From Darkness Page #11

We pull back inside to see JOHN, momentarily looking at him

(he hasn’t smoked today). He looks back up to CLAIRE. She

meets his gaze.

CLAIRE:

I must have blanked a lot of it.

There’s a touch of defiance in her eyes. She’s telling him

that there’s no point in even trying to go back over their

relationship. He takes out a tape recorder.

JOHN:

You don’t mind if...

She nods. He presses record. CLAIRE stirs her sugars and

milk into her coffee. Takes a sip.

JOHN (CONT’D)

Tell me when you first became

suspicious about the

disappearances.

CLAIRE:

February, 1998. We’d been on a

drugs raid. Boundary Way... or

somewhere near. I know it was

freezing. We’d hauled in this

girl for selling but it didn’t

fit. It was obvious she wasn’t a

pusher. She was a user...

JOHN:

What do you mean?

CLAIRE:

She’d been used all her life you

could see.

BEAT. He looks at her. We sense that they are about to

enter onto territory that has led them to argue previously.

FROM DARKNESS EPISODE ONE

CLAIRE (CONT’D)

She’d said she’d only been

selling to raise the cash to get

away. Her friend had gone missing

and she was scared. That’s what I

remember most, her fear.

JOHN:

How do you know she wasn’t lying?

CLAIRE shrugs.

CLAIRE:

She was willing to sell her fix

to get off the street.

JOHN:

Half of it. Cut it with some crap

then use the profit to double her

hit.

BEAT. CLAIRE stares at him, then sits back, going quiet,

closing up again.

JOHN (CONT’D)

Just being a realist.

CLAIRE:

You know it’s why none of them

came to you. They’d learnt not to

trust the police, heard that if

they reported a rape it’d be

written up on the board as knock

and run.

JOHN:

Oh come on.

CLAIRE:

Deny it.

JOHN:

Gallows humour.

CLAIRE:

(overlapping)

That’s how it was. You and the

lads.

JOHN:

(overlapping)

What do they call it now?

CLAIRE:

(overlapping)

You and the team.

FROM DARKNESS EPISODE ONE

JOHN:

(overlapping)

A coping mechanism.

CLAIRE:

You treated them like they were

barely human... although they did

have their occasional uses.

JOHN:

Not true.

BEAT.

JOHN (CONT’D)

Not me.

CLAIRE:

No you had other outlets.

BEAT. He turns off the tape recorder.

CLAIRE (CONT’D)

I thought you wanted me to tell

you everything.

BEAT. She looks at him for a moment. Then reaches across

and presses record herself, then stares at him defiantly.

CLAIRE (CONT’D)

These girls felt the law offered

them no protection. And they were

right, weren’t they?

BEAT.

JOHN:

This girl. She was an addict.

Hardly the most reliable witness.

CLAIRE:

Like I said, she was desperate.

And it was different. And she

wasn’t the only one. By then I’d

begun the meetings.

JOHN:

With the prostitutes?

CLAIRE:

Anyone involved in the sex worker

community. We’d meet in a cafe

once a week.

JOHN:

Tea for intelligence.

He raises his cup to her.

FROM DARKNESS EPISODE ONE

CLAIRE:

There was this body of knowledge

we’d been ignoring. We were

policing the streets without

listening to the people who lived

it. [BEAT] Most of it was

rubbish... bitchy over the top

gossip - someone had wronged

somebody so they’d try ‘n’ use me

to drop them in it. But other...

stuff tallied... multiple reports

of girls gone missing, Caz

Jenkins having disappeared... The

fear was palpable, you could see

it every time they got up to

leave. They all felt there was

someone out there, someone

predatory. They knew their lives

were at risk.

BEAT. She starts to through the file, pulling out the photos

of the girls.

CLAIRE (CONT’D)

Caz, I’d never met. Apparently she

was a bit of a joker but they all

put on a front to some extent, it

took time... to really know them...

She opens the FILE and pulls out a picture of SALLY FISHER -

a girl she really did know.

CLAIRE (CONT’D)

Sally was... a catastrophe.

Always in trouble with the other

girls, always owing someone

something, she didn’t drink tea,

just chips and vinegar.

BEAT.

CLAIRE (CONT’D)

She was happy, the last time I

saw her. She’d met a man. A

decent one or so she believed.

He’d given her a bracelet.

CLAIRE takes the photo of the bracelet (THE JEWELLERY

PICTURE that MEGAN looked at) found on one of the bodies.

JOHN looks up at her - this is a very strong connection.

CLAIRE (CONT’D)

Just silver plated tat but to her

it was priceless, proof of his

feelings. She thought she’d met

her knight in shining armour, the

man who’d save her from the

streets.

FROM DARKNESS EPISODE ONE

BEAT. She looks at JOHN as she speaks. He was once CLAIRE’s

knight in shining armour. He failed her.

CLAIRE (CONT’D)

Three days later she called me.

Something had changed. She

sounded panicked, scared. She

wouldn’t say why, not over the

phone, she wanted to meet, made

me promise I’d be there.

BEAT.

CLAIRE (CONT’D)

I never made it. A week later,

Sally was reported missing.

BEAT. JOHN hands CLAIRE some new photos. Photos of SALLY -

as a young school girl MEGAN’s age.

JOHN:

Her parents gave us these. They

called in straight after the

appeal, did a DNA test. It’s

working. We’re getting somewhere.

He looks at CLAIRE as she stares at the photos of SALLY the

school girl.

JOHN (CONT’D)

They’re last ones they took of

her before she left home. I

suspect she’d changed... Two

years on the streets...

CLAIRE:

I’m sure the more innocent look

will help with the appeal.

CLAIRE looks at the photos of the other girls: MIMI AND CAZ.

CLAIRE (CONT'D)

The girl on the raid, your

“unreliable witness”: that was Mimi

Fenton - she couldn’t have been

seventeen years old.

She pushes all the photos away from her.

CLAIRE (CONT’D)

Least Sally has someone interested

in looking for her now.

BEAT. JOHN looks at her. He can see she’s crumbling. He

goes to touch her hand. She retracts it - closing up now,

looking away. He stops the tape recorder and looks out the

window a bit.

FROM DARKNESS EPISODE ONE

JOHN:

We all feel it Claire, but to do

the job you have to learn to keep

a lid on these things. You can’t

go blaming yourself. The way

these girls lived...

CLAIRE:

(Cutting in)

We were in bed together. You and

me, f***ing each other’s brains

out while she...

BEAT. CLAIRE stops closing her eyes - she can not bring

herself to imagine what happened to Sally Fisher that

night.

CLAIRE (CONT’D)

The night I was meant to meet

Sally Fisher was the night you

were meant to have told Julie.

You called and I dropped

everything. We were celebrating.

BEAT.

CLAIRE (CONT’D)

But then we’d both broken our

promises.

BEAT. JOHN looks up at her. CLAIRE avoids eye contact. She

starts to collect her things.

CLAIRE (CONT’D)

I don’t want you to contact me

again. There’s no need. I’ve told

you everything.

BEAT. CLAIRE stands to go then, seeing a large white

refrigerated van park up outside, turns back to the file

that’s still out on the table and flipping open a page to

where there is a forensics pictures of some bones with a

binding around them she adds...

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