Last week, we made another connection between our group of possible suspects and an early-COVID era murder. This week, we kick things off at the station canteen, where our pals chat about the case.
DS Beanpole: I just think there’s something funky about the difference between what Juliet told us about her relationship and what Gym Owner said.
Jess: Yeah, and what the bar manager said.
DS Beanpole: AND Juliet’s whole vibe…
Sunny: I mean, sometimes spouses have different political affiliations.
DS Beanpole: Different is one thing; opposite is another! Maybe this was just a really messy, toxic marriage that finally blew up.
Jess: Any news on the girlfriend?
DS Beanpole: Strap in, gang: that’s a fun one. It’s Melinda, that TV journalist.
DC Babyface: WHAT.
DS Beanpole: YUP. She had a column in The Mail writing clickbait then, now she’s on cable.
Sunny: So you think they met on that forum our victim set up?
DS Beanpole: Sure do — he’s in the background of a viral video she’s in. Got her address: she’s in Ireland now.
Jess: Ok, well let’s coordinate with the locals to set up an interview. And have them look through their systems while they’re at it.
Everyone splits to do their own tasks, leaving Jess and Sunny to go back to interviewing Martin. Their first line of questioning: knowing that Martin’s dad was a big support for Martin, is it possible that Martin’s dad went to confront Gerry about stealing from Martin?
Sunny: You seem upset about these questions, Martin.
Martin, hostile: Well he couldn’t go see Gerry!
Advocate: Ok, maybe we should take a break.
Martin: Because he was dead. Because Gerry made him be dead.
Well that’s a new direction for the investigation all right! After a pause, Martin elaborates.
Martin: Gerry told us that the vaccine was dangerous; that it had ways of controlling us, and we shouldn’t take it.
Sunny: When did he say this?Martin: I never went to see him to get my money.
Sunny: Nah, we’re on the vaccine now: did he tell you not to take it? And did he suggest that your folks shouldn’t take it either?
Martin: He told me not to, but I was the one who told my parents not to take it.
Sunny: Did they listen?
Martin: They did. And then a month later my dad got COVID, and died. Alone.
Sunny: I’m so sorry for your loss.
Jess: We both are, Martin. That’s a lot to handle: having someone take your money, and dealing with the tragic death of your father. How did you feel about Gerry at this point?
Martin: It wasn’t worth being upset about something I couldn’t change.
Jess: Were you angry with him? Because I’m wondering if maybe you arranged to meet him in late February.
Sunny: Maybe to tell him about your dad? Or because you were upset?
Jess: Maybe you had a fight, and he pushed you again, and things just got out of control?
Martin’s been shaking his head no to each question, but as time goes on, he’s getting more and more visibly upset. His advocate and lawyer confer, and then insist that Jess and Sunny wrap this up: Martin’s answered their questions, and so unless they have evidence, it’s time to stop. Jess and Sunny agree to release him, but under investigation. For now, they’ve got another interview, and hit the road to go speak with Asif.
Across town, Taylor brings all her bags downstairs to prepare to return to school. She’s… not happy about it.
Taylor: Why do I go to this fancy expensive place anyway? You’re supposed to be a socialist!
Juliet: Not now, please.
Taylor: Well I hate everything the place stands for and you should too. Or was that also a lie?
So that’s fun. In Ireland, a Garda pulls up outside the pub to talk to Melinda. These two know each other, possibly from her fiance’s accident, as that’s what he opens with. But it isn’t long before he drops the bomb: the London cops want to talk to her as a possible witness in a murder investigation. She acts surprised, but it’s honestly hard to read the Garda’s expression: he might buy it, or he might not. In any case, he tells her that our pals want to have a video call the next day; she can just drop by the station that afternoon, and he’ll set it up.
Back in the UK, Sunny gets a text from DS Grumpy saying that the Rental Lady is pretty sure that the cops were called to the dispute she’d mentioned: the one between Gerry and Asif. It’s perfect timing, since they’re just now heading over to speak with Asif. Well, perfect timing for them: pretty wretched timing for Asif, who’s in the middle of a meeting with Hassan and a man who sells forged documents. Asif hears the detectives’ car pull up, realizes they’re cops, and sends both men out the back door. As they run into the garden, Asif does a quick tidy before opening the door. Jess introduces herself and Sunny, and then asks for a quick chat.
Asif: Ok, sure. But what is this regarding?
Jess: A murder investigation. We think you might have known the victim.
Asif, relaxing the tiniest bit, but still obviously worried: Oh? Who is it?
Jess: Why don’t we tell you inside.
Asif: Yes, of course. Come on in.
While they talk, Martin logs on to his far right internet forum for advice. Unhelpfully, they tell him that the government is conspiring to ruin his life, and he needs to be a step ahead. What this means isn’t super clear, but it does lead to him taking what appears to be an extra dose of his medication, which seems… ill advised.
Back at Asif’s house, Sunny passes over a picture of Gerry, which as always on this show prompts a series of micro-flashbacks that are nearly impossible to fully understand.
Asif: Ah, yes, I think I remember him.
Sunny: What was your connection?
Asif: I work as an interpreter, and back then I worked for tenants whose rent was paid by the council. This guy was one of the landlords, I think.
Sunny: Do you remember specifically when you’d have encountered him?
Asif: I’d have to check, but I think it was early in the pandemic. I think there were some issues related to COVID.
Sunny: Do you remember what he was like?
Asif: I met a LOT of landlords at that job.
Sunny: Because the agency that managed his portfolio said he was… challenging.
Asif: Huh. I remember he wasn’t very good at maintaining his properties?
Sunny: Yes, they mentioned that. Anything else?
Asif: He could be pretty aggressive.
Sunny: With you?
Asif: With the tenants, who as you can imagine were very vulnerable people.
Sunny: Physically aggressive?
Asif: No, I never saw that.
Sunny: One of the agents we talked to told us about several cases where disputes blew up, including one in particular with a family of asylum seekers from Herat, where apparently things got violent.
After clarifying which family Sunny’s referring to, Asif still doesn’t remember this particular case, even when Sunny tells him that the police were called, and goes over the details (chronic damp in the flat making everyone, including two little kids, sick).
Asif: Unfortunately, the police getting involved wasn’t all that rare.
Jess: SO even though this case is pretty distinctive, you don’t remember it at all?
Asif: They all just kind of merge together.
Jess: That’s ok. When’s the last time you think you saw Mr. Cooper?
Asif: My contract ended in September 2020, so it wouldn’t have been after that.
Sunny: And do you mind me asking what your nationality is?
Asif: I’m hoping to be British very soon.
Sunny: Oh! Congratulations, and welcome. This can be a great place.
Asif: It can! And thank you!
Sunny: And before that, where were you from?
Asif: Afghanistan.
Sunny: That must have been hard: to see your fellow countrymen mistreated. Did that make you angry?
Asif: Of course it was hard, but if I got mad every time I saw a refugee being mistreated I’d be permanently enraged.
Those were good answers, but even so, Jess and Sunny aren’t convinced, and plan to get more information. And Asif’s boyfriend Sam, who’s just come back, has questions too: who were those people? Asif lies and tells him that they were social services folks asking for info on a client, and since Sam is pretty focused on reopening their conversation from last episode, he buys it. Inside, he tells Asif that if Hassan moves out that evening, and Asif keeps contact with his friend at a minimum, Sam is ok to just move on with their lives. Asif, unsurprisingly, isn’t eager to agree: he doesn’t like an ultimatum and doesn’t want to be told what to do. Sam doesn’t see it that way; he thinks he was trying to come up with a solution.
Asif: Regardless, I’m not going to do that. Hassan is staying.
Sam: But this is my house?
Asif: Then call the cops.
WHEW. Speaking of relationships that are on the rocks, at Jess’ house, she tells her mother about the new information she’s gotten from her sister.
Jess: I never really believed him, but there was always just enough I couldn’t prove. But now that I know what he did… I don’t know what to do.
The next day, at the office, the team meets for updates, starting with DC Babyface. She shares that Martin had originally trained in computer programming, but was kicked out of school after he got caught picking the locks of his classmates’ rooms. Not to steal anything; he’d just be in there, lurking. The university wasn’t able to figure out for sure how many times he did this, because some of the students just assumed they’d forgotten to lock their doors and he’d wandered in, and thus didn’t report anything. Things escalated the last time he did this when a classmate came back from the pub drunk to find Martin in his room and then called Martin a bunch of nasty names. Martin responded by trying to strangle the other student. It took three people to pull Martin off the guy, but despite all that, the other student didn’t press charges, because he admitted that he’d used some pretty messed up language about disability and didn’t want that to come up in court.
Sunny: Do we know why Martin was doing this in the first place?
DC Babyface: He said he was just looking for a friend to talk to.
Next, DS Grumpy shares that they’ve been able to pull DNA off a sweatshirt Gerry was wearing when he was assaulted outside his bar. And DS Beanpole gives the background on Melinda: she’s a small town girl who studied marketing, enlisted in the Navy, served for four years and then left after a disciplinary action based on an altercation between her and a fellow officer who was Muslim. Melinda then started a beauty company, which was fairly successful and included ads that she starred in. The business went under during the 2008 financial crisis, and she lost her home and had to rent. This experience led to an online rant against her asian landlord which went so viral that she was invited to write first an article, and then a weekly opinion column for a major publication. Pretty run of the mill right wing opinions, similar to what she does now. The column ran from 2015 to 2020. She rather abruptly moved to Ireland in early 2021, and nobody is sure why. Information shared, Sunny and Jess head off to their video call with the lady in question.
First things first: Jess asks how Melinda knew the victim. Again, we get a super fast flashback which I THINK features a bible and some handcuffs, but Melinda just tells our pals that she met Gerry at a political thing he’d started in late 2015. They’d had a similar outlook, and got along pretty well.
Melinda: Yeah, we were friends for a little bit. We saw each other a few times over the next few months. I think we maybe had lunch together once?
Jess: So it didn’t turn into anything more? Like a romantic relationship? We have a witness who says it was.
Melinda: Nope. What witness?
Jess: An old friend of his, who saw the two of you in a pub in 2020.
Melinda: Oh, well that was a different story.
Sunny: I’m sorry, I’m confused: so you did have a romantic relationship?
Melinda: Yes, just not when you were asking about.
Jess: I didn’t specify a time, actually. But that’s ok. Let’s get this super clear: when did the two of you get together?
Melinda: Summer of 2020, just as things were opening up again. We were together for a few weeks, two months at most.
Sunny: Did his wife know about this?
Melinda: No clue.
Sunny: So you weren’t seeing him still in February.
Jess: But you were still in the UK.
Melinda: Correct.
Sunny: And you moved to Ireland in March 2021… just a few weeks after he disappeared.
Melinda: I mean, I didn’t know anything about that. I didn’t hear until months later when a friend told me. I think they messaged me?
Sunny: Can you send that to us?
Melinda: You know what, I think it was a call, actually.
Sunny: So why did you move to Ireland?
Melinda: Well, we came here for holidays when I was a kid. My dad was born here. And then I got a remote job, so it seemed like a good opportunity.
Sunny: When do you think you last saw Gerry?
Melinda: Fall 2020. We just fizzled out… no fights or anything.
Jess: Really. We have a lot of evidence to suggest he could get violent.
Melinda: not with me!
Melinda also doesn’t know of anyone who might have wanted to harm him and claims that they didn’t actually know each other all that well. She says she can try and find proof of what she was doing on the day he disappeared, but doesn’t have anything else to add. Everyone’s extremely cordial as they hang up, but the second the call is ended Jess and Sunny both agree: Gerry was definitely violent towards Melinda. And if she’s not telling them about that, what else is she hiding? That’s a good question, because after leaving the station, Melinda heads home and pulls a lockbox out of a high cupboard in her bedroom. Inside, she finds an appointment book from 2021, which very clearly lists a meeting with Gerry on the day he disappeared. She promptly brings this book outside and burns it.
Meanwhile, Juliet returns home to find all of her daughter’s bags are still in the hall. And the daughter herself is ALSO still at home; she doesn’t want to go back to school. Juliet is in the middle of insisting that Taylor has to go back, at least through the end of the school year, when her daughter asks an important question: was it you?
Juliet: Was what me?
Taylor: Was it you who killed dad.
Juliet: WHAT? How can you even ask me that?
Taylor: You haven’t said no.
Juliet: It wasn’t me.
Taylor: You don’t seem that sure.
Juliet: I’m very sure, I’m just shocked that you would think that. No, I definitely did not kill your dad.
Taylor: Well, did you tell the cops about the fight you had that night? I remember it all VERY clearly.
Juliet: It was just a normal fight. I would never have hurt him, ok? But I need you to promise that you’ll never mention that, or the other fights, to the cops. They’ll jump to the wrong conclusion. Promise?
Taylor: … there’s something I never told you.
OOOH. While we wait to find out what that is, back at the station, DS Beanpole takes a stroll through the worst parts of the internet. Specifically, Gerry’s social media feeds, where it seems that he spent most of his time getting into flame wars with folks on the other side of the political spectrum and generally being a huge jackass. At least one of these conversations ends with an incitement to meet up in real life and fight. Clearly this guy had no shortage of enemies.
Later, the squad meets up for another check in. Martin’s phone record shows a lot of calls to a landline at the same address as Gerry’s pub (so, probably the flat upstairs where the family lived). He also sent many threatening texts to a contact called Gerry, but they continued after Gerry disappeared... but of course that could just be Martin covering his tracks. DS Beanpole volunteers to sort out the process of getting a DNA sample from Martin. DC Babyface shares the update on what she and DS Beanpole have been finding in Gerry’s online presence: a lot of nasty speech, and also a lot of threats, both from him and directed AT him. They’re learning a LOT about how this guy operated, prompting Jess to muse that it would have been fascinating to see what it was like in Gerry’s home. And that’s when Sunny realizes that they actually do have an insider witness: Taylor. They decided to find out if her school will let them interview her there, where, presumably, Juliet can’t interfere.
Speaking of Juliet: she’s zoning out at work when her boss comes in and drops a bit of a bombshell. Basically, their funding is tight, and the board wants to offer her early retirement. Yikes. Meanwhile, DS Grumpy meets with a former coworker of Asif to discuss his caseload. She says that he was a lovely guy, very dedicated, and that she knows he followed up with clients to do pro bono support even after he wasn’t working there anymore (and that includes the family at the center of the potential conflict between Asif and Gerry, the Dowaris). She also remembers how Asif interacted with Gerry.
Former Coworker: He was always pretty polite and soft spoken. At least to Gerry’s face. But one time I gave Asif a ride and he sort of mentioned that back home, people like Gerry got “dealt with.”
DS Grumpy: What do you think he meant?
Former Coworker: No clue, but there was something creepy about how he said it.
DS Grumpy: Could I speak to the Dowari family?
Former Coworker: Sure, if you could find them. We moved them to a new flat in February 2021, and then soon after that they left the system entirely. Totally disappeared. That would have been the end of February, 2021. I can give you that address.
Based on what Asif said, and the fact that this family went off the grid pretty soon after Gerry went missing, DS Grumpy calls up DS Beanpole to suggest that they add Asif to the DNA testing list. Totally separately, at the farm where Hassan works, immigration enforcement pulls up en masse to start checking IDs. I really really hope this isn’t Sam’s doing!
Back at the station, Sunny and Jess look over text messages between Melinda and Gerry that pretty clearly show that the two were in a relationship. Based on the messages, it’s clear that Melinda lied about when the relationship started, and how long it went on. Sunny also says that it looks as though things started to sour around the start of 2021; Gerry knew not to write too much, but in February, he sent her messages asking to discuss “the amount” and threatening her. They’re blackmail threats, from a violent person.
Sunny: Do you think maybe Melinda and Juliet met?
Jess: Huh. Good question, and one of us needs to go over to Ireland to ask. Unfortunately it can’t be me. I’ve uh… still got some stuff happening at home.
Sunny: You don’t have to explain!
Jess: I’m sorry, I know we shared before, but it’s so complicated I don’t know where to start.
Sunny: Seriously, do not worry about it. AND: I’m here if you need me.
Jess: Thank you. I appreciate that.
Friendship! Sunny heads out, but not before spotting Pathologist in the corner having a chat with a stranger. He takes the opportunity to pop over and ask if she got his message. Pathologist tells him that she got it but was SUPER busy, and insists that she’ll call him. Sunny plays it cool, but is obviously kind of hurt and confused by whatever the heck is going on.
Meanwhile, DS Beanpole pays a visit to Martin to try and collect a swab. Martin is resistant at first: an advocate is supposed to be present if he talks to the cops. But his mum tells him to just help the nice young lady out, and he finally agrees.
And at Asif and Sam’s place, the latter comes home and apologizes to his partner.
Sam: I’m really sorry. You are so strong, and you’ve handled everything so well, that I forget what you’ve been through. I can’t imagine what it was like for you, and I completely understand why you’re angry. Listen, I want to try and help.
Before Asif can answer, and they can make up, a BUNCH of cops arrive at the front door and ask to come in and search the house based on information gained at a raid earlier that day: it’s the immigration enforcement agents again. Sam lets them in, and they find Asif waiting in the kitchen. Both men are taken into the station, and later, Sam is very upset to find out that his partner is still being held despite the fact that Sam lied and took full responsibility for Hassan. But what Sam doesn’t know is that Asif isn’t being held for the immigration stuff (at least not entirely): the police have gotten a request to swab him for DNA. He agrees.
Sunny flies to Ireland. Caretaker arrives at Martin’s Mum’s house to find that he’s locked the door and she can’t get inside. She calls through the letterbox that she needs to check in, and if he doesn’t open the door, she’ll need to call the police. Martin, scared, doesn’t open the door, but does take more of his medicine. And Jess calls up Taylor’s school to ask them if she can speak to said teen without her mother present. The headmistress doesn’t agree right away (probably smart) but does say she’ll call back with an answer soon. But in the meantime, DS Grumpy tells Jess that Juliet is actually downstairs and hoping to have a chat. Obviously Jess isn’t turning that down, so into an interview room they go.
Juliet: Yesterday my daughter told me that about a week before her dad disappeared she came home from school to find a kid who had worked for my husband in our flat. He clearly broke in somehow, and both of us were out, so she was alone with this guy. She knew him from the pub, and she said he was agitated and also angry at Gerry. He told her that he wanted to hurt Gerry like Gerry had hurt him.
Jess: And she would have been about 11 when this happened, right? She must have been terrified, poor kid.
Juliet: She was. Apparently she convinced him that hurting her dad would be a bad idea, and that that would hurt her too. He didn’t want to do that, so she made him a drink, they chatted a bit, and then after a while he left.
Jess: Why didn’t she tell you this before?
Juliet: She didn’t want to get him into trouble. She liked him and felt bad for him. I do too — he had a really hard time in the pandemic.
Jess: Does she remember his name?
Juliet: Yup. It was Martin.
And Martin? He’s currently running away from his home. The police have just arrived to break down the door, and found Martin’s Mum in rough shape inside. Caretaker tries to revive her client, but it’s not clear whether she’ll succeed. And that’s, of course, the end of the episode. Will Martin’s Mum be ok? What else does Taylor know? What will happen to Asif, Hassan, and Sam? And why was Gerry blackmailing Melinda? We’ll just have to wait for next week’s episode to find out.
