Silent Witness (1996) s23e07 Episode Script

1 Woohoo! Woohoo! Dean! Dean! Make him go slower! I want to get out! - Aargh! You all right? - No, I'm not.
You're an idiot! Let me out! Mate, come on.
Come on.
Testator silens Contestes e spiritu Silencium Testator silens.
- Hey, Jack.
All good? - Yep.
I've just spoken with DI Raymond.
The structural reinforcement company have arrived.
You can start thinking about bringing the whole thing back to the Lyell.
Nikki can chip away to her heart's content.
- Bring me up to speed.
- Good morning to you, too.
Don't be needy, Jack.
What I can see is skull.
Could be male or female.
I won't be able to say exactly until it's fully visible.
Just the head? Not enough of the remains have been revealed yet.
We won't be able to say exactly until we've finished.
I hate these cases.
Double the leg work, impossible to solve.
What about this? Presumably stolen.
Teenagers.
Picked them up in A&E.
One of them's got a broken ankle.
Should take the joy out of joy riding for a bit.
Do you hold the contract for building these car parks? That's right.
I work for Millennium Building Partnerships.
And that floor specifically.
When was it finished? I don't know.
I'll have to look it up.
Mr Simmons, can you tell me how you construct the supporting pillars? We build a wooden structure surrounding steel rods, pour the concrete in, then remove the casing a couple of days later.
- It's like a jelly mould.
- Right.
Did any of your men go missing during the construction or stop turning up for work? We use a lot of casual labourers.
They come, they go.
- Illegal workers? - No, we don't do that.
Would it be possible for someone to fall into one of those pillar constructions while it was empty by accident? I don't know.
And could your workers have filled it up with concrete without checking first? It's possible, I suppose.
Have you found something in there? I'm afraid we found some remains, yes.
Two centimeters an hour? That's better than the M25.
I quite like it.
Focuses the mind.
I took two weeks to excavate a skull once on a dig in Durban.
So thin and delicate.
- Do you miss it? - I miss the sunshine.
Come on.
A small, windowless room in the depths of London.
What more could you want? Wow.
That's incredible.
I didn't think there'd be so much tissue still intact.
Well, if it's a decent grade of concrete that's been allowed to settle properly, it's basically creating a semi-sterile environment with very little oxygen.
Decomposition would have been significantly slowed down.
I think there's a good chance of getting some DNA from the bones.
Great.
How long till you can start the postmortem? Just as soon as I get a body out of here.
I'll get someone to put the kettle on, shall I? Yeah.
Wow.
- Tea? - Thanks.
Look, Ma', no hands.
One thing's for sure, this was no accident.
Thanks, Sam.
Frontal bone is sloped backwards with prominent supraorbital ridges.
The orbits are square.
Prominent mastoid processes.
I would say this is a male.
Blunt force trauma to the top of the skull affecting the parietal bones.
Fractures of the upper cervical vertebrae.
Hanging is a possible cause of death but there's insufficient soft tissue to verify this.
Looking at the skull injury in conjunction with the broken neck, that could represent a traumatic event that led to death, but could equally have occurred postmortem when the body was dropped into the pillar mould.
The wear and tear on the joints and disintegration of the bones, I would place him in his 40s or 50s, approximately, at time of death.
Hm.
We've found some treasure.
What does that look like to you? A tiny fossil.
Calliphoridae pupae, if I'm not mistaken.
- The good old-fashioned blow fly.
- Good spot.
Ooh.
Have you got my sample? Thanking you.
Is Max in the doghouse? He's been driving me mad about this bloody cruise he wants to book.
Going on and on about me taking a break.
I come to work for a bit of peace.
Ah, domestic bliss.
Ah, domestic blisters! I found small calcified areas along the inner aspect of the ribs.
Remnants of calcified pleural plaques.
This would indicate some exposure to asbestos so, given his age, perhaps he worked in the building trade when regulations weren't as stringent.
Perhaps he was a workman on the site, then.
Both arms are severed at the lower forearm above the wrist joints.
Wrist joints and hands are currently unaccounted for.
To disguise identity, perhaps.
No hands, no fingerprint.
If that's the case, then why leave the teeth intact? No clear cut cause of death, I'm afraid.
I did find some blow fly pupae casings embedded in the concrete where it had contact with the body.
This might suggest that death occurred approximately three days before the body was disposed of.
Do you have anything at all that could help us identify him? At some point, this man has undergone reconstructive surgery as there's a metal plate securing the symphysis pubis a common fracture from an RTC or industrial accident.
Along with a hip replacement.
Judging by the wear and tear around the socket, he probably had this surgery about ten years before he died, so he'd have been 30s to 40s at that point.
Unfortunately, I don't have the manpower to sift through every RTC from 30 years ago.
Do you have anything else? Well mixed.
Good grade.
And bubbles.
Clarissa's phone.
Oh, hi, Max.
Yes, she's here.
Want to speak to her? OK.
Just putting you through.
Thanks! Clarissa's cruising hotline.
How may we help you? What? When? OK.
I'm on my way.
Everything all right? No.
I've got to go.
It's my mum.
I went back to look at the forearms on the body again.
It's difficult to see, considering the condition of the mummified flesh, but these are striation marks here.
They only seem to appear on the outer radius of each arm.
- Sorry, what am I looking at? - The hands were not severed cleanly.
They were hacked off with some difficulty, it might seem.
The perpetrator used a serrated blade for that, which left a jagged, untidy edge to the wound.
These other wounds here were made with a smooth-edged, thin instrument, so I did some comparative testing and I think it was perhaps a razorblade.
Suicide? From the direction of the marks, it would be logical to assume that they were part of longitudinal cuts right down to the wrists on the radius of both arms, consistent with someone trying to take their own life.
Perhaps that's why the hands were removed.
To disguise the cause of death.
Life insurance often won't pay out for suicide.
There's your motive.
So somebody cut his hands off and then dropped the body into the pillar mould? It seems odd to go to such lengths to disguise who he was and then hide him in concrete.
That doesn't make sense.
Maybe there was a change of plan.
Mum.
There you are, lovely.
Are you OK? I have ordered roast chicken for my dinner with all the trimmings.
Just fancied a little holiday, did you? She's a right cheeky one, this one is, keeping us on our toes.
- I'm Nurse Coen.
- I'm Clarissa, Penny's daughter.
What are you giving her? We just wanted to get some pain relief in her.
Make her more comfortable.
Pain relief? You'll be able to see the doctor shortly.
She'll answer all your questions.
Queen of Sheba.
I don't mind if I do.
I'm afraid your mum has cancer.
It's in her pancreas.
The cancer team have looked at the images and unfortunately due to the close proximity of a major blood vessel here we don't think surgery is an option.
There may be some other treatments available to us.
What about, erm chemotherapy? That's something we could explore.
I've heard Folfirinox had good results.
- Or something like Gemcitabine.
- Are you medical? My background is science.
Chemotherapy is demanding on the patient.
I urge you to think really carefully about whether you want to put your mum through it or opt for palliative care instead.
I understand.
As your mother is already in the advanced stages of dementia She has good days.
She's unable to decide for herself.
You'll need to make that decision for her.
Hey.
Clarissa.
The pelvic inlet angle on our unidentified male - is narrow and V-shaped.
- Apologies.
Traffic.
It's undergone medical reconstruction at some point with a metal plate.
If we can trace the serial number, then we might be able to find out who our unidentified man is.
But how many computer systems has the NHS had in the last 30 years? We'd be relying on paperwork.
It's a waste of time.
I'll take it.
I love a challenge.
I'll use the plate style and serial number to cross-reference middle-aged men reported missing between 1995 and 2000.
And if he wasn't reported missing? If he was living on the streets? Someone loved him somewhere.
He must have left a hole in somebody's life.
How can so many people go missing in the world and never be seen again? I'm beginning to believe in alien abduction.
I managed to put together a lens from those pieces.
It looks like a strong prescription.
Won't help with identification though.
Every bit of information you gather on our body is both a crucial and valid use of your time.
Are you reading those life coaching books again? In fact, many cases have been cracked with pieces of seemingly completely useless evidence, just like that.
Oh, thank you.
I think.
I can take a look at it for you if you'd like.
No, you've got enough going on.
How's your mum? I don't think I've seen you leave early before.
First time She's got cancer.
Mm.
Yeah.
The doctors wanted to speak to me about the next steps.
Treatment or not.
Because mum's obviously not able to decide for herself.
I know what she'd want.
Why don't you take a few days? Thomas will understand.
Think about it.
Talk to Max.
- Take your time.
- She doesn't have time.
And I don't need time.
I can hear her saying it.
Where there's hope, even a small amount, you don't give up on someone.
And I won't give up on her.
It's YD 32146.
Great.
Can you just say that again for me, please? - Yes, that's YD - Yankee Delta.
- 32146.
- 32146.
Yes, that's correct.
- Thanks very much.
- No problem.
Bye.
Bingo.
- Metropolitan Police.
Can I help you? - Can I speak to DI Raymond, please? 48-year-old Derek Marshall, reported missing by his sister Ann Carson in November 1999.
Missing persons file from back then lists his wife, Sue Marshall, as next of kin.
And their address.
I remember her, Sue, but not the husband.
She dealt with everything.
We viewed it early on.
I mean, we loved the house, but it was well out of our price range.
And then the agent called and they'd slashed the price.
I mean, literally slashed it.
365,000.
We couldn't believe it.
Why did they do that? Well, needed a quick sale, no chain.
- When was this? - 1999.
Just in time for the millennium.
Did they leave a forwarding address or anything that would help us locate Sue Marshall's whereabouts? No.
Well, thank you for your time.
We'll leave you ladies in peace.
It's beautiful house.
Lucky to get it so cheap in this neighbourhood.
- It was too good to be true.
- Sorry, was, erm Was everything in order when you moved in? - There was nothing untoward about the sale at all? - No, not at all.
Well, thanks.
- Apart from the way that they trashed the bathroom.
- Let it go.
- Sorry, trashed? - Yeah, the bath.
I mean, it definitely wasn't like that when we viewed the place.
It was all hacked to pieces.
We had to get a new one.
You don't clean up what you don't know is there.
How do you mean? It's blood.
There is clearly a large amount of blood on the original floor.
Possibly bone dust, too.
Could be where Derek lost his hands.
OK, Derek Marshall was officially declared dead in 2006, seven years after being reported missing by his sister Ann Carson, and his life insurance finally paid out £200,000.
200 grand? Who was the recipient? His wife, Sue Marshall.
That's great.
You should probably have a break now, yeah.
I'm fine.
It was Derek Marshall's blood that you lifted from the floorboards at the house.
The CPS will want more than that though, won't they? Who's to say he didn't just cut himself shaving? - It was his house after all.
- Cut himself shaving? There was a significant amount of blood on the original floor.
I found bone dust on there, too.
- That's not your usual bathroom waste.
- Mm.
OK, so, in theory, he slits his wrists in the bathroom, blood seeps down into the floorboards.
What then? Blow fly larvae from the cement indicates that he was left there for a few days.
Yeah, the alleged condition of the original bath suggests someone could have tried to cut his hands off in the bath first, but, ultimately, they needed to get him on the floor to finish the job.
Hello.
I'm DI Raymond.
This is DC Quinn.
- We're looking for Ann Carson.
- OK.
Follow me, please.
- Thank you very much.
- Thank you.
You you can't be sure it's him.
Medical records have confirmed the body we discovered is that of your brother Derek Marshall.
I am very sorry for your loss.
I knew something had happened.
Sue Sue thought that he'd had a breakdown.
- His wife? - Yeah.
She always, erm hoped that he'd turn up but I knew he was dead.
What made you so sure? He would never have gone anywhere without telling me.
It's a little sister thing.
You know, we told each other everything.
I nearly lost him once before, you know.
What happened? It was this horrendous car accident.
Yeah, they didn't hold out much hope, but then he pulled through.
It took him almost a year to learn how to walk again.
But the accident changed him.
He, erm he was left with chronic pain.
He was never the same after that.
What company did he work for? Oh, he was, erm He was a contractor for Millennium Building Partnerships.
Our records say that you filed the missing person report.
It's normally a wife who reports a spouse missing.
Oh, well Sue was a mess at that time.
She was always a mess.
She couldn't think straight.
You You don't think that Sue had something to do with this, do you? Do you? Well, she did She did grind him down.
What do you mean? Derek and I were very close and she didn't like that.
She was well, she was jealous.
Oh, hi.
I've set mum off on a second chemotherapy drip.
We just need to keep her as still and as settled as possible, OK? Thanks.
Hello.
Where are you off to? - Oh, it's you.
- The one and only.
Why don't you come and sit down? You look just like someone I know.
Just like her.
You're right.
I do.
- Have you had anything to drink today? - Yes.
What are you doing there, mum? Why don't they fix this wall? There's nothing wrong with the wall.
- Where's it gone, then? - What? The wall.
There's a big chunk missing.
Surely you can see that.
It's OK, Mum.
I'll get them to come and fix it.
Don't worry.
Come and settle down, eh? There we go.
I feel sick again.
OK.
Hold on.
There we go.
It'll pass, I promise.
It means the chemo is doing its thing.
You're doing so well, Mum.
What's all this about? Do you know a Mr Derek Marshall? It's not ringing a bell.
Well, pick it up, take a closer look.
Oh, yeah.
Derek, yeah.
I knew him.
We worked together.
Did you work on the car park site? Probably.
You said none of the workers on the car park site were reported missing.
Derek went missing? If I remember rightly, he quit.
- He resigned? - Yeah, that's right.
It's coming back to me now.
He quit in the middle of a job.
Dropped me right in it.
Why would he do that? I do remember he'd been borrowing money left, right and centre.
Got himself in a right state.
Did he borrow any money off you? I never lend money to friends.
I learned that the hard way.
What did he want with all that money? His daughter, I think.
It's a long time ago.
I can't be sure.
What about his daughter? She was sick, poor kid.
Terminal, it was.
I think his wife Sue wanted some new treatment for her.
It was going to cost a fortune, though.
I think the poor kid died anyway.
That body you found.
Is it Derek? I'm afraid it is.
- Guv.
- Yeah? We've got Derek Marshall's wife's current address.
Mrs Marshall? Bugger off! - Mrs Marshall.
- You've got the wrong house! I'm an atheist! It's the police.
Can you open the door, please? Oh, yeah, here she comes.
Here's my ID.
Come back tomorrow.
I'm not well.
Mrs Marshall.
Sue? We have some news about your husband Derek.
OK, let's bring her in.
Guv.
- Hi.
How was it? - Yeah, petty grim.
Smells of damp, threadbare carpet.
No wonder she didn't want to let us in.
That doesn't make any sense, does it? She had 365 grand from the sale of the house and another 200 from the insurance company.
Why is she living like that? Where's all her money gone? Well, Derek racked up a lot of debt before he died.
To pay for his daughter's treatment.
We've got him making a lot of big payments to an offshore account but the trail's scrambled and we can't get a clear picture of where that money went.
I can look at the journey of the money, if you like.
- See if I can unscramble it.
- Good.
We have your statement here from when Derek was reported missing in 1999.
You say he left the house with no clothes, no wallet, no passport and never came home.
Why would he do that? I don't know.
Your sister-in-law tells us there was some tension in the home.
Oh, yeah.
Sounds like Ann.
Never quite got over Derek getting married.
So you had a good relationship with your husband, then? Yes, I did.
Ann took advantage of him his whole life.
Never took responsibility for herself.
Always on the doorstep with her hand out, selfish to the core.
Derek could never say no to her.
I couldn't understand it.
It was Ann who pushed him over the edge, not me! So your husband did take his own life, then? Did Derek take his own life, Sue? Is that why you didn't report him missing? We've been to the house that you and Derek lived in together and we found Derek's blood in the bathroom.
Postmortem indicates that he took his own life by cutting his wrists.
But a crude attempt was made to cover up that suicide by removing his hands.
Did you remove his hands, Sue? He had only recently taken out a life insurance policy so they wouldn't have paid out for a suicide, and you needed that money, correct? Derek had left you with a mountain of debt.
What did you need all that money for, Sue? Treatment for your daughter? Was that your idea? No comment.
Mrs Marshall, you are under caution for the unlawful disposal of a dead body.
I'm not going to say anything else.
Right.
Can you give me a lift to the hospital? It's urgent.
- I can't wait for a taxi.
- Thanks - Yeah, of course.
- Anything I can do? - Mum's being aggressive.
Struck a porter around the face, apparently.
She's just confused.
Why have they refused to treat her? I'm so sorry.
- Was the porter all right? - He's fine.
Hello, Mum.
What have you been up to, eh? You really must be kinder to the doctors and nurses.
It's all been a bit much for her, bless her.
She just wants to be left alone, not poked and prodded.
The doctor prescribed Diazepam to calm her down.
- Is that really necessary? - It was just a little dose.
She was distressed and we were worried that she might hurt herself.
But now she won't eat.
Let me try.
Remember when you used to make me chicken noodle soup when I was poorly? If you can manage a couple of spoons, - I'm sure you'd feel better.
- No! - It's all right.
I'll get it.
- I'm so sorry, Jack.
It's all right.
- She's trying to poison me.
- Mum, I'm not.
- She's trying to poison me.
Help! - Keep your voice down, Mum.
Frank.
Oh, Frank, where have you been? - Frank's, erm, my dad.
- Mm-hm.
I love you.
I love you so much, Frank.
I'm sorry, Mum.
I'm not sure you're his type.
Frank.
You know what they say, women are attracted to men - who look like their fathers.
- Good job I don't remember him, then.
She's trying to poison me.
No.
No-one's trying to poison you, darling.
I promise you that.
Look.
Delicious.
Try? Hm? Oh.
Good stuff? - Can I help you? - I'm Ann Carson.
I'm Derek Marshall's sister.
Oh.
I'm so sorry.
Erm DI Raymond wanted some pictures of Derek for the appeal.
That's, erm That's his wife Sue and their daughter Hope.
You should probably take them to the police station.
I want to see my brother, please.
I strongly advise you against viewing his body.
I think it would be distressing for you.
But I'm allowed to, aren't I? I can't I can't move on unless I do.
His body would be unrecognisable, I'm afraid.
So it's true what the police told me.
Dumping his body like garbage? Like no-one loved him.
You wouldn't even treat a dog like that, would you? Perhaps we should give Mum a break from the treatment.
Give her system a chance to recover.
I worry a delay will hinder her progress.
If her system is too weakened, there won't be any progress.
We need to be very careful with the way we administer her care.
What have you done, Frank? What have you done? You can't leave the baby alone.
You can't do that.
You can't leave her alone.
- Not for five minutes.
- Mum.
Go on, go! I will never leave, Clarissa.
She needs me more than you do.
I will never leave my baby alone.
Not ever.
Mum, it's OK.
Really? I know your mum's confused about what's going on but she clearly remembers how much she loves you.
All this grown-up stuff, Jack.
It's not very us, is it? I'm fine.
Are you? I always wondered if Dad left because of me.
And now I know.
None of our current evidence links Sue to the disposal of Derek's body so it's difficult territory for the CPS to make formal charges.
But I only get to keep her in custody for 36 hours without charge and then I'll have to let her go.
It would have taken some strength to haul a dead weight of Derek's size into the pillar mould.
If she did do it, she certainly didn't do it alone.
Thank you.
Let's go.
DI Raymond.
I've followed the digital trail of Derek's money.
His payments moved through two Swiss bank accounts, leading right back to our own back yard.
Derek Marshall was making payments shortly before he died to Protech Visions.
It's a research facility headed up by a Dr Adam Brooklyn.
Payments that Sue continued with ever since.
Well, that explains where some of the money went.
Evidently.
It's an expensive business.
It seems they specialise in reproductive biomedicine.
- Fertility? - Correct.
I'm no good at science.
What do you say you come along as my scientific interpreter? Go on.
You're on.
In essence, we're a storage facility.
We freeze eggs and sperm here for fertility and boast the largest frozen tissue bank in Europe.
What are you researching? We're exploring the practical applications of sub-zero temperatures in medicine and surgery.
It's truly fascinating work.
Do you know a Sue or Derek Marshall? I'm afraid that would be breaking client confidentiality.
I'm investigating a suspicious death.
I'm very happy to obtain a warrant, if you prefer.
Sue was one of our benefactors.
Very supportive of the work we do here.
Did she receive fertility treatment here? Like I said, it's your choice.
With or without a warrant, you are going to have to answer my questions.
No, she did not receive fertility treatment.
Her daughter Hope is here.
Come.
I'll show you.
Please.
Just through here.
Sue's dead daughter is in one of those tanks.
We don't use the term dead here.
She's in stasis.
All these people are.
It was really tragic.
Hope was only 12.
She came here when we opened our doors in 1999.
You're researching cryogenics.
How does it work? Well, most of our clients are terminally ill when they reach out to us.
My people are on standby for their final hours and once death is certified by a doctor, we take them.
It's crucial that the process begins immediately.
Presumably, you drain the body of blood when you prepare it.
Mm-hm.
And replace it with a glycerol-based chemical mixture.
A kind of anti-freeze, if you will.
Then the clients are stored here.
Three bodies to a tank, all suspended upside down.
Sorry, why upside down? If the power systems fail and the bodies start to thaw, the last thing to be destroyed is the brain.
Once that goes, the person we remember is lost.
There's nothing to bring back.
- It's a treatment programme.
- Of the dead.
Not much chance of customer feedback.
Ladies.
Must be expensive, keeping this place going.
The process is costly, of course.
It is true, we do ask the family for a substantial voluntary contribution when the process begins, but it's a drop in the ocean, really.
Just something towards our costs.
Sue Marshall's made some very large donations to you over the last two decades, and her husband before that.
She's making arrangements for her own stasis to begin so that she can be reunited with her daughter sometime in the future.
Some people might say you're just a glorified snake oil salesman, selling miracles, preying on grief.
They are donations, not payments.
Look, I make no promises.
Reanimation has never been achieved.
I'm very clear on that.
Although we are very close.
It wasn't very long ago when making babies in test tubes was said to be the stuff of science fiction, thought to be against God, and now here we are, IVF is available on the NHS.
We accept frozen eggs and sperm now as normal.
What is that if it's not frozen life in stasis? It's exactly what it is.
Creating life is one thing.
We know the mechanisms of that.
Reversing death is quite another.
Is this why Derek borrowed all that money? Is this their voluntary contribution? Was this the treatment Sue had found? Adam said the process had to begin at the moment of death.
Hope was dying, by all accounts.
That explains the rush.
Maybe, I don't know the grief or guilt proved too much for Derek, so he ended his life.
The timeline fits.
Hope would have been, erm 30 now.
Same age as my own son.
When did you last see Hope? Just before she died.
Typical Sue.
She wouldn't let me attend the funeral.
Just spiteful.
I thought you would have known.
There was no funeral.
What do you mean? Hope's body was cryogenically frozen.
Cryogen? You mean her body's in a a fridge somewhere, waiting to come back to life? And you've seen her, have you? No.
The way her body has been stored is such that it would make it impossible for us to gain access to her.
This is insane.
Erm Well, it sounds like one of Sue's madcap ideas.
Sue's making arrangements to have her own body preserved there alongside Hope.
Difficult to cope with the loss of a child.
You don't need to tell me that.
And now my own son's on the other side of the world.
Sydney.
I haven't even visited him yet.
You should.
But we'd ask you not to leave the country until the investigation into your brother's death has been completed.
No, of course not.
I want to know what's happened to him.
Thank you again.
Thank you.
We'll see ourselves out.
- Come on.
You can go back to the park tomorrow.
- Mum.
I'm not even going to answer you now.
OK, let's, erm Let's just go home.
This can't be right.
I can't find any records for Hope Marshall.
No birth or death certificate, no hospital or school records.
I've searched everywhere I can think of.
- No social media or digital footprint? - No.
If you went looking for this child, you'd never find her.
Weird.
To all intents and purposes, Hope Marshall never existed.
Everyone, all files, hard drives, anything else we can find.
Let's go.
I've been more than co-operative.
Right, so you have to tell me how Hope died.
So far, all I've had is, "She was ill.
" I don't even have hospital records to prove she was actually ever diagnosed with anything.
I've shown you all the documentation.
Yeah, I've seen the parental consent forms.
But you still haven't produced a copy of the death certificate for the dead child you have on your premises.
Your people have a warrant.
I'm sure they'll find it.
So your team can't collect a body until the death has been certified? - Course not.
- So that's why we can't find it.
The death was never certified.
That's why there's no certificate.
It doesn't exist.
Then why this charade? Oh, we're a charade.
Nice.
We can always arrest you and continue this conversation - with a solicitor present.
- And under what charge? Prevention of a lawful and decent burial, for one.
Look it was an unusual situation.
Hope was being cared for at home.
It wasn't your usual hospital pick-up.
- But I can assure you - Hang on, hang on.
Let me get this straight.
You received a phone call from a residential property to pick up a dead child without a death certificate and you didn't immediately call the police? She's in there, somewhere.
This is crazy.
In any other situation, we'd be asking for Hope's body to be exhumed, but this body's not buried, it's in suspended animation.
The parental consent forms we've had have Derek Marshall's signature on.
He was definitely on board with all this.
But was it as a loving father? I mean, if the child doesn't exist, they can't have had a conventional burial.
Not without a death certificate.
Not without drawing attention to themselves.
What's the best way to dispose of a body? Don't dispose of it at all.
Exactly.
The coroner will demand a full postmortem.
We'll have to determine what killed her.
True.
I'll make a call.
Thank you.
Can I help you? I've got some information about Derek Marshall.
That little girl is me.
One second.
No.
It's out of the question that you remove Hope from the tank.
- Her body will be compromised.
- It's not your decision.
The coroner has ordered the body to be taken.
We need to ascertain cause of death.
If you don't co-operate, we will arrest you.
A little girl is dead.
Our investigation into the death of Derek Marshall led us here.
Without the samples, we won't be able to get to the truth.
You cannot take away a person's right to extend their life - if that is what they wish.
- She's already dead.
That is just your scientific prejudice.
You can't bring the dead back from the grave.
That I do know.
When there's a victim of a horrendous accident, we induce medical coma to help that body recover.
Now, this is recognised and accepted as good practice, right? Yes.
Well, sub-zero temperatures have been used to induce medical coma.
Did you know that? No medication, just temperature.
They freeze them and then they thaw them out.
So why is this any different? - What if she doesn't thaw? - Doesn't thaw? What do you mean? Archaeologists do it all the time.
They find specimens in extreme conditions and have to recreate similar conditions to stop the samples from degrading quickly.
It's not feasible with temperatures this extreme.
What happens if we limited the time we had her out of the tank? You'd have about 20 minutes before her body was compromised.
20 minutes.
I'm really sorry.
I tried.
This is Hope's mother.
It isn't fair what happened to her.
She deserves a second chance.
I'm going to do my very best to get her back in the tank as quickly as possible.
You will take good care of her.
She will.
I promise.
And I will let you know personally as soon as it's over.
OK? Thank you.
The scan's complete.
We've got eight minutes before she needs to be back.
That gives us two.
Ready? Yeah, that's it.
Most frames are unisex nowadays, but I'd say these were most likely worn by a man.
We think we know whose the glasses where, we just need more information.
Well, whoever he is, he's minus eight in his right eye, which makes him very short-sighted.
How are you getting on with those glasses? Get anywhere with them? Sent them away for DNA testing.
I think there's a chance of lifting something from the arms? I don't know.
We'll see what comes back.
Sounds promising.
You never know.
What? - I was having a chat with Max.
- Right.
Maybe you should slow down a bit.
You've got a lot going on right now.
Work's the bit I can handle.
Don't take that away from me.
Mum's started her treatment now so I'm hopeful it will help You really think she's up to it? Those drugs can be brutal, even if you're physically and mentally fit.
- I know what cancer drugs can do, Jack.
- Yeah.
OK.
As long as you're sure you're putting your mum through this for the right reasons.
- What's that supposed to mean? - Nothing.
Erm, just when I saw her the other day, she was Spit it out.
Go on, spit it out.
We're worried about you.
- We? What, you and Max? - Mm-hm.
I see.
Well, don't be.
I'm fine.
Nikki.
It all went fine.
Thank you.
Yes, I'd like to order a taxi, please.
Where are you I'm cheaper.
Just saying.
Hold on.
Plus, my car's right outside.
Fine.
But don't expect a tip.
If I'd known you were going to see Marshall's place, I might let you get that cab.
It can be your good deed for the day, Jack.
Maybe I've already done a good day today.
This is nice.
I thought she was a recluse.
Jack.
Come on.
Hurry up.
Hurry.
All right.
Testator silens Contestes e spiritu Silencium.