I don't think Balaclava Man is any one in particular. I think he's a series of hired thugs. Why would Lakewell, Nick or any one else do the dirty stuff themselves?
I'm glad Jackie Laverty is back! Her disappearance was never solved. Steve saw her remains in the freezer, and was beaten and tortured by men in balaclavas.
I haven't seen next week's trailer yet, but apparently it features a few blasts from the past. Sam, Steve's ex, a sergeant with Murder Squad, is in it. Rogerson and Hargreaves, from Violent Crime, are in it. Sam put a block on the investigation into the death of Oliver, the social worker who had sussed the paedo ring in S2/3. Hargreaves supressed evidence of the ambush in S2. He detests AC12, and was well in with Dryden, the dodgy paedo cop in S2. He is one of the senior officers whose names begin with H.
Lakewell is well placed to be involved in a ring of some sort. It could be prostitution, paedos, or something else. He was Farmer's solicitor on his "rape" case, and could easily target/manipulate him. Farmer thinks someone is going to protect him if he "says the right things"- could that be Lakewell? Roz could also manipulate him , via Jimmy. Roz is using Farmer to frame, but why? Is it simply to cover up a crime, or does she need to solve a crime urgently for some other reason? I still don't know what Hilton has on her.
I'm inclined to think she's covering for the hopeless, hapless Nick, but, when she learned of her amputation it was a step too far and she turned tables on him, blaming him. If he goes down, she won't care-she's done with him.
Did Roz kill Tim? Maybe. If she did, she'll have his dna on her. What would her motive have been, though? There must have been someone else involved; how the heck could she get a crime scene so clean? And leave behind the single bit of evidence that implicated her?
I think that scene was cleaned by someone with forensic knowledge and skills. I was thinking Kevin. Kevin was a smoker and Tim had cigarette stubs in his cache of "evidence". Kevin is the only one we've seen who smokes, and we know he's corruptible. He has access to evidence and in a position to doctor it. He was the FI on the scene of Ifield's murder, and able to doctor/plant/clean evidence at will.
And another thing -and this is way off beam- when Rupal did the briefing I noticed that the shoes/boots she was wearing were very similar to those worn by Steve's attacker. Could Kevin have those same boots? Could he be one of the Balaclava Men?
I'm not sure about Maneet. Now we know she's dodgy we have to question all of her activities. She looked very uncomfortable when pointing out the sighting of Nick's car on the night which he was supposed to have had an alibi for.
I'm surprised Ted let her go without question, unless of course he is already suspicious of her. She could easily be the leak for Kate's personal information.
And there's something a bit off about Kate in this series, to my mind. She was crap undercover, not convincing at all. Roz was probably on to her from the off.
(I think I'll change my user name to 'confusedoftumbridgew
