Original subtitles

[code machines clanking]

[tense dramatic music]

[code machines clanking]

Diederich.

Diederich, Diederich.

Millie.

Pass, friend.

Jean will have the vapors if she catches you out here.

Jean, doesn't scare me.

She scares me.

Those personnel reassignments we just got

how were they encrypted?

The last batch, ultra, why?

Diederich

Spill the beans, Susan, what's going on?

Why aren't you girls working?

Sorry, Mrs. McBrian,

but there's a German Oberleutnant

whose orders were part of the Ultra intercept,

and Susan thinks it's important.

Don't you, Susan?

Well?

I've seen him before.

He's skipping about all over the place.

Maybe he's Hitler's nephew on a sightseeing tour.

Why use Ultra encryption on personnel reassignments?

Go on.

Lucy, Oberleutnant Dieter von Diederich

- any other assignments? - [tense dramatic music]

Oberleutnant von Diederich, 7th of January, reassignment,

Berlin Central to 25th Infantry Division,

effective immediately.

Oberleutnant von Diederich, 12th of March, reassignment,

Clausewitz, effective immediately.

Oberleutnant von Diederich, 24th of March,

battalion transfer order,

702nd Static Infantry Division, effective immediately.

Oberleutnant von Diederich, 3rd of May, reassignment.

All right.

Even Hitler's nephew doesn't get around that much.

Transferred to Clausewitz.

Where is that?

Nowhere, there are no German towns called Clausewitz.

Well, maybe it's a person, not a place.

It's also a tank division.

He was transferred from infantry to tanks,

back to infantry again, which is as daft as saying

someone should lead the showjumping

'cause they're good at hockey.

So who is he?

I don't think he exists.

I think he's a code within the cipher.

Code for battle orders, you mean?

Perhaps.

Take it to the house.

You do think it's real, don't you?

You don't think it's a coincidence?

Yes.

Well, off you go then.

[soft music]

[Lucy] You've been ages what happened?

We had a bet you'd been court-martialled and shot.

Well?

We were right.

It is a troop deployment code.

The battalion numbers indicate different geographical zones

and Diederich is the order to deploy.

So now we know where the German Army's

going to be in three days time.

My cousin's in North Africa.

This could.

Yes, it'll make a difference.

[stirring emotional music]

Well, done all of you, I'm sure.

Now, get back to your digs, get some sleep.

Shift starts in seven hours.

Good night.

You know the map they have up at the house

with the markers for the armies?

All those troops are on the move now because of us.

Not bad for a few ordinary girls in a tin hut.

[soft giggling]

Why are you laughing?

Ordinary girls.

You couldn't be ordinary if you tried.

When this is over won't, we have to be ordinary?

I won't let you.

Now, shut up and go to sleep.

[dramatic music]

[code machines clanking]

[gentle dramatic music]

[clock chiming]

- Two more. - No, thank you.

[ominous music]

[ominous music]

Mummy, we're home.

[Claire] And then mummy says,

"It's time for lunch, everyone come inside".

Lunch at school was horrible.

Gosh, I'm sure it wasn't that bad.

It was spam fritters and tapioca.

Snotty gobbles, ugh!

I am going to have a lie down.

Of course, right here, sir.

[Alvar] This is BBC Home Service News at four o'clock,

and this is Alvar Lidell reading it.

Police have found the body of a fourth woman

on waste ground in North East London.

The woman, who has not yet been named,

was discovered near Warwick Green

and appears to be another victim of the killer

of Jane Hart, Patricia Harris, and Sophie Trent.

A spokesman for Scotland Yard said that

there were many similarities in the cases,

and that they were extending

their manhunt throughout the city.

[Claire] Mummy?

Warwick Green that can't be right.

[Claire] Mummy, can we go and play outside?

Yes, of course you can.

[radio announcer speaking loudly]

Stay near the house, though.

[door closing softly]

[dramatic music]

[tense music]

[children laughing]

Gap in the pattern.

He missed one.

Can we leave the table, please?

Yes, of course you can.

- [girl giggling] - How was work?

Grueling.

Stephens is reorganizing the department,

so everyone's on their best behavior.

A lot of fuss and bother over nothing much.

Darling,

you know the deputy commissioner, don't you?

- Wainwright. - Hmm.

Hmm, I served with him in the Royal Artillery.

I don't know him exactly, why?

It's a funny thing, really.

You know, I'm good with puzzles

and brain-teasers that sort of thing?

I know you're the very devil with the cryptic crossword.

And you know that these poor girls they've found.

Oh, sweetheart,

why on earth are you thinking about all that horrible stuff?

Oh, I don't know.

I do know, really.

The first girl, Jane Hart,

she was a shop girl in Soames.

Right, you remember her?

She must have served me a dozen times.

She was there and now she's gone.

I can't help thinking of that

- but for the grace of God. - Oh, Susan.

Don't be silly.

Look.

These girls, from what the papers say,

they weren't our type, not at all.

Out on their own at night.

I know, but I couldn't help thinking about her,

and now I think that there might be something

the police aren't seeing.

I think there might be another girl, a fifth girl,

but they haven't found her yet

because they don't know that she's missing.

You know I'm good with patterns.

You really think that

just by listening to the wireless,

you can tell the police where to look for a murder victim?

Oh, yes.

[Officer] Go right in there first.

- Abby town square. - Yes, thank you.

[people speaking loudly]

[typewriter clanking]

[telephone ringing]

- Timothy. - Sir.

- How are you? - Good to see you.

Nice to see you too.

This is my wife.

Pleased to meet you.

Come.

Do come in.

Now, Timothy says you may be able to help us.

Well, I hope so.

May I?

Yeah, of course.

Your first girl was found here, Jane Hart,

in an Anderson shelter behind a disused terrace.

- Yes. - Patricia Harris

was found here,

also Anderson shelter,

this time on waste ground.

Sophie Trent here,

this time in a cellar of a disused building.

- Yes. - Now, your fourth girl--

Now, I'm afraid we can't release her name yet.

It doesn't matter, Warwick Green.

She'd made a journey that day, hadn't she?

Well, she wasn't taken from her house, Mrs. Gray, so yes.

None of them were found near their homes.

So the man you're looking for

doesn't go searching these women out.

He waits for them to come to him.

That means the locations where they're found

describe a pattern that's defined by the killer,

not the victims.

I'm not sure I follow.

I think we've probably taken enough of your time.

I really should be getting to work.

Yes, of course, Timothy, won't keep you.

Perhaps the inspector has a few minutes

just to go over the rest of the pattern, if you--

- No, darling. - No, no, no.

I'm sure I can spare another 10 minutes.

Oh, well, that's very good of you.

I hope it turns out to be useful.

It's good to see you looking so well, Timothy.

Thank you, sir.

So a pattern, eh?

- Yes. - What sort of a pattern?

Imagine you're deploying merchant vessels

to take supplies outbound from Dover.

Let's say these are your ships.

Now, you hear a mayday signal from these three.

That should tell you two things.

Well, it tells me I've got a U-boat under my desk.

- Yes. - And,

it tells me that this vessel was either very lucky indeed,

or it went down without a mayday call.

Yes, but no one's going to know for sure

unless they go and check.

I see.

I think you have a gap in your list of murder victims.

Someone who, as it were, went down

without managing to make a distress call.

That would even out the time difference between victims.

Exactly.

Timothy says you worked for the

Foreign Office during the war.

Yes, clerical work.

Mrs. Gray, I'm not gonna ask you to breach

the Official Secrets Act right here in Scotland Yard,

but, it wasn't clerical work, was it?

And your husband doesn't know?

This girl you think we've missed

how do we find her?

Look at the other variable location.

So, excuse me.

It's not a straight line like the U-boat,

but let's say it's a spiral.

He's circling out from somewhere.

So, we track back and we look for the center,

which would be here in Soho.

That would suggest that the gap you're looking for

would be somewhere around here.

Why would he be leaving a pattern for us to follow?

He doesn't realize he's doing it.

People make patterns all the time, but don't notice.

I'm sure you walk to work on one side of the street

and walk home on the other.

Perhaps you think it's faster that way.

He's doing exactly the same thing.

He's trying to cover his tracks by moving around,

but, in actual fact, he's making the pattern

clearer and clearer and clearer

if you know how to look for it.

[dramatic music]

Right.

Thank you.

Those hedges and then down through those railway tunnels.

Thank you, Jamie, up onto the ridge and all this stuff here.

[tense dramatic music]

[Man] Here you go.

Thank you.

Anything?

Nothing, Sarge.

Boys?

[train engine hissing]

Let's do it again.

Check up there all the way along.

They telephoned and said you were still here.

Yes, sorry it's taking so long.

They're looking for the body, you see.

Right.

The children are with Mrs. Johnson.

So,

they think there might be something in it?

Mm-mm.

Sarge.

Got something here.

[powerful dramatic music swells]

Bloody hell, Barry.

I know.

All right, lads, that's enough.

Sarge, I found it.

Sorry, Barry.

This is evidence.

All right, boys, that's it for today.

[door creaking open]

[officers laughing]

I'm sorry, Mrs. Gray.

My men searched the area.

There's nothing there, nothing at all.

You're sure I mean, I--

We're quite certain.

I'll show you out.

I feel awful for wasting your time.

Oh, not at all.

Take care.

Bye.

Boys, I give you the fifth girl.

[officers laughing]

There must be something I missed.

The pattern is there.

Maybe I was wrong about it being a spiral.

Maybe it's more like concentric circles and he's moving--

Oh, Susan.

- I'm just saying. - Stop it!

Look, I tried.

We tried.

Yes.

Look.

You know they're reorganizing the department.

Well, transport's coming up in the world,

and I may very well see my way clear to a promotion.

It's just...

Anyone can make a mistake, Susan.

But let's just leave it at that, shall we?

Yes.

Of course.

I'll buy you a new book of puzzles.

I'll buy you the hardest puzzles I can find.

[somber music]

Ow!

[soft knocking on door]

Coming.

[blaring music on record player]

Who is it?

[Susan] It's Susan.

Susan who?

Hello.

Bloody hell.

Thanks, Frank.

All right, darling.

You stopped sending the postcards.

What was the point you weren't coming.

The last one was from Africa.

Where else did you go?

All the places we talked about.

Was it how we thought?

[Millie] A big adventure, you mean?

Mm-mm.

Yes.

Yes, it was

until the money ran out.

It wasn't such an adventure after that.

So what's his name?

Timothy.

He works for the Department of Transport.

He's nice, actually.

You'd like him.

We think he might get a promotion.

So you met Timothy and you fell pregnant.

There you go.

Your own big adventure.

Yes, we have a girl and a boy.

Claire and Sam, you?

No.

No.

That must keep you busy.

Yes, it does, rather.

It's balancing the books,

making the meat last the week,

keeping the house clean, cooking.

Why are you here, Susan?

So they looked and they didn't find anything.

[Susan] No.

I bet you felt like a fool.

All right, but we're gonna need help.

Why?

I thought it was just something I'm missing,

and you and I could just go over the pattern.

If this pattern of yours was easy to find,

you'd have found it by now.

Suppose you're right, and this man

is leaving some sort of a trail,

then this is gonna come down to geography and data.

So you're good with patterns,

I'm all right with maps that's a start.

But there's going to be a ton of data,

and how are you gonna know what's relevant and what isn't?

You need someone who can remember it all.

And that means Lucy.

And you know what else?

You have to get that data in the first place.

Records, documents, files,

probably restricted files at that.

Jean!

[eerie dramatic music]

Dear, you've picked up four copies of the same book.

It's not going to make it four times better, you know.

Susan Havers.

Isn't this a coincidence?

[gentle music]

Or maybe not.

Hello, Jean.

[soft knocking on door]

About time too I've been waiting half a day.

What.

Some ladies for you.

If it's the WI, you can tell them to piss off

and stick their nose into someone else's cake sale.

Oh, my goodness.

It's been years.

How are you, Lucy?

You, know I'm well; I'm really well.

I can't believe this.

I'd invite you in, but.

Oh, no, no, no, no, don't worry.

We need your help, actually.

My help, with what?

[Timothy] Phil and lit club, is it?

You all read the same book and chat about it?

More or less.

We used to do it in the war,

so when Susan and I bumped into one another,

we thought why not?

I'll bet the moment I'm out the door,

Charles Dickens doesn't get a look-in,

and you'll spend the whole morning

gossiping about old times.

He may be on to us, Susan.

Off with you now, dear.

Yes, yes.

It's good to see you smiling.

You should have done something like this earlier.

You're right.

Bye.

I remember A Christmas Carol on the wireless,

but I don't think I've read this one.

I don't think we're actually here to read the book, Lucy.

Are we?

Mummy, we're home.

Perhaps he'll leave a clue or make a mistake,

but how many more girls will die

before the police catch him?

We can do better.

He's making a pattern.

He doesn't even realize he's doing it.

If we can crack it,

we'll be able to see what his next move will be.

Just like knowing where the German Army

will be in three days time.

If we get ahead of him,

we can stop him before he kills again.

How, exactly?

Well, just like we used to.

Treat the killings like a code.

Keep at it till we break it.

If Susan's right, perhaps we are

the only people to find his pattern.

I know you feel strongly about this, girls,

but it's really not our place.

And what if we do find it,

we take it to the police?

No, I tried that.

Then what's the point?

Well, perhaps we can do more.

[Jean] What do you mean?

Perhaps we could find him.

What?

Isn't that dangerous?

I'm sorry, Susan, I'll say it again.

This is not our place.

Perhaps this isn't our place either, Jean.

Sitting around in our cozy front rooms

while the police do nothing.

We could be useful again.

What do you mean useful again?

Are you saying we're not useful now?

Oh, come on, Jean.

We used to make a difference, every day.

We saved lives, we fought.

I mean, not like the men, obviously, but we did our bit.

That was the war.

This is different.

We're still the same, aren't we?

So says the housewife with two children

and a husband who's up for a promotion.

Don't be so silly.

If we're so silly, why do you need us?

Well, it's been lovely seeing you all.

- Please, Jean. - I'm sorry,

but I really do have to be going.

No, you don't understand.

It looks random, but it isn't random.

He's working to a timetable.

Any day now he's gonna take some other poor girl.

Best leave it to the police.

Lucy.

Some girl is going to die because you won't bloody listen.

Aren't you staying?

Look, I'll come and see you next week, I promise.

This is lovely.

Better than a restaurant.

Well, you deserve it, darling.

Congratulations.

To the new head of...

What was it again?

The new supervisor of

Vehicle Licensing and his lovely wife.

Well done.

Mmm.

Mmm.

Oh, I forgot to ask about your club.

Did you actually manage any phil and lit?

Oh, no, you were right.

It was mostly just gossip.

I knew as much.

- Darling? - Mmm.

Do you like your job?

Well, it's a good job.

I suppose it's not all that exciting, but it's important.

And, I think, perhaps I've had my fair share

of excitement for one lifetime.

Hmm.

[soft dramatic music]

[ominous music]

[Sarah] Morning.

Good morning, Sarah.

[tense music]

[woman gasping]

[woman gasping]

[woman screaming hysterically]

[tense music]

[dramatic music]

[Customer] No, that's it for today actually, thanks.

- Have a nice day. - See you soon.

[Clerk] Anything else, madam?

No.

[dramatic music]

You were right.

We didn't listen

and now another girl's gone missing.

God willing that she's still alive

and can be found in time.

Yes, but I was wrong.

I'm an amateur.

I saw a connection that wasn't there.

Then I convinced myself it meant something.

That's because you've been working

from newspaper and wireless reports.

But they're only repeating

what the police are telling them,

and they won't tell them everything.

Why wouldn't the police tell them everything?

Because some of it's gonna be too dull.

But the dull details are often the vital ones.

And some of it's gonna be too awful.

Indeed.

We need to find out exactly

what happened to those girls.

[dramatic music]

Thank you for this.

Let's go before Dorothy changes her mind.

[sighing] So there we have it, all the information.

What does post-mortem penetration mean?

[somber music]

It means they weren't raped and then murdered.

They were murdered and then raped.

All of them?

We don't have Jane Hart's file,

because they did the autopsy at St Anne's,

but these three, yes.

Why were all the others taken to the Royal General?

I suppose by then they knew they were connected,

but Jane Hart was the first.

Well, we really need to see that file too, Jean.

Getting across town at rush hour will take a while.

[Lucy] Use the Goblin.

Sorry, dear?

The Gospel Oak and Barking Line.

You'll have to hurry the trains only go at twenty past.

Wait, hold on a minute.

They were all making journeys.

They were all going somewhere or coming back.

Yes, what does that mean?

I said it myself he's working to a timetable.

He's working to a pattern.

- [dramatic music] - So were they.

The railways that's how he's finding them.

What's this?

I'm gonna go see my mum.

What's wrong with her this time?

There's casserole in the oven.

That's something, I suppose.

I can do a double shift at the weekend to make up,

but I just can't do today.

It's just one shift, please.

Well, I'm sure we can work something out.

I mean, I do something for you,

and you can do something for me.

Never mind.

You think you can find another job that easy, do ya?

There's an awful lot of girls out there, darling,

not enough jobs to go round.

Perhaps, darling, but none of them are gonna be

desperate enough for a job to want to screw you.

They all made train journeys.

Not the same journey, not even the same line

that's what confused me.

I thought they must all be passing through his area.

But that's not it.

He is on a train too.

A train compartment it's perfect.

It's private.

A man can talk to a woman, and it's not unseemly.

Right, he talks to them.

But how does he get them off the train

and back to wherever it is he takes them?

He can't just cart them off,

screaming through the rush-hour.

[Jean] They'd have to trust him.

They'd have to go willingly.

[Millie] Why on earth would they do that?

Have you got it all, Lucy?

Everything memorized?

Mm-hm.

All right, how many points of connection are there

between the routes the different girls took?

46.

Gosh, he's not taking 46 trains he's taking one.

Millie, lipstick.

Lucy, can you mark them up, each journey, please.

Now, we're not looking at the lines.

We're looking at where they cross,

what they intersect with, because that's where he is.

He's in the gaps.

Susan, it doesn't work, it can't.

You've got three sets of overland train routes here,

and, all right, they connect to each other.

But Emily Dixon didn't take an overland train.

She took the tube from Clapham Common to Turnpike Lane.

What was her route?

Clapham Common, Northern line to St. Pancras,

change to Piccadilly line, through to Turnpike Lane.

No connection at all.

It has to connect we're missing something.

Lucy, she disappeared on the 1st.

Anything?

1st May, Northern line, no faults or delays reported.

1st of May, Piccadilly line.

[Susan] Lucy.

[Lucy] They closed it here.

There was a points failure the day Emily disappeared.

They closed the line for two hours.

So, she arrives at St Pancras.

She goes to take the Piccadilly line,

but she can't 'cause it's shut, so what does she do?

She comes up to the surface at St Pancras Station.

And he's right there.

Waiting for her?

No, waiting for his train.

She would have been there at six o'clock.

We've got 46 points of connection between the girls' routes.

But how many are we left with if they all

have to connect to St Pancras station

around six o'clock on 1st of May?

None of these.

Not this one.

Not that one either.

- There it is. - [Susan gasping]

That's it there's only one.

The 6:15 slow train from St Pancras to Barking.

It's five o'clock Claire and Sam can have tea next door.

Timothy's not due home till seven.

Why don't we go see for ourselves?

[Announcer] The train on platform five is about to depart.

[train whistle blowing]

Why do men do it?

What?

Kill women.

[Jean] Women kill too, you know.

Not like this.

Only men do this.

He takes the 6:15 slow train.

Lots of people getting on and off

as they travel different routes on other lines.

Lots of chances to meet someone,

follow them if he wants to,

maybe change trains if he needs to.

So he meets her, he talks to her.

Why does she trust him?

He's someone important, respectable, a businessman.

He's wearing a suit.

Would you go off with a businessman you'd just met?

No.

Maybe he threatens her, maybe he got a knife.

Look at all these people.

Someone would see.

One of the girls would have shouted out.

Nobody saw anything.

[whistle blowing]

[dramatic music]

He's invisible.

[Millie] Here we are.

Oh, sorry it's such a tip.

It's lovely, don't worry.

Right.

First things first, we need to find Mary Lawrence.

All right.

If the killer is a railway guard or a ticket inspector,

then his schedule connected to her journey somewhere.

Not just Mary Lawrence, all the girls.

Every time he takes a victim, he makes the pattern clearer.

We need the points of connection

for all the shifts, all the routes,

and keep the 6:15 slow train as a constant.

[pensive dramatic music]

You need to get to work?

Not tonight.

Well, I've got one.

Millie?

[Millie] Just one, Upton Park.

Upton Park.

So where is she now?

Bomb sites, ruins, rubble.

We need to go and look for her.

[train engine hissing]

[train whistling blowing]

How much longer are we gonna keep looking?

Look for doors, cellars, anything underground.

Dear, we are, there's nothing here,

and I've laddered my stockings.

Shh, Jean.

Jean.

[tense music]

[Jean] Ugh, what was this place?

[ominous music]

- [raccoon squealing] - [women gasping]

- [suspenseful music] - [women gasping]

Dear Christ.

Mary Lawrence.

God have mercy.

Lucy, are you seeing this?

I don't want to.

Please.

We have to remember all this.

You got it?

[tense dramatic music]

[Millie] Please, can we leave?

Lucy, are you all right?

She's dead we were too late.

Oh, sweetheart, we were always gonna be too late.

Then what was the point?

Why did we have to come here and see her like that?

If we couldn't even help her, what was the point of it.

- Lucy. - She's just like us.

She's just like us and he killed her.

Lucy, I'm so sorry.

I didn't think it would be so--

What did you think it would be like, Susan?

Did you see the cigarette butts on the floor in there?

What does it matter?

It matters because it means he took his time in there!

It matters because it's so bloody casual!

He's not worried; he's not afraid.

He knows bloody well he's gonna get away with it.

So, when he's finished,

he stops for a smoke, for God's sake.

So, what do we do now?

Call the police, leave it at that?

Forget it, go home, pretend it never happened?

I can't do that, not any more.

Well, neither can I.

[somber music]

[train engine hissing]

You were right.

They're never gonna find him.

No.

We are.

[dramatic music]

[powerful dramatic music]