Line of Duty Page #6

HASTINGS:

(Outraged.)

My department carries out its

searches to the letter of the law,

fella. The letter.

DOT:

Document 19 in your folders. For

the tape, this is a partial

transcript of Lindsay Denton’s

retrial.

Everyone turns to the document.

DOT (CONT’D)

Now at Lindsay Denton’s first trial

she was convicted of conspiracy to

murder and the prosecution hung on

crucial evidence found at her home

address, namely fifty grand in cash

that was linked via financial

forensics to other bribes employed

in the conspiracy.

STEVE:

I didn’t plant that money.

DOT:

Image 49.

Dot brings up a shot of an interior pocket of

the bag, unzipped, showing a screwed up fiver.

DOT (CONT’D)

Image 49 shows Item reference VCT

11. Now VCT-11 is a five-pound

note. Is that your five-pound note?

STEVE:

I don’t remember having any money

in the bag.

DOT:

Not your phone, now it’s not your

money either?

STEVE:

I’m saying I don’t recall if I was

carrying any money in the bag.

DOT:

Fair enough – it was in the inside

pocket, it’s only a fiver – it’s

easy to forget. Now we ran

forensics on that five-pound note.

Document 20 in your folders.

Everyone looks in their folders.

DOT (CONT’D)

DC Fleming.

KATE:

(Reading from document 20.)

For the tape, I’m referring to

Document 20. Document 20 is a

photocopy of an original report

made by the Financial Forensics

Unit, Report Sierra Alpha/5657/15.

The summary reads: “Pollen

particles detected on banknote VCT11

show a close match to pollen

particles detected on banknotes

AJK-72.” AJK-72 is the item

reference for the fifty thousand

pounds found at Lindsay Denton’s

home.

STEVE:

There is no way! Look! That is not

my money.

DOT:

A second ago you couldn’t either

remember.

STEVE:

There is no way that I’d have money

that was from the same source as

Lindsay Denton’s bribe!

DOT:

Lindsay Denton knew you’d planted

that evidence, and she was your

most vociferous accuser. So maybe

she was onto this evidence too.

STEVE:

She wasn’t on to any evidence. I

mean, she couldn’t have known about

this.

DOT:

Oh right? So you hide it from her?

STEVE:

(Losing focus, getting

overwhelmed.)

I didn’t mean it like that.

DOT:

That money would be very hard to

come by. But together with the

phone, this indicates a clear

pattern of corrupt conduct.

STEVE:

I am not bent!

Steve looks deeply anguished, on the verge of

breaking down. Hastings can’t help but be

sensitive to his former prot.g..

Music

10:
28:23

DUR:
1’07”.

Specially

composed by

Carly

Paradis.

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HASTINGS:

This is obviously a very difficult

experience, Steve. Would you like

some time alone with your

solicitor?

Steve fights to regain his composure.

Reflecting on the evidence, Kate makes another

note.

STEVE:

No.

HASTINGS:

Very well. But you know can we all

just calm down here and not let our

emotions get the better of us.

DOT:

Sir.

HASTINGS:

So moving on. In respect of another

murder that of Sergeant Daniel

Waldron. Have you any comment to

make?

STEVE:

Waldron was murdered by, Hari

Bains. Bains confessed and he

intends to plead guilty.

DOT:

Yeah, well, Bains owed gambling

debts to the wrong people. And we

believe they contracted him to kill

Waldron.

HASTINGS:

Indeed.

KATE:

Significantly Bains received a call

the night of 31st May, from a phone

of the type found in your car. The

night before he shot and killed

Waldron.

DOT:

According to Bains, in a statement

made on June 30th, the caller had a

London slash southeast accent.

STEVE:

So?

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X:

Music Ends

10:
29:30

DOT:

So, was that you?

STEVE:

(Aggressive sarcasm.)

London and the southeast have such

small populations it could only

have been me.

HASTINGS:

Would you kindly just answer the

question please, DS Arnott?

STEVE:

Bains and I met loads of times. He

would have known my voice and been

able to identify it. The call was

clearly made by another person

unknown.

HASTINGS:

Yes and you’re familiar with the

putative corrupt police officer

code-name ‘the Caddy’?

Suddenly Steve is very worried by this change of

tack.

STEVE:

I am.

HASTINGS:

DI Cottan.

DOT:

Sir.

Dot uses a remote to bring up on a screen a

profile of the Caddy. The first screen is:

“THE CADDY”:
CRIMINAL PROFILE

MALE:

WORKING-CLASS URBAN

UNDER 35

DETECTIVE:

COUNTER-TERROR

LONDON/SE ACCENT

DOT (CONT’D)

Assimilation of all credible

witness testimony based on direct

contact with said individual leads

to the following profile. The Caddy

is male. The Caddy is almost

certainly from a working-class

background and grew up in an urban

Music

10:
30:28

DUR:
1’25”.

Specially

composed by

Carly

Paradis.

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environment. He is probably under

35. He is almost certainly a

detective. He’s trained in covert

operations such as Counter-

Terrorism. And all ear witnesses

report the Caddy as having a London

or southeast accent.

STEVE:

This is insane!

HASTINGS:

God help me, son, I wish it was.

STEVE:

Sir, that’s your evidence? A

profile?

DOT:

We’ve more than just a profile.

Only the Caddy would have had

access to the same source of bribe

money found at Lindsay Denton’s

house, the same supply we found

some of in your service vehicle

boot.

Tense beats.

SOLICITOR:

(Whispers in Steve’s ear.)

(Keep calm. If in doubt, say, “No

comment”.)

HASTINGS:

Would you like some more time, DS

Arnott?

Steve gathers his thoughts.

STEVE:

No. DI Cottan originally

volunteered to investigate the

Caddy and closed the case

prematurely based on flimsy

evidence provided by an old

colleague.

HASTINGS:

Yes. But we’re not here to discuss

DI Cottan.

DOT:

Sir, he’s just looking at some

angle to try and discredit this

investigation.

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X:

Music Ends

10:
31:53

STEVE:

(To Hastings.)

I intend to be heard, sir, on the

record.

HASTINGS:

(Sighs.)

Very well. That’s your right.

STEVE:

DI Cottan, you carried out the

original inquiry into the Caddy?

DOT:

I did.

STEVE:

That wrongly identified DC Jeremy

Cole?

DOT:

Yes.

STEVE:

Based purely on the testimony of

your former colleague, DC Nigel

Morton?

HASTINGS:

Yes, but Morton has since revised

his statement and DI Cottan and DC

Fleming are reopening that

particular inquiry.

Steve is halted. Dot looks smug. Steve thinks

and starts up again.

STEVE:

You also failed to order a second

post-mortem on the body of Rod

Kennedy.

DOT:

My email bounced back, as well you

know.

(To Hastings.)

Sir, he’s clutching at straws here.

Kate makes a note.

STEVE:

In respect of the original inquiry

into the murder of Sergeant Danny

Waldron, you led a search of

Waldron’s flat.

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