Silent Witness (1996) s27e02 Episode Script

1
FORD: This looks like the work of
Calvin Dunn. 20 years ago, four victims -
two male, two female - were found
strangled in the West London area.
Calvin Dunn, 35 years old in 2004.
Two kids, Lee and Mia.
MIA: I don't have a father.
We don't talk about that man
in this house.
Lee.
I'm not here to fight.
There are police all around
St Margaret's Church.
His last target was a young sex worker -
Dominic Johnson.
But Dominic got away.
I have to go and speak to a man
called Charles Beck.
He used to be a pathologist.
He examined the first four victims
on the Dunn case,
and then his wife went missing.
And now we're all talking
about Calvin again.
It's a narcissist's fever dream.
That's the sail from Charles Beck's boat.
Could the pathologist
have used his knowledge
of Calvin Dunn's killings
to get rid of his own wife?
LOW CHATTER
CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS
- Still here.
- Mm-hm.
It takes a while.
They have to be so careful
with the remains.
20 years in the water,
what's left could disintegrate.
Do you believe me now? I've been
telling you for years where she is.
Could you accompany Dr Beck home, please?
I told you I was being followed.
You did nothing about it.
How many times did your lot have him
in for interview?
Go home, Charles. We'll keep you
informed of the pathologist's findings.
You're going to wreck her life, too?
I was trying to help you!
Look what happened to me.
He said she was in the water.
Beck knew Calvin Dunn's MO intimately.
What better way to get rid of your wife?
CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS
She's been there for 20 years?
Velvy, we need to be quick here.
We need to get moving
before the remains
and the clothing disintegrate.
We need to move fast.
Now, please.
OFFICER: Right. Yeah, copy that,
Control. They're moving her now.
WATER RUNS
HE SIGHS
This is Zoe Beck's
dental records from 2002.
Why are the teeth pink?
You see it sometimes in bodies
that have been in the water
for a long time.
It's thought to be from haemorrhage
in the pulp chamber,
but nobody knows for sure.
Unusual spacing.
Amalgams on upper right six and seven.
So it's her?
Dr Beck's wife?
Do you think he could have killed her?
Velvy, why don't you go and find Jack
and see if you can give him a hand?
- Now?
- Yeah.
I'll go now.
Thanks.
WATER RUNS
Excuse me?
WATER CONTINUES TO RUN
I'm afraid you can't be in here.
- Did you hear me?
- For God's sake!
Charles.
You can't be here, Charles.
Yes, of course, I just came to, uh
Yeah. Sorry.
Automatic pilot, you know?
Come on.
I-I think I think
I wanted to talk to you.
I'm not allowed to talk to you
about any of this, Charles.
You know that.
The police will notify you
if we have a positive ID.
Yeah, I remember. I remember. Just
Look, you need to protect yourself.
Sorry?
This job, it wants to kill you.
What's he doing here?
You know he can't be here.
I know that, Gabriel. Thank you.
Shall I call the police?
He's upset.
We pulled his wife out of
the reservoir this morning.
He wanted to see her.
Or corrupt the evidential trail.
CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS
Uh-oh, here he comes.
What are you doing here?
Dr Alexander suggested
I see if you need any help.
Bet she did.
All right, then.
Make yourself useful. Photos?
- Yeah.
- Work your way down.
- This side?
- Uh-huh.
So this is Charles Beck's boat, the Zoe?
And her body was wrapped in its sail.
It's not a sail. It's a spinnaker.
Big yachtsman, are you, Velvy?
No, I looked it up.
A spinnaker is an extra sail.
It's like a sixth gear.
Kill your wife,
use your own sail to wrap her in,
then spend the next 20 years
telling the police where to look for her?
Well, maybe he wasn't
a very good murderer.
- They can't all be
- What, pros?
Like Calvin Dunn?
Is that where you'd store
your spinnaker, Velvy?
Mm-hm.
Well
THUD
JACK EXCLAIMS
Are you OK?
HE GROANS
- It's an easy place to bang your head.
- Yeah.
- Hey, grab us a swab there.
- Mm hm.
Quite sharp there.
That's it.
Maybe whoever took the spinnaker
also hit their head here.
FORD: Are these meant to be the same?
They are if you know how to look at them.
The one on the left
is Calvin Dunn's DNA sample
from 2004.
The other one is from the boat
that we took a sample from yesterday.
His DNA was on the mast
near where the spinnaker was stowed.
So we can put Dunn on the boat,
wrapped her in the sail,
dumped her in the water.
So Charles Beck didn't kill his wife.
You seem disappointed.
Do I?
If Beck had killed Zoe,
I wouldn't need to feel so
- guilty.
- What?
I was the one who suggested
putting Beck on TV
to talk about the murders.
So Dunn stalked and killed his wife.
So it's your fault? That's ridiculous.
I kind of liked him.
Sorry?
Calvin Dunn.
I felt as if I knew him.
Beck was right.
I let Calvin Dunn keep on killing.
Are we going to be much longer?
I gotta pick up the kids, you see.
FORD: Mm. Lee and Mia, right?
Mm. They do dance on Wednesdays.
You and Mrs Dunn
have been together a long time.
14 years.
It's difficult.
What do you mean, Calvin?
We got together at school. We were kids.
But now there's things I can't tell her.
What sort of things?
Sometimes I tell her stuff
that I shouldn't.
Oh, you're only as sick as your secrets.
That's what you said.
Can you tell me?
TEASINGLY: Sorry!
OSA.
Are you talking about your work?
Official Secrets Act?
Nikki.
Close the door.
I've done some digging.
Calvin Dunn was working
on a secret drone program
for the Pentagon.
He helped design software
for the drone-targeting system.
Dunn was spending his days
writing software
to kill people from the sky.
"I am God." Right?
"I look down on all of you."
It's all online.
There was a huge dump of it
on WikiLeaks in 2010.
It's all there.
Even the software codes.
Rumour online is that
Calvin Dunn leaked it himself.
In 2010.
That's six years after everyone
thought he was dead.
I don't call myself Mia any more.
Not that it helps.
People find out soon enough.
I saw this American woman on TV.
Her dad killed, like, ten people.
She asked for a brain test,
and they said her brain was
completely normal.
But you could tell.
Shouldn't believe them.
I heard he broke into your house.
What did he want?
I dunno.
He never wanted anything from me.
It's you he loved.
He should be coming for you.
His "little soldier".
I hope he does.
I dream of it.
I shouldn't have come.
We're no sort of family, the Dunns.
DOOR CLOSES
No-one had better die today -
we'd have nowhere to do the PM..
Unless you want us to do it
outside in the car park.
Sorry.
There was nowhere else
big enough to do it.
I'll clean up, honest.
CHARLES: Dr Alexander.
Nikki, about yesterday, I'm sorry.
I shouldn't have been there.
I've been very emotional.
Of course.
That's not what I wanted to
talk to you about.
I wanted to tell you myself.
The woman from the reservoir.
The dental records and DNA are a match.
It's Zoe.
I'm so sorry.
Do you ever imagine
how it would feel to hear it yourself?
- Charles
- I never did.
Not once.
What is that? A failure of imagination
or empathy?
When will she be released?
When can I bury her?
You told me already?
No, I didn't.
Ah.
You know how it works, Charles.
It's up to the coroner.
Hopefully soon.
We found something else on your boat.
Traces of DNA matching Calvin Dunn.
HE SIGHS
HE SCOFFS
That supposed to make me happy, is it?
No.
Vindicated, maybe.
Give me some kind of closure?
I'll make tea.
HE CLEARS HIS THROA
Are you getting any help, Charles?
HE SCOFFS
Some trainee family liaison officer?
- Please.
- That's not what I meant.
You were in our changing room.
You thought
HE EXHALES
HE GROANS
You must have seen it on the lab bench.
The senile neuritic plaques,
the neurofibrillary tangles.
I've seen it.
I'm fine at the moment -
it's under control.
Are you taking any medication?
You You can't tell anyone about this.
You have to promise.
I'm not a danger to anyone.
Not even myself.
I'm not driving any more
I'm sorry.
Are you worried?
About the Alzheimer's?
There's a lot I wouldn't mind forgetting.
But
I don't want to forget her.
- I let her down.
- No, you didn't.
You never stopped. You never gave up.
Ford will find Calvin Dunn
and bring him to justice.
On one side of the scale is Zoe
four other victims, the families,
and on the other side there's him.
How can he ever pay that price?
Velvy.
Sorry. You jumped a mile.
HE EXHALES
Think you'd seen a ghost.
Worse than that.
You sounded like my mum.
Scarier than any ghost.
I know I said I'd clear up,
but it's just that
there's this one last piece
that I found
Carry on.
HE CHUCKLES
Oh, my mum loved the Church.
Always polishing something.
The floor, the brass
The vicar!
HE LAUGHS
"God's eyes are always on you."
God and the Queen -
always looking down on you.
JACK: God What the hell's he doing?
Velvy!
If Professor Mary Poppins
sees this, he'll do his nut.
Have you been through this one, Velvy?
- What?
- You're OK with this?
Velvy found DNA on a piece of clothesline
used to wrap the sail in.
After 20 years?
It was on the inside of the knot.
You know, where you'd ask someone
to put their finger?
Calvin Dunn?
No. A second DNA source.
It's partial, but it's not Dunn's.
Then who?
As yet unidentified.
We're sending it off
to see if it can be enhanced.
So he had help at the boat?
Not just there.
These are the historic samples
sent over from the police.
We found the same source
at three of the other Calvin Dunn scenes.
- He had an accomplice.
- He still has.
The same source was found
at St Margaret's Church last week.
We're just starting
on the Dominic Johnson crime scene now.
FORD: Dominic, you were the only
survivor of the Calvin Dunn attacks.
Nobody knows.
Not my husband, not our kids.
I've built a new life
for myself out here.
I've been going through
your 2004 statement, Dominic.
You got into Dunn's car.
He drove you to the woods
then he attacked you.
And then he stopped.
You said you thought
he went back to the car
to find something to wrap you in,
and you managed to escape.
It was a miracle.
JACK: Do you recall
anyone else being there?
Wh-What do you mean?
We found evidence someone else might
have been present when Dunn attacked you.
You're saying there was
someone else there?
- FORD: We think it's possible.
- Who?
An accomplice?
Dunn had someone with him?
I-I don't understand.
Someone else was there.
I know this is difficult, Dominic,
- but please try and remember.
- I can't. Stop asking me.
I'm so sorry, Dominic.
I can't stop asking you.
- Because you are the only
- I know why.
But it's not my responsibility.
- Dominic, you are the only one
- You call me up and tell me
that when I was nearly murdered,
there was another person there,
watching, helping
Dominic
Fuck you.
HE CLEARS HIS THROA
HE SIGHS
Are these the clothes
from the man at St Margaret's?
JACK: I'm trying to find a better
sample of the second source DNA.
We've got plane tree spores,
concrete dust and tyre particles.
A couple of hairs here. Not human.
Maybe he had a cat or a dog.
If it's a rare breed,
we might be able to trace him
through that.
We're in long-shot territory here,
aren't we?
It's twice as thick as human hair.
A big dog? Like a wolfhound?
It's got a different cellular structure.
HE SIGHS
What are you looking for?
Hoffman's Book Of Mammal Hair.
Thomas kept a copy. It's a classic.
Yeah.
It's horse hair.
How many horses and stables can there be
around Greater London?
Lots. Could be tough to find this one.
Unless someone really loves it.
Smokey.
Or Stick It In Your Pipe And Smoke It,
to give her her racing name.
They registered her DNA
in case she was stolen.
That's the English for you -
love their animals more than people.
Can I help you?
I saw that that picture
on Twitter a few times.
It never occurred to me
for a second it was Mason.
Mason?
Yeah, but he, um
He didn't look like that
in real life, you know?
I never even saw his hair.
He always wore a beanie,
even for mucking out in summer.
He worked here?
Mason - is that a surname?
Never asked.
It's all pretty informal
round here, you know?
Mason helped out, and, well,
we pretended not to notice.
Notice what?
JACK EXHALES
He lived here?
Yeah. He came and went.
We wondered if he was living rough.
Yeah, Mason hated the idea
that anyone would think he was homeless.
I think he had problems.
Pills.
When did you last see him?
HE EXHALES
Dunno.
Last week, maybe.
Like I said, he came and went.
- No family, address?
- No.
But I got his phone number -
it's been disconnected.
OFFICER: Ma'am.
Thanks.
We're checking
all Mason's calls and texts.
His phone last pinged
on a tower in Rickmansworth.
04.24 on the 21st.
Only a few hours before he was
found dead at the church.
- Mm. 11 miles away.
- Did he make any calls?
Ah. There's one here at 03.45.
Who was he calling?
He called 999.
Leo, get on to 999 dispatch -
get me a record of this call.
On it.
Rickmansworth.
St Margaret's Church.
How did Mason get from one to the other?
We know so little about him.
Not even a full name.
He liked horses.
Man at the stable says
he thought he was northern,
- from the northeast.
- Boss.
Emergency services operator.
Which service do you require?
CHOKING
- Do you require fire
- Please. Doctor.
- police or ambulance?
- I need a doctor.
HE GAGS
What's the nature of your emergency, sir?
Sir, can you tell me where you are?
Please. I need an ambulance, please.
Sir, can you tell me your location?
I have you in the Rickmansworth area.
Are you at an address?
HE GASPS
Sir?
West 4 Dispatch.
I have an emergency caller
who's non-responsive.
I'm sending through the call location.
DISPATCH: I have that,
thank you. We will attend.
They sent an ambulance?
I need to find that crew.
Get me their call sign.
They didn't send an ambulance.
They sent a single responder.
MRU 0205.
Motorcycle Response Unit.
0205 is Lee Dunn's call sign.
PHONE VIBRATES
What?
VELVY: Jack,
that second source DNA we found
at the Calvin Dunn killings
I asked for a familial search,
and the highest-ranked match
was to a male relative of Calvin Dunn's.
It's Lee Dunn.
All the historic crime scenes
contain second source DNA
that was not identifiable back then.
DNA at four of those sites is now
confirmed as belonging to Lee Dunn.
He was only eight years old.
What sort of an accomplice is that?
Velvy also found
DNA matching Lee's profile
on the inside of a knot from the sail
- that Zoe Beck's body was wrapped in.
- Inside a knot?
SHE SCOFFS
He was just a child.
He was also his alibi.
If Lee was helping his father then,
maybe he's helping him still.
He's not like other dads.
He does stuff with me.
Makes me stuff, tells me stuff.
FORD: What else do you do with him?
Camping.
And where do you do that?
We don't do it any more. Not since Mia.
She's too little.
On Tuesday night, you told me
your dad was baby-sitting.
Yeah, we watched The Goonies.
It's a 12A, but he lets me.
What about when you went to sleep?
Did you hear him go out?
Dad lets me stay up until 10.30,
when Mum comes home.
We make dinner together
I help him with everything.
SIRENS WAIL
FOOTSTEPS STOMP
Armed police!
Wait, wait, wait! Wait!
What are you doing here?
Come, out, quick.
Armed police!
- How'd you get in there?
- I know where he keeps his keys.
I got this text from him saying
"I'm sorry”, and I was worried.
He's not picking up his phone.
I know. We think he's with his dad.
We think he's helping him.
What are you talking about?
Lee hates his dad.
PHONE VIBRATES
- Yeah?
- Boss.
We found a car at Colne Valley.
It was registered to Calvin Dunn.
OFFICER: Bring it in.
Check your radios.
DOG SNIFFS
DOG BARKS
Let's do this.
DOGS BARK
BARKING CONTINUES
Over here!
HE PANTS
Clear!
OVER RADIO: Clear.
Those dogs picked up the scent
of Calvin and Lee Dunn.
They were both here.
Calvin's been living rough all this time.
Well, Lee always said his dad
had a place in Colne Woods.
He said he took him here once, camping.
Looks like they left in a hurry.
We might not be far behind.
OVER RADIO:
Control to 26, are you reading?
HE CHOKES
Get medics! He's alive!
HE GASPS
HE COUGHS
HE GASPS
Find him.
Find him!
I want a ring of steel.
Calvin Dunn is in those woods.
No-one gets in or out until we find him.
Yes, ma'am.
SHE SIGHS
He did this to you.
Your father.
Where's he gone, Lee?
I don't know.
You should've left me to die.
Has he been living in the woods
all this time?
- Where is he?
- I begged for you to find him!
You begged us?
You were helping him.
We know you answered that 999 call.
Did you kill Mason?
Did you watch your dad do it?
I have to do what he tells me.
You've been at it a long time, Lee.
Calvin's little helper.
You don't understand.
SHE SCOFFS
I am the only one who understands.
He gets under your skin, doesn't he?
I listen to what he says,
and I don't have a voice.
And I thought I could put it right
by saving lives,
but he was watching.
He's always watching, all the time
looking down.
He said I was his little soldier.
Where's Jack?
Colne Valley.
The police are searching the woods
for Calvin Dunn.
Is that the box from Mia Dunn's house?
Yes. I'm cataloguing it now.
GABRIEL: We found a note
with Calvin Dunn's handwriting.
It was in the box
from his daughter's house.
I think it's a car registration.
721MV49,
I'm running it through the PNC now.
No. It's nothing.
Maybe it's a foreign reg.
If it's all right with you,
I need to get on.
It's not a car regq.
- Goodbye, Professor.
- It's GARS.
- I beg your pardon?
- Global Area Reference System.
Like GPS. It's what the Pentagon use.
What's the location?
Can you get me the GPS equivalent?
It's Denham Marsh.
It's woodlands. There seems to be
some sort of structure there.
I'm sending you the corresponding
GPS coordinates now.
OK, we're on it.
DOG BARKS
SHOUTING
GIVES COMMAND
JACK: Jesus.
This must be where he brought them.
Where is he?
Oh, Dr Alexander.
Toxicology for Mr Mason is in.
It felt strange calling him
"man from St Margaret's"
now that we know his name.
You're right, Velvy. Good idea.
There are traces of lamotrigine.
But at subtherapeutic levels.
Are the brain and laryngeal samples
back from Micro-CT?
They've been decalcified.
I'll get the slides now.
DOOR OPENS
FOOTSTEPS APPROACH
I think we found where Calvin Dunn's
been hiding out.
What do you think of this?
The tox report showed
low levels of lamotrigine.
That's right. Subtherapeutic.
Look there.
There's background sclerosis.
So Mason was epileptic.
Where is he now? Mason?
We moved him to storage.
A sustained epileptic fit
could cause paralysis
of the respiratory muscles.
Subtherapeutic levels of lamotrigine
can cause SE.
He was living a pretty sketchy life.
It's quite possible
that he wasn't taking
his anti-epileptics regularly.
So death could've occurred
in the course of an epileptic fit.
What about the parchmentation?
Perimortem.
But it could have happened
soon after death.
He died, and THEN he was strangled?
Why?
Maybe because
someone wanted us to believe
that he was killed by Calvin Dunn.
FORD: Your father didn't kill
that man, did he, Lee?
You didn't kill Mason either.
Nobody did.
Mason died
from an extended epileptic fit.
I tried to save him.
I really did.
So he was already dead?
He was non-responsive when I got there.
Worked on him for 20 minutes.
Oh, so that explains the bruising.
What it doesn't explain
is why you then strangled him
and left him in the church.
I wanted you to think he was back.
Why, Lee?
To punish us for not finding him?
It was 20 years.
And you stopped looking.
- Even you.
- Oh, Lee
| hid Mason's body,
and then I went back for my car
and my dad's old stuff.
And then I took the body
to St Margaret's,
just like Dad did.
So it was all you.
The call to your sister.
The break-in at her house.
Wearing his clothes.
His aftershave.
The tent in the woods.
Calvin Dunn was never there.
But he's always there!
You know that.
He's never gone away.
I needed you to find him.
There's something else you didn't
tell me, isn't there, Lee?
No.
You were with him back then.
Every time.
Why didn't you tell me?
HE SOBS
I didn't want to believe it.
You just going to stand there, buddy?
Or are you going to help?
Pass me one of those.
I helped him.
But he could've done it without me.
And then Aysha told me she was pregnant.
How can a man like me be a father?
You never killed anyone.
What? You don't think I could?
You don't know anything, Jane.
I think about that all the time.
Is it possible, Lee,
that you'd think about it all the time
not because you're like him,
- but because you're nothing like him?
- No.
You should have left me there.
You could've died.
Another minute, they said,
and you would have been dead.
Just so we could think that was him, too?
No.
I wanted to die.
I deserve to die.
No. I tied it tight.
I mean, there has to be a price,
doesn't there?
You know, I should have to pay
for what I did, too.
Have you seen your father, Lee?
HE SCOFFS
The truth this time.
You know he's alive!
They released all that stuff
about the drones.
He showed me videos when I was little.
Fire from the sky.
You haven't seen him.
I feel him.
I feel that he's alive.
Do you feel it, too?
I wonder where he is, Calvin Dunn.
Dead. Or far away.
I always thought what we do is the end.
But it isn't, is it?
It's just the beginning.
We see the rock go into the pond,
but we're not around to see
the ripples that spread out after.
For years.
For ever.
KNOCKING
Who are you?
- Oh, Charles, I'm
- I'm messing with you.
Come in.
You always said it wasn't Calvin.
You get an instinct
for these things, don't you?
After a while.
We were all fish once.
Then one fine Palaeozoic day,
we dragged ourselves onto land.
Tetrapods became reptiles, birds, mammals
and then humans.
We went from striving to survive to this.
Finding new and better ways
to destroy each other.
That's evolution, is it?
Then there's you.
Your garden, your work,
your love for Zoe.
I think you're evolved.
You don't know me very well.
I'm as Palaeozoic as the next man.
Where's Nikki?
- Still at Beck's?
- We haven't seen her.
What is it?
Call Ford.
I'd like you to come.
You and Jack.
Well, thanks to you, I can say
goodbye while I still remember.
We'd be honoured.
Is everything OK, Nikki?
What's wrong?
You were so sure Calvin Dunn was dead.
I still am.
Why?
The attack on Dominic Johnson.
The one who got away.
How did he get away?
Calvin Dunn gave a voluntary DNA sample.
When it came back as a match
to the victims,
you'd have known before anyone.
Even before the police.
Did you go after him, Charles?
Was it you who stopped
the attack on Dominic Johnson?
That's how you know
Calvin Dunn is dead, isn't it?
You killed him.
I think you should go now, Nikki.
You said no amount of prison
would give you justice.
So you took it for yourself.
Did it work?
Not yet.
The police will come.
Your DNA was at the scene.
It doesn't matter any more.
I'm ready for this to end.
SHE EXHALES
DOOR OPENS
CHARLES: I'm ready for this to end.
SHAKILY: Charles?
WINGS FLUTTER
Oh, God.
Charles?
Oh!
SHE PANTS
Oh, my God
Who are you?
CHARLES: It took three years
for him to start talking.
After three more,
he had nothing left to say.
He told me all about the drones.
I made sure the world found out.
He even told me where Zoe was.
But I could never find her.
She was in the reservoir, somewhere.
NIKKI: This is Calvin Dunn?
At first, I put him in there
to find out where Zoe was.
But it was never about that.
I thought I could punish him for ever.
Thought it might help.
It didn't.
I won't remember for much longer.
Maybe I won't even remember he's here.
Take him if you want.
Key's on the wall out here.
It's just out there.
DOOR CREAKS
Charles
Charles!
MUSIC PLAYS OVER SPEECH
MUSIC PLAYS OVER SPEECH
BIRDSONG
POLICE RADIO CHATTER
FORD: What are we meant to do?
There's nothing left of him.
Mm-hm. Where's Nikki?
Over there.
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