"Did you ever hear of necro-porn?" "This is what they're going to do to Jenny." "You owe me." "I am arresting you..." "Get off me!" "If he doesn't keep on doing what they tell him, they'll hurt me." "I gather you're the policeman that stole my property." "This is Toby." "No!" "No!" "Agh!" "Where am I supposed to go?" "Pump number two, that's ã64.19, please." "Can I interest you in one...?" "Just the petrol, ta." "What's he doing?" "He's on something." "Look at him." "You might want to give the police a call, mate." "What's he doing exactly?" "Dunno." "Look, just dial 999." "And say what? "Hello, I'm calling from a petrol station," ""there's a man on the forecourt looking at cars"?" "Just do it, mate." "What's he doing?" "That's my car!" "Hey!" "Oi!" "Police, please." "They're on their way." "Five minutes." "What's he on, do you think?" "Excuse me, did we lock the door?" "Because I think we should lock the door!" "That's a very good idea." "Hey!" "Lock the door!" "Hurry up!" "Lock the door!" "I'm trying!" "Let me out!" "Hey!" "Hey!" "That's my car!" "The police will be here in a minute!" "But look at my car!" "Look at my car!" "Unlock this door!" "The police will be here in a minute." "But look at my car!" "Oh, no, mate." "Is he opening...?" "I'm not letting him do that." "No, wait!" "Nobody leaves." "He's going to torch the car." "Just wait for the police." "He's going to torch the car!" "Right, open the door." "Just do as he says and open the bloody door!" "Be careful." "Oi!" "Hey!" "Hey!" "You stop!" "Ah!" "Agh!" "Christ!" "My eyes!" "Put down the bat." "Put down the bat." "Argh!" "Fire bucket!" "Fire bucket!" "Have you locked the door?" "Quick!" "Quick!" "Take the keys." "Lock it." "Brace it!" "Brace it!" "I'm trying!" "Wakey, wakey!" "Come on, wake up." "The day's half over." "But it's nothing o'clock." "Are you hungry?" "Do you like reading books?" "I'm partial to a graphic novel." "Comics?" "How old are you?" "Graphic novels." "How old are you?" "You look normal." "Ta." "You look weird when you look normal." "You think I sleep in a tie?" "Hmm, pretty much." "Except you don't so much sleep as, you know, power down, go into stand-by mode." "Yeah, well..." "I took the day off." "Why?" "Cos we've got to think about getting you... a job." "What sort of job?" "A job." "Like flipping burgers?" "Well, them burgers are not going to flip themselves, are they?" "It's, like, 2p an hour." "Who am I, SpongeBob?" "I don't know what that is." "He's a sponge." "He flips burgers." "Right." "Well, why don't we keep flipping burgers to plan B?" "If you could do any job in the world, what would you do?" "I'd be a cool hunter." "A what?" "Cool hunter." "Go to seriously sick places, clubs, whatever." "Underground, not mainstream." "You kind of take note of what people are wearing, what slang they're using, what they're drinking, that sort of thing." "It's a lot more complicated than it sounds." "Cup of tea." "Totally lushalicious." "So... what are you going to do about the other thing?" "Being on the hook and that?" "Is that what I am?" "On the hook?" "Well, yeah." "Toby won't just let us go, you know." "I'll think of something." "Morning." "Your phone was off." "Right." "Well, keep the phone on, all it does is ring." "Yeah." "Sorry." "The boss sent me." "We've got a really weird one." "Um, OK." "All right, um, just wait in the car and I'll get changed." "Why wait in the car?" "Two minutes." "Two minutes." "I've got to go to work." "So, you, whatever you do today, make sure you hit the Jobcentre, right?" "Hand." "What?" "Hand, please." "Completely bomb dot com." "Now, you want to keep it clean and dry and clear of infection." "All right, Mum." "So the stolen car belonged to the dead man, Adewale Omotoso." "Jesus." "White van belongs to a Steven Kimble." "Is that the man that was blinded?" "Yeah, that's him." "Acid in the water pistol." "Probably hydrochloric." "Witnesses?" "Sally Thomas and Depak Chandrapal, who locked themselves inside the shop." "Thing is, both claim that they reckon the attacker intended to ram the window but changed his mind last minute and drove away." "We know why?" "Dunno." "Uniform were dealing with an altercation outside a pub called the Prince Regent, which is about half a mile up there." "So they were Johnny-on-the-spot." "They were here two minutes after the 999 call came in, so maybe he's heard the sirens and, you know, just ran away." "Maybe." "So, er, timeline." "He gets here." "What's the first thing he does?" "Graffitis the Corolla." "Corolla?" "Where?" "On the roof." "Have you done here, SOCO?" "Yeah." "A compass, maybe?" "Run it by intel, see if there's any gang association." "I was thinking - four people, two black, including the dead man, one white, one Asian." "You think it was racial?" "Well, Nazis do love an insignia." "But Kimble's white." "He got in the way." "Yeah." "Well, look into it." "See if there's any white-power faction affiliated with that." "Hold it there." "What's he doing?" "Is he tying a shoelace or something?" "Could be." "Or reading a text?" "Kneeling down?" "Is that a thing?" "Could be getting something out of his sock?" "What could Benny do with that?" "Probably not much." "Resolution's pretty low." "Let me see the rest." "I tell you what, if they hadn't have stopped him, he would have blown this whole place to the moon." "Hang on, they've found the car." "All right, what've we got?" "Not much." "He's torched it, obviously, and that's it." "Listen, this is taken from CCTV at the garage." "Get on to uniform, get them to canvass the area, see if we can't put a name to that face." "Will do." "Is everything all right, guv?" "Ah..." "Yeah." "Yeah." "So you handle door-to-door." "Justin... get onto intel, see if they can ID that compass." "I'll meet you back at the factory, all right?" "I've got a meeting." "You all right?" "Yeah, great." "It's just... you know." "Just what?" "I just... want to do it right, you know?" "Listen, if he asks you to do something and you're not sure, don't butt heads with him." "OK?" "Just, well, come and see me." "Right." "Better get canvassing." "Nazis, nutters, jugglers and the clowns." "I like this bit." "Watch." "All right, show's over!" "Wait for it... there!" "I am arresting you..." "It's brilliant!" "Oh, and it never gets old." "Honestly." "I hear that, um..." "she's living with you now." "How is..." "How's that working out?" "Let's not talk about Jenny, eh?" "Good for you." "You can't beat a nice warm mouth to come home to." "She did live with another man for a while." "And he was a depraved old monster, really." "I think she liked it, in a way." "Being his dirty little servant." "Daddy issues." "Do you know why she left him?" "Thing is, I don't care." "He asked how much it would cost to buy her outright, thereafter to do as his will dictated, one presumes." "I've still got his number somewhere." "Michael Saroyan." "Armenian imports." "Making aggressive moves in the local market." "He's merging smaller operations - clubs, trafficking, girls, protection, all the rest of it." "Another job for you..." "I'd like to know the extent of his market penetration." "Your turf wars are your business." "If that sort of thing ever got traced back to me..." "Make sure it's not." "A list of his capital assets." "I'd tread carefully with that sort of thing." "No, you'll tread exactly where and how I tell you." "A list of Saroyan's personnel today." "Are we clear?" "What, do I have to ask more politely?" "I'm sick of this." "Just do as you're told." "John." "I need what I asked for... today." "Or we'll pop round, pay Jenny a visit." "Yeah, open her up." "See what's inside." "Look at yourself, Frank." "What?" "You know what." "No, I don't know what." "What?" "Tell me what." "You don't think I can do it, do you?" "You actually don't think I'm capable of squeezing a couple of addresses out of a dirty copper." "He's not a dirty copper." "He's a man over a barrel." "That's a completely different thing, and you handle it a completely different way." "What have we got, Gray?" "Um, there are one or two white-power psychos in the estate, namely one Ryan Hayfield." "Do we like him?" "Well, he's unemployed, long history of mental illness, interest in various right-of-right-wing groups." "Lives with his mum, always a good sign in a man of 35." "And that's him." "Nah." "Definitely not." "Eliminate him." "What have you got?" "I checked the compass design against local gang insignia " "A-Road, Mothers' Square Boys, Gravehouse Boys, Hindle Street Gangs..." "Any joy?" "Completely joyless." "Yeah." "It never felt like tagging to me." "Why put it on the roof, where no-one can see it?" "I don't think it's a compass." "Oh, yeah?" "See, in my spare time, I like to read a lot of fantasy fiction." "I think it's the Bedlam Axis." "What's a Bedlam Axis when it's at home?" "Yeah." "Bedlam Axis has been around since the 1960s." "It's used a lot in RPG - role-playing games." "So, the arrow going upwards indicates predictability, law and order." "The arrow going across indicates unpredictably." "Chaos." "Can we see that CCTV footage of him kneeling down?" "Yeah, I..." "I don't think he's tying up his shoelace." "You know, I tie my shoelace like this." "I don't think he's texting either." "I think he's making his decisions on a roll of a dice." "Who to kill, when to kill, whether or not to kill." "Have you come across anything like this ever before?" "No." "You?" "No." "Judging by his demeanour last night, the man was enjoying himself immensely." "So what are the chances of there being more to come?" "Think of this as a spree that's only just started." "Yeah, well, that may be true, but one crime does not a pattern make." "We don't know which aspects of it he may choose to repeat." "If any." "I mean, if he's doing all this at the roll of a dice, his next kill could be any time, anywhere, any place." "So, how do we catch him?" "Well, we get lucky." "Or he gets unlucky." "Or a combination of the two." "Listen to me, Toby." "Yeah." "Listen, listen." "I know you want to be a big boy and impress Frank, all right, but you need to calm down." "You'll get it when I get it." "No, no." "Today." "I can't." "Yes." "Yes, you can." "You'll do it now." "Listen, if that stuff isn't in my hands in the next two hours, do I have to tell you what'll happen?" "Unless you want me to dismember your whore." "So just do as you're told." "Who's fire picket?" "Guv, that's me." "Well, clear the floor, then, please." "OK, everyone." "You know the drill." "Let's all meet at the assembly point, please!" "Sorry, sorry, sorry!" "Quick as you can." "Password...?" "All right?" "OK, everyone." "We need to do a quick head-count." "Sorry about this." "Right, let's go." "Tossers." "Yo, John Luther, it's me." "So I went to the Jobcentre, and they weren't amazingly pleasant to me." "Turns out there's been this global downturn, whatever." "So it's all quiet on the job front." "Hello, Mum?" "You fancy meeting up for coffee or something?" "Right, it's our man." "Definitely our man." "We just don't know who he is, and we can't tell what he's going to do next, so..." "We've got to know where he's at." "How do we do that?" "I say we get CO19 ready, monitor the emergency lines." "If we hear anything that sounds unusual, we think it's him, we send in armed response." "See if we can't catch him in the act." "London's got, what, 6,000 999 calls a day." "Yeah, but 70% of them are time-wasters, cats up trees." "Most of the rest is meat and potatoes." "It shouldn't be too hard to set up a filter." "Right." "If we think it's him, we make a judgment call." "We go in loud and heavy." "What do you think of that plan?" "Let's do it." "Sounds good." "'Police emergency.' '..threatening to kill herself...'" "'Covered in blood." "I don't know what to do...' 'just running around with blood all over his face...'" "'I dunno, a knife or something.' 'My son, he's schizophrenic." "'He's off his medication...'" "'I'm not being funny, but there's this really mean dog running around." "'I know it sounds a bit..." "'But I'm just worried it's going to bite a baby or something.'" "'A woman's just been mugged." "Yeah." "An old lady." "'Two blokes came up to her and just, bang, they just ran off with her bag.'" "'An inmate." "I'm all covered in blood." "I don't know what to do.'" "Sir." "OK, boys and girls, we've got ourselves a weird one." "Here we go." "Benny, what you got for me?" "Random attack." "Three people stabbed." "Killer has stolen a motorcycle courier's bike, bag, helmet and jacket." "He left the scene three minutes ago on the bike, dressed as a courier." "All right." "Here's the plan." "Contact that courier's delivery company, find out what his next scheduled delivery is, scramble ARV, see if we can't get there before he does." "That's him." "That's him." "Susie!" "Susie!" "Come on!" "How many?" "Four confirmed dead." "Many injured." "We missed him by... minutes." "We don't have him and we don't know where he's going to go next." "He'd have dumped the courier rig and moved on." "Escape route?" "Through the car park." "Boss, what's up?" "Justin, he's still in the building!" "Dressed as an employee." "OK." "Erin." "He's still here." "Make sure no-one else leaves." "OK." "Put the phone down." "'This is John Luther." "Leave a message.'" "Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on..." "All right, Mum?" "All right, Mum?" "Coffee shop closed?" "So are you sleeping with him?" ""Hello, Jen!" "How are you?" ""Can I tell you, you look utterly mint?"" "Are you?" "Utterly mint?" "Totally." "Sleeping with him?" "Whatever." "He's, like, 55." "So how are you paying the rent?" "He doesn't want rent, actually." "I bet he doesn't." "If you knew how that man tortured your dad." "Because you loved Dad so much, right?" "!" "Yes." "I did." "So you didn't try to screw John the minute Dad was cold in the ground?" "Is that what he told you?" "That's what I saw." "What you think you saw." "Mum." "I saw." "Just come home." "Please." "No." "I just want us to be..." "What?" ""Hello, world!" "Hello, neighbours!" "Here we are!" ""Jenny and Caroline!" "We're normal!" "Look how normal we are!"" "You really are one evil little bitch." "Yeah, well... the apple didn't fall far from the tree." "What?" "You going to start smacking me about a bit now?" "Do you know what?" "Go ahead." "I've been hit by animals a lot meaner than you." "Take it." "Keep it." "Just take it." "For food." "For rent." "I don't want your money." "I'm getting a job." "Have you got one yet?" "Not yet, no." "Then take it." "I don't want your money." "But if I was a strange man with an erection and a video camera, then you'd take it, wouldn't you?" "Erin, what's up?" "You said I could come to you." "Yeah, absolutely." "I don't know what to do, Justin." "What about?" "Luther." "Today, during the fire alarm, he breaks into Schenk's office, accesses his computer." "And don't say it, because I'm sure." "I wish I wasn't, but I am." "He's got no need to." "Access to the database is audited." "I mean, why else use Schenk's computer?" "Whatever he was doing, he didn't want anyone else to know he was doing it." "Tell me that's not dirty." "OK, yeah, on the face of it, it looks odd." "But there'll be a reason." "Oh, come on!" "There's loyalty and then there's..." "naivety." "There's also a difference between getting your hands dirty and being dirty." "This is what I get, is it?" "I've come to you for help." "And this is it?" "Platitudes and denials and puppy-dog eyes?" "Right." "Just leave it with me." "Right?" "Thank you." "I'm DCI John Luther." "Question is, who are you?" "Your fingerprints didn't show up on the records." "You're not carrying any ID." "Just this." "And these." "What?" "Well, I've been using our quiet time... to think about this." "What is it?" "What could it be?" "Do you know what I think?" "I reckon it's a scorecard." "How many points, what, ten points for killing someone with a baseball bat?" "20 points for, I don't know, stabbing a stranger to death." "Am I right?" "Is that what this is?" "Who were you trying to call at the office?" "Who was that?" "The wife?" "Girlfriend, boyfriend?" "Boyfriend." "I didn't think it was your mum and dad." "No, we checked the records, and it was a disposable phone, the only time that number has been called, so doesn't say Mum and Dad to me." "Does it say Mum and Dad to you?" "So who was it?" "Who was it?" "Who was it?" "You know, I've been a police officer since God was a boy." "I don't think I've sat across a table from someone who takes their right to silence so seriously." "Want to say something?" "No?" "Who are you?" "We'll find out, won't we?" "John?" "Oh!" "Agh!" "Hello." "You remember me?" "Of course you do." "And what an evening that was!" "Well, I do apologise for any work-related injuries that you sustained." "Where is he?" "The man of the house." "Working." "Bringing home the bacon, as it were." "When will he be back?" "Whenever he can." "And when's that?" "Do I look like his wife?" "Darling, you don't look like anybody's wife." "So, anyway, door's that way." "No, er, I can't leave." "Not before the Big Bad John shows up and gives me what I'm waiting for." "You know, I really must say, he's being disappointingly tardy." "Yeah, definitely more dial-up than broadband." "So you'd better be off, then." "Did I hurt you that badly?" "I..." "I can't help it." "It's the screams." "See?" "I think they're rather like watches." "On one level... the fake ones are convincing enough... until you've tried the genuine article." "What's that?" "It's not yours!" "Ooh." "Ooh." "David Bowie." "Oh, my God." "That is so sweet." "You do know you're ill?" "There's something wrong with you." "Yeah, apparently, there is." "When I was eight, they caught me... interfering with the corpse of a cat, and, er..." "I told them it was a scientific experiment." "I was just trying to see if there were any kittens inside." "There were no kittens." "How are you on the money front?" "Don't you start." "Because I've got the money if you've got the time." "I don't do that anymore." "Oh, what, cos you've found yourself?" "What is it?" "Because you've found some kind of pure core of strength and self-respect, or because you're learning to love yourself as a woman?" "You need to leave." "If John comes back and hears you talking to me like this..." ""Talking to me like this"?" "I think John will do as he's told." "I could have you bent over this table and there'd be nothing he could do but stand back and watch." "Besides which, John's not here, is he?" "Hmm?" "I told him what I wanted." "I told him what I'd do." "But John's not here." "He's not here for you, he's not here for me." "I think he's let the both of us down." "I'll, er, be very gentle." "Or not." "Get out." "Come on." "Get out!" "What is it?" "Has he got a thing for sullied goods?" "Is that what it is?" "Don't talk about him." "Or does he like to be the hero?" "Putting pretty young things into his bed for gratitude?" "Eh, what does he like?" "What's his scene?" "What does he like?" "Hey?" "Don't, please!" "Does he like this?" "Does he like this?" "Boss, have you got a minute?" "Yeah." "Walk..." "Walk out with me." "Everything all right?" "Um, with me, yeah." "What does that mean?" "Um..." "Were you in Schenk's office?" "When?" "Today, during the fire alarm." "Who's told you that?" "No-one." "It doesn't matter." "Were you, though?" "Justin, do you trust me?" "Yeah." "You know I do." "All right, well, don't say what you're about to say." "Are you in trouble?" "Things are a little messy." "But I'm working it out." "Toby, I've got it and I'm ready to meet you, so just call me and tell me where." "Jenny?" "Jenny, where are you?" "Are you home?" "Where are you?" "I'm sorry." "I'm really, really sorry." "We've got another one." "It's started again." "There's two of them." "Call her!" "I'm trying, I don't know where she is!"