Silent Witness season 27 continues with episode 5, the first part of a two-part story entitled "Invisible". Here's our recap of the episode, which features the return of Nadine Marshall as DI Sarah Torres, who turned up in the previous series in "Familiar Faces" part two. You might need to pay attention to this episode as it gets rather confusing at times! (Spoilers ahead).
The episode opens with a masked man going through a draw in a flat. But the burglar gets the shock of his life when he walks into the bedroom and discovers a heavily decayed corpse in the bed! Yep, this is as grim-looking as it sounds.
The burglar tips-off the police and Nikki and Jack arrive at the scene. Jack's having a rant about tech, which Nikki zones out from. "It’s 6 am, I'm tired, I need sleep," she pleads.
The pair say hello to DI Sarah Torres, who they know from a previous case. Sarah says they don't have an ID yet for the body.
Nikki believes the body could have been there for six months, a year or even longer. "Nobody missed them," agree Nikki and Jack. Jack finds a stack of credit cards in the bedroom with the name Paula Jackson on them, suggesting Paula is the victim. Paula's name doesn't match that on the post piling up on the doormat. Sarah asks the neighbours about Paula but they are no help.
Back at the Lyell, Cara is on her first day of her work placement. Cara is joined by Barbara, her access to work interpreter. Sarah comes into the Lyell and reveals that Paula was registered as a missing person in June of last year by someone called Leo. Nikki and Sarah go to visit Leo and his mum Natasha, who's Paula's sister.
Back at the Lyell, Gabirel and Velvy inspect the body. In a moment grim even by Silent Witness standards, Gabriel removes a tooth they hope can be used to confirm identification.
Leo, who's doing his A levels, has a picture on his phone of the apparent victim. Natasha reveals her sister was a drug addict, who had a horrible boyfriend called Roy. "Was my aunt murdered?" asks Leo. "We haven’t established cause of death yet," replies Nikki.
Gabriel and Velvy carry on the autopsy. They note the victim had had cosmetic surgery. Under the microscope, Gabriel finds evidence that there was silicone in the victim's blood vessels. "Surgery could have killed her," says Nikki.
The victim is then given a weird "bath" that strips away the flesh to just leave the bones.
Natasha gets a text asking her to clean a property for a Mr W Scrubs (guessing that’s a false name!). Her boss tells her it's a new client after a two hour tidy.
The victim, who everyone thinks is Paula, turns out to have had something called a Brazilian butt lift! Nikki says some dodgy medics use silicone illegally because it's cheaper and quicker. Nikki tells Sarah that if done wrongly it can be fatal and in fact someone called Kate Black died after having the same procedure. Kate had an existing heart condition so they couldn't prove the clinic had killed her. The silicone in Kate's body turns out to be exactly the same as that in Paula's corpse.
Natasha discovers that the mysterious Mr W Scrubs is in fact Paula's horrible boyfriend Roy. He demands to see Leo and makes threats. Meanwhile, Jack and Sarah call at the dodgy clinic where Paula apparently had her procedure.
Roy approaches Leo and Leo is shocked to find Roy knows his name.
Jack says there's a size 9 footprint from the crime scene, where someone had stepped in blood. Paula was a size 5 or 6, so someone else was there on the night of her death.
Then Velvy comes in with the bombshell that the DNA from the tooth reveals that the body isn't that of Paula Jackson! The tooth they took from the mummified corpse comes from a young woman named Casey. So where's Paula? "Was Casey murdered? Were Paula and Casey known to each other?" ponders Sarah. The blood on the rug at the crime scene matches Paula.
So, there were three people in the flat. An attacker, Paula and Casey. We know Casey's fate, but what happened to Paula? It appears that Casey stole Paula's identity.
Sarah and Jack go to see Martin, the man who owned the flat where the body was found. Martin says he doesn't know Paula, but remembers Casey. He reveals that someone was still paying the rent. Cash through the letterbox.
Back at the flat where body was found, Jack wonders if a missing lamp might be the murder weapon. A man walks in and then flees — Sarah and Jack give chase, but he eludes them.
Nikki and Sarah go to Natasha's flat after a call from Leo. Natasha says Paula had asked her for money, but she was fed up with her sister's lies and she didn't give her any. She's then shocked to discover that her sister for once was telling the truth as her ID had been stolen.
Jack analyses the footprint and discovers the shoe it likely came from.
Roy tells Leo they need to talk. Soon afterwards Jack, Nikki and Sarah head back to the estate to examine Roy's body! He's dead!
