Plot

A woman accused of killing her Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor is determined to prove her innocence. She reaches out to Astrid and Raphaëlle, who will do anything to help her.

Outside the Criminal Records Office in Paris, armed police wearing body armour are deploying, heading towards the building. The prosecuting Magistrate, Mathias Forest is on the scene and is conferring with the chief of the armed police force. We don't know yet what their demands are. Forest is told that Astrid Nielsen is inside, possibly as a hostage. Astrid works at the Criminal Records Office; she suffers from autism, but has a gift for meticulous observation and research, and for noticing connections between events in the records. They are making contact with the hostage taker - maybe Forest would like to supervise the negotiation. But true to form, Forest says he will handle the negotiation himself. They get through but it is Raphaëlle who answers; she too is a hostage. Raphaëlle Coste is a mid-level police detective in the Paris force. Although she has a successful record of solving crimes, her unconventional methods and robust attitude towards authority have made her many enemies in high places. Now we are at a police station and she is being interrogated by a man named Wurlitzer. How could she have allowed an armed civilian to get access to the Criminal Records Office? Extraordinarily she is in handcuffs for the interview. In another flashback we see Astrid waiting for someone outside the Criminal Records Office; a woman is in her car, and puts a pistol in her handbag. She gets out and goes toward Astrid. Back in the interrogation, Wurlitzer is called out to speak to a judge; Forest has been sitting in on the interrogation and goes too. The Police Commissioner, Raphaëlle's superior who is generally supportive of her despite the friction, stays and tells her she need to play the game instead of being obviously evasive with Wurlitzer. She accepts grudgingly that the matter might cots her her job, although the handcuffs suggest it is more serious than that. Wurlitzer and Forest return and she starts the narrative of events. In flashback, she went to a café where Astrid was waiting. The woman who later had the gun was waiting there too. Astrid introduces her as Marissa Martenot. The woman refers to a miscarriage of justice - she was wrongly accused of murder. The victim was her sponsor at Alcoholics Anonymous. There was evidence of her presence at the crime scene, but he was dead when she arrived there. The police found her the next day with traces of the dead man's blood on her; she was very drunk. She is supposed to have killed her sponsor because she was afraid he would report her drunken behaviour to social services and her daughter would be taken away from her. Raphaëlle points out that a sponsor isn't allowed to do that. Astrid has been examining case papers that Mme Martenot has brought in, and she says they are incomplete and unclear. She wants to take Marissa into the Criminal Records Office to compare her recollection with the official papers filed there. Admitting Marissa is obviously against the rules, but Raphaëlle immediately says "We must find a way." Astrid uses her pass to go in a service door and the other two women follow. Astrid says that a maintenance worker told her about this way to get in. They go down a service ladder and along a tunnel, and bump into William Thomas. In previous episodes we have met him several times; he has a mild from of autism and had led the autism support group that Astrid attends. He is a maintenance worker at the Records Office, but he introduces himself to Astrid, so it wasn't him who told her about the way in. As Raphaëlle has not met him yet, this episode must be set much further back in time than other episodes already transmitted. Nevertheless she offers her hand to shake his, and he draws back. We have seen that it was only much later that Astrid began to tolerate physical contact with people. As they continue towards Astrid's office, conducted by William. Astrid gives a police armband to Marissa. The Chief Clerk, Gilles, at the Criminal Records Office gets unofficial police alerts on his phone - it's a hobby of his. He sees that it involves Marissa; she was on day release from prison and has absconded. He has seen her with Astrid, so he goes to see Astrid to ask her about the woman. Astrid is at her computer trying to locate the relevant file, and she asks Raphaëlle and Marissa to be silent to let her concentrate. They go to the water cooler and at that moment Gilles enters and asks Astrid about Marissa. Then he sees Raphaëlle and Marissa and exclaims that Raphaëlle is harbouring a fugitive. Marissa produces a pistol and puts it to Gilles' head, demanding that Raphaëlle hand over her gun too. At this moment a junior clerk bursts in with Gilles' mobile saying that his wife needs him to phone her urgently; Marissa fires a shot into the ceiling. Back in the present time at the interview, the Police Commissioner and Wurlitzer leave the room to confer. Forest is alone with Raphaëlle and asks her what she could have been thinking of? Aiding and abetting an escaped prisoner? That's more likely to get you fired than demoted. Wurlitzer and the Commissioner come back in, and ask Forest to recuse himself from this investigation, as he is personally involved. Forest objects but then concedes the point, and he and the Commissioner leave. Raphaëlle's narrative resumes in flashback; Marissa forces Astrid to lock Gilles and the clerk in a store room, and the three of them - Marissa, Raphaëlle and Astrid - are alone, The wall phone rings; it is the police outside: they want to negotiate. But Marissa is unsure what to do. Raphaëlle answers the phone; it is Forest, on the outside. Raphaëlle asks him to allow some time to talk Marissa out of violent action, and Forest threatens that after two hours he will authorise lethal force from the outside. Astrid agrees to try to resolve the case from her documentation, but asks to be left alone to do it; Marissa reluctantly agrees. We see preparations being made outside for an armed assault. Raphaëlle and Marissa are alone while Astrid works. Marissa says that the actual killer was Raphaëlle's brother. At length Astrid calls them in; she has resolved the matter. Marissa's sponsor, David Ixette chaired a meeting and Astrid has identified the other participants. Astrid hands Marissa a document. Marissa says, "I wasn't at the meeting." Astrid says "But it proves your innocence." Outside the police task force is waiting; we can hear a helicopter, although none is visible. Forest says that it is time to go in. The Commissioner appeals to him that there are still 15 minutes left of the two hours he allowed Raphaëlle, but Forest says that going in early will give them the advantage of surprise. We see a smoke bomb thrown into the room, and armed police enter. Now Wurlitzer talks to Astrid. She explains what she does to assist Raphaëlle, and in imagination Wurlitzer is now in Astrid's room being shown papers she has there. The Alcoholics Anonymous meeting held by David Ixette was in a disused glass factory, and traces of silica apparently from there were found on Marissa's shoes as well as at the crime scene. This was taken by the police as corroborating proof that she was the killer. Wurlitzer has already rebuked Forest for confusing the question of Marissa's innocence with Raphaëlle's infraction of procedures in allowing Marissa into the Records Office, but Wurlitzer now encourages Astrid to expound her reasons for believing Marissa innocent. The last call David Ixette made was to Marissa and it was assumed that he was asking why she was not at the meeting. It was supposed that he realised she was drunk, and that he would report the fact to the authorities. Returning to Raphaëlle, apparently the interrogation was being conducted at her own offices. The police guard watching her asks to use the lavatory, and her assistant Arthur Enguien conducts her to a cell. But instead he takes her to an unoccupied office, on the instructions of the Commissioner. In fact the room turns out to be the observation room where she can see, and speak to Astrid, who has been left alone in an interrogation room. Wurlitzer enters the room where Astrid is, and she asks to make a phone call. Enguien assists her and she calls William Thomas. But she knows he is at the social skills workshop. It isn't clear that this has been established yet, as we have only seen him in this episode as the Records Office maintenance man unknown to Astrid. As the call fails, she phones Mr Tanaka instead, and gives him a long complicated message, which he successfully memorises. It is to go to the social skills workshop at an address she gives him, and to ask William Thomas to go to the Criminal Records Office and extract a particular file, which she now identifies. Tanaka goes there and William is happy to help. There is now a flashback to earlier times; Mr Gaillard, the director of the Criminal Records Office is trying to extract some information from a computer, but he is unable to do so. William, in his earlier persona as a maintenance man, is working on some electrical repair, and Astrid asks him to help. He is skilled in dealing with computers and quickly resolves the problem. Back in the present William conducts Mr Tanaka into the Records Office by the unofficial route that Raphaëlle used. They photograph the files, and later we see Nico push what seems to be the original copy of a case file under the door into the room where Astrid is confined. As this is obviously a considerable time later it isn't clear where Wurlitzer is or why Astrid is in the room. The next morning, Enguien unlocks the room and tells Astrid that the doctor she asked for is present. We move to where Raphaëlle is confined and Nico goes in with some food for her. He tells her that he has been to the prison where Marissa was being held, and talked to her cellmate, Violetta Flores - the girl we arrested the first time we worked with Astrid. The Commissioner, now clearly on Raphaëlle's side, calls Forest and insists that he has to see Raphaëlle and Astrid now; "They want to make a confession." Forest arrives at Police HQ with Wurlitzer, and is surprised to see a group of people waiting for him. We recognise them as the Autism Support Group members, with William. Raphaëlle ow takes the lead in challenging Forest. What was Marissa's motivation? It was to protect her son. Seven years ago he was run over and killed. She was at the hospital trying to find out who had done it. She was linked to the murder by the silica picked up there on her shoes. The real killer of Ixette was present at the Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Paul Thomas is a doctor that was involved at the time, and is now here at the police HQ - he was the doctor provided when Astrid asked for one. He found that a man named André Mougue was treated for physical injuries the following day. Two years later he went to the Alcoholics Anonymous meeting chaired by Ixette, Marissa's sponsor. At the meeting he recounted the accident as a way of salving his conscience, and Ixette realised that the victim had been Marissa's son. The call he made to Marissa that day was to inform her of that. The killer then acted, realising he had been unmasked. Now William Thomas intervenes with Forest to explain what the Autistic Group members are present for. When Tanaka had the file, they knew who had been at the meeting, and each of the group members was given one person to follow up. Only Mougue could not be confronted; he was on a sales trip, and will get hone today at 11:00. That's only an hour from now; they need to get there before Larissa intercepts him. But Marissa does get to him first. She forces him at gunpoint to the flat roof of a building, and instructs him to jump. Raphaëlle arrives, and pointing her own gun at Marissa, tells her that she has done nothing wrong, and this will make things worse. Marissa begins to put the gun down, but Mougue tries to grab the gun and it goes off. Raphaelle is hit, and for some reason Mougue is handcuffed. Raphaëlle is wounded but conscious and is about to be taken away in an ambulance. Forest is there and says that nevertheless he will pursue disciplinary charges for what she has done.. Nico is standing alongside and hits him hard on the jaw. Astrid visits Raphaëlle in hospital; they refer to the symbolic gifts of a thimble and a compass, and in effect that they are complementary members of a team. Astrid affectionately touches Raphaëlle's hand, for Astrid crossing a considerable barrier. Astrid returns to the office and everyone is pleased to see here. The Commissioner calls her in, and tells her that Marissa has been cleared of the murder and is expected to be dealt with leniently for the gun incident. Moreover Wurlitzer has completely cleared Raphaëlle over the incursion into the Records Office. There is one negative though - Astrid must not be allowed to participate in police investigations. Infuriated Raphaëlle flounces out. The film closes with Astrid showing Mr Tanaka round the records office - something that has fascinated him since he went there with William.