Series 23, Episode 44/45: A Model Murder
Date: Saturday 12th/Sunday 13th July 2008
Investigating Officers: DCI Jack Meadows, DI Neil Manson, DS Stuart Turner, DC Joanne Masters
Jo went into the station earlier than her girlfriend the next morning, keen to make a start on interviewing Larry Franks. By the time Hannah's alarm woke her, there was no sign of the brunette anywhere, just a note on the kitchen table telling her where she was. With a frown, Hannah scrunched it up. She was well aware that she'd asked the older woman to prove Franks' involvement in Cindy's death, but now she was worrying that Jo was getting too invested in the case.
Calling goodbye to her family, reminding them that they were having dinner with Sam and Phil that evening so they would be round sometime in the afternoon to pick them up, the woman made her way into work. She went up to the Incident Room first, catching up on all the developments that she'd missed since she went home the night before. Thankfully, Kezia had left her a note on the desk with a list of what the DI had asked her to complete. Not all of it was to do with the Statham case; some of the reports he wanted finished were at least a week old.
Deciding to start with the oldest first, Hannah got stuck into her paperwork. Less than an hour in, she felt her concentration wondering and decided that she needed to take a break. Hoisting herself out of her chair, the pregnant detective wandered out of the room in the vague direction of the canteen. It took her a couple of minutes to realise she was heading towards the interview rooms.
No one stopped her, so Hannah checked each observation room until she found where Jo and Stuart were interviewing Larry Franks. Pulling the door closed behind her, she moved to stand behind the glass, folding her arms over her bump and watching carefully.
She hadn't been watching for long when Jo called a break. She and Stuart left the interview room, talking quietly between themselves. Hannah waited a few moments before leaving the obbo room, not wanting her girlfriend to think she was spying on her. She went and picked up a couple of cups of coffee from the canteen, handing one to Jo as soon as she returned to CID and asking how the case was going.
"Slowly." Jo told her with a sigh, taking a grateful sip of her drink. "He's completely obsessed with Cindy, though, that much is clear."
"Hannah, can I have a word?" Neil looked between the two women and Jo smiled, before heading away. "I need you to go with Smithy to Leela's flat. She's been assaulted."
"Is she alright?" The red-head asked worriedly, not needing to be told twice that she was allowed to visit a crime scene. It was the first time she'd been allowed out of the station since her return to work.
"According to Inspector Gold, she's shaken but alright." He looked pointedly at her. "No heroics, Hannah."
"Got it, Guv." She agreed, heading down to meet Smithy as quickly as she could manage.
He grinned at her from his position leaning against the area car, before moving round to open the passenger's door. "They're letting you out, then?"
"Everyone else is tied up with the Statham case. They didn't really have a choice."
They chatted amicably on the drive to Leela's flat. Hannah was enjoying being out of the station and Smithy was enjoying her company. They hadn't had a chance to work together since before her abduction and, if he admitted it, the Sergeant felt unnecessarily guilty about the circumstances surrounding it. He had been the last person to speak to Hannah before Alison Hardcastle abducted her and he hadn't noticed that she had gone missing. He knew that the woman didn't hold it against him, but it was still weighing heavily on his conscience.
Smithy was about to bring the subject up as they parked, but Hannah climbed out of the car before he could even open his mouth. Deciding that perhaps it wasn't the best time anyway, he followed her up the stairs and along the walkway to Leela's flat.
She let them in straight away, leading them to the living room where she sank down on the sofa. Once they had ascertained that she wasn't seriously injured and she had refused point blank to let them take her to St Hugh's to be checked over, Hannah launched into questioning her.
"Did you see who attacked you?"
"No, it all happened so fast." Leela told her, wincing as she leant forward to pick up her mug from the coffee table. "I noticed the front door had been forced open and then he came running out of the flat. I must have disturbed him."
"Right, take your time, but did he say anything to you?" Smithy asked, pausing in looking around the room.
"Something about not messing with him. He must have thought I was someone else."
"D'you think he took anything?"
Leela looked around. "Don't know… I haven't had time to check out the whole flat, though."
"D'you want me to have a look around for ya?"
"Sure, be my guest."
Hannah smirked at the Sergeant left the room. "You do realise you've just given him permission to snoop around and indulge his nosiness?"
"Oi!" Smithy shouted from another room and the two women smiled at each other.
When Leela winced again as she moved, Hannah frowned and perched on the coffee table. "Are you sure you don't need to get checked out? We can take you over to St Hugh's if you want?"
"Nah, I'm fine. It just took me by surprise, that's all."
"OK, I'll call a CSE to come and look for prints."
She was about to pull out her mobile to do just that, when Smithy called her. Looking quickly at the PC, she stood and moved through the flat, leaning against the door frame of a particularly messy bedroom. She arched an eyebrow as she looked around. It didn't match with what she'd expected Leela's bedroom to look like, so she assumed it must be a spare room.
"It looks like he's given the spare room a good going over."
"No, Shane must have left it like this this morning." Leela corrected them. "He's a friend, he's been staying here."
"It's hard to tell if anything's been taken."
The PC nodded wearily. "He keeps promising to sort all his stuff out, then he forgets."
"Typical guy." Hannah said, exchanging a look with the other woman.
"Umm… it's pretty difficult to forget about that." Smithy said meaningfully, pulling a bag out of one of the drawers. Leela's face dropped immediately and Hannah stepped forward, taking the bag from the Sergeant and frowning at it. "I'm guessing, but that looks like heroin and enough to make plenty of wraps."
"Maybe this is what whoever broke in was looking for?" Hannah suggested, raising an eyebrow.
Leela shook her head. "I've no idea how that got there, Sarge."
"You know how serious this is, Leela."
"How long has Shane been living here?" Hannah questioned, glancing around the room again. Considering there was still a half-full suitcase of clothes in the corner, she wouldn't think he'd been there long.
"Err… a few weeks." The PC said, confirming the detective's assumption.
"And his surname is…?"
"Halligan. Look… neither of us have anything to do with this. Honestly."
"Leela?" A tall, dark haired man entered the flat, pushing past Smithy and drawing the woman into a tight hug. He glanced at Hannah in confusion, before facing his friend again. "I turned around as soon as I got your message. Are you OK?"
"Umm… Shane, this is DC Hannah McKay, Sergeant Smith from Sun Hill."
"What's going on?"
"We found what we believe to be heroin amongst your personal possessions." Smithy told him bluntly as Hannah held it up with an unimpressed expression on her face. "D'you mind telling me how it got there?"
The Australian laughed disbelievingly. "No… it's not mine." When he saw that his friend was looking at him as though trying to work something out, he shrugged. "Leela?"
"Given what we've just found and where we found it, I've got no other option, we're gonna have to carry on with this down at the station." Smithy told him, reaching out and grabbing the man's arm. "Shane Halligan, I'm arresting you for possession of a Class A drug."
Shane argued as Smithy led him from the flat, protesting his innocence and calling for Leela to do something. The PC looked as though she was going to say something, to try and do something to prevent the arrest, but Hannah lay a hand on her arm.
"Leave it, Leela." She advised. "We'll clear this up down at the station, OK?"
The four of them headed down to the area car and back to Sun Hill. Shane was protesting the whole way and, the longer it went on, the more it irritated Hannah until she snapped at him to be quiet. Leela sat in silence, mentally digesting the situation. Smithy simply scowled at the chastised man in the back of the car until they arrived at the station.
"We should go and see Gina." Smithy muttered as they climbed out of the area car.
Hannah nodded in agreement. "I'll get Shane booked in with the Custody Sergeant while you two go and speak to her. It'll be better for Leela if she sees Gina straight away."
"You sure you can manage?" Smithy checked, his guilt causing him to want to be absolutely sure she'd be alright dealing with the man on her own.
"I can handle it." The detective assured him with a grin, patting his cheek. "You're just adorable."
He rolled his eyes as Hannah led Shane up the ramp and through the gates into the station. She stood beside him as Nikki went through all his details and filled in the forms, before collecting his personal items and leading him through to a cell.
Rubbing her pregnant stomach distractedly, Hannah waited until the woman returned, leaning her elbows on the desk. "I hope this gets sorted out without Leela getting dropped in it."
"Same." Nikki agreed, glancing down at the information. "What d'you reckon? Is it his heroin?"
"I don't know… I guess we'll see what comes out in interview. They're both pretty adamant that the drugs are nothing to do with them."
With a synchronised sigh, the two women shot each other a cynical look, before Hannah tapped the surface of the desk lightly and headed away. She climbed the stairs to CID to get an update on the Statham case before she headed back down to carry out the interviews. The woman had only made it to the top of the stairs when Neil called her back.
"I want Grace to take over on that case." He told her.
"What? Why?" Hannah demanded irritably, feeling as though he had given her a toy and then taken it away before she had a chance to play with it. "This is my case."
He shook his head. "Grace has just got in and she doesn't know any of the background on the Statham case, you do. I need you back in the office."
"But, Guv–"
"Thank you." He strode away before she could say anything else.
Sending him two fingers behind his back, the red-head turned and stamped back into the Incident Room, marching over to her desk and dropping down into her chair. She jabbed at the power button on her computer angrily, scowling as the screen burst into life. Picking up where she had left off with her reports, the detective barely responded to her girlfriend's greeting, simply grunting in acknowledgement.
Jo didn't comment, used to the mood swings her girlfriend's pregnancy hormones caused and distracted by the case. She walked to the board and pointed out to the DI that the man on the CCTV footage playing was the same as the man in the photograph of Cindy's half-brother that Hannah had stuck on the board earlier that morning.
"That is Richard Daniel Buckingham of 53, Hockley Road; better known as Richie Buckingham."
"So that's Cindy's half-brother?" The DI asked, looking between the images. "What's his story?"
"He's a club DJ. He's got previous for dealing in ecstasy and cocaine. Also, for GBH." Stuart informed him, causing Hannah to pull a face at her computer screen as the Sergeant relayed the information she'd given him. "Now, it's his fingerprints that we found all over Cindy's bathroom doorframe."
"Which means that Richie was definitely in Cindy's house in the last 48 hours. Do we know where he is now?"
"Based on the fact that his car's been abandoned for two days, I ran a check on the local hospitals. Yeah, Richie's been in St Hugh's for the last 36 hours with concussion. Now, they think he fell over, but when they found him he was unconscious."
"Is he OK now?" Jo asked, looking fed up with the fact that Stuart was practically ignoring her. He was standing with his back to her, talking solely to the DI.
"Yeah, but his memory is sketchy. He'd been drinking heavily and there were traces of cocaine and marijuana in his system."
Neil looked past Stuart to the DC behind him. "What d'you reckon, Jo? Is Larry Franks still our prime suspect?"
Jo glanced across at Hannah quickly before answering. "I want to see what comes back from the lab before we downgrade Larry, Guv, but I agree with Stuart. I think the half-brother's shaping up as a strong suspect."
"OK…"
"Guys?" Tony called their attention back to the CCTV footage he was still watching. "Come and have a look at this."
They turned to see what he had spotted. Cindy and Richie were sitting quite calmly at a table eating lunch. Suddenly, the man stood up, throwing down his napkin and starting to shout at his sister. Hannah raised her eyebrows as his behaviour got more violent.
"Wow." She muttered.
"He's really kicking off, isn't he?" Tony agreed.
"Maybe he went round to Cindy's later on to finish what he started?" Stuart suggested.
"If he's been unconscious, will he know she's dead?"
The DI shrugged. "Only if he killed her. Get down to St Hugh's… see how he reacts when you tell him."
As Jo turned to leave with Stuart, Hannah reached out and touched her arm. The older woman stopped, turning to look at her girlfriend.
"Jo… I know I told you to get Larry Franks, but… I don't want you to get sucked into this case. It's just a case, alright… don't make it a cause."
"Han… if he killed her…"
"Yes, if he killed her then you need to send him down. But if he didn't… I just don't want to be waiting up all night for you to come home, OK?"
Jo smiled at her. "I promise."
"I know what you're like DC Masters." Hannah reminded her.
"That was before I had something worth going home to."
The red-head chuckled. "What? Teenage tantrums, piles of washing up and a pregnant hormonal nightmare?"
"Well, there are those things too." Jo conceded. She squeezed Hannah's arm. "Don't worry, I won't let this case take over, OK?"
"Ok." Hannah agreed, sending her a final smile before returning to her paperwork as Jo left the office in search of Stuart.