Chris Duncan asked to come or did he volunteer? Oh, no, he volunteered.
He also rounded up a whole bunch of parents.
Here's the rooming list.
Thanks.
Hey! Hey, you! INDISTINCT SHOUTING Gerard Brown was in some kind of relationship with Alison Garland.
And tried to sneak into her room on the field trip.
OK.
So, Fish is angry with Duncan, but angry enough to want to kill him? And what's the motive for killing Alison? Who's his alibi? Sylvana, if we discover that you've been holding something back, you could be charged with assisting an offender.
This is a murder investigation, Sylvana.
I didn't meet him at one.
No? I saw him later, after we found Alison.
I was upset, so we went for a walk, somewhere.
I don't know.
And is that when he asked you to lie for him? Yes.
It It just seemed like such a small thing to keep him interested.
I really liked him andnow he's going to hate me.
Kelly Wetherby wasn't at the school gates this evening.
Her father's reported her missing.
What? One of the pupils said she was going to meet up with Fish.
I'm alerting all cars.
SIREN BLARES Aah!