[oom] 2x04 The Beginning of the End
"Sure you're ready for this?" She's still out of breath from the walk.
Gene crushed the butt of his cigarette under his boot. "I'm ready."
"It's a big step."
"Between you and me, Bols, I've been wanting to do this for weeks."
"Yeah. Yeah, me too, I just didn't know you felt the same way."
"Oh yeah. Let's do it."
And so, they bugged SuperMac's office. And fell asleep in his office, trying to map out all the possible connections between Mac, the Ball's Pond bullion job, the Masons, all of it.
To no good end.
~~~
Just when she thought it couldn't possibly get worse than the team discovering them asleep in his office, Jackie Queen showed up wearing Gene's camel long coat. (Why she fixated on that detail from the file, she'll never know, but she knew it before Ray even opened his mouth.)
She was eight months pregnant and claiming it was Gene's.
~~~
That she was actually a journalist actually working a case was small comfort, especially considering the disdain and disrespect she directed at Alex. (That she was from Glasgow wasn't the issue. It was the chain smoking she took real issue with.) Jackie had been trying to discover the fate of several Northern girls who'd come to London and then simply disappeared. She was looking for a girl named Rachel Lessing, and had written several letters and phoned several times.
Only Viv had been instructed by someone higher up the chain of command to ignore those requests.
That someone was Detective Superintended Charlie Mackintosh.
~~~
She couldn't believe what she was seeing. He took everything that Jackie said at her word, and followed her down to the Victoria Coach station, like a terrier after a rat. She couldn't figure it out.
He had no idea if the child was actually his. She asked him, flat out. But he knew, obviously, that if Mac was involved, they had to look into it. She was hard pressed to disagree with that, considering how few leads they had to go on.
(That the man who had kidnapped her slipped a rose into her pocket at the station was the least of her worries. He had a police radio. She could contact him later.)
The lead paid off when they followed a "photographer" home from the station with a girl from Liverpool. Debbie was her name, and Gene gave her a fistful of cash and told her to get home. With her dark hair and her wide eyes, she reminded Alex of poor Sal, the stripper he'd held in his lap while she bled out from a gunshot wound.
She could see in his eyes the same memory playing itself over and over in his head.
This wasn't just about police corruption, any longer. This was about someone funnelling young girls to a party where the highest bidder would get their virginity, and the police turning a blind eye to it.
~~~
Jackie had lied. The girl she was looking for turned out to be her niece.
Which made it hard for Alex to feel even the smallest bit vindicated by the fact.
Not even as she watched Gene fold her in his arms and hold her while she cried.
~~~
Jarvis.
She could do this. She could keep her head down and work the case.
Ignore Jackie's jibes. Ignore the looks Gene was giving her when he thought no one was looking.
Ignore the ache behind her breastbone, and the cold realisation that there were more ways she could lose him than just a transfer to Plymouth.
(It doesn't matter. None of this is real.)
~~~
Mac's reaction to them bringing in Jarvis told them everything they needed to know.
What they heard on the wire only confirmed it. Mac was under Jarvis' thumb.
And it was Jackie who actually made the connection. Jarvis and Mac were at Hendon together, long before Jarvis ever ducked out of a murder accusation.
~~~
Turns out Mac had a judge in his pocket as well. Well, at least Shaz got some undercover experience.
~~~
She was wrong. It could get worse.
Gene proposed to her, in front of the whole squad. And he was serious.
That Jackie told him there was no way she'd sleep with him if he was the last man on the planet was some comfort. She'd been having him on the whole time. And he bought it, hook, line and sinker.
She didn't dare laugh too loudly. (But yes, she had to laugh. It was either that or cry.)
~~~
Gene left her to deal with Jackie afterwards, and of course, she offered to let her sleep on the sofa. (Was it easier to be hospitable now that she knew the truth about Jackie's baby? Possibly. But it was nothing she could admit out loud. Or even to herself, really.)
Jackie had known Sam. Sam and Annie.
They'd been happy together. No kids though.
Jackie kept asking if she and Gene had anything going on. She tried to brush off the question, claim their relationship was strictly professional, but the denial sounded forced even to her own ears. Ray and Chris had taken notice of the amount of time they were spending together.
Alex couldn't let herself even speculate. She wasn't like Sam. She couldn't stay. It wasn't her happiness that was in question, was it? Even if she could stay with him and have a life, like Sam and Annie had a life, without Molly, she would be nothing.
When they finally went to sleep, Alex dreamed of Molly. Dreamed of her standing blindfolded, calling out for her mum, with a man behind her. Jarvis. They were standing on a stage, blinded by a spotlight, and their audience was a few shadowy silhouettes. Men bidding for her daughter's virginity.
The sound of the telephone jolted her awake, and it was him. He knew about Mac, knew that they'd stirred up a hornet's nest by bringing in Jarvis.
"What you do in this place has consequences, Alex."
Jackie hears the phone and comes to check on her.
"It's nothing. I had a dream about my little girl."
"Come on. I need you to be strong."
The plaintive tone of that sentence is almost too much for her to bear. The tears threaten, and it's only Gene's arrival that stems the tide.
~~~
The girl they fish out of the canal isn't Rachel. It's Debbie.
A message from Jarvis that if he goes down, he's taking Mac with him.
Another murder. How many does this make now? She's lost count. (Four. That they know of.)
~~~
Gene seems to think Mac will turn the other cheek simply because he once was a decent man.
Gene is wrong.
Only then does he come back to her idea of bringing in Ray and Chris. Ray does not want to hear it, but he comes around to their way of thinking, with some persuasion from the Guv. (She still has her doubts about Ray, not the least of which that he's also a Mason and part of Mac's lodge.) But Gene seems to trust him, so that's good enough for her.
And right in the middle of their little powwow, Mac shows up and arrests her for suspicion of embezzlement and corruption, on perverting the course of justice and possession of stolen goods. All along with a warrant to search her flat.
They find cash. They find drugs. They find stolen goods. They find bank statements that back up their assertions.
Surreal doesn't begin to cover this end of the nightmare.
And Gene can't do anything to stop it.
~~~
They've even gone so far as to doctor her phone records and take statements from fellow bent officers accusing her of trying to bribe them.
She doesn't even bother to ask for a solicitor. He has them all in his pocket as well.
He places her on indefinite suspension.
All of it does nothing but harden her resolve.
(At least Rachel called the squad room to say she was all right, to tell her Dad that she was all right. That she was going to a party and she'd probably be late coming home. So, at least they knew she was alive.)
~~~
They've trashed her apartment. Literally, broken every glass and jar, strewn the contents of every drawer and cupboard around on the floor. It's a mess, and she can't do anything but clean it up.
Until Jackie knocked on her door.
"Look you know -- you saw what happened. I can't help you. I've been suspended."
"Thankfully, a friend thinks differently."
Gene topped the stairs. "Right. Work to do, Bolly."
"Where're we going?"
"Jarvis has got Rachel."
Jackie piped up. "She talked about her dad. Her dad's been dead for five years."
Alex grabbed her coat without a second thought.
~~~
There was a party going on at the address, and that's not all they found.
Paintings. High quality fine art. Mac's collection, as evidenced by the portrait they found of him and his daughter. Jarvis was holding it for him.
They also found Debbie's scarf.
The party was in full swing and they watched as Jarvis took a handful of cash from a man and then passed Rachel off to him.
And then Jackie completely blew their element of surprise out of the water.
~~~
They brought Jarvis in, and confronted Mac with their discoveries.
Jackie wanted to support Rachel in identifying Jarvis as the man who constrained her, but she once she got her in the room with the bastard, she couldn't do it.
Jarvis was walking and there was nothing, nothing they could do about it.
~~~
The nightmare kept unfolding before her eyes.
Detective Superintendent Charlie Mackintosh shot Jarvis down on police property. Mere feet from their office. When Gene saw him turn the gun on himself, he dove and for a heart stopping moment, she thought that it was Gene that had been shot.
But no. No, he's fine. It's Mac breathing his last in Gene's arms.
And he's muttering something.
Operation Rose.
The revelation hits her like a balled fist in the solar plexus.
~~~
She would stand for the toast. But she will not drink to the memory of a man who tried to destroy her.
And she would deny Jackie's question one final time (with him standing at her elbow, so close she could feel the warmth of his body).
Nothing going on.
Nothing except her fight to get home.
All dialogue from 2x04 Ashes To Ashes.
Gene crushed the butt of his cigarette under his boot. "I'm ready."
"It's a big step."
"Between you and me, Bols, I've been wanting to do this for weeks."
"Yeah. Yeah, me too, I just didn't know you felt the same way."
"Oh yeah. Let's do it."
And so, they bugged SuperMac's office. And fell asleep in his office, trying to map out all the possible connections between Mac, the Ball's Pond bullion job, the Masons, all of it.
To no good end.
~~~
Just when she thought it couldn't possibly get worse than the team discovering them asleep in his office, Jackie Queen showed up wearing Gene's camel long coat. (Why she fixated on that detail from the file, she'll never know, but she knew it before Ray even opened his mouth.)
She was eight months pregnant and claiming it was Gene's.
~~~
That she was actually a journalist actually working a case was small comfort, especially considering the disdain and disrespect she directed at Alex. (That she was from Glasgow wasn't the issue. It was the chain smoking she took real issue with.) Jackie had been trying to discover the fate of several Northern girls who'd come to London and then simply disappeared. She was looking for a girl named Rachel Lessing, and had written several letters and phoned several times.
Only Viv had been instructed by someone higher up the chain of command to ignore those requests.
That someone was Detective Superintended Charlie Mackintosh.
~~~
She couldn't believe what she was seeing. He took everything that Jackie said at her word, and followed her down to the Victoria Coach station, like a terrier after a rat. She couldn't figure it out.
He had no idea if the child was actually his. She asked him, flat out. But he knew, obviously, that if Mac was involved, they had to look into it. She was hard pressed to disagree with that, considering how few leads they had to go on.
(That the man who had kidnapped her slipped a rose into her pocket at the station was the least of her worries. He had a police radio. She could contact him later.)
The lead paid off when they followed a "photographer" home from the station with a girl from Liverpool. Debbie was her name, and Gene gave her a fistful of cash and told her to get home. With her dark hair and her wide eyes, she reminded Alex of poor Sal, the stripper he'd held in his lap while she bled out from a gunshot wound.
She could see in his eyes the same memory playing itself over and over in his head.
This wasn't just about police corruption, any longer. This was about someone funnelling young girls to a party where the highest bidder would get their virginity, and the police turning a blind eye to it.
~~~
Jackie had lied. The girl she was looking for turned out to be her niece.
Which made it hard for Alex to feel even the smallest bit vindicated by the fact.
Not even as she watched Gene fold her in his arms and hold her while she cried.
(Her name is Molly.)
~~~
Jarvis.
She could do this. She could keep her head down and work the case.
Ignore Jackie's jibes. Ignore the looks Gene was giving her when he thought no one was looking.
Ignore the ache behind her breastbone, and the cold realisation that there were more ways she could lose him than just a transfer to Plymouth.
(It doesn't matter. None of this is real.)
(Her name is Molly.)
~~~
Mac's reaction to them bringing in Jarvis told them everything they needed to know.
What they heard on the wire only confirmed it. Mac was under Jarvis' thumb.
And it was Jackie who actually made the connection. Jarvis and Mac were at Hendon together, long before Jarvis ever ducked out of a murder accusation.
~~~
Turns out Mac had a judge in his pocket as well. Well, at least Shaz got some undercover experience.
~~~
She was wrong. It could get worse.
Gene proposed to her, in front of the whole squad. And he was serious.
That Jackie told him there was no way she'd sleep with him if he was the last man on the planet was some comfort. She'd been having him on the whole time. And he bought it, hook, line and sinker.
She didn't dare laugh too loudly. (But yes, she had to laugh. It was either that or cry.)
~~~
Gene left her to deal with Jackie afterwards, and of course, she offered to let her sleep on the sofa. (Was it easier to be hospitable now that she knew the truth about Jackie's baby? Possibly. But it was nothing she could admit out loud. Or even to herself, really.)
Jackie had known Sam. Sam and Annie.
They'd been happy together. No kids though.
(Her name is Molly.)
Jackie kept asking if she and Gene had anything going on. She tried to brush off the question, claim their relationship was strictly professional, but the denial sounded forced even to her own ears. Ray and Chris had taken notice of the amount of time they were spending together.
(Start as you mean to go on.)
(Her name is Molly. Today is her birthday.)
(Her name is Molly. Today is her birthday.)
Alex couldn't let herself even speculate. She wasn't like Sam. She couldn't stay. It wasn't her happiness that was in question, was it? Even if she could stay with him and have a life, like Sam and Annie had a life, without Molly, she would be nothing.
When they finally went to sleep, Alex dreamed of Molly. Dreamed of her standing blindfolded, calling out for her mum, with a man behind her. Jarvis. They were standing on a stage, blinded by a spotlight, and their audience was a few shadowy silhouettes. Men bidding for her daughter's virginity.
The sound of the telephone jolted her awake, and it was him. He knew about Mac, knew that they'd stirred up a hornet's nest by bringing in Jarvis.
"What you do in this place has consequences, Alex."
Jackie hears the phone and comes to check on her.
"It's nothing. I had a dream about my little girl."
"Come on. I need you to be strong."
The plaintive tone of that sentence is almost too much for her to bear. The tears threaten, and it's only Gene's arrival that stems the tide.
~~~
The girl they fish out of the canal isn't Rachel. It's Debbie.
A message from Jarvis that if he goes down, he's taking Mac with him.
Another murder. How many does this make now? She's lost count. (Four. That they know of.)
~~~
Gene seems to think Mac will turn the other cheek simply because he once was a decent man.
Gene is wrong.
Only then does he come back to her idea of bringing in Ray and Chris. Ray does not want to hear it, but he comes around to their way of thinking, with some persuasion from the Guv. (She still has her doubts about Ray, not the least of which that he's also a Mason and part of Mac's lodge.) But Gene seems to trust him, so that's good enough for her.
And right in the middle of their little powwow, Mac shows up and arrests her for suspicion of embezzlement and corruption, on perverting the course of justice and possession of stolen goods. All along with a warrant to search her flat.
They find cash. They find drugs. They find stolen goods. They find bank statements that back up their assertions.
Surreal doesn't begin to cover this end of the nightmare.
And Gene can't do anything to stop it.
~~~
They've even gone so far as to doctor her phone records and take statements from fellow bent officers accusing her of trying to bribe them.
She doesn't even bother to ask for a solicitor. He has them all in his pocket as well.
He places her on indefinite suspension.
All of it does nothing but harden her resolve.
(At least Rachel called the squad room to say she was all right, to tell her Dad that she was all right. That she was going to a party and she'd probably be late coming home. So, at least they knew she was alive.)
~~~
They've trashed her apartment. Literally, broken every glass and jar, strewn the contents of every drawer and cupboard around on the floor. It's a mess, and she can't do anything but clean it up.
Until Jackie knocked on her door.
"Look you know -- you saw what happened. I can't help you. I've been suspended."
"Thankfully, a friend thinks differently."
Gene topped the stairs. "Right. Work to do, Bolly."
"Where're we going?"
"Jarvis has got Rachel."
Jackie piped up. "She talked about her dad. Her dad's been dead for five years."
Alex grabbed her coat without a second thought.
~~~
There was a party going on at the address, and that's not all they found.
Paintings. High quality fine art. Mac's collection, as evidenced by the portrait they found of him and his daughter. Jarvis was holding it for him.
They also found Debbie's scarf.
The party was in full swing and they watched as Jarvis took a handful of cash from a man and then passed Rachel off to him.
And then Jackie completely blew their element of surprise out of the water.
~~~
They brought Jarvis in, and confronted Mac with their discoveries.
Jackie wanted to support Rachel in identifying Jarvis as the man who constrained her, but she once she got her in the room with the bastard, she couldn't do it.
Jarvis was walking and there was nothing, nothing they could do about it.
~~~
The nightmare kept unfolding before her eyes.
Detective Superintendent Charlie Mackintosh shot Jarvis down on police property. Mere feet from their office. When Gene saw him turn the gun on himself, he dove and for a heart stopping moment, she thought that it was Gene that had been shot.
But no. No, he's fine. It's Mac breathing his last in Gene's arms.
And he's muttering something.
Operation Rose.
The revelation hits her like a balled fist in the solar plexus.
~~~
She would stand for the toast. But she will not drink to the memory of a man who tried to destroy her.
And she would deny Jackie's question one final time (with him standing at her elbow, so close she could feel the warmth of his body).
Nothing going on.
Nothing except her fight to get home.
All dialogue from 2x04 Ashes To Ashes.