Vera - Twelfth Season

Who's my handsome boy? Give us a smile.

'Time to batten down the hatches

'as the Met Office issues a severe weather warning.

'Storm Alonso is set to strike many areas of the UK this weekend.

'Red warnings for wind will cover Wales, Northern Ireland

'and most of England from tomorrow morning until 1pm on Sunday.'

Oh, no, we'll have to get cosy, won't we?

Get Snuggy away so the storm can't get us?

'..flooding is likely for locations mainly in the north east.

'Emergency services are now on high alert.

'You are strongly advised not to travel unless in an emergency.'

Oh, bloody Alonso!

Hello?! Hello! Anyone there?

What are you doing here on your own, pet?

Hey, come on. I'm getting all wet here.

Hang on, hang on. Oh, would you believe it.

No signal.

Aye, I know...

Right... There we go, pet.

Hey, we've got no option, pet.

You're gonna have to meet this lot.

- Come on, come on... - Can I help you?

- Oh, Juliet. It's Vera! - Vera?

It's been years. What on Earth are you doing here?

- Is everything all right? - Oh, unforeseen circumstances.

- I need to use your phone. - Oh, right...

Well, yes. Erm, just... come in.

I'm sorry to gatecrash your party.

- Oh, er, it's, well, it's not a party. - Oh, this is heavy.

Oh, is he, erm...?

Oh, I found him in a car about a mile up the road.

What, alone?

Aye, which means there's someone wandering around in this storm.

Oh, right. Er, yes, well, that's very worrying.

- Aye, it is worrying, so I need to use your phone! - Well, come through.

Er, sorry, love, sorry. Sorry.

Erm, right. We've got a bit of a situation, actually.

This is Vera, she's a police officer.

Hello, hello.

- Vera has found this baby in an abandoned car. - What?!

- Er, the phone, love? - Oh, yes, erm...

Hey, could you cop hold?

- Aye, just on the top road there. - Is it OK? - Well, I think so.

He's a bit stinky.

But there's one of those baby bag thingies in my motor,

- if someone could go get it? - I'll do that. - Yeah, it's not locked.

- And can you turn my lights off? - Of course...

- And, er, here's the landline. - Oh, thanks... I'll just, erm...

Right.

'Good evening, duty desk.'

Oh, hello, it's, er, DCI Vera Stanhope.

I need you to run a vehicle registration check for me.

Hello.

Where is your mummy?

- And DOB? - '2-6-61'.

- June '61? - 'Yeah.'

- Right, thanks, love. - 'No problem.'

- 'Hello?' - Aiden, I'm not disturbing you, am I?

- 'Well...' - Listen. I got stuck in the storm.

And I need you to get over to Kirkhill.

- Tonight? Everything OK? - 'No.'

'I've got an abandoned baby and a lost grandad'

'by the looks of things!'

'But I've got a name.'

Ronald Browne, 14 Pleasance Drive, Kirkhill.

'I can't go anywhere. I mean, we've got a power cut'

'and been absolutely battered.'

Yeah, well, I'm stuck up over at Brockburn House.

- Where? - 'Brockburn House!'

I told you when we were working on that Culvert case,

me dad's family used to live here. Well, they still do.

- 'The toffee-nosed lot.' - Oh, yes.

- What, your cousin's place? - Yeah, well, never mind all that.

- Are you saying you can't go to Kirkhill? - 'I'm sorry, Ma'am.'

I've had a couple of beers tonight.

Oh, now he tells me!

Oh, I don't know. Excuse me.

- Where did you get to? - I'm so sorry, erm...

- I wasn't... - Who's that?

Vera is a cousin of Daddy.

- She's a police officer. - Police?

Yes. We've got a bit of an emergency.

A baby's been abandoned on the top road.

A baby?

What, crawling down the hard shoulder?

- Can you come back in now? - I shan't be too much longer.

- My husband, Marcus. - Vera?

What on Earth are you doing here? Didn't realise you were invited.

- Oh, I wasn't, Harriet. - Oh? So you invited yourself!

Shame you didn't invite yourself to Crispin's funeral.

Your own cousin!

Er, yes, Vera's run into a spot of trouble in the storm, Mother.

- She found a baby all by himself. - Good Lord!

Oh, I'll be out of here as soon as possible, Harriet. Don't worry.

How have you been? Not still doing that awful job, I hope?

- Oh, aye. Still working. - Poor you.

Well, I could lounge around all day, drinking gin,

- but that's not really my thing. - No, of course.

I can see why Hector's drinking could put you off altogether.

- I heard you'd moved into his cottage when he died. - I did, Harriet.

Well. Never mind.

Nice to see you.

Right.

Do any of you know a Ronald Browne?

- Just turned 60, lives in Kirkhill? - Don't think so. Dorothy?

- No. Sorry. - Er, cup of tea for Vera.

How about you, pet?

- Do you live down in the village? - No, I live here.

Not "here" here, obviously. I live on the estate.

- Er, Heslop Farm, it's on the south edge. - Oh, right.

- I'll just go and ask your guests if they know this fella? - They won't.

They're not village people, they're from the art world.

- What, and artists don't live in villages? - Not Kirkhill, no.

Look here.

It's Shakespeare.

That's what tonight is all about.

We're fundraising for developing an arts village here at Brockburn.

Yeah, it was all Marcus's idea, actually.

We're going to have a, a gallery and an artists' retreat,

- and a theatre. - Oh, jolly good.

Dad! Dad, what is it?

- There's a body. - What, a body?

- Hey, come and sit down, love. - Thank you. - All right.

Now, where, where's, where's this body?

It's on the side of the road.

- Between my place and... and here. - Oh, my goodness!

And it's a man in his early 60s?

No, no, no. No, it's some woman.

It's a young woman.

Surely you haven't been here all night in a raging storm?

Well, I wasn't gonna leave the woman up here on her own, was I?

Well, I say woman. She's little more than a teenager.

- What do you think happened? - Don't know.

Hit by the debris?

Doesn't make sense. Driver's door was wide open.

Why would she abandon her motor, leaving the bairn inside?

- Any idea who she is? - No.

Last night was a total write-off.

I'm sorry I couldn't get up to Kirkhill.

- Nah, well, couldn't be helped. Did you go on the way up? - To Kirkhill?

- Ronald Browne. - Well, I thought you'd want me straight here.

Right, wait here for forensics, and then get up to the house

and get statements from the guests.

- Guests? - Aye. There was a party last night.

What, they're still there?

Aye, you know, they were stranded, like you were.

And get Jac and Mark up there, and Kenny.

And ask someone at the house

if they've got a recent map of the estate.

Right, and who should I ask?

You a detective or what?

Harriet or Juliet. They're my relatives.

- Where are you going? - Kirkhill!

Now, listen, I'm sorry I didn't answer your call last night,

I was well away.

- So, you slept through the racket of that storm? - I had my earphones in.

I'm listening to War And Peace. Come on through.

Watch out for that step there. Here you go.

- Er, sit yourself down. - Er, well, you're all right.

Oh, right. Er, OK. Er, so how can I help you?

Look, if this is about the car not being taxed, well,

actually, it's not mine any more. I've sold it, sort of thing.

Er, well, how do you mean "sort of thing"?

Well, I didn't really use it. Not since my wife died.

So, who did you sell it to?

Lorna, a girl in the village here.

She's by herself, so, you know, I like to keep an eye on her.

Yeah, now, when you say she's by herself...?

Well, with a little one, aye.

- And what's Lorna's surname? - Falstone. Lorna Falstone.

Is everything all right? Is Lorna OK?

Ah, there's no easy way to say this, love.

I'm afraid a body was discovered up on the Brockburn Estate. And...

What, and you think it's Lorna?!

Your car was also found abandoned on the perimeter of the estate.

Well, what, what about Thomas? Her baby...

He's fine. He's safe.

Oh, I'm sorry, this must be a shock.

Were you very close to her?

Er, no, no... Not really.

Oh, so that was just from the sale of the car?

Er, my, my wife was her old school teacher, you know, years back...

- and I know her from art class. - Art class?

Yeah, we meet every week, but I didn't go this week,

so, erm, I posted the car keys through on Thursday night.

So, how did she pay you?

- Er, well, I said she could give us it when she could. - Hang on.

You gave your car to a girl you only vaguely knew? For free?

Well, I knew she would pay me, when she could.

Well, how would you know that, if you barely knew her?

Look... I...

I hardly used it, and it wasn't worth much, so...

So, who are the other people in this art group?

Oh, I don't know their names.

Erm, us oldies didn't really mix with the young 'uns,

- erm... you'd have to ask Josh. - Josh who?

Josh Heslop. He's the tutor.

- Heslop? - Yeah, his...

his family have got a farm on the Brockburn estate, like Lorna's.

- Her family live on the estate, too? - Aye.