It's an unassuming building,
just off a main road in Letherbridge.
By the front door is a board with
photos of the staff at this busy health centre.
Among them is the man I've come to see.
A man I hope will be able to unlock
a mystery that has baffled the police.
A man who might just be able to
help me solve...
..a murder.
I made you some coffee.
Sorry, I can't, don't have time.
Oh. Thank you, though.
Did you sleep all right? Uh-huh.
You weren't too hot with all those layers on? No.
I would have kept to my side of the bed, you know?
I'm working a half day today,
thought we could talk to Ollie this afternoon.
I'm putting up some shelves up for a regular, so.
I'll come straight home after that.
Great, I'll be off, then. But...
..don't you think Ollie's got enough on his plate with his injury?
I think he'd rather know the truth
than feel we were keeping secrets from him.
This is...
..really happening, isn't it?
Yes.
But we'll be all right -
both of us.
Oh, sorry, we're not open yet.
I've come into the reception,
the nerve centre of the practice.
Excuse me...
And here he is, the man himself.
Yeah, I'm afraid you can't record in here.
Please excuse my ignorant colleague.
Right. Why am I not surprised this is something to do with you?
Well, you should have known when you heard, "The Man Himself".
Do I want to know the details?
James, this is Beth Brown.
OK. Hi.
Hello.
Oh, for goodness' sake, Beth is the
host of Deathly Intentions, THE
leading true crime podcasts.
I'm going to my room now.
Beth was looking for a medical expert.
Oh, and you couldn't find a real one?
I was lucky enough to find one
who was already a cornerstone of our online community.
None other than "Haskey PI".
Ha-ha, "Haskey PI". Is that what
you're calling yourself now?
Dr Haskey has provided
many valuable insights into our previous episodes.
He's a real "vocal" contributor.
I'll bet you are.
Well, I like to do my bit for the
greater good, as you well know, James.
Right. Well, whatever this is, I'm
afraid you still can't record in here. OK?
The patients are going to be coming in soon. Of course.
Beth, do you want to come through to my thought palace?
Consulting room, you mean.
Yes. This way.
Thank you all for coming.
We've a lot of items on the agenda today, so we'd best get started.
I'd like to add an item.
There'll be an opportunity for that later.
First, we need to approve the minutes of the last meeting.
Any queries or objections?
Very well, let's vote.
Those in favour of approving the minutes?
The motion passes.
And so to today's agenda.
I'm sorry, but what I have to say is important.
I'd really appreciate it if it could be tabled immediately.
Very well, we will deal with it
now, as an extraordinary item, then.
Thank you.
And it's interesting that you should say "extraordinary"
because I think that's what we all hope to do.
Extraordinary work to help our
extraordinary staff do...
Extraordinary...?
Yes, extraordinary things.
But I wonder how many of us really
believe that's what we're achieving.
I hate to say it, but I question
whether we're actually doing any good at all.
The Chair thanks you for those comments.
And now... I'm sorry, I'm not finished.
I joined this board with the best of intentions,
but at some point you have to take stock.
And so, with regret...
..I have to announce that I will be
standing down, with immediate effect.
I'm ready if you're ready. What's the case?
I'm looking into the mystery of Marty Roper,
a man in his 20s who was found
dead in Waterloo Park three years ago.
The postmortem indicated he'd been poisoned.
It would have taken perhaps ten minutes to take effect
but by the time he felt the effects,
it would have been too late.
Right. So, although he collapsed in the park,
he wasn't necessarily poisoned there.
Yes, and by the reports, it looks like...
Erm, sorry. Do you want to check the level on this?
I'm sure they're fine.
I just don't want you to miss anything important.
The way that my brain works, I've got no idea what's going to
come out of my mouth, just pearls of wisdom.
Well, this is mostly just preliminary information.
I know you have patients to see this morning, so I thought we could
discuss the case properly at lunchtime.
That's a terrific idea.
MOCKS A FRENCH ACCENT: Give the old grey cells
a chance to, how you say, warm up.
Very good.
The poison appears to have been swallowed willingly.
There are no puncture marks or signs of a struggle.
Although, there was a small bruise on his chin.
Right. So the body was turned over
and back again after he collapsed.
Yes. passers-by tried to resuscitate him.
How did you know?
Well, the small bruise on his chin would be from
when he originally collapsed and hit the floor. Yeah?
What's that book?
Hmm?
Look - there. There's a book next to the body.
Oh, a novel.
Nothing important. Oh, come on.
It's often the most inconspicuous
detail that can reveal a killer.
Just to be super clear on this -
I'm looking for medical insight from you.
I have other experts who'll be
offering their takes on areas of the
case that they specialise in.
Sure, sure. I wouldn't want to
tread on anyone else's toes.
Who are the other experts? Just out of interest.
Don't worry, you're in good company.
Now, back to the medical side.
Postmortem and toxicology reports. What?!
How did you get hold of these?
Trade secret, but let's just say I've got contacts.
Oh, you and I are going to make a terrific team.
If you get a break between patients, then take a look at the reports.
Absolutely. And I'll record my findings,
so they sound fresh and of-the-moment.
That won't be necessary.
There's a bar near here, called the Icon.
Why don't I meet you there at two?
And you're not to worry, if anyone
can crack this case it is Haskey PI.
This country is experiencing a shortage of doctors.
And I for one want to be out there
helping those we do have as much as I can.
But I can't do that while I'm spending
all my time taking meetings about meetings.
We are in the business of saving
and improving lives,
of working small, everyday miracles.
Please, don't forget that.
Thank you.
Well, I'm sure we'd all like to
congratulate you on your principled stand.
We wouldn't want to keep you from
fighting the good fight, so if you'd
like to leave immediately, then please go,
with our best wishes.
Very well.
I wish you all the best of luck.
Not that I speak for the whole board,
but I'm relieved that's happened.
Right, if we're done with interruptions -
item one on the agenda...
Let me try something, yeah?
VOCALISES
Nosey, nosey, cheeky, cheeky, just mind that.
Some say that poison is a woman's weapon.
Whilst I wouldn't prescribe to
such an outdated view, I would say
that the opioids that ran through
Marty Roper's body were as fatal to him as any dagger.
For this was the darkest of crimes,
this was the crime of murder.
As for the autopsy, well, that
revealed some interesting details.
Mr Roper suffered from autosomal
dominant polycystic kidney disease,
a rare, hereditary condition.
You know, the human body is a wondrous thing,
it can reveal so much of someone's life story.
And yet...
..as a medical expert, one must
sometimes look at the body in context.
Perhaps there is an item in close
proximity, which might have a story to...
Oh, wow.
Now, that is something.
PHONE RINGS
Hello.
Oh, hi, Dave.
Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, thanks.
No, he's not in. Have you tried his mobile?
Yeah, sure, yeah.
What's the message?
What do you mean?
Why would he be trying to rent a room?
Did you have time to look over the materials?
Yes, I did, I, erm...
Yes, I did, I studied the evidence
with my trained, professional eye.
Looking for the kind of links that
would go over the head of the common man.
And...?
And....
..I found something of...
..great interest.
You know we'll just edit out all the long pauses?
No, I think you'll find that pauses add dramatic tension.
Dead air and all that, just give us the facts.
OK. I believe that I have great
insight into the book that was found
next to the body,
that book being, The Body In The Vestry.
Remember when I said I wanted you to focus
primarily on the medical evidence?
Yeah, but I knew that book's author,
I knew Benjamin James.
I don't see what that has to do with the poisoning.
Ah, but this was no ordinary novel.
Or, should I say, this was no
ordinary VERSION of that novel?
Tell me more.
Does this mean you're reconsidering?
No, I'm just looking at her CV again.
Well, it's not going to change.
You already know that she's more than qualified.
Yeah.
But is she someone I imagine I
can be making major decisions about the practice with?
You can't tell that from a CV,
it's the person behind it that you have to trust.
But I don't.
I mean, I can see she's impressive, yeah,
but we've been fooled by
self-confidence and bluster before.
Maybe, but...
It would be irresponsible of me to risk this practice we've spent
so long building up, on a stranger.
Well, that's that, then.
Wait.
Look, I don't trust her, OK?
But I do trust you.
Are you 100% sure about her?
Yes. Why?
We've done well but we don't want to stagnate.
I think she could steer us in a
really interesting direction.
It's a gut feeling.
All right.
Then, there was this other time,
that me and Ben went to this
real ale festival in Chester.
You know, soon word gets round that he's there,
and all these people are coming out to meet him.
He found that kind of behaviour boring.
I can imagine. Guess what he does?
He tells everyone that I'm Benjamin James.
Soon they're all coming up to me asking me questions,
offering to buy me drinks.
WHISPERS: A few sexual advances.
This has what to do with the case, sorry?
Nothing. It just goes to show what
a stand-up guy Ben was. Right.
But our friendship does give me a
unique insight into this photograph.
Which is?
I guarantee you that book is in
every charity shop in this country.
It was huge - everyone had a copy.
I have never seen a copy with that cover on it.
Oh.
I remember being in Ben's library and
he had all these framed prints of
the different versions of it.
And they were all just words and
colours and some international
versions, which had different languages on them.
And you're sure this wasn't one of them? Absolutely.
And surely, if something is unusual at a crime scene,
that automatically makes it relevant.
All right.
How do we find out more about it?
Don't ask me, I'm just a humble medical consultant.
What we do is, we go and see The Swamp Monster.
Drink up.
Swamp Monster? Yeah.
Bring photo. Ugh.
Come on, we haven't got all day. OK, fine.
Hi.
What's wrong?
So, when were you going to tell me?
Tell you what?
Dave called and he wanted to leave
you a message to let you know the house you
were hoping to move into had fallen though.
Listen, Ollie...
He said you were splitting up.
That's what we wanted to talk to you about.
So it's true?
I'm afraid it is, yeah.
The Haskinator!
Swamp Monster.
THEY VOCALISE
Ah!
Why?
Swampy, I have brought you a visitor.
Can you guess who this is? I'm going to give you a clue.
"Some say they had the best intentions,
"but the end result was still murder."
No! Yes.
Swamp Monster, Beth Brown.
Beth Brown, Swamp Monster.
I'm not worthy.
Nice to meet you.
Is it all right if I record?
I'll chop you into pieces and feed you to the dogs if you don't.
Erm, OK.
Which would make an interesting spin-off series, don't you reckon?
Investigating the sudden disappearance
and brutal execution of the host of the main show.
Yeah, no time, Swampy, we need your help.
Challenge accepted.
Swamp is THE authority when it comes to publishing,
all the major genres - thriller,
horror, sci-fi... Erotica.
Let's just say, it's a broad portfolio.
You have a book for me to look at?
Oh, much more interesting than that.
Get your peepers around that.
Is that..?
Yeah, Body In The Vestry.
But...
..but that cover...
Yeah. I've never seen it before, have you?
No.
Which is, frankly, extraordinary.
There's a dead person next to it, too.
Oh, yeah, hmm.
So, how long have you been lying to me, then?
We're not lying.
Just processing where we were at.
What, so, you're just staying together because of me?
Yes. No.
I shouldn't have gone away.
It's not your fault.
The important thing is that we're
still a family and always will be.
There's no hard feelings between us.
And you'll still be our first priority.
Which is why we're going to help you
sort this situation with the military out.
Don't change the subject!
But it's important!
Your foot will heal eventually, so
they've no right to send you home
with a medical discharge.
We need more information.
Keep out of this or I'll be a laughing stock.
How's it going to look, having my
mother phoning up to fight my battles for me?
Like you come from a family that
just wants the best for you.
The same family that couldn't be
bothered to tell me they were splitting up?!
He's just upset.
It's a lot to take in.
All right, so this is a database of
rare and out-of-print editions of
famous detective novels.
The book in your photo is a
pre-publication proof copy of
The Body In The Vestry.
Is it valuable?
For a book this popular, worth an absolute mint.
Other than a few people at the publication company,
only the author himself would have had a copy.
So the fact the victim was carrying
such a valuable book around with him
could have been the motive for the murder.
Well, you don't carry a book that expensive around
with you unless you're going somewhere with it.
Where was the photo taken? Waterloo Park.
I'm not local, I don't know where that is.
Hey, that's about three minutes from the author's house.
Ha, you're kidding?
Yes, I know where the dude lived.
I was briefly involved with a group
who tried to get a blue plaque for his house.
He discouraged us, mainly because he
was still living there at the time.
Are you saying he could be the killer?
Can't be a coincidence the victim
was found so close to the author's house, can it?
Not with such a rare copy of his blockbuster novel.
No, no, impossible.
Ben was a kind, gentle man, not a killer.
I hear you...
..but now that I think about it...
friends of the victim, I interviewed,
did tell me that he'd been looking
for his birth father in the weeks before he died.
So?
Apparently, his mother conceived him
after a one-night fling with a famous author.
Although, she always kept the writer's identity a secret.
Maybe it was Benjamin!
Bloodthirsty Benny killed his own son!
Cool your jets, the pair of you of you.
This is wild speculation about a
real person who wouldn't have hurt a fly.
Of course.
But the mother had hinted that she
owned a signed copy of the book the
author was working on the night they met.
She'd kept it hidden but after she
died, her son thought he'd found it in her attic.
What year was this? '97.
Yeah, timeline fits.
Your dude's a killer, man.
Right. And you're just all remembering this right now?
Well, let me lay out a hypothetical scenario.
The victim goes to meet his estranged father,
carrying the valuable book with him
as proof of who he is.
While at the house, the father
panics, thinking that the son is
after a share of his considerable fortune.
So, the father slips something
into the son's drink, a poison that
gives the victim just enough time to
get some distance from the house.
Ridiculous. But is it possible?
All right, riddle me this -
how would Ben get hold of lethal poison?
HE SCOFFS
The dude did a chemistry degree
before he turned to the pen!
I've got to get back to work.
Well, we'll meet later, if that's all right.
I doubt it, I'm very busy.
I hope I haven't offended him.
He's just playing-up for the podcast.
He'll be back in three...
..two, one...
Or he might be deeply offended.
Sometimes hard to tell with Haskey.
Oh, hello, I'd like to speak to
someone, please, about my son, Oliver Millar.
He's part of the initial intake in the training programme.
Thank you. What are you doing?
Making things right. Hang up.
I just want some answers.
Kirsty! Mum.
Ah, hello.
HANGS UP PHONE
I lied.
They didn't send me home.
I'm AWOL.
You all right, Sherlock?
EXHALES: I don't know.
What's up?
That podcaster Beth, she is trying
to find a link between this victim
and a friend of mine, Benjamin James.
She thinks that Ben might be the
estranged father of the victim, Marty,
his father, but also possibly his killer.
Is it possible?
Well, they both had the same rare,
hereditary kidney condition.
That might suggest they're related,
but it doesn't make your friend a killer. No.
No, but it's unusual.
And in this world, unusual is suspicious.
If I confirm it, there'll be all
these suggestions, a trial by social media.
Ben was a really famous author,
it would ruin his memory.
Was he a patient?
No, there's no confidentiality issue.
I just know about it cos Ben told me.
Then he died last year, so it's not
like he's around to defend himself.
Sorry, mate.
The thing is...
..Ben had a dark side.
He could have done it.
I don't want to ruin my friend's reputation
but I also don't want to be
covering-up for a murderer.
I just, I just didn't fit in there. You know?
The rest of them all seemed to be
best friends with each other within, like, minutes.
But not me, I-I just...
..I felt so lonely.
Why didn't you tell us?
What could you do? I'd signed up.
You could have left.
You're not allowed to drop
out in the first six weeks and that
started to feel like forever.
Because you know, every day I'd just be...
..I'd feel more and more cut off from the others.
But you'd had an accident, it's not fair.
You couldn't join in.
It wasn't an accident, was it, Ollie?
Oh, no.
I'm sorry.
Ollie, no!
I didn't know what else I could do.
I assumed that, you know,
they'd have to send me home because
I couldn't take part and
I thought I'd get out before the six weeks were over.
But it wasn't like that.
You know, they just wanted to keep
me there to watch the others train, until I'd healed.
So you went AWOL?
Yeah.
Hey, don't worry, we'll sort this out.
How?
I don't know.
But that's what family's for.
Sorry I'm a few minutes late.
I had to put some affairs in order.
That makes it sound like I'm dying.
I'm not - I don't think.
Thanks for coming.
We've been thinking about what we discussed. And...?
Look, before you make the wrong decision...
We'd be delighted to take you on as a partner.
Whoop! Definitely the right decision!
I'm glad you're so pleased.
I'll go and get the champagne in.
Well, if you insist.
And then we can go over my conditions. Ooh!
Conditions?
Hey.
I know it must be a shock, realising
your friend might have been involved.
I have patients to see.
But you have a unique perspective on this case.
As a friend and confidante of the
suspect, you must know things that
others can only guess at.
I'm sure our listeners would love to hear your insights.
Is that on?
Can you turn it off, please?
Is that all you wanted to know from me today?
What?
Whether Ben had the same rare condition as the victim,
which would confirm that it's likely they were related.
Don't be silly.
You're one of our community's top sleuths.
And your contribution to this
episode is going to be amazing!
But obviously, in the circumstances,
I'd just like to hear any unique
insights you might have.
Did I discover anything today that
you didn't already know?
I let you play detective.
Admit it, you loved it.
You used me.
We all just want the truth, don't we?
So, did your friend share the same kidney condition as the victim?
I'm not going to tell you that. He might be a murderer.
I know. Then, help the truth come out.
The truth?
You're not interested in the truth,
you're not interested in people.
They're just content for your podcast,
so you can admire the sound of your own voice.
A bit rich coming from you, "Haskey PI".
Look, if there is evidence - proper
evidence that Ben did this, then...
..well, he deserves everything that's coming.
But it is not fair to have thousands
of armchair detectives picking over
his corpse because he COULD have done it.
You're always on the forums,
offering your theories on cases
without access to all the facts.
I know, I am a hypocrite.
But I always convinced myself
that I was uncovering the truth.
And the truth right here, is that
your whole story is circumstantial.
It won't be if you can prove they
shared the same medical condition.
Which I am not going to do. Fine.
In that case, I won't be able to use
any of the material we recorded.
You'll never be a part of this story.
Well, there is no story without proper evidence.
I'll ban you from the forums.
Good.
I think the important thing is that I can sleep at night.
Now, if you don't have an appointment,
I'm going to ask that you leave.
I'm so excited to have this opportunity.
It really means something to be back
on the front line, doing the work
that really matters.
Cheers. Cheers. Cheers.
Mm, this is good stuff.
Just the right amount of bubbles.
Yes.
So, you mentioned, erm, conditions...?
Oh, yes, nothing big.
It's just my son, he's also a GP,
and he'll be coming to work for us,
if that's all right?
Cheers.
There must be somewhere we can get some advice.
I've messed my whole life up, I'm such an idiot.
We'll sort it out.
Don't worry.
DOORBELL RINGS
It's probably Margaret from next door.
Hello.
Mrs Millar?
I really need to speak to Oliver.
Jade, my number one cricketing superstar!
To what do I owe this pleasure?
I wanted to talk to you - privately.
Isn't this all just moving too quickly?
Nina's a force of nature.
I don't believe he's likely to
injury himself again.
I don't want to frighten you, Jade,
but I'd suggest that you shouldn't
be doing any bowling for a while.
I know what I have to do.