01x05 - Episode 5

[bunniefuu]

That's a hole. Like something's been driven through it.

Something like a nail.

Yes, it's me.

If you think I k*lled this boy, Ray, just say it.

In June, 1973, Slater was arrested following a fight outside a pub in Kentish town.

Dad!

He rang her from the call box. JoJo.

But it was one mistake.

He had sex with a child, for God's sake!

Your Turkish friends, I might need you to call them for me.

He had his accident so he wouldn't have been able to hurt anyone any more.

You said "hurt anyone". What do you mean?

Looks like we've got another victim.

♪ All we do is hide away ♪
♪ All we do is, all we do is hide away ♪
♪ All we do is lie in wait ♪
♪ All we do is, all we do is lie in wait ♪
♪ I've been upside down ♪
♪ I don't wanna be the right way round ♪
♪ Can't find paradise on the ground ♪

You OK?

Fine.

Scared.

(POP MUSIC AND CHATTER)

(KNOCK ON DOOR)

(THUMPING ON DOOR)

(KNOCK ON DOOR)

(THUMPING ON DOOR)

Your taxi.

I'm so sorry, Sheila.

Thank you.

I know you're in there!

Ray!

Ray!

Sir Phillip. Asil.

Your son sent me.

Mr Slater.

No, no, no, no, no. You, you, you said you were coming tomorrow.

We need to do it now, I'm afraid.

It's their anniversary.

We were having a --

Sorry.

♪ ABBA: Dancing Queen ♪
♪ Looking out for the place to go... ♪

Everyone listen up, please!

Will you listen to me, please?

Can someone turn the music off, please?

What on earth is going on?

We'll talk to you in a second, Mr Slater.

OK, we have a warrant to search this property, alongside the gardens and the out buildings.

So, I'm afraid the party is over.

And with the exception of the immediate Slater family, we would like you to leave as quickly and as quietly as possible, please.

Thank you.

(WAILS HYSTERICALLY)

Is she all right?

'Hi, this is Lizzie. Please leave a message.'

(BLEEP)

Hello, love.

It's me, again.

Please call. Even if it's just to say that you're safe.

I love you, babe.

Very much.

OK, Mr Slater. So, earlier tonight --

Am I under arrest?

No, you're not under arrest. You're free to leave any time.

But, we hope you'll want to help us with our investigation and, um, give us your side of things.

My side of what things?

I'm going to caution you, though, and tell you that you do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned anything you later rely on in court.

Anything you do say may be given in evidence.

My side of what things?

As I was saying, um, earlier tonight... your son, um, rang our station following a conversation he had this evening.

He rang you from our party?

He did.

And I spoke to both him and your wife..

.. and she confirmed what she had told your son, which is that she believes... you buried a body in Woodland at the bottom of your garden sometime in the late part of 1978. hat's just not true.

I-I mean, y-y-you must know she... she has no idea what she's saying.

You know, it's... it's not true.

You must know that.

It is not true.

Yes, I pressed her. Of course I did. Repeatedly for specific detail.

She actually said she saw him digging a hole in the copse in the middle of the night, then he got something... stuck it down there.

Something?

Probably a carpet. Cos that's what a sane man does in the middle of the night, isn't it?

You think she's sane?

According to you mate, she's fine.

A little forgetful, but, other than that, fine.

She actually said that she thought it was a body?

Yes. Yes, she did.

She waits 40 years to tell anyone?

Which is why, when she did, I... I just felt I had to call the police.

But I swear this, I never meant...

I never meant for this on their anniversary.

They said they're taking them to Ely.

I think one of us should go there, be there for them.

Fine, you go. I'll... I'll wait here.

Matt, all I want is for me to be as wrong as I've ever been about anything.

I don't care if mum and dad never spoke to me ever again.

I just want to be wrong.

How far's their nick?

Ten minutes.

Hm.

Their guvnor asked if we could give him an ETA.

Is the house clear of guests?

Yeah, clear now.

Tell him...

Oh, tell tell him we have absolutely no idea.

How many friends you have, man?

You haven't seen him.

Where is she?

Ray?

Where have you taken her?

Where have I...?

My wife.

What have you done to her?

I don't know where your n*gg*r-hating wife is, Ray.

Now, piss off!

Before I bust you up proper.

I wanted to say...

.. I want you to know...

.. if I've never said it before...

.. it has tortured me every single day...

.. of my life.

(SOBS) What I did.

Every single day.

And I'm so sorry.

Come on.

Come on. Hup, hup.

Dog's been through the whole house three times. There's nothing there.

What do we think this is now, guv?

Do you think we could have multiple bodies out here?

That Jimmy was just one of many.

We think.

We have to take it seriously, what she said. We have to.

But Claire Slater's a woman who's losing her mind, so we think... we hope...

I hope... that she's wrong.

And that there's nothing here.

Nothing at all.

(KNOCK ON DOOR)

(KNOCKING ON DOOR CONTINUES)

Coming.

(KNOCKING ON DOOR CONTINUES)

Hello?

Oh, it's Sheila from the community centre.

Oh, hi, Sheila. Hang on.

Hi.

I'm so sorry to disturb you this early, Grace.

It's fine. Are you OK?

Do you want to come in?

Oh, no, no, no. I'll be very quick.

I just thought you had a right to know.

I had to go down to the police station last night and tell them it was Robert who stole the money from the community hall safe.

He admitted it to me yesterday.

And also that he'd been stealing from the church for quite some time.

And you.

He told me he'd stolen some of your jewellery. He wouldn't tell me why.

Oh, he needs help, Grace. He really does.

God bless.

You wait for it all your life.

The knock on the door.

And then one day you wake up...

.. and realise your life IS the knock on the door.

Police never came. There was no trial, no prison sentence.

But you were punished.

What you got, Lulu?

Show me, then. Good girl.

(LULU BARKS EXCITEDLY)

What you got? OK, we've got something!

(LULU BARKS EXCITEDLY)

Steady, steady.

How sure?

If it were me, I'd dig.

We need a tent down here, please.

You need to get here.

Well, thank you for taking time to speak to me.

Don't be silly, Grace.

I'm just... so sorry.

And I want you to know we're all thinking of you and praying for you.

'All of you.'

Thank you, Geoff. Bye. Bye bye, now.

They think he might've been stealing money for years.

Tens of thousands.

Spent on what?

Don't know.

Wasn't on us though, was it?

That was my grandmother's ring.

How can you know someone your whole life and then...?

How does this happen?

(DOG BARKS)

How do you think people deal with it?

Deal with what?

Well...

.. all these cases where people pretend to be one thing for half a century and then turn out to be something else.

Wonder if they still love him.

Or do you just cut off?

Say, "I'm sorry.

Loved someone else.

Loved the person you SAID you were."

Here!

We found something!

What is it?

Just there.

Oh, no.

(DOOR OPENS)

Robert?

Good morning.

Morning, Geoff.

So...

Grace rang me.

Sheila went round there this morning after she'd been to the police.

OK.

So... how should I do this?

Do you want me to speak to our mob first or...?

Well, we would, of course, love to know what you've been spending it all on.

But, I think you owe it to Grace to tell her first.

I'll drive you around there, if you like, and then to the police.

Well, for what it's worth, none of it was for me.

And I'll walk, thanks.

Robert.

Don't try to stop me, Geoff.

Please.

I may look old and doddery, but I could still snap you in two.

You thought it'd be female?

No, no, I just...

I'm looking for theories as to how a fairly unremarkable bookkeeper ends up connected to two murders, and some love-triangle connection between Eric and, um, Jimmy and Joanna Bridges seemed like one possibility, but... as you might guess, I'm slightly struggling.

Hiya. Are you one of the Slaters?

Is that a body, then?

(STARTS CAR)

Les, don't go away. Talk to me. Is there a body there?

Are there any more!?

'Police have confirmed that a 76-year-old man is being interviewed in connection with the m*rder of James Sullivan nearly 40 years ago. Reports that further remains have been found near the suspect's house have not yet been confirmed. Sullivan, who was only 17 when he disappeared in -- '

(PHONE RINGS)

Hello.

They've arrested someone, Dad.

'For James Sullivan's m*rder. It-It's on the news. Switch it on. They've found another body in the back of his bloody garden, so Fenwick can send them the photos, but I don't think they're gonna be too interested now.'

You're in the clear, Dad.

TV: 'Where his remains were found by workers -- '

'Dad, are you there?'

I couldn't have left your mum on her own, Belle.

'Sorry?'

I mean, I couldn't let Fenwick do that to her.

What have they done? What did you tell the Turks to do?

I only spoke to them last night. They haven't done anything yet.

I'll just call them off now.

(HANGS UP)

Ask him what his last hours were, will you? My boy's.

If it is him, I do want you to prepare yourself for the fact that he he might not want to help us.

It sometimes goes like that.

But ask him.

And if he tells you, however bad it is, I want you to promise me you'll tell me what he says.

I will. Uh, I promise.

However bad it is.

It can't be as bad as I've spent a lifetime imagining.

Think, Curtis. Where would she go?

If you were her, what would you do?

Uh, did she ever talk about, you know, somewhere or someone she felt safe with?

Ray, I'm not interested.

OK?

I don't give a f*ck, mate.

I'd never abandon you.

I won't abandon her.

I hope you won't either.

And so, you have absolutely no idea how the body got there?

Well, of course, it's all I've been thinking about.

And?

Well... no.

No idea.

All I can think is, I got friendly with a lot of the residents of Arlingham House.

I stayed in touch with some of them.

And a few came to visit us over the years.

But, I took people on face value, DCI Stuart, and maybe... maybe I was naive.

A lot of these people had very dark pasts.

So, are you, um, suggesting that maybe an ex-resident put the body there?

No, I'm just guessing.

Can you give me names?

Oh, no, I can never remember names.

I mean, maybe it wasn't but, you know, it's... it's a remote spot.

I just know it wasn't me.

So, like you, I'm... I'm... I'm struggling.

Are you sure it was your husband, Claire?

Am I sure who was my husband?

You said, you think you saw your husband putting a body into the ground.

Are you sure it was him?

When did I say that?

Why don't you just tell me who it is, Eric?

How can I tell you who it is, if I didn't know he was down there?

I didn't say it was a man.

Oh, please.

It's a figure of speech.

I don't know anything about it.

Do you have any idea who the body is, Claire?

Is Carol coming?

No...

Carol's not coming. Do you know who it is?

Do you know what, I think we should leave it there, don't you?

My client --

(SOBS)

Sometimes I have these...

These memories are so clear.

Memories of what?

Memories of what, Claire?

I just want it all to end. (SOBS)

How can he still be out of signal? I rang him half a f*cking hour ago.

Look, I don't care how you do it. Just do it.

Just get someone to stop him.

(RADIO ON IN CAR)

'Police have now confirmed that a second body was found in the garden of the suspect who has been identified only as a 73-year-old Cambridgeshire man.

James Sullivan, who went missing in 1976, has been the subject of a -- '

So I'll get them both driven down to town now.

I've informed the sons about what's happening.

They'll make their own way down.

You and me can get a bit of shut eye and start fresh this afternoon.

With any luck, we should have more information on the body by then.

Great.

So, you OK to drive?

Yeah, I'm good. Thanks Can you bell Jake Collier, would you?

Ask him to speak to his witness Mackie again, about Eric Slater.

I want to know everything there is to know about him.

(DOORBELL)

Lizzie?

Erm... when she took me to see Hamlet, there were people down by the theatre who knew her.

People she gave money to.

Like, homeless people and that.

Um, she knew their names and some of them knew hers.

We'll need a photo.

Steady.

Brush.

Bye.

He fell asleep smoking, apparently.

Bed caught fire. Whole house went up.

Wouldn't have known a thing.

I'll be back by seven. We could all go out, have a curry or something.

And, if you fancy taking your granddad for a drink before, he's a bit low at the moment.

He could do with a bit of cheering up.

Take him down the Feathers?

Not the Feathers.

They still have pole dancers?

They're mainly Bulgarian now.

Brilliant.

I meant a nice chat over a pint somewhere quiet.

Not with naked women showing you their insides.

You don't want a heart att*ck on your conscience, do you?

It's a misconception that plastic doesn't degrade.

It does, but not through bacteria. Through light.

Luckily for us there isn't a lot of light six feet under, which is why this little beauty...

.. could still probably buy your lunch.

Jeez.

So, obviously we can't confirm anything until we get a DNA match, but we have good reason to believe that the remains are those of Nicholas Howard Whitmore, known as Nick.

He was born 12th of January, 1954, in Godstone, Surrey.

He was a son and a brother.

So, Nick was, um, last seen on December 30th, 1978, at a Clash concert at the Lyceum in the West End.

At the time of his disappearance he lived in Hammersmith and he was training to be a nurse.

But he disappeared about two and a half years after Jimmy, but, crucially, at least two years after the Slaters moved into their house.

Can we assume the body went in the ground close to the time of death?

We'll assume nothing yet.

Any obvious connections to Arlingham House or to Jimmy?

No, not yet.

But we've made preliminary contact with Nick's family and I'll be able to speak to them properly later today.

Murray, the original investigation determined that the card was last used in a pub in Hampstead.

It was called the King George.

And that was the 31st December, 1978, so in an ideal world, we'd need to place Eric Slater in or around that area on that same evening. It's a tough one, I know.

Got it.

Jack, where are you with Mackkie?

Seeing him at six.

And is there anything else coming through from the house?

No, no. Nothing more, from the house, the garden or the copse.

OK, that's good.

That's it for now.

Thank you, everyone.

Guv, surely we've got the wife saying she saw him put the body in the ground.

Actually, it's becoming clear that she has no idea what she saw.

And no jury would ever convict him on her testimony alone.

So... we need more.

We need much, much more.

The woman...

The girl, Joanna, that I had a relationship with...

.. she got pregnant... and she said that it was by me.

So, obviously, I offered to pay for the termination.

And I thought she'd done what she wanted.

Two years later... she rang me and told me that actually she hadn't been able to go through with it.

And she'd had the baby.

I was shocked... and scared.

But I said I would support them, the baby.

And I did so until the child, Thea, was 18.

Thea's now 38.

And she's made her way in life.

And as her father I've tried to help out as best I could.

Sometimes with emotional support.

Sometimes with money.

Not fortunes.

A hundred... occasionally a thousand.

But always with money I didn't have.

So I stole it.

I am now, and always have been, deeply ashamed by this.

I'm going to the police station now.

I'm not running from anything.

I just wanted to give you the facts, give you a chance to digest them.

Bastard!

Bastard!

Bastard!

No! Please, please.

You bastard!

(SOBS)

(INDISTINCT)

I'd like to start, Eric, if you don't mind, by going back to Jimmy.

Of course.

And seeing, um, if you can help me out with something that's been troubling me.

Well, if I can help, I will.

OK, so, I now think that the as*ault on Paul West was actually nothing to do with football.

That it was, as his sister said, a h*m* att*ck.

I...

Well, I must confess, I couldn't see a link between West's att*ck and Jimmy's m*rder.

I mean, Jimmy was, um... clearly in a long-term heterosexual relationship with Joanna Bridges.

Yes, JoJo.

Exactly.

Hm.

But, what I didn't know until earlier today, when a colleague of mine spoke to an old friend of Jimmy's from the hostel, was that when Jimmy first came to London, he was homeless and broke with no obvious way of making money.

That he did what a lot of young runaways did back then, which was to work as a male prost*tute.

Now, in the months before he was k*lled, we know that Jimmy borrowed £50 from a g*ng to pay for an abortion for JoJo, and that that money was then stolen.

So he desperately needed money.

Another 50 for the abortion and the original 50 to pay back to the g*ng.

Mm.

And he tried to sell a car, but like you said... everybody knew it was stolen.

Mm.

So, in his desperation to find the money...

.. we think he went back to selling sex.

How awful.

And you found out about that.

No.

And because I think you had a violent hatred of h*m*, at some point in July 1976, you m*rder*d him and buried his body in the cellar of Arlingham House.

Absolutely not.

I had absolutely no idea about any of what you've just told me.

Well, that's interesting.

Because Jimmy's friend says not only did you pretty much know everything the residents were up to, but that you'd told him you'd seen Jimmy servicing a male client down an alley behind a Hampstead "q*eer pub".

What friend?

A resident of Arlingham House called Alan Mackay.

Known as Mackkie.

Never... never heard of him.

And, listen, half that lot were drug addicts.

Th-The rest were alcoholics.

Do you really trust what any of them have to say?

These are the same people you say you invited to your house, Eric.

I don't think I've ever even been to Hampstead.

I had no idea Jimmy was doing that. And what it has to do with this other lad.

Well, let me tell you. Because today...

I've been talking with Nick Whitmore's sister and father and that was his name, by the way.

Here's the thing, Eric.

It turns out that Nick was gay.

That Nick often frequented gay bars and pubs.

And in particular a pub called the King George.

In Hampstead.

Like I just said, I don't think I've ever been there.

Do you know when the cash dispenser was invented?

No.

1967.

First one ever used in the whole world was in Enfield, by Reg Varney.

Do you remember him? On The Buses.

Vaguely.

So, by 1978, there were hundreds all around the country.

And there was one at 364 Haverstock Hill, Hampstead.

About 20 yards from the King George.

You're one for keeping records, aren't you, Eric?

Must be the uh... book-keeper in you, I suppose.

This is a copy of a document.

We found this in your house earlier.

Can you tell me the date of this statement?

December 1978.

And look at the entry dated the 31st of December. What does it detail?

Er... a cashpoint withdrawal.

£10.

And that number by the entry corresponds to a specific machine.

Do you know which one it is?

Well, we rang the bank and we asked them.

It's for a cashpoint on Haverstock Hill.

Number 364. Right next to the pub.

So, we can now place you within 20 yards of the last known whereabouts of Nicholas Whitmore.

So we now have a connection between his m*rder and Jimmy's.

On top of the numerous connections to you and Jimmy.

And, of course, Nicholas's body was found in your garden.

The CPS are going to charge you, Eric, with both their murders.

Which means that, um, now is the opportunity for you to think about the victim's families and tell us the truth about what actually happened.

But I didn't do it.

Eric Michael Slater, you are charged that, on a date between 1st June, 1976 and 1st January, 1977, that you did unlawfully m*rder James Niall Sullivan contrary to common law.

You are also charged on the 31st December, 1978 that you did unlawfully m*rder Nicholas Howard Whitmore, contrary to common law.

(SECURITY DOOR BUZZER)

Do you have anything to say?

I just thought he was going to use them to scare Fenwick.

Josh...

.. we'll be OK.

It's going to be OK.

He's paid for a man to be m*rder*d, Bella.

Our father.

It's not ever gonna be OK.

(BLEEPING)

What is it?

DCI Stuart.

I need to tell her I didn't k*ll them.

But I know who did.