Series 26, Episode 28: Death Knock

Date: Thursday 21st January 2016

Investigating Officers: Inspector Dale Smith, Sergeant Callum Stone, DS Max Carter, DS Hannah McKay, DC Terry Perkins, PC Kirsty Knight


"Why the bloody hell did I ever let you talk me into getting these monsters?" Jo demanded, standing in the middle of the living room surrounded by boxes, with her hands on her hips.

Hannah laughed, crouching to fuss Teddy affectionately and causing Tilly to bound over to join in. Looking up at her fiancée in amusement, she straightened and crossed the room, dodging between the boxes carefully. Jo noticed the slight wince as Hannah narrowly avoided catching her foot and twisted awkwardly but said nothing. The redhead touched her lower abdomen instinctively for a second, before reaching out to grasp the brunette's face gently.

"If you remember you're the one who decided that we needed puppies in our lives."

"You should have talked me out of it."

"Bit hard, babe, when you'd already given them to the kids."

"Why are there no minions around to distract them?"

Hannah laughed, sliding her hands down to Jo's shoulders, before looping her arms around her neck. "You know full well the kids are at school."

"I didn't factor in those monsters ripping open boxes before we're ready to unpack them." Jo pointed out grumpily.

"I'll put them in the kitchen and then I'll come back and start moving the boxes out of the way." Hannah told her with another chuckle.

"No you won't. You're still not supposed to lift anything heavy, you know that. Besides, if you're really serious about coming back to work today we should think about getting going."

Rolling her eyes, Hannah called the dogs as she headed to the kitchen. Retrieving their treats from the cupboard, she closed the door on them and headed back into the living room. Leaning in the doorway, she watched Jo fussing over the pins in her hair for a moment with a soft smile on her face.

"Stop staring at me. It's weird."

Hannah laughed, moving to stand behind her and resting her chin on Jo's shoulder. "I was just thinking about how lucky I am to still be here… with you and the kids."

"Which is half the reason I feel sick to my stomach about you going back to work." The brunette pointed out, meeting her eyes in the mirror. "How many of your nine lives are left?"

"Enough. But few enough to remind me to be careful."

"Well that's something, I suppose." Jo admitted, turning and wrapping her arms loosely around Hannah's waist. "If it gets too much–"

"I'll go straight to Jack, I promise."

"Good… right, well… there's no point prolonging it unnecessarily. We'd better get going."


"Dylan Prest."

"You know him?"

Terry nodded slowly. "I know of him. Runs girls, deals drugs, you know… the usual."

"He's trying to push into the big leagues, isn't he?" Hannah asked, looking between Terry and Smithy. "Thinks he's harder than he is?"

"Owns the house on Mobely Street; belongs to his parents." Kirsty added, writing the name underneath the mug shot Nate had just stuck to the board.

Max snorted. "Nothing wrong with owning a house."

"There is if it's a brothel." Callum pointed out seriously.

"Denise Jones, now her I know." Terry said, recognising the photo that had just been placed beside Prest's. Hannah sat up straighter at the name, her blood turning to ice in her veins. "She helped me out a couple of times."

"No mention of that on CRIMINT?"

"Well, she's not a snitch, so I didn't see the point, really."

Nate nodded. "Denise Jones runs it. Her and Selena both have previous; Zoe seems to be a new recruit."

"What's with the burns?"

"Don't know."

"No one's talking?"

"Nope."

Max rolled his eyes. "Surprise, surprise. I don't wanna sound harsh, but is this going anywhere? I mean, we don't even know if a crime's taken place."

"Hold on." Callum held up his hand, frowning at the DS in distain. "A teenage girl is found unconscious with multiple injuries underneath a window. Under what circumstances, other than the fact that she's a hooker, would you not investigate this?" There was a pause as everyone turned to stare at Max, waiting for him to reply. "For all we know this is attempted murder."

"For all we know it isn't." Max shot back, totally unaffected by the expressions facing him. "So until you show me otherwise…"

"She didn't just fall out of that window, Max."

"She could have just been cleaning."

Callum shook his head in disbelief, turning away before fixing his attention on the other, less dismissive members of the team. "The neighbours say they heard screaming and then a shout."

"And Selena Morris sent her a text warning her."

"About what?"

"We don't know… can't track her down."

"OK? Even if you do, do you really think she'll talk?" Max scoffed. "You know the world these people live in. They don't want us, they don't think they need us and they certainly won't thank us for getting involved."

"That's complete bollocks, Max." Hannah snapped, unable to help herself. "You don't know that for sure? What? So you've had run-ins with prostitutes and pimps before and that makes you the world authority, never wrong? Even if just one time out of a thousand someone wants our help then it's worth the bother, right?"

He laughed at her, completely unaffected by her words. "You can't save every damsel in distress."

"What?"

Callum took several steps towards him, taking offense on her behalf. The rest of the team looked between the three officers, wondering what was about to happen, before Smithy took charge. He straightened slightly in his chair before addressing them.

"Alright. How d'you wanna proceed, Callum?"

"Set up a raid on Mobely Street. If they want us out of their faces they'll have to give us something." He suggested.

"Don't mind if we use Terry and Hannah, do ya?" Smithy asked Max, his tone making it clear that the DS had no say in the matter either way. "Go and see if Denise will talk to ya. And if we get enough then it's over to you."

"When you get back, I know what you're going to be doing for the rest of the day." Max told Terry, leaning close and lowering his voice so that only the two men and Hannah could hear.

"What's that?"

"You've been so busy minding everyone else's business lately, you seem to have forgotten your own. I want everything that should be on CRIMINT put on CRIMINT. Hannah, you can help."

"Yeah… you're not my boss, Max." She shouted after him as he strode away. "Jesus… what've you done to him?"

"You don't wanna know." Terry muttered, grabbing his jacket off the back of his chair and leading the way out of CID. He noticed that Hannah seemed a little reluctant to get going and frowned. "So… glad to be back?"

"Yeah…" She smiled weakly. "Just could do without this on my first shift back."

Assuming she meant dealing with Max, he chuckled. "It's alright; at least he's not coming with us on the raid."

"Mmm…"

They had to wait for Uniform to enter the building first and Hannah hung back a little as she listened to Callum speaking to the occupant. As soon as his team had swarmed inside, Terry stepped forward, entering the building causally.

"Still got your teeth and hair then, I see." Terry joked.

Denise smirked. "It was touch and go there for a while, yeah."

"Tell me about Dylan Prest, Denise." He requested. Seeing her looking suspiciously at the redhead who was looking around at the house curiously, he smiled. "This is DS McKay."

"Hi." Hannah sent her a quick nod, before turning away again.

The other woman's eyebrows furrowed thoughtfully as she watched the back of the detective's head for a moment, before she turned back to Terry. She looked at him for a long moment, before snorting dismissively and stomping towards the kitchen at the back of the house. Terry nudged Hannah gently to get her attention, nodding his head to signal that they should follow.

"Come on… he's your landlord, he owns the place." He cajoled her gently, knowing that she would talk eventually. "Was he here this morning? Does he come round often?"

"As you said, it's his place."

"And you run it for him, do you?"

"I didn't say that." Denise pointed out quickly.

There was a pause as Terry sent her a meaningful look. "What about him and Zoe? Are they an item?"

"Ask them."

"There's another girl that lives here. Selena? Where can I find her?"

"Don't know."

"Terry?" Hannah motioned towards the front door, seeing that the older woman had clammed up and wasn't likely to give them much else.

He nodded, exhaling deeply and starting to follow her lead. Then he paused, nodding his head towards the living room area. Reluctantly, Hannah changed course and settled herself on the uncomfortable, impossibly lumpy sofa.

"What about Zoe? What's her story?" Terry asked, tilting his head as he regarded Denise closely. "I'll tell you what I think… I think Dylan picked her up, played at boyfriend and girlfriend for a while, moved her in here let her use his gear and then suddenly says, 'hang on a minute? This isn't for free, you know.' What are you doing with this guy? You're better than this."

Hannah made a noise in the throat, unable to help herself. When her colleague looked at her, she coughed, covering her mouth and shrugging apologetically. Terry frowned suspiciously, but turned his attention back to the other woman once more.

"Zoe got a text from Selena this morning," he continued when neither woman spoke, "she said 'he knows'. What was that about? Denise?" Terry folded his arms, knowing that he was getting through to her, despite her silence and the fact she was standing with her back to him. "Dylan said he was with Selena, but we can't find her."

"Try Gunner Street."

Terry was on his feet at once, moving towards the door. He patted Denise on the shoulder as he passed, signalling that Hannah should follow him. She kept her head down as she walked quickly towards the exit.

"It's been a long time, Coco." The woman said as Hannah stepped over the threshold into the hallway. She froze, her entire body tensing at the words. "Never thought our paths would cross again… especially like this."

Forcing herself not to react, Hannah kept walking. Her hands clenched and unclenched at her sides and she could feel her heart plummeting to somewhere in the region of her stomach as she realised that, at least, Terry had heard what Denise had said. Gritting her teeth, she strode across the road and came to a halt beside the pool car they'd travelled to the scene in.

"Coco?" Terry muttered, smirking at her as he caught up.

"Don't even go there if you value your life, Terry." Hannah warned him seriously. "I mean it."

"Han?"

"I said, leave it."

He paused, leaning on the roof of the car and looking at her with concern evident in his eyes. "Han, we know you know all sorts of people around here. You're never normally this bothered about that?"

"Yeah, well, this time I am." She snapped back. "So it stays between us, right?"

Slamming the passenger's side door, Hannah knew that she'd overreacted. Terry probably wouldn't mention it again, but she knew that he wasn't going to forget about her defensiveness about her acquaintance with Denise Jones. Trying to work out what to say to lessen his suspicions over her reaction.