Waking The Dead : What Happened and Why in
Black Run

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One cold October night eight years ago someone gunned down Tom Palliser as he stood in a phone booth telling his wife he loved her. The man sent to prison for his murder was his partner in a private investigation firm, Eddie Vine. Now Eddie has summoned Detective Superintendent Peter Boyd to tell him that he is suffering from terminal cancer and that he only has weeks to live. Most important of all he adds that he is innocent. He does not ask Boyd to reopen the case, instead he says that he forgives him. It does the trick, Boyd returns to the office and foists the case on an uninterested team.

The Palliser murder was originally investigated by Detective Inspector Peter Boyd. Before partnering up with Palliser at Arrow Investigations, Eddie Vine was a cop with West Brompton CID. As Detective Inspector Spencer Jordan questions why they would reopen a case with no new evidence, Detective Constable Stella Goodman arrives to interview for the vacant detective position. Despite her impressive credentials, Boyd tells her he is not hiring anyone. It seems the interviews are the Deputy Commissioners idea. Stella seems like a perfectly nice person and fortunately the Deputy Commissioner takes the responsibilty away from Boyd and hires DC Goodman anyway.

Tensions are running high between Spence and Boyd with Psychological Profiler Dr. Grace Foley trying to mediate. One might think that they may actually be able to bring forth a real arrest for assault. Boyd says that Vine's defense was that both he and Palliser were targets. His motive was that he used his police contacts to run blackmail and extortion scams. Palliser was going to report him and Vine killed him to keep him quiet. Internal Affairs conducted an inquiry and found that all of their officers were innocent.

Tom's widow, Sheryl Palliser is understandably distressed to hear that Boyd is reinvestigating Vine's case. She wants the whole thing over and done. Boyd is absolutely certain that she had nothing to do with the murder. He seems to have a special attachment to the people involvled in this case. If there is a reason for this, he is not telling anyone.

Forensic Pathologist Dr. Felix Gibson examines the bullets from the murder, the gun was never found. She runs the bullets through the newly created database and matches it to a gun found a couple of years ago. Later she will check the gun for dna and finds some belonging to a petty criminal, Jimmy Baxter.

There was one witness to the murder, Hazel Adamson. She died of cancer within a year of testifying against Vine. For better or worse it means that there is no way to confirm her statement.

Martin Doyle is a photographer who worked for Arrow Investigations. He tells Spence that Palliser and Vine were not getting along. Neither of them was squeaky clean but Palliser was at least the nicer of the two. Spence believes that this means that there are a lot of people who might have a motive to kill Palliser if they felt that they were crossed by his investigations.

Everyone wants to know why Boyd reopened this case but no one has the answer. Boyd tells Grace he doesn't want to hear her psychobabble, she's not his therapist. Felix says his anger management sessions didn't work.

Grace gets the idea to give Vine a lie detector test. Grace uses some really touchy feely questions in lieu of the basic yes and no questions most test givers use. Grace provides visual feedback to Vine as she goes along. No matter, Vine passes the test, such as it is.

Over the years, there have been a varying number of people on the squad filling the background. Now there are just the main players. There isn't even anyone to answer the telephone. Maybe we lost the extras when they thrust the office into darkness. It is possible there are still people milling around as they were in the first season but no one can see them.

Sheryl comes into the office to offer up the name "Timo" as a photographer who knew lots about their cases. She says she tried to tell Boyd about Timo eight years ago but he was convinced he knew all there was to know about Vine and thus would not listen to her about anything else. Things have not changed much in the present because Boyd is not really interested in hearing anything Spence has to say about the case.

Timo has kept some copies of some of the embarrassing photographs he took for Vine. The people caught in the photos would be motivated to kill Vine. One such person is Dominic Parks, a prominent and wealthy banker. He was photographed having sex and taking drugs with two underaged girls which seemed to have contributed to his divorce and loss of custody of his children. I don't know if Vine and Palliser were blackmailing Parks but they ended up giving the photos to his wife's divorce lawyer. Perhaps Parks' ex-wife shared her divorce settlement with Arrow Investigations. Parks is still concerned that the photos will ruin his career. Grace says that he is more concerned with losing his career than his family but I'm not positive he had a chance to prevent the photos from being used against him in the divorce.

Grace says that Parks gave his daughter up in favor of his career. Has it been so long that we heard the legend of Joe Boyd? Has she forgotten that tearful scene when Boyd told her how he could not keep tabs on his drug addict son because of his job? Parks' kids are living with their mother, probably quite happily, but Joe Boyd is missing and presumed dead. It is probably a good thing Grace isn't Boyd's therapist.

Life would have been good if the DNA Felix found in the gun belonged to Vine but alas, it belongs to a career criminal, Jimmy Baxter. Baxter cannot be ruled out as the guy who pulled the trigger and killed Palliser. Baxter's last arrest was by DI Stan Gulley. As it turns out, Gulley worked from the same police station as Vine. Gulley does not like Boyd but at least he seems to have a reason. Gulley believes that Vine is innocent and resents Boyd for sending him to prison. Gulley says that he will cooperate with the investigation but provides no help on Baxter. Baxter's police records show that he was once a driver for Dominic Parks' bank. I suppose someone has to hire career criminals but would a major bank hire one to chauffeur around its top level employees?

FOOT CHASE! We haven't had a foot chase in a couple of episodes. This time Boyd and Spence go to talk to Baxter. He flees through the tunnels. They give chase. Baxter escapes up to the street with Boyd right on his heels. Literally on his heels because Baxter kicks Boyd in the head. Spence takes Boyd to the emergency room where he gets some pain medication and advice to take it easy and avoid alcohol. Boyd now has a bloody bruise for his troubles.

Boyd has to tell Tom Palliser's widow, Sheryl that the court gave Vine permission to appeal his conviction. He meets her over at her restaurant to give her the news. Despondent and somewhat aggravated she says she needs a drink. Boyd agrees to join her for a whisky. Stop, I know what you are thinking, Boyd shouldn't mix alcohol with pain medication. To be fair, Sheryl shouldn't mix GHB in Boyd's drink but she does.

Drugged, possibly drunk, Boyd stumbles out to his car with Sheryl. This is where it gets weird. She gets in the passenger seat. Who drugs someone and then gets in the car with them? Of course Boyd cannot drive, he can barely see. After a couple of blocks of scary driving, Sheryl tells him to slide over and that she will drive. She gets behind the wheel and proceeds to steer directly into the path of a motorcycle. She then parks the car off the street, leaves a sleeping Boyd to rest in the car and runs back to the motorcyclist laying dying in the street. She makes a frantic call for an ambulance and the police saying that Boyd is out of control and she fears who he might hit next.

The next morning Boyd wakes up in his car and goes to work. The waking up in the passenger seat of his car bit doesn't seem to distress him much. His confusion if not his stress level is quickly elevated when he arrives into the office to face DI Gulley. Gulley accuses him of "drink driving" and leaving the scene of a crime. Gulley cautions him and takes him away to the West Brompton station. With a look, Grace makes Spence go look after Boyd; although, given Spence's present attitude towards his boss it is more a matter of Spence being the only one to go, not the best one.

Boyd is fingerprinted and a mug shot is taken. They also take blood but I'm not sure how informative that will be for suspected drunk driving the night before. Throughout, Boyd is remarkably well behaved. He allows himself one brief outburst during Gulley's interview but otherwise remains calm. Sheryl Palliser has told them that Boyd had three whiskeys and was unfit to drive. I have to wonder if they asked her why she got in the car. Spence observes from the viewing room. Gulley seems to be pushing the theory that Boyd was so distraught by the Vine case that he was not behaving normally. Gulley is the one who said that Vine was innocent so it follows that Boyd would feel guilty about putting him away. Boyd is released and Spence offers to drive him home but Boyd dismisses him with a wave of his hand.

Boyd says he cannot remember the night before. Grace tries to find a reason for the amnesia, unlike Spence and Gulley who insist Boyd is making it up. Yesterday, Spence thought that Sheryl was capable of murdering her husband and today he does not think to suspect her of anything.

Gulley tells Spence that there were rumors that Boyd convinced Hazel Adamson to alter her statement to implicate Vine. Grace interviews Mr. Adamson and he gives off similar vibes. Things are not looking good for the cold case leader. The Deputy Commissioner wants them to drop the case but the team decides to continue even if it means that Boyd will be implicated.

The Deputy Commissioner's choice for a new squad member, Stella Goodman arrives for her first day of work. The poor dear is shuttled from room to room because no one wants to speak in front of her about the case. In part it is because she is replacing the beloved Mel, but they are also concerned that she is a spy for the Deputy Commissioner.

Boyd comes into the and is crushed to find that Spence believes that he would lie about what happened with the motorcyclist. Grace is not much more supportive but she is less upfront about it. Grace tries to get him to explain Hazel Adamson but Boyd refuses.

Dominic Parks and solicitor return for a follow up interview. Spence confronts him with their theory that Parkes hired Baxter to kill Palliser because otherwise it is too much of a coincidence for a man suspected of shooting a blackmailer to be the driver for the blackmailed man. Parks denies knowing Baxter and continues to insist that he had nothing to do with murdering Palliser.

A snitch in a video arcade, Ollie Daniels, gives Spence reason to suspect the validity of the Baxter connection. Ollie says that Baxter is a police informant because he was never charged after being arrested for stealing plasma televisions a few months back. The arresting officer was none other than Stan Gulley, who seems to have been a D.S. at the time. More shocking news is delivered by D.C. Goodman who contacted the company which provided drivers for Parks and they never heard of Baxter. The big question is not how Stella figured out what was going on despite their efforts to keep her in the dark but rather how did the misinformation about Baxter knowing Parks get into his police file.

For Spence, the big question is what really happened with Hazel Adamson. He tries to confront Boyd but Spence still has a lot to learn on the intimidating witnesses score. Boyd could teach him because he gives Spence a verbal smackdown. It is not as if Boyd is on firm footing. He is still disoriented.

Bits of Boyd's memory about the other night start to come back to him. Boyd hides out in one of the interview rooms and calls Grace. Grace offers to listen as a friend but starts out by asking Boyd about Hazel Adamson. Boyd confesses that Hazel could not make out Vine's face the night of the Palliser murder. Grace says that Boyd is obsessed with Vine. Boyd explains that years ago he was assigned to the CID, Vine was a DI. The first case he worked on a was rape case. To make sure that the rapist was convicted he and Vine fixed the evidence. Later Boyd found out that Vine was generally corrupt. Boyd would go along with Vine to collect his payoff money. One day Vine gave Boyd 5000 pounds as his own payoff. It took Boyd a week to resist temptation and burn the money. Then Boyd wanted to turn Vine in but no one in authority was interested.

The cold case squad's most wanted Jimmy Baxter places a frantic call to D.I. Gulley. He wants Gulley to protect him from the cops. Gulley lies and says that the police are only interested in his warehouse robbery, he makes no mention of the Vine murder investigation. Later that night, Gulley meets up with Baxter. He takes him to a pier and tells Baxter he will be safe there. Safe is not exactly right because Gulley then pulls out his gun and shoots Baxter between the eyes.

Spence warms up to Stella after she denies being a plant for the Deputy Commissioner. Thanks to her eavesdropping on the Parks interview they had a vital clue. She's still new and should soon learn that the cold case squad prefers to leap to conclusions rather than make simple phone calls to track down information. Stella later gets Felix to revisit some of her conclusions about the alleged murder weapon. Stella says that maybe Baxter did not have anything to do with the Palliser murder at all. What if the bullets that led them to the gun which led them to Baxter were not the bullets that killed Palliser?

Guess who's getting out of prison? None other than Eddie Vine. He was granted bail while his appeal is pending due to his terminal condition. Gulley expresses regret that Baxter will not be able to stand trial for killing Palliser. Boyd, who suspects Gulley of killing Baxter, demonstrates remarkable restraint when Gulley also adds that it will also be a chance to show that Boyd is a bad cop.

Felix arrives at the new conclusion that the bullets were planted. They were manufactured years after the Palliser murder. Gulley had access to the evidence and was motivated to plant suspicion on someone else because Palliser was also going to report him along with Vine.

Vine passed his lie detector test but Felix says that he could have used drugs to alter his muscular response. They drag Vine's doctor, Donald McNeil in to get him to admit that not only did he give Vine something to help with the test but more importantly that Vine does not have terminal cancer. The doctor was blackmailed into helping by setting him up with a woman and threatening to tell his wife.

Viewing from the other room, Boyd has an aha moment when Dr. McNeil also offers up that he was forced to provide many drugs, including GHB, the date-rape drug. Boyd becomes hyper-animated and wants to know if the woman involved was black. Dr. McNeil says yes and Boyd screams with glee, relief, vindication that he was not driving.

Spence tries to apologize but Boyd says it's not enough. Boyd, still on suspension, goes with Spence and Stella to find Sheryl Palliser. They surmise that Sheryl drugged Boyd in order to discredit him so that he would not piece together what really happened. As dumb as it sounds, that was the plan. I guess if Boyd did not show up at Sheryl's club voluntarily then perhaps she would have called him to talk. Why anyone thought that discrediting one cop would be enough to derail an investigation is a mystery. The Deputy Commissioner tried to get them to drop the Vine case, does that mean he was involved?

They arrive at Sheryl's house just as she is leaving. Boyd, still on suspension, tells Stella to break into Sheryl's place and look around whilst he and Spence follow Sheryl. Sheryl drives to a motel and meets a newly invigorated Eddie Vine. He says he has dreamt about her every night and then kisses her. Stella calls Grace to say that Sheryl has almost a shrine to her late husband in her bedroom. Clearly, she has not moved on. Someone who is still in love with her late husband would only go to such lengths to get his killer released if she were planning to kill him.

Boyd, still on suspension, tells Spence he is going to pee then lets himself into Vine's motel room. He tells Vine to tell him to his face that he killed Palliser. Sheryl snaps and pulls out a gun, pointing it alternately at Vine and Boyd. Boyd tells her to put it down. She lowers the weapon but demands to know from Vine if he killed her husband as Boyd has led her to believe all these years. Vine says ask Boyd. Boyd says to Vine, "you know you did." That is all Sheryl needs to hear before she guns Vine down with three shots.

Before he left to find Sheryl, Boyd told Grace to notify CPS, the Crown Prosecution Service but why, oh why bother? Boyd has mucked up the case thoroughly. Isn't there anything he could have done to stop Sheryl from becoming a murderer? Was it really worth having that minor victory over Vine by saying that Vine killed Tom Palliser? Did Boyd just want Vine dead? Boyd did more to discredit himself in this case than Sheryl Palliser, Eddie Vine and Stan Gulley combined.

Hopefully, Gulley will be prosecuted for murdering Jimmy Baxter but I'm not convinced he will. Since he investigated the case, any evidence of him being on the scene can be explained away and their case that he tampered with evidence to implicate Baxter is pretty weak. Besides, where do you think all those old time corrupt crimes come from? Not everyone gets caught. Gulley also probably had other cops helping him in this scheme. It is unlikely that he and Vine were the only corrupt cops in West Bompton. There is the nagging issue of trying to figure out when these various plots were hatched and by whom. In Shadowplay, everyone knew when the victim visited his attacker, did Sheryl visit Vine and no one took note? Vine may have bought the love story angle but was Gulley willing to risk everything on accepting Sheryl into their gang?

Then there is the state of the Cold Case Squad. Spence was wrong for leaping off the Boyd bandwagon or was he? What would Spence think if he learned about Boyd's involvement with Vine in the good ole days when he tampered with evidence? It is not as if Boyd learned a lesson because he tampered with a witness to convict Vine. Spence should keep his apology in his pocket until it is really warranted. Grace was outraged with Boyd in Shadowplay when he brought another psychologist into the fold but where is her outrage when she finds out that Boyd tampered with evidence to get a guy convicted? Will Grace ever have to reveal that information? Will Felix ever develop a personality? Will Stella give up on the idea of actual police work? Time will tell.