The Fall (2013–…): Season 1, Episode 1 - Dark Descent - full transcript

Outwardly a respectable young family man and Belfast psychotherapist, in reality Paul Spector is the dangerous stalker of lawyer Sarah Kay, breaking into her flat and stealing her undies. The police are called but fail to persuade Sarah to move out. At the same time local officer Jim Burns calls in his English colleague Superintendent Stella Gibson to assist in solving the murder of architect Alice Monroe. Stella sees links between Alice's slaying and that of Fiona Gallagher and suspects a serial killer though not everybody takes her seriously. On the night that the police are called out to discover a cache of weapons in a car Spector, telling his wife that he is going to do voluntary work, kills Sarah Kay with police officers outside her house and unable to get in.

You don't need his approval, you just want it.

What's the difference?

Well, most of what we call needs are desires.

We need air to breathe...

water, warmth, food to eat.

Speaking of which...

But the rest - love, approval, recognition...

praise, whatever- they're desires.

So what's sex?

Is that a need or a desire?

Well, both, if you're doing it right.



But don't you want children?

- Of course I do.
- Then you do want marriage in the end.

I didn't know you were so conventional.

There's a province somewhere in China where the Mosuo people live.

The head of the family is a mother or grandmother who controls the family's finances.

Marriage doesn't exist. Instead, they practise walking marriage.

A woman can invite a man into her hut to spend a sweet night.

But he has to be gone by daybreak.

I'm up for that.

The Mosuo language has no words for "war", "murder" or "rape" and there are no jails.

Think about it.

I'd be out of a job.

- Hm, as would I.

I have to take this.



We don't want this to turn into an international custody battle.

We have to consider the emotional wellbeing of your children.

I want them back ASAP. This is unacceptable.

- What the hell am I paying you for?
- I will go into the office...

tomorrow, we can talk it through then.

I will ring you first thing.

- You'd better.
- OK, bye.

I should go.

- It's Friday night.
- Seems I have work to do.

What are you doing? I just got you a drink.

I've had two already. That's my limit. Three and I'm anyone's.

That's the plan.

I know, that's why I'm going home.

I'm calling the police. If you're still here, you should go.

I'm calling the police.

Police officers!

We're entering with weapons drawn.

If anyone is in the house, make your presence known immediately.

Alpha Papa 10 to Uniform, checking the rear area now.

Police officer.

- It's OK, there's no one here.
- OK.

Daddy?

Where have you been?

What are you doing out of bed?

I was frightened. I woke up and you weren't here.

I just popped out, just to the all-night shop.

Why?

To get some headache pills.

We have headache pills. Mummy keeps them up in the bathroom.

I've just been five minutes.

No, you haven't, you've been ages.

I called your phone.

I didn't take it with me.

Come here.

What's in your bag?

It's just some stuff from the shop.

I tried to ring Mummy but I got her number wrong.

I'm sorry.

I promise I won't go and leave you again, OK?

Cross my heart and hope to die.

Only don't tell Mummy, she'll be cross.

With me?

No, no, with me.

Kiss Mac.

- Is this your underwear?
- Yes.

Oh, my God.

Is that yours too?

Yes.

And you didn't just leave these things on the bed yourself?

No, I...

No.

Where've you been this evening, Sarah?

Out with some colleagues in the city centre.

- And what do you do for a living?
- I'm a solicitor.

And you've been drinking?

Just some wine.

How much wine, Sarah?

No sign of forced entry.

Who else has keys to the house?

My sister, she has keys.

She wouldn't have done this as a joke?

What? No.

No boyfriend who has keys?

No.

An ex could have kept keys?

Um...I don't know.

- I see you have a cat.
- Yeah.

The cat couldn't have... I dunno, been on the bed?

Have you checked the loft? Can you check the loft?

Is anything missing?

Where was the underwear kept?

The underwear... was here in these top two drawers.

The other thing was in the bedside cabinet drawer.

I think...

maybe some underwear's gone.

Loft is clear.

- It's a client.
- Isn't it rather late for that?

Yep, it is.

I think maybe you should just go.

I have to be up in the morning to deal with this.

I really appreciate you coming but I need to sleep.

If you're worried, you should stay with a family member or friend.

Er...yeah, I'll call my sister.

- Just make sure you don't drive anywhere.
- I won't.

If you're not sure who might still have keys, change the locks.

I will, thank you.

Sorry, I just want to go to bed.

We've checked the premises and surrounding area. No intruder located.

We've given assurances we'll pay passing attention throughout the night.

What?

Could it have been the cat?

She's drunk.

That's her excuse. What's yours?

You could have warmed my side for me.

Why would I do that?

You horrible man.

That'd be Detective Superintendent Gibson?

- Yes, ma'am.
- Then that would be me.

Stella.

Nice to see you.

Armoured car, Jim.

Welcome to Belfast.

He's a good man, very experienced.

First and foremost, we want to progress the investigation. We don't want a trial by audit.

I've done 28-day reviews before...sir.

Not here, you haven't. Things are different here.

What, all that "My Jesus is better than your Jesus" stuff?

Policing is political here, Stella.

And it isn't at the Met?

The victim's ex-father-in-law is a Unionist MP.

Morgan Monroe, Unionist MP, ex-lawyer, chair of the Independent Policing Executive.

I haven't walked in here totally unprepared.

Good.

We have nothing, Stella.

The killer is out there somewhere and we have nothing at all.

This is Detective Superintendent Gibson.

She's seen your file so I'll let you make your own introductions.

Garrett Brink. Pleased to meet you.

Is there anything you need?

- Oh, is that coffee?
- It's actually hard to tell.

I'll risk a cup.

I'll have your case taken to your hotel.

Thank you, sir.

It's been three months.

And I haven't even stepped into his room.

The can of Coke he had the day before is still sitting there.

You know, at first I thought it was a virus.

You've told him before.

I gave him paracetamol.

By the time they put him on antibiotics, it was too late.

The boy told the doctors he felt better.

He'd have said anything to be allowed to go home.

Are you eating?

Not really.

How are things in the bedroom?

Before they took him away,

I painted his hands and his feet.

And made prints.

Three other people are living because of him.

A little boy regained his sight because of our Daniel.

That's something.

It's almost like he's still living.

Somewhere...

his heart is beating.

- Come in.

Er...Jerry McElroy. You asked to see me.

Come in, Jerry.

- I'm Detective Superintendent Gibson.
- Ma'am.

This is DCI Brink, who I think you know.

Jerry and I go way back.

Have a seat.

I've been brought in from the Metropolitan Police to lead a review

into the investigation of the murder of Alice Monroe.

Yes, ma'am.

As the senior investigating officer on that case, Jerry,

we want to work closely with you to advance the investigation, if we can,

not to find fault.

If any problems are identified through review,

you will be notified immediately so that remedial action can be taken if possible.

I see.

I will be looking at the investigative response, the initial actions at the scene,

information gathering, witness and suspect management,

forensic issues, exhibit management and submission.

And I'm going to be looking at record keeping, document management,

action administration, communications - internally and externally - with the victim's family.

We will, in time, read all documentation relating to the enquiry.

And to that end, I will need your policy book and your action book.

I have them here.

Any questions?

I feel so alone.

Have you anything to say, Jimmy?

Of course he doesn't.

Sitting there...

the hard man.

Useless waste of space.

Men and women express grief differently, Liz.

Try not to make comparisons.

How long am I gonna feel like this, Paul?

Doors closing.

How things are in the bedroom's none of your fucking business.

Sorry if you're uncomfortable with the question.

Uncomfortable doesn't even begin to cover it.

My wife says it comforts her to think of our dead son giving life to others.

And how does it make you feel?

How does it make me feel? His heart beating in some taig's chest?

It makes me feel sick.

I've done things...

bad things, in the past.

Really bad things.

And my son has paid the price.

Your son had bacterial meningitis, Jimmy.

An illness. That's all.

You don't believe a son has to pay for the sins of his father?

No, I don't.

Don't you believe in God?

Jimmy, let me go.

Answer me.

Of course I believe in God.

In Jesus Christ too.

I have seen angels ascending and descending Jacob's Ladder.

Is that what you want to hear?

It makes no odds what I believe, Jimmy.

It's what you believe that matters.

Let me go.

What kind of name is Spector, anyway?

It's Russian...Jewish.

That explains a lot.

Daddy, look what I've found.

Where'd you get that? You're not supposed to pick things.

It was on the floor.

I'm not lying.

Give it to me.

Come on.

Hey.

Hey. You all right?

Shall we sit?

How much do I grow every night?

I don't know - a little bit, probably.

But you know you only grow if you go to sleep straightaway at bedtime

and you stay asleep all night long.

- You should've called me.
- I didn't want to wake you.

I didn't want to wake Lucy.

I'm your sister, for Christ's sake! You should have come over.

I was tired. I'd had a couple of glasses of wine.

Even so.

I've been thinking. Who might still have keys?

Nobody now, I've got the locks changed.

Front, anyway.

The back door needs to be replaced, apparently.

I'm glad I'm eight. It's the oldest I've been in my entire life.

Why don't you stay with us, at least until the back door's done?

I can't, I've too much work to do.

Shall we go? Come on.

Gosh, you're heavy!

Tell me about the three blind mice.

Oh, it's the best smile in the whole world.

There's no evidence of any defensive wounds.

Maybe she was...too fearful or thought cooperation would make things better,

or he overpowered her so she didn't have a chance to fight back.

But whatever...

he had things entirely under his control.

Which leads me to think that this was not his first murder.

The pathologist reports extensive petechial haemorrhages, which suggests that...

..the killer tightened and loosened his grip around her throat

over a period of 45 minutes to an hour.

I was part of a review team, this was actually a seven-day review.

I remember the pathologist on that case making the same observation.

- When was this?
- Three months ago.

It was thought at the time, and still is, as far as I know,

that the killer was known to the victim.

She had, at the time of her death, more than one boyfriend.

Boyfriend one was quickly eliminated, boyfriend two left the country.

Fled, disappeared.

He remains the prime suspect, I believe.

White, professional woman?

A teacher at the university.

In her early 30s?

Posed after death?

Only if you call being stuffed in the bedroom closet posed.

What was her name?

Fiona Gallagher.

The essence to a committed relationship is exclusivity -

physical and emotional.

Anything that impinges on that is cheating and harmful.

Jesus, you should have your own daytime TV show.

What is it, ?20 a dance?

That's money you could have spent on your kids or on me, even.

Maybe you shouldn't go through my pockets.

Seven years of marriage.

Seven years of marriage and now this.

Jesus, nothing happens in those places. It's just flirting.

So that's the name you give to somebody pushing their tits in your face?

It is, it's flirting!

The promise of something that will never ever happen.

Only cos no laptop dancer would ever have you.

- Lap dancer.
- What?

Not laptop, lap dancer.

Looking isn't cheating. It's just fantasy.

It's your own fault for getting caught. You should've destroyed the evidence.

- Unhelpful.
- Same again.

Excuse me.

Is this your purse?

- Yeah, it is.
- It was on the floor.

Oh, erm...thank you so much.

Hi. How were they?

Fine.

Did you have a nice evening?

Very nice.

- Four hours?
- Thank you.

Paul'll walk you home.

English, I like.

Art...

I love music.

I'm a singer.

What sort of singer?

I posted a couple of clips online.

Really?

You should take a look.

Maybe I will.

Where can I find you?

Oh, no, I'm not telling you that.

If you wanna see them, you're gonna have to work at it.

Track me down.

I'm worth it.

You look different from when you last baby-sat.

That was months ago.

Yes.

I've had my braces removed.

Thank you for walking me home.

What's the matter with you?

Mm? You been fighting?

- It's OK, Olivia. OK, darling, Mummy's...
- Mummy!

Hush, it's OK.

It's all right.

You've just had a bad dream.

It's OK. It's OK.

Ssh.

Mummy...

Mummy's here. It's all right, come here.

It's all right, it was just a bad dream.

It's OK. Ssh, ssh.

It's OK.

It's all right. That's it. Mummy's here.

Ssh.

It's OK, OK.

Ssh, ssh.

- Ssh.

How is she?

Hey. Are you asleep?

No.

How is she?

Did you tell her that she wouldn't grow if she didn't sleep all night through?

You need to be careful what you say to her.

She's been having nightmares for months.

What I said has nothing to do with it.

She doesn't like being teased,

especially not by her daddy.

I just wish I knew what was going on in her mind when she's like that.

No one knows what's going on in someone else's mind.

Life would be intolerable if we did.

Hope I'm not keeping you from church.

I've already been.

I brought you in to progress the Monroe Investigation.

You need a new and substantial line of inquiry.

And linking these two murders would give you one.

We already have a prime suspect in the Gallagher case, Patrick Warwick.

His brother provided DNA which is a familial match to the DNA gathered at the crime scene.

That doesn't mean it was the killer's DNA.

She was in a relationship with Warwick,

so there's no real surprise his sperm was in her oesophagus.

- If he didn't kill her, then why has he fled?
- I don't know.

There was no sign of forced entry, so it was assumed she knew the killer and let him in.

But I think that assumption is false.

It was treated as a self-solver from the off and I think that's wrong.

Alice Monroe was found posed in her bed,

Gallagher stuffed into a cupboard.

The post-mortem interval puts the time of death at an hour before she was discovered.

She called her boyfriend and said she was going out with friends.

He came home after work at 1:30 in the morning,

assumed that she was still out and called her.

Her phone rang in the closet,

he went to look and found her stuffed inside, dead.

It's possible the killer was still with her when the boyfriend came home and disturbed him.

So he shoved her in a cupboard and fled.

I just don't buy it.

This would account for the three months between this murder and the killing of Monroe.

It didn't go as planned with Gallagher, and it spooked him.

And so when he struck again, he made sure that he did it right.

Two professional women in their early 30s,

killed in their own homes by strangulation.

Look, they could be sisters.

- The strangulation marks are different.
- The marks might be different,

but both have extensive petechial haemorrhages,

which indicates that he strangled them, released, and strangled again, over and over.

Now you're adding torture into the mix?

It might be sadism or it might just be that his hand lacks strength.

I mean, you try it.

Go on, grab my wrist. See how long you can grip it.

No, thank you.

It's amazing how quickly your hand tires.

Stop, for God's sake.

I mean, how long was that, 30 seconds?

Go back to your review, Stella.

I don't want the two murders linked.

? Rain clouds are moving 'cross an empty sky

? Leaving their shadow on my sleepless sigh

? Flying and hoping that soon we'll be...

Paul?

Yes?

We need you down here.

? Now that I love you

? Do you think that it will end?

? I was above you

? We were just friends

? Now that I've found you...

Daddy!

? It won't take long

What's happening?

Ready when you are.

? You're heading for the road

? You'll be sure time when you're racing for the line...

? We're ready to go

? Get ready to go

? The time is coming

? Your time is coming

Look!

? You're taking over

? Looking over your shoulder

? You're taking over...
- Wow!

How did it go with Burns?

He didn't buy it.

Maybe just as well.

There's no way this team could cope with the increased workload of linked inquiries.

There are probably 200 statements, documents, officers' reports,

waiting to be read and actioned.

Recommend increasing technical support staff.

Failure to see that crimes are linked, linkage blindness...

is the thing that will allow the killer to strike again.

We refuse to recognise the series and he carries on regardless.

I didn't sell it hard enough, Garrett.

I'm off.

Wait.

How you manage to listen to people whining all week in your day job,

and then volunteer to listen to them whining all night on the phone, I'll never know.

This from a neo-natal nurse?

All those crying babies.

The babies I look after are too small to cry.

Crying would be great, crying means they're getting better.

- I'm gonna hit you.
- Maybe you should visit me at work sometime.

Maybe I should.

Say goodnight to the kids.

- Goodnight, you two.
- Night, Daddy!

See you in the morning.

Yes, see. Told you, finally.

Mary?

I wonder if I can book you to look at the exhibits tomorrow morning.

Yes, ma'am.

And I'm going to need a lift back to the hotel.

- We're free, ma'am.
- Good.

Finish your food, I'll wait in reception.

Is it Glen?

Yes, ma'am.

Um...DCI McElroy is doing a violent crime analysis of the last five years.

Could you ask him to also include break-ins where valuables were ignored

but items of clothing, underwear- clean or soiled - were taken?

Underwear, yes, ma'am.

- Who's that?
- James Olson, Detective Sergeant.

Introduce us.

Right, folks, could we move back the other side of the ropes, please?

Come on, all of you, away from the corner.

What's going on, Sergeant?

There's been a shooting in a house about a mile away. A car was stopped along there.

We found guns and arrested three men. Just waiting on the dogs.

Explosives?

This is Detective Superintendent Gibson. She's here to review the Monroe Investigation.

DS Olson. Nice to meet you. It's drugs.

The deceased was well known to us.

Will the review take long?

A week, maybe more.

- I'm staying at the Hilton.
- Very nice.

Room 203.

Jim! Oi!

Good luck with your arrests.

I think we might've fucked up.

What?

- How?
- Did you not hear her?

What?

Robberies where items of underwear were taken.

Sarah Kay.

We should've moved her out of there, put her in a hotel, called in CSIs.

- The woman more or less told us to go.
- I think we should take a look.

Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson?

Ned Callan, Belfast Chronicle. Can I have a word?

Not at the moment, no.

Not even off the record?

There's no such thing, as you well know.

Did I invite you to sit down?

I don't think so.

So, call the police.

How did you find me here?

It's a small city, Stella. It's not easy to hide.

Unless, of course, you're the murderer of Alice Monroe.

You really are a journalist, aren't you?

So why bring someone in from the outside?

That looks remarkably like a vote of no confidence in the PSNI

and its ability to run an internal murder investigation review, don't you think?

What have you found so far- staggering levels of incompetence?

Mr Callan,

no one knows better than me how important the media is as an investigative resource.

But really and truly, you should fuck off now.

You have my card.

Thank you.

Enjoy.

Nothing.

This is a message for Sarah Kay. Sarah, this is PC Danni Ferrington.

I'm calling from outside your house. If you're there, it is the police at the door.

I was hoping to speak with you...

Please ring the number I gave you when you get this message.

Perhaps she did go stay with her sister.