The Commander

Commander Clare Blake is tasked to oversee a disturbing and highly sensitive murder case. An elderly woman is found bludgeoned to death in her own home, apparently by her own son – Detective Sergeant Brian Hall. His former colleagues, including DCI Doug James, are understandably shocked, especially when details of Brian’s personal life start to emerge. Currently under suspension because of his drink problem, it appears that Brian has been hiding a gambling addiction as well, racking up huge debts.

DS Matt Newton - fresh and keen, working his first homicide – fills Doug in about a witness that has come forward. Edna Sutton, friend and neighbour to Mrs Hall, says she heard a drunken Brian kicking down his mother’s door. When she went out to investigate, she saw Brian standing in the hallway, covered in blood with the murder weapon still in his hand. A shattered Doug, still reeling from the fact that his friend and colleague could have done possibly this, finds no respite at home - his wife Zoe is due to give birth any day. However what should be a happy time for them both is marred by Doug’s apparent ambivalence to both his wife and unborn baby. Zoe has sought support from the other mothers in her maternity group, befriending one in particular, Shena Davis, only 17.

Having been arrested at the scene, Brian Hall is suffering the terrible affects of alcohol withdrawal, crawling the walls of his cell. He is kept in hospital before he becomes a danger to himself and possibly others. With the evidence against him the CPS are ready to charge Brian, who isn’t helping himself - he has no memory of what has happened, or even that his mother is dead. Doug and Blake go back to Mrs Hall’s house, trying to get a better sense of what has happened there. A shoe mark in blood doesn’t match Brian or his mother – does this prove another person was there? Doug is interrupted by a call – Zoe has been involved in an incident while visiting Shena in the maternity ward. When Zoe asked her about money missing from her purse, Shena’s mother Adele – a tough, fiery woman – attacked Zoe, punching her to the floor. It’s the last thing Doug needs, and he focuses his energy on Brian’s case.

Visiting Brian’s squalid flat, he and Blake discover the sad and largely hidden life he’s been living – losing his wife to cancer, debts mounting up, savings cleaned out, and a seemingly fraught and antagonistic relationship with his mother. If anything, it appears Brian did indeed have motive to kill her.

Doug barely has a moment to take this in – Zoe is rushed to hospital, her labour has started, the baby is coming. Newton drives a panicked Doug there just in time – Zoe gives birth to a healthy baby boy. Blake arrives at the hospital early morning to see the beautiful baby, just ahead of Newton, DS Alison Goody and the rest of the team who have come to congratulate Doug and Zoe. However, amid the clinking of champagne glasses, it appears that all is not well - the baby is not in its cot by Zoe’s bed. Trying not to panic, Doug checks with the nurse, but no one seems to know where he is. The baby was supposedly brought back down to the ward and put in his cot. Security is now called to the scene and Doug follows them into the maternity ward as Blake tries to calm the situation. Doug, in a terrible state standing with the security guards, tells Blake that the baby has been taken. Zoe starts to scream as she realises what is happening.

Last edited: Monday, 27 October 2008