Silent Witness season 27 episode 9 recap: serial killer chase

Silent Witness season 27 episode 9 sees Nikki, Jack and the team on the trail of a serial killer. It's the most shocking case yet of the series and opens at a museum next to King's Cross station. Workmen go to fix a floor but on lifting up some floorboards they discover a body.

DI Steve Tudor (Neil Pearson) is on the scene along with Nikki and Jack. The museum was formerly a pub. Jack discovers a mattress with blood on it. He walks down a tunnel and finds a door with a new padlock on it. He undoes the padlock and Nikki gasps at what she sees — a pile of bodies. "8 bodies, challenging location, I reckon we're in mass disaster territory," says Jack.

Gabriel arrives at the scene along with CS Shelia Court (Hermione Norris). Also there is Malcolm Jones (Jude Akuwudike), who runs the museum. Nikki is asked if she wants to bring in more pathologists to deal with all the bodies, she says no because she believes having one pair of eyes on them will help with the evidence. It appears the bodies date from over a decade ago.

Steve believes one of the victims is an American tourist. Asked by Jack what they're looking at, Steve replies: "A Killer or killers of exceptional brutality who learned on the job and evolved fast."

The media arrive! The murders appear to have taken place in the late 2000s. The police are concerned they're going to be blamed for failing to spot a serial killer in the middle of London. The killer may have used a cart to transport the bodies. They wonder if the killer might be a builder.  

Nikki tells Malcolm off for getting too near the crime scene. He seems disturbed, which isn’t that surprising. Is Malcolm involved?

Steve tracks down Anna, an ex-partner of a possible victim. She confirms the victim's name and he's from Poland. He turns out to have been a builder. She never saw him again after an argument. 

Slowly they are piecing together the victims. Nikki can’t see any pattern in the victims. 

We meet a man who after watching the news report about the bodies goes to call someone called Keith Pryor, but he changes his mind.

Nikki and Jack make themselves a packed lunch, bless. "Yours looks nicer than mine," says Jack. 

The team tells the police the different ways the victims died. Jack highlights several passages that were built at the time of the construction, which the killer could have used.

NO CCTV as so long ago. Gabriel suggests the manner one of the victims was killed suggests the killer might have had military training. Velvy comes into the police incident room to say that one of the victims looks like an Albanian student. Jack says the chances of there being DNA are limited as he believes the killer wore gloves. 

Back to the man who made the aborted phone call. We find out he's called Russell Drake and this time he does call Keith, who appears to be at some sort of army base. Drake threatens to go to the police over what he knows about King's Cross. Keith is dismissive of his threat. Russell asks to meet in a public place of his choosing (not sure this is a good plan!). 

Gabriel is approached by a nurse called Esther Daniels, she says her son went missing around the time of the killings. He appears to be one of the victims.

Nikki thinks they should focus on Adam Perry, victim one, who was a criminal who procured runaways for sexual activity. Steve knew him: "He was an animal".

Drake is bundled into a vehicle. Nikki and Steve go to visit Mrs Perry. She claims she knows who the killer is! "Terry". The episode ends with a photo of Russell in his army uniform and his body in a canal near the station!