Line of Duty Page #10

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X:

Music Ends

10:
51:58

GILL:

Exactly.

HASTINGS:

Or worse still, he might remember

them!

GILL:

What are you saying?

HASTINGS:

You see I finally understand why

you were appointed by the PCC. I’m

the loose cannon here. You know, if

I see a bent copper, I’ll go after

him, irrespective of rank or

political expediency.

GILL:

I’m not going to apologise for

having one eye on PR.

Anticorruption is a double-edged

sword. We need to find just enough

bent coppers to avoid accusations

of a cover-up, but not so many that

the public starts to wonder if the

police can be trusted.

HASTINGS:

So we let Patrick Fairbank just

slip through the net because of all

the peers, and the politicians and

the police officers he might

implicate, meanwhile we go back to

chasing disc jockeys and what,

game-show hosts?

GILL:

I’m just doing my job.

HASTINGS:

And I’m doing mine! And it’s called

nicking bent coppers! And I don’t

care whether it’s one rotten apple

– or the whole bloody barrel!

There’s a line and it’s called

right and wrong. And I know which

side my duty lies!

(lowers his voice.)

So why don’t you write a nice

letter of resignation to the PCC,

or I swear to God, I will drive you

down with the rest of them.

Gill is overwhelmed by the ferocity of his

Music

10:
53:30

DUR:
0’28”.

Specially

composed by

Carly

Paradis.

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10:
53:37

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53:53

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53:38

attack. She believes him, too. Cowed, she exits.

CUT TO:

INT. AC-12. LOBBY/VANTAGE POINT. CONTINUOUS.

Dot and his solicitor complete signing in.

Kate has lingered, looking down at Dot, filled

with conflicts. Exit Kate.

Dot, grim faced, goes into the lift, flanked by

his solicitor, and the two AFOs including AFO X.

The door closes on Dot’s poker face.

CUT TO:

INT. AC-12. INTERVIEW ROOM. MOMENTS LATER.

Establishing shot. Two Armed guards are

stationed outside the meeting room. His

solicitor and his rep flank Dot who is seated.

On the other side of the table Hastings and

Kate.

Voices are muffled as we look in through the

glass partition.

Kate starts the tape. Long Beep.

CUT TO:

INT. AC-12. INTERVIEW ROOM. MOMENTS LATER.

We move inside the meeting room.

KATE:

In last night’s interview of DS

Arnott, you produced a piece of

evidence, item reference MRC-2,

namely the golf tee in the envelope

found at Danny Waldron’s flat.

HASTINGS:

I wonder if you could explain in a

little bit more detail how you came

by this piece of evidence?

DOT:

I’m not sure I understand what

you’re driving at, sir?

HASTINGS:

Well, there were half a dozen of

you on that search. How come no one

else saw it? Did you swear them all

to secrecy or what?

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X:

Music Ends

10:
53:58

DOT:

Oh, I see, sir.

(Laughs.)

No. What happened was, we detected

an illegal firearm. I sent an

officer to bring someone with

firearms training urgently so as to

secure the firearm. I had a

legitimate concern it wasn’t safe

or it was booby-trapped. And it was

then that I saw the golf tee in the

envelope.

HASTINGS:

So, with no one else watching you,

you seized this piece of evidence?

DOT:

Yes, sir.

KATE:

Did you order forensics on the golf

tee?

DOT:

I did, but there were no notable

findings.

HASTINGS:

Did you order forensics on the

inside of the envelope?

DOT:

Yes, sir.

HASTINGS:

When?

DOT:

Well, this was something we omitted

in the first instance, but

rectified as the inquiry

progressed.

KATE:

Did you put pressure on a junior

rank not to disclose the forensics

to DS Arnott?

DOT:

(Beat. Under pressure.)

Yes.

HASTINGS:

Why?

DOT:

Steve Arnott was concocting

accusations I wasn’t doing my job

properly. I didn’t want to give him

any ammunition.

HASTINGS:

So you actually missed a crucial

piece of evidence?

DOT:

(Unsure how to answer.)

Uh...

KATE:

Forensics detected ink and blood on

the inside of that envelope. That

suggests there was a blood stained

note inside the envelope.

DOT:

There wasn’t, though.

KATE:

No ink or blood on the golf tee?

HASTINGS:

So, what? Danny Waldron must have

put it in there after he’d removed

the note?

DOT:

Look. This note, some people have

been making a mountain out of a

mole hill. If it was such an issue,

why didn’t I just pocket the

envelope, and no one would be any

the wiser? Which I didn’t do, by

the way.

KATE:

Maybe the envelope had already been

seen by somebody else on the search

team. But the contents hadn’t.

DOT:

I found a golf tee. I remained in

the vicinity of the firearm until

an officer arrived to make it safe.

Now if that note went walkabout,

it’s because Danny Waldron moved it

before we got there. In the end,

missing the forensics made no

difference to the inquiry

whatsoever.

Music

10:
56:03

DUR:
0’35”.

Specially

composed by

Carly

Paradis.

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HASTINGS:

That’s one of the things we’re here

to determine, DI Cottan, and I’ll

be the judge of that. Thank you.

He turns to Kate.

HASTINGS (CONT’D)

DC Fleming. Moving on.

KATE:

Item reference EGH-1.

Kate keys a remote. On screen is a scan of the

front page of the Ronan Murphy file.

KATE (CONT’D)

EGH-1 is an intelligence file on

Ronan Murphy, the suspect shot dead

by Danny Waldron. It’s where this

whole inquiry started, and it

omitted information that would have

allowed us to connect Ronan Murphy

to known high ranking criminal,

Tommy Hunter and the cover-up of

historic child sexual abuse.

HASTINGS:

DI Cottan, have you seen this file

before?

DOT:

Yes, sir.

HASTINGS:

And who provided you with access to

this file?

DOT:

You did, sir.

HASTINGS:

You see my particular concern here,

DI Cottan, is if you were familiar

with this file before I gave you

access?

Dot looks uneasy.

HASTINGS (CONT’D)

Do you have an answer, DI Cottan?

DOT:

Yes, I was familiar with the file.

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X:

Music Ends

10:
56:38

HASTINGS:

Yes. And how were you familiar with

it?

DOT:

I acquired the file from a former

Major Violent Crime officer

involved in the investigation into

the murder of Tommy Hunter – DS

Rogerson. I then passed it over to

Gill Biggeloe.

HASTINGS:

Yet not to me? Not to DS Arnott?

Not to DC Fleming?

DOT:

I wanted to avoid Steven Arnott. I

think we all know why.

HASTINGS:

That file had crucial pieces of

information removed and held this

inquiry back for weeks.

DOT:

Well I’m sorry about that, sir, but

I took that file at face value, in

good faith.

HASTINGS:

And when we found out about the

missing information, why didn’t you

say something? I mean, you should

have been shouting that from the

rafters, man!

DOT:

No, sir. No. I didn’t have the

evidence yet. I didn’t want to

alert them beforehand.

HASTINGS:

Alert who?

DOT:

Don’t you see, sir? DS Rogerson is

a former girlfriend of DS Arnott.

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