Not long now.
CORK POPS Oh! And we have lift-off!
Ha-ha-ha! Come, come.
A toast to Astraeus,
Titan God, the stars and the planets.
There. Lovely bubbly!
Fizzy wizzy!
Drink, my love? Hmm?
Oh! Um...
Yes. Yes, why not? There we go.
Thank you.
A little drink and I think a few words from my dear friend,
the professor. Oh! Speech! I don't know what to say.
I've seen a good few planetary conjunctions,
but never a total eclipse.
We know this one is going to be fleeting, only three minutes
and 12 seconds, so let's all observe it in silence,
with our own thoughts and dreams
and with whatever god we choose to walk with us.
Champagne to my real friends and
real pain to my sham friends. Oh! LAUGHTER
Cheers, all! Cheers. To very good health.
You OK, love? Oh, yes. Just the culmination of a life's work.
# Just give me some guava I will sing you a song
# Hey-ho, blow the man down... #
If you don't mind, Jeremy. I'd prefer to watch in silence,
like the professor said?
# Give me some time, bo-mo-mo... #
It's nearly half-past, everyone.
Wow!
Ho-ho! Wow!
Wow! Oh!
That was truly remarkable! Ah!
Bertrand?
Bertrand, where are you, darling?
where on earth is he? Maybe he's gone back to the car.
Why would he leave before it was over like that?
Bertrand?
Come on, stop playing silly buggers! Bertrand!
My dear, he couldn't have gone far. Why don't we just spread out?
Bertrand? Professor Sworder?
Oh... Please, no!
Over here!
No!
Thank you.
Morning, Naomi. Morning, sir.
Welcome back. How was your journey? Oh! What are the chances?
Once every 2,000 years planetary event and my flight gets delayed.
Oh! I didn't know you were coming back for the eclipse. Yeah.
Well, Saint Marie has dark sky status,
so I thought I might get a clearer view from here.
Ah. You couldn't see it from the plane?
No. All I could see from the plane was a chubby toddler blowing
raspberries at me from the top of his seat.
And I had to pay an excess baggage fee for my telescope.
Oh. I'm sorry, sir.
So, tell me about the case.
You said a man fell to his death at Cap Michelle.
Yeah, Professor Bertrand Sworder. Professor Sworder?
Did you know him?
Yeah, he was quite well known back in the UK.
Hosted a few TV documentaries, was on The Sky At Night a few times.
A real inspiration to hobbyist astronomers like me.
I can't believe he's gone. Also, sir, Marlon called.
The victim's wife found a note in her handbag.
It seems as if the professor intended to take
his own life last night. Oh, no!
We can only access the crime scene by boat, sir.
DI Neville Parker. DS Thomas.
Jeremy Herbert. Sunil Singh. We were...
We were up there with Bertrand when...
I just still can't believe it.
I assume you were here to watch the conjunction eclipse. Yeah. Yeah.
And during the conjunction, none of you were aware of what happened?
Sad to say, our attention was focused elsewhere.
Until the eclipse was over
and then we realised what had happened.
And it was you who alerted the police? Yeah. Well, Sally. Sally?
A PHD student, over from England.
She's... She was the professor's protege.
There's no signal up on the clifftops,
so she went to the pay phone.
We jumped in the car and headed down to the harbour to get a boat.
We're up in Cap Michelle. Someone's just fallen off the cliff.
Thought it best if Sally and Mrs Sworder stayed up there,
while we came here with the sea rescue people.
And there's no access to this beach, other than by boat?
Definitely not. OK.
Thank you.
Grains of sand in the victim's hair.
And all among his clothes.
Seaweed also suggests that the sea washed in after he fell.
Ha!
Sir?
From a brief initial examination, they reckon the injuries
sustained tally with a fall from a significant height.
What do you have there?
It's a notebook, found it in the victim's jacket pocket.
But, look, it's a crossword.
It's yesterday's crossword,
to be precise, and it's half-finished.
It's probably nothing.
So, tell me about this note Marlon said the victim left.
Mrs Sworder gave it to him up at the cafe.
They're waiting to talk to us now.
This is it.
"I'm so sorry for abandoning you, my love,
"but I'm not sure I can endure what's about to happen in my life.
"Please, forgive me."
Let's go and talk to them.
Mrs Sworder, are you up to answering a few questions? Thank you.
I was just wondering if you knew what your husband was
referring to in this note that he left.
He says he can't endure what's about to happen in his life.
I really haven't a clue.
It's just... It's all so unexpected.
Anyone else understand it?
No.
Sorry. Me, neither.
Miss Blake?
No. Was Professor Sworder acting normally, the last few days?
I suppose he had seemed a little distant recently.
I maybe thought something was up.
But not so much that he'd...
I noticed it, too. SOBBING
I just thought he was nervous.
His whole life was leading up to last night.
And just to be clear, during the conjunction,
there was no-one else up there with you, just the four of you? Yes.
OK. Thank you.
Ah... Oh, um, sorry, one... One other thing.
It's probably nothing, but I found this in the Professor's notebook.
Did he often do crosswords? Yes. Practically every day.
You don't know when he tore this out of the newspaper, do you?
Well, I happened to notice him filling it in up on the clifftop,
while we were waiting for it to get dark.
You saw him filling this in? Yes. The whole newspaper.
He hadn't torn it out yet? No.
Well, that IS interesting.
Like I say, it's... It's probably nothing. Excuse me.
Ha! There it is!
See?
Yep. The dude definitely ripped it out.
That's significant, why?
Look, the only reason someone would tear a crossword
out of a newspaper and then slip it into their notebook would be
if they were intending to finish it at a later date, right?
So, why would Professor Sworder do that if he was planning
to kill himself that night?
He probably wouldn't. Exactly.
So, how did he end up falling off a cliff?
Well, I'm struggling to believe it was an accident.
The only reason Professor Sworder was up here
was to watch that eclipse.
Do we really believe during the few minutes that it was happening
that he just wandered away from his telescope
and accidentally fell off the edge?
So, then, someone must have pushed him off? It was murder?
But, sir, if someone did kill Professor Sworder last night,
surely the others would have noticed. Sarge is right.
If someone pushed him over the edge, there would have been a tussle,
the prof would have fought back, screamed out.
Somebody would have heard something. Yeah.
If Professor Sworder was manhandled over the edge,
it does seem odd that no-one else
who was here was aware of it happening.
So, we should do all the usual background checks on everyone
who was present here last night.
And go over the victim's phone and email communications, OK?
Marlon, maybe have a word with the people who run the cafe.
See if they saw anything last night.
I'm going to drive Miriam home.
Call us if you need anything.
So, what do we do now? We wait.
So, it was Professor Sworder who first predicted the planetary
eclipse last night? Yep. Or the Great Occultation, as he called it.
You know, he made the discovery when he was only 25,
back in the early '80s.
Wrote a very successful book about it.
I highly recommend it. It's a scintillating read.
It sure sounds it. Hmm.
So, I've done some initial background on our suspects.
Miriam Sworder, she and Bertrand met at university,
but were just friends for a long time.
Came from a pretty wealthy background.
And what about the protege, Sally Blake?
She went to a secondary school in Dublin
and won a scholarship to study astrophysics.
I went on her social media page
and saw that she's been a fan of the professor since she was a child.
Even met him once when she was 12.
Says it was seeing him on TV that inspired her love for astronomy.
What about this guy, Jeremy Herbert?
An old friend of Bertrand's from university.
Heads up the Barrington Observatory just outside of Pontefract.
That just leaves this fella, Sunil Singh.
"A highly regarded amateur astronomer."
He's an IT administrator in Pune, India,
but he's on the board of the Astronomical Society there.
Not sure what the connection to Professor Sworder is yet.
HE SIGHS
Well, until we find evidence that there was another person up
there on that clifftop, we have to work on the basis that it was
one of these four that pushed Professor Sworder over the edge.
Um, you guys know there are a few journalists outside, right?
They're not here for the Professor Sworder case, are they?
That's what they said. A couple of them are from some science magazine.
It sounds like they're expecting a press conference or something.
Did the Commissioner organise it? Can't have done.
I've not even updated him on the case yet.
Well, I'd better give him a call.
MOBILE VIBRATES
VIBRATING STOPS
That's odd.
It's not going to voicemail.
So, who wants to meet Saint Marie's newest trainee
police officer? Darlene, you passed initial training.
Oh, I didn't just pass.
The examiner said I had the highest test score
of any trainee on the island. Congratulations, Darlene!
That's fantastic, Darlene. Um...
But I had the highest test score out of any trainee on the island,
so... Oh, no, Marlon!
Did you just get your butt kicked?
But I am still the most senior officer, though, right?
I mean, that doesn't change anything. Just for now, honey.
Celebratory drink at Catherine's bar after work?
If you insist, Inspector.
LAUGHTER
Congratulations, Darlene. I'm so pleased for you.
The drinks are on me. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Catherine.
Welcome back, Neville. How was your trip home?
And how is Arthur? Oh, sir. I forgot you were meeting your baby nephew.
Arthur is the most adorable little thing you have ever seen.
Oh, he is such a cutie! Yeah. He's got his mother's look, no?
He's so sweet, sir.
He's all right, I guess.
I think you're going to make a wonderful uncle. Thanks, Catherine.
Oh, I'll be back in a minute.
Catherine? Er...
I just wondered if, um... If you'd heard anything from...Sophie.
Oh, she's away for a few days, doing some island hopping.
It's just we exchanged a few texts over Christmas
and I just wondered if she'd left me a message.
Actually, she did.
She said to tell you she's hopelessly in love with you
and is counting the seconds until she sees you again.
Did she?
No, she didn't. You're joking.
It's that...famous French sense of humour I enjoy so much.
She's back tomorrow evening. And she left no message.
But she did ask if I knew when you were getting back.
Did she? Hmm. Good to know she's taking an interest.
Good.
SHE CHUCKLES
# Baby, hold on Baby, hold on
# Doo-doo
# Doo-doo... #
So, how did it feel, the first day as a uniformed officer?
You know, Marlon, I'm so excited. I just can't wait to get stuck in.
I'll be honest, though, it's not as comfortable as I was expecting. Oh.
Just wait till we hit the potholes.
HORN TOOTS
Morning. Morning, sir.
Did you manage to check in with the commissioner?
I see journalists are still outside.
Yeah, I just thought I'd talk to them myself.
Commissioner's secretary said he's taken some last-minute leave.
All they knew was that a press conference was planned
for 11 o'clock this morning at the Manda Bay Hotel,
but then got cancelled.
Where are Marlon and Darlene off to?
They're heading down to the harbour.
Marlon got a lead from a waitress from the cafe near the crime scene.
Oh! Hey.
I see you took my advice and picked up a copy of this little beauty.
Actually, sir, that's not why I have it. No?
I was going through the professor's emails and there's an exchange
between him and Jeremy Herbert about that very book.
Mr Herbert was accusing Professor Sworder of plagiarism,
claiming that The Great Occultation was actually his discovery.
Did he have any evidence to prove this?
There were some audio files attached to one of the emails.
Recordings from when Sworder and Herbert were students
on placement at Stanford University in the US.
There's another student with them, a Jyoti Kirmani.
The audio files only recently surfaced.
I'm not sure what he was planning to do,
but it's obvious from these emails that Mr Herbert was very angry.
Oh.
40-odd years of your friend taking the glory for your work.
It's going to hurt.
Well, I tried to take legal action in the past over what Sworder did.
Until now, there was no evidence.
See, I never made any notes about my theory.
It was all just floating around in my head.
And in the past, what did he say when you accused him
of stealing your hypothesis?
He said, "Our recollections about what was said that day
"were obviously very different."
So...what? You just accepted what he'd done?
I resigned myself to accepting what he'd done.
Mine and Bertrand's paths would cross every now and then.
Conferences, seminars. And I saw that the book had made him
quite the revered figure in the astronomers' community.
So I realised I was only really harming myself by holding a grudge.
These audiotapes, how did you come to be in possession of them?
It was Sunil Singh.
He was approached by someone who knew Jyoti Kirmani.
She was at Stanford when you were both there? Yes. Yes.
Sadly, Jyoti died recently, back home in India
and the tapes were uncovered.
And what was your plan, coming here to Saint Marie to meet him?
Renumeration, my boy.
My share of the spoils.
Bertrand made a small fortune from that book.
Not to mention the reputation he gained.
And he agreed to pay.
Otherwise, I made it clear that Sunil and I would go
to the press and tell the world the truth.
It was you and Mr Singh who organised the press conference.
Your insurance plan?
I needed Bertrand to know that we meant business.
But then he died before he could pay you the money. Yes.
Even in death, Bertrand has the last word.
And the last word is "cheat".
Hmm!
It's still there. Hmm?
The resentment.
If you are suggesting that I killed him,
Inspector, then answer me this - why would I kill a man
the night before he was about to pay me
three-quarters of a million pounds?
Here you go, madam. Thank you.
That's him over there.
Eddie Fingers Marlow, the finest pickpocket on the island.
The waitress I spoke to at the cafe said when she was locking up
on the night of the murder,
she saw a man in a loud two-piece coming down from Cap Michelle,
riding a scooter, chewing a toothpick
and I knew it had to be Eddie.
And what time did she say she saw him?
A few minutes after the eclipse.
So, he could be our murderer? No, no, no.
Eddie is...many things, but he's not a killer.
But I do want to know what he was doing up at Cap Michelle
that night and what he saw. Well, then, let's go and speak to him.
Wait, wait, wait. Darlene, Darlene.
Eddie's a bit of a slippery customer.
A sight of a uniform and he gets really twitchy.
So, just leave this one to me.
All right? OK.
Yo, Marlon Pryce! Ha-ha-ha!
Yo, bro! Look at you, all dressed up in your finery.
Even got a little crease in your pants, eh?
So...
Thank you.
Just spoke to the victim's bank.
They knew nothing of any payment to Mr Herbert,
but, apparently, three days ago, Professor Sworder arranged
for his entire estate to be put in
an asset protection trust in his wife's name.
Really? It gives her sole responsibility of his entire estate.
He and his wife have a home on the island, don't they?
Want to pay her a visit? Yes, I do.
All right.
Thank you for your help, sweetheart.
So? What did he say?
Well, on the record, he was up at Cap Michelle,
doing a bit of stargazing. And off the record?
Fleecing tourists. Well, doesn't he sound charming!
The thing is, Marlon, I called in a check on that scooter of his,
just to make sure.
Those are fake licence plates,
which means that scooter's more than likely stolen.
Ah. Oh, brother! Right, wait here. Marlon.
No, no. Why do I have to wait here? Darlene, I know this guy, OK?
And I know how to handle him, so, just...
Yo, yo. Go, go, go, go, go, go.
Yo, yo, Marlon! Marlon! Marlon!
It's no good for business
if you've got officers hanging around all day long, you know?
Where did you get this scooter, Eddie? Scooter? Ha-ha!
Scooter, scooter.
No, no, what's he up to?
Well... Yo, yo, you dropped something, you know.
ENGINE REVS
Wait, Eddie! Stop, police!
Darlene... He's getting away on the scooter, Marlon.
You don't think I know that?! Start the engine! I don't have the key.
Huh.
Like I said, a real slippery fish.
So what are we going to do now?
Um... Eddie's a hard guy to track down. Lives off the grid, you know.
But, um, don't worry about it. I'll, um... I'll think of something.
I'll think of something.
SHE SUCKS TEETH
I'm sorry, I refuse to believe it. Bertrand didn't plagiarise anything.
We have the evidence, Mrs Sworder. It's pretty clear cut.
Then it's been faked and you've been had!
You know, Jeremy Herbert has lived in Bertrand's shadow
since the moment they met.
Why else do you think Mr Herbert ended up running a two-bit
observatory in some godforsaken part of Yorkshire?
It wasn't out of choice, I can tell you that much.
HE SNEEZES
Bless you.
Thank you.
What about the asset protection trust?
Don't tell me you didn't know about that.
It required your signature, as well as his.
He leaves everything in your protection in the event
of his death and then three days later, he's murdered.
That's quite a coincidence.
I don't need my husband's money, Inspector.
I have my own.
But more importantly than that, I loved my husband very much,
which is why I wouldn't shove the man over a cliff.
Please, close the door on your way out!
She took that in her stride.
HE SNEEZES
Something in here's got right up my nose
and I'm not just talking about her. It's pretty dusty in here, sir.
How's it going? I found the journals Professor Sworder wrote in.
This one from 1982 covered the time he and Mr Herbert were at Stanford.
Haven't had time to read through it yet.
Might give us some insight into
what actually went on between them, though.
Anything of interest in here? Empty.
What, both of them? Yeah.
OK, well, let's get all this stuff back to the station, eh?
Hmm.
So, we now know that the victim's career
and reputation was founded on a 42-year-old lie that he propagated.
And that two of our suspects were in possession
of the evidence to prove so.
But we're still left asking ourselves how one of the four
suspects managed to drag Professor Sworder away from his telescope
and push him over a cliff edge in total and utter silence.
I don't care who you are, someone tries to throw you off a cliff,
you let people know about it.
For as long and as loud as you can.
Yeah.
So, how did they do it,
in the few minutes everyone was focused on the eclipse?
Pull yourself together!
So, this is where you're hiding!
Can a man not take some time to go fishing
without a search party being called?
Not when he's the head of the police force.
And it's not like you to just disappear. I haven't disappeared.
No? No!
So, what are you doing here?
I just needed a little time to myself, time to think.
Andrina has written to me. Ah!
She, understandably, has a lot of questions she wants to ask.
It's only natural of her, no?
I'm just not sure this is something I want in my life right now.
It is a big change.
Meeting your daughter for the first time.
We're strangers, the two of us.
What answers can I give her when I know nothing about her?
And...
..what if she comes all this way...
..and we find out we don't even like each other?
Then, so be it.
She flies home again and you get on with your lives.
So, you think I should meet her.
I think I'm the wrong person to ask.
The thought of not having Cam in my life, couldn't imagine it.
But only you can decide, Selwyn.
All I would say is
maybe spending all this time by yourself is not healthy.
OK, that is Antares...
..which means that is Scorpius.
Ha!
Oh!
Harry!
Harry, move! Go on, get out of the way!
Who are you talking to? Hey.
Well, um, don't judge me,
but, um, I was talking to a lizard.
Erm, Sophie, this is Harry,
Harry, Sophie.
Hello, Harry. How are you doing?
That's actually lizard for, "Hello, Sophie."
Right. A pet lizard and a telescope.
I mean, that's some serious nerdiness.
Well, in my defence, the lizard was here when I moved in.
But the telescope is all me. A bit of a childhood hobby.
Catherine said you've been visiting the other islands.
Yeah. I went trekking in the rainforest in Dominica.
It was beautiful.
Knocked spots off Heaton Park.
I was wondering if... I was wondering...
Oh.. No, sorry. You... You go first. You go.
Right, I was just passing and I thought I'd stop by and say hello.
And see if maybe you'd want to go for a drink tomorrow night?
That is exactly what I was going to say. Great... Great minds.
Um... I would love that. Yeah? I would love it. Yeah.
Um...
We... We could have a glass of wine on the beach.
Sounds lovely.
All right, well, I'll let you two get back to whatever it was
you were arguing about.
Night, then.
Night, Sophie.
Harry?
I think I've got myself a date. Whoa!
Harry?
Harry? Sorry, mate.
You OK?
When he left Stanford and returned to the UK in December '82,
Bertrand Sworder was determined to "win Miriam back", as he puts it.
"I know if Miriam is to love me, like I love her,
"I need to make something of myself and be somebody."
Is that why he plagiarised The Great Occultation?
A way of making his mark on the world?
BUZZER
BUZZING
Darlene?
Oh, this... This better be good
because I had eight more minutes of sleep left on my alarm clock.
So, I was leafing through the small ads
in the Saint Marie Times over breakfast...
You've had breakfast already? ..and I saw this.
Look!
"Silver grey scooter for sale, $800."
Eddie's scooter.
He's selling it? Eddie doesn't know me,
I could phone and pretend that I was interested in buying it,
arrange to meet him, then we can go and slap the cuffs on him.
Yeah, we could do that.
But I already put the word out to some of my contacts.
So leave it to me, OK?
I think you and me need to have a little tete-a-tete. A what-a what?
I decided to become a police officer
because I was fed up of feeling left out.
And for the last two days,
thanks to you, I could not have felt more like a spare part.
Look, I didn't mean to make you feel like that.
OK, I'm sorry. But this is new for me, too.
Being a senior officer.
I... I guess I just wanted to show you that I could do it.
I just want us to work as a team. I want that as well.
So, if we are going to bring in Eddie, we do it together. Mm-hm.
So, go and make the call.
Beautiful morning, isn't it? GIGGLING
HE SIGHS
Oh! Ooh! Sorry, Naomi. Sir! Should have looked where I was going.
Are you all right this morning, sir? Absolutely could not be better.
Top of the world. Very productive evening last night. That's great.
So, I was reading through Professor Sworder's journal.
Turns out, he and Jyoti Kirmani has a brief fling
when they were at Stanford together. When he got back to England,
she contacted him to say that she was pregnant with his baby.
But there's no mention anywhere of him having a child.
He didn't want anything to do with it.
I think he had his heart set on marrying Miriam by that point.
But here's the thing, something about the dates was niggling at me.
Jyoti Kirmani contacted him in August '82
to say she was one month pregnant,
which would make the baby's birthday around March '83, right?
Have a look at Sunil Singh's date of birth.
March 17 1983.
Now look at his full name.
Sunil Singh Kirmani. He's always abbreviated it to Sunil Singh,
but Kirmani is his real last name.
I checked with the Indian authorities,
he is Jyoti and Bertrand's son.
But he hasn't said this to anyone. Exactly.
Long lost son turns up to find the man who abandoned his mother
and then... The father turns up dead at the bottom of a cliff.
HE KNOCKS ON VEHICLE
I, um... Ahem. I was 15 when my mother told me who my father was.
But you didn't make contact?
She made it clear to me that he had little interest in being a father.
So, when your mother passed away, you found the tapes?
The recordings of her, Professor Sworder and Mr Herbert?
I was...flabbergasted, quite honestly.
What I heard, what Jeremy Herbert was saying.
About The Great Occultation?
He was clearly proposing the theory that Professor Sworder had
since published as his own.
It left me no choice but to contact Jeremy and let him know.
He deserved to have the truth come out.
And when you arrived here on Saint Marie,
under the guise of coming to see the conjunction eclipse,
did you confront the professor?
Tell him who you really were?
No. And not because I feared his rejection after all these years.
Because I had no desire to associate myself in any way
with such a fraudulent man.
So, to be clear, this trip out here to Saint Marie was just,
what, an act of pure altruism?
To help Jeremy Herbert, a man who you hardly knew?
Are you sure you weren't trying to exact some
sort of revenge on your absent father?
I'd be lying if I said no.
But sincerely, Inspector,
that desire for revenge
did not extend to murder.
I can assure you.
SOBBING
Come on, Eddie.
Where are you?
Move!
Mr Marlow?
You're Talisha? Mm-hm, that's me, honey.
I have the money right here. You know?
You don't look much like a woman that should be riding round
on this scooter, you know?
You look like you've got a bit of class about you. Mm!
I didn't come here to be flirted with, I'll have you know.
I am a married woman, Eddie.
That is a shame! I could have got used to flirting with you!
You are a bad man, I could just tell, but since you ask,
the scooter's not for me. It's for my son.
He just passed his test, so I thought I'd just give him
a little gift.
I don't really know much about these things,
so would you mind turning the engine on for me?
I just want to make sure it's all in working order.
Talisha, Talisha, Talisha! Whoo!
Your wish is my command.
Purrs like a kitten, she does.
What you doing?
Trainee Officer Darlene Curtis.
I am arresting you, Eddie Marlow,
on suspicion of handling stolen goods.
This is Marlon's doing, right?
Well, you have to tell Marlon from me
he's going to have to wake up a lot earlier to catch me out!
HE LAUGHS
Argh!
GASPING
As it happens, Eddie, I did get up early this morning.
Argh!
Only eight minutes early, mind.
But I guess that's all I really needed, huh?
Let's go.
And you're sure about that?
OK. I appreciate your help.
Inspector, DS Thomas.
We know that Eddie put false plates on the scooter.
So I checked the serial number with the vehicle licensing agency.
The scooter is registered to Professor Bertrand Sworder.
The scooter belongs to the victim?
Look, Officer, I wasn't lying when I said I went up
to Cap Michelle to do some dipping.
So, how did you end up walking away with Professor Sworder's scooter?
It was coming up to half-midnight when I came across his scooter.
It was sitting there, hidden in some bushes, key in the ignition.
It's like it was asking to be taken and I'm only human, you know.
The victim travelled to Cap Michelle in his own car with Miriam, right?
Mm-hm. So, what's his scooter doing up there?
If I tell you something that I saw whilst
I was up there that night, will it go in my favour?
You know? If it helps the case,
it could potentially be taken into account when you're sentenced, yes.
All right.
I was heading back with the scooter when I heard voices.
Hushed, but intense, you know.
So, I went to check it out.
And that's when I saw the professor guy, you know,
the one who was killed.
He was with this young woman, 20s, short, brown hair.
Sally Blake. She was crying.
Sally, I'm sorry. Please! This needs to stop! Please!
She was worked up and he was saying something like, um...
You weren't even supposed to be here!
I hate you! I need you out of my life!
Did you hear any more than that?
That was it.
Him disappear and she stood there, crying.
She looked like she was... She was really, really hurting.
Were you in a relationship with Bertrand?
Is that what it was?
But you cared about him.
I never had friends growing up.
People don't like it when you're smarter than them.
I was just the weird science girl.
Even when I went to university, I just found it hard to connect.
I'm not good at being around people. Professor Sworder was different?
Ever since I was a kid, I just thought he was so...brilliant.
That's why you came to study under him? He was so supportive.
And encouraging.
I've never felt that comfortable with anyone before.
But it wasn't reciprocated.
About a month ago, I told him how I felt.
And the look on his face, I knew straight away I'd ruined it.
I'd ruined everything. What did he say?
He suggested that I find another professor to mentor me,
that we stop working together.
You weren't supposed to be on this trip, were you?
I just thought he'd come around.
See what we'd be together, but...
..that night on the Cap Michelle,
he said I should get some counselling,
that I had things I needed to work through.
That he wanted me out of his life.
And how did that make you feel?
Angry? Frustrated?
I know I need to sort myself out.
But I swear - I wouldn't kill him.
I couldn't.
Darlene spoke with Miriam Sworder.
She was as surprised as we were
when she found out the professor's scooter was up at Cap Michelle.
She didn't even know it was missing.
So neither her nor her husband put it there?
Anything in it? Erm...
There's this.
But it's probably nothing, right?
If we accept that one of these four suspects killed Professor Sworder,
we still have no idea how he or she could have done it.
Well, there were three other witnesses present
when the killer pushed Professor Sworder from the cliff.
And I refuse to believe that that could have happened
without at least one of them hearing something.
A cry for help, the sound of a scuffle,
a scream as the poor man fell to his death.
I mean, that's what you do if you fall to your death, right?
You scream.
Unless he didn't actually fall.
Erm... But he did, sir.
I mean, we found him at the bottom of the cliff, dead.
No, I know. I know that, but what if he didn't actually fall?
Not then, anyway. I have to be honest, sir.
I have no idea what tree you're barking up right now.
It's the only feasible way a man could be killed in plain sight
of three witnesses without any of them realising what was going on.
There's this.
She went to the pay phone, we jumped in the car.
HE SNEEZES Anything of interest in here? Empty.
The scooter is registered to Professor Bertrand Sworder.
Ha!
Marlon, Darlene, can you get over to the courthouse?
We're going to need a search warrant.
What is it you need searching?
Somewhere we didn't even know existed.
All of the evidence in this case initially pointed to
Professor Bertrand Sworder's fatal fall being a suicide.
All the evidence, that is,
apart from this.
Professor Sworder kept this crossword
because he was confident that he would not in fact die that night,
even though that's exactly how it would have appeared
to the rest of you, because, you see,
Professor Sworder had come up with a plan to fake his own death.
Why?
Because he had no desire to face the humiliation
of being exposed as a plagiarist.
Or to give up the riches he earned over the years off the back of it.
That's why he came up with a plan to stage his own suicide
and then go into hiding until he could begin his life anew
in another part of the world.
It's also why he transferred his whole estate into a trust
where no-one except his wife would be able to get to it,
because we now know that Mrs Sworder was in on the plan
with her husband from the very start.
This is all nonsense.
All of it!
It's not nonsense, Mrs Sworder. We have the evidence.
My DS and I just searched the clifftops again, except this time,
a little further along from where you were all sitting.
You know what we found?
Two holes in the ground a couple of feet apart.
And...
..this climbing anchor. We believe a rope ladder was fixed there
the night of the murder by Professor Sworder himself.
A rope ladder? Yes.
Because, you see, Professor Sworder didn't actually fall to his death.
Well, not at first, anyway.
The afternoon of the Great Occultation, Professor Sworder
drove to Cap Michelle on his scooter and left it, hidden.
From the scooter's top box, he removed the rope ladder.
He then proceeded to the clifftop to secure the rope ladder
a safe distance away from the edge from where you'd all be gathering,
not to be seen. He then headed back to the car park
where Mrs Sworder was already parked up.
There, they both waited for the rest of you to arrive for the main event.
Now, it was during the three minutes and 12 seconds
of the conjunction eclipse,
while the rest of you were transfixed by what was
happening in the sky, Professor Sworder left his telescope...
..walked out of sight to the rope ladder,
made his way down to the beach.
He then headed back over to the area directly beneath
where you were all sitting and there he lay down
on the rocks as if he'd fallen,
so that when you went searching for him,
and saw him lying down there, you would assume the worst.
Over here!
We know it was you, Miss Blake, who went to phone the police
while Mr Kirmani and Mr Herbert drove to the harbour
to arrange a boat to travel back to the beach.
Now, we think that Mrs Sworder probably subtly encouraged
you all to do these things
because she and Bertrand needed time alone for him
to get back up the rope ladder.
What on earth was he going to do after that?
Well, the plan, we think, was for him to then use the scooter
to make his way back here to the villa,
so that when you and Mr Kirmani arrived at the beach,
you would assume that his body had just been washed out to sea.
And Mrs Sworder, of course, could confirm this and claim
that she'd seen the whole thing happen.
Meanwhile, once back home, Bertrand could hide himself away.
Well, until the dust settled.
HE SNEEZES
It's pretty dusty in here, sir.
Until the dust settled!
See, it was the dust that got me thinking, Mrs Sworder.
That and the two filing cabinets placed next to each other
that had absolutely nothing inside them.
Inspector, Sarge.
Just as you suspected. We found the rope ladder.
You know, Mrs Sworder,
if there is one thing guaranteed to make me sneeze, it's plaster dust.
Which was deposited all over the study, having been used
by Bertrand to build a wall to create the extra room.
The filing cabinets placed there to hide the entrance.
So, that was the plan,
as originally conceived for Professor Bertrand Sworder
to fake his own death.
But that's not exactly how it played out.
Is it, Mrs Sworder?
Because when Bertrand climbed his way back to the clifftop,
you must have called him over to you.
This is it. This is our chance to start all over.
So, now, he's standing on a clifftop, directly above
the exact spot in which he'd been seen a few minutes earlier.
And that is where you pushed him over the edge.
Argh! Argh!
You must have then hurried down to the beach to make sure he was lying
in roughly the same position he'd been seen a few minutes previously.
And then you came back to the clifftop, gathered the rope ladder,
and hid it in your car,
before bringing it back here to hide in the secret room.
Why?
Why did you do that to him?
Because he broke her heart, Miss Blake.
"I know if Miriam is to love me like I love her,
"I need to make something of myself."
He knew he had to present to you a man who was...
Who was going to be a somebody.
That's why he stole Mr Herbert's discovery
about The Great Occultation and then wrote this whole book about it.
And it worked. I believe you really did fall in love with him,
with the great Professor Bertrand Sworder.
And that's why when he had to come to you
and admit that this successful man that you'd fallen in love with
was nothing more than a fraud, I think, in that moment,
you felt that your whole marriage,
the last 40-odd years of your life, has been nothing but a lie.
When I saw him climbing over the edge of that cliff,
he looked so pathetic.
And I hated him.
And I couldn't stop myself.
Miriam Sworder,
you're under arrest for the murder of Professor Bertrand Sworder.
You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence
if you do not mention, when questioned,
something which you may later rely on in court.
Probably nothing.
To Darlene, congratulations on completing
your first case as an officer.
And you know? I couldn't have had a better team-mate supporting me.
Ah, back at you, Trainee Officer Curtis.
Oh, and before I forget,
Eddie Marlow said to give you this.
His phone number. What?
Well, once he found out you wasn't actually married,
he said if you fancy a drink once gets out of prison, give him a call.
Why on earth would he think that I'd want to go out with
a good-for-nothing pickpocket like himself? Hmm? OK.
But never say never, though.
THEY CHUCKLE
Inspector?
Oh! Sir!
I know you've been trying to get hold of me
over the last couple of days.
I've had some personal matters to attend to. Yeah, no problem, sir.
I understand. Neville. For your date with Sophie.
Oh! A little liquid aphrodisiac.
Merci, Catherine.
Erm... Much appreciated.
Evening, Selwyn.
Catherine. How's everything?
Have you thought any more about Andrina?
I've written to tell her I need more time to think.
That way, if nothing else, at least I'm being honest.
REGGAE MUSIC PLAYS
SOPHIE GIGGLES
Wait, wait.
You organised an after school board game club? Yeah.
Every other Tuesday, four till six. What can I say? I like board games.
And you had a stamp collection?
Yeah, but I was a kid.
You still have an actual telescope. No, no.
You are at least as big a nerd as I am. At least! All right.
Maybe. Definitely.
So, don't laugh at me,
but I've never really done the holiday romance thing before.
Uh... Well, I guess I haven't, either.
But...
Is that what this is, then?
I mean...
I'd enjoy spending some more time together while I'm here.
But it is only ten days.
Is that going to be a problem?
Well, we're both intelligent human beings,
who know what they're doing.
Right? I mean, I am! I can't speak for you.
LAUGHTER
If you don't see a problem,
and I don't see a problem, then...
Then that's sorted, then.
Yeah.
# ..Mean the world to me, baby
# Ma-ma-ma ma-ma
# And we will never, never part
# Ma-ma-ma-ma ma-ma... #
The police are here. They're looking for Kit,
he was supposed to be in court this morning.
Preppers? People who make preparations to try
and survive a global disaster or catastrophe.
We've got a dead body, Inspector. So, he died in the bunker?
This doesn't end well for us, does it?
You've decided you want to apply to be a sergeant?
Is there a problem, sir?
Are you and Sophie still going jet-skiing this evening? Oh, man!
This, I have to see! Why would they need guns like that?
She's coming this way, Sarge! Step away, now!
BANG!