Season 5 Episode 4 | 1h 23m 1s | Video has closed captioning.
A controversial American academic is found strangled after a guest lecture at Oxford, leading Lewis and Hathaway to narrow down a list of motives that includes politics, ambition and vengeance, in order to find their culprit.
Aired: 07/29/12
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(thunder)
(woman wailing)
Funding for Master (announcer calling race)
Go!
Get it!
(crowd cheering)
Come on, Real Deal!
Come on, Real Deal!
Yes, come on, my son!
Come on, Real Deal!
Yes!
Yes!
(mumbling to himself)
(knock at door)
I've been asked to let you know:
five minutes, Professor.
Oh, thank you, thank you.
Well, I shouldn't worry, this audience won't bite.
They used to.
Times have changed.
Talks at Oxford are a lot more civilized nowadays,
and a lot less fun.
Well, I'll leave you to compose yourself.
Thank you.
(sighs)
COMMENTATOR: Plays it wide.
This lad is so fast...
...take on the defenders in the modern game.
COMMENTATOR #2: Great skill to the touchline so it's going for a corner.
COMMENTATOR #1: Now can Newcastle make the most of this opportunity?
The big center half has come forward...
(groans)
(applause)
"Dangerousness" is the term attributed to people
considered to be a risk to the public
but whose behavior is not a consequence of mental illness.
In the past, various attempts have been made
to use "dangerousness"
to try and predict future criminal behavior
before it manifests itself.
But no reliable tool to measure an individual's propensity
for criminal behavior has been available.
Until now.
(crowd murmuring)
So with the mapping of the human genome,
it may now be possible to locate the sequence
responsible for criminal dangerousness.
And if this is possible,
it could herald a new era in crime prevention,
and now we believe...
PROTESTORS: No platform for racists!
No platform for racists!
(air horn blows)
(chanting): No platform for racists!
Keep my seat warm.
Isn't it a job for university security?
(air horn blows)
(still chanting): No platform for racists!
No platform for racists!
No platform for racists!
That's your cue, darling.
I hardly need you to tell me.
Ladies and gentlemen,
as my mother taught me,
the best way to deal with naughty children
is to ignore them.
(crowd laughs)
Well, they're certainly entitled to their opinion.
As incorrect as it may be.
I was, uh, just about to reach my conclusion
and open the floor up for questions.
Are you happy to continue?
Of course.
ANNE RAND: If you could introduce yourselves,
that would be extremely helpful.
Yes?
Nina Clemens, second year Law.
Given that past theories
of dangerousness have tended to target ethnic communities
where poverty and crime rates are highest,
isn't your proposal just the latest Trojan horse
by which to introduce racially motivated social engineering?
I'm merely proposing a new tool, young lady.
It's up to others to decide how to use it.
Yes?
Professor Lipton,
senior lecturer in Criminology and Fellow of Milton Hall.
Professor Yelland,
haven't we already seen how others use a similar tool?
Cuba, for example,
where the theory of criminal dangerousness has been misused
to imprison people before they've actually done anything.
(crowd murmurs in agreement)
Mostly, of course, opponents of the Cuban regime.
(audience cheers, applauds)
(sports commentary continues on TV)
(Lewis groans softly)
(woman speaking over PA system)
Ten, twenty...
That takes care of food for a couple of weeks.
I was thinking more along the lines
of a couple of bottles of good Champagne.
Isn't it all good?
You haven't drunk much, have you?
Thank you.
The streets of Catford
aren't exactly awash with the stuff, no.
Then allow me to educate you.
Oh, all right.
Would you like another glass?
No, thank you.
What did you think?
Of what?
His talk?
Interesting.
Well, interesting as in you think he has a point,
or interesting as in how can someone so apparently clever
be so apparently reactionary?
It's not for me to say.
You're allowed an opinion, surely.
I'm just the department administrator, Miss Clemens.
I leave opinions to those qualified to hold them.
Well, I must say that my reception here at Oxford
is a bit more robust than I was expecting.
But I always hope that
I'm big enough not to take offense.
Ah, Professor Yelland, may I introduce
one of our brightest second-year students,
Nina Clemens.
And would the beautiful Miss Clemens deign to shake the hand
of a "racially motivated social engineer"?
You can't deny "criminal dangerousness"
has always found most favor
amongst those with a racist agenda.
Well, would you hold the Wright brothers responsible
for the carpet bombing of Dresden?
Or Einstein for Hiroshima?
If they were in a position to predict
how their work would be used and did nothing to stop it,
then why not?
Professor, would you like another glass of wine?
Oh, thank you very much, I've really had enough.
Go on.
You've earned it.
Well...
Thank you.
I think it's time Professor Yelland
was taken back to his room.
Why?
He seems to be enjoying himself.
I'm very tired, Robert.
And very bored.
It's time to wrap this up.
Okay.
It's very kind of you to walk me back to the college.
Not at all.
The wine was wonderful.
Always a highlight at these things.
Yeah, I'm afraid I overindulged.
Isn't that what good wine's for?
PROTESTOR: Here he is!
PROTESTORS: No platform for racists!
No platform for racists!
No platform for racists!
Ignore them,come on.
(still chanting): No platform for racists!
WOMAN: This isn't over yet, Yelland!
Who said that?
Where are you?
No platform for racists!
No platform for racists!
No platform for racists!
No platform for racists!
Ta-da!
Just letting Nina know what a brilliant night she's missing.
Her loss.
I've suggested she meet us in the college bar after her talk.
If she likes kissing her tutor's arse so much
shouldn't we leave her to it?
Focus, William, on the here and now.
I'm so tired.
You've had a long day.
Yes, yes.
We're nearly there.
I need to sleep.
You shall.
You shall.
All those people.
Forget them, forget them.
They're so angry.
They like being angry.
It makes them feel important.
Come on, nearly there.
Watch this step.
Easy, easy.
Okay...
Yelland was furious about that protest
and the Q&A.
He tried to hide it, but he was livid.
Good.
Did you see the local press scribbling feverishly away?
She almost broke her pencil.
Well, I hope everything works out as you've planned, Anne.
After all, you have planned very hard.
I have some work to do.
Good night.
Good night, Andrew.
(muttering under breath): Oh, come on...
How is he?
A little worse for wear, but fine.
Thanks for waiting.
Let me walk you home.
I was going to meet some friends
for a drink in the bar here, so...
Right.
I'll try not to enjoy myself too much.
"They who go feel not the pain of parting.
It's they who stay behind that suffer."
Good night, Professor Fraser.
Night.
(laughter and footsteps outside door)
(loud knocks at door)
(pounding)
(doorknob rattling)
Let's not go to the bar.
Nina's already been waiting over an hour.
Let's find somewhere to lie down and look at the stars.
How much Champagne have you had?
Not nearly enough.
Yeah, well, have any more
and there'll be no point looking up at the stars
because they'll all just be one big blurry...
(clock bells chiming)
EMILY: What's he looking at?
HOBSON: So, what I know is he was a visiting academic
by the name of Professor Paul Yelland.
Postmortem will confirm,
but I suspect cause of death will be strangulation.
He was in Oxford
at the invitation of the Department of Criminology
to give a public talk.
I was there, actually.
How come?
Well, friend saw an article in the local paper
and thought it might be interesting.
And was it?
Not really,
but "the speaker deserves to be strangled"
would be, in my opinion, a harsh review.
Any sense at this talk that he was anxious?
No, this wasn't suicide.
The door was forced from the outside.
He'd forgotten his key
and then forced the door in desperation to get in?
The key was in his jacket pocket.
You can do this to yourself--
apply enough pressure to the carotid bulbs
and eventually your heart will stop.
But the extent of the bruising around his neck
suggests he struggled hard to stay alive.
And look at this...
Oh right, he managed to get his fingers behind the ligature,
but then the killer was too strong.
What was his talk about?
A potentially new approach to criminal dangerousness.
Well, right now he must be the world's leading expert.
Criminal dangerousness...
What?
Well, you don't need a master's degree in criminology
to tell you that if somebody whacks you over the head
and nicks your wallet that he's dangerous.
Little more to it than that, sir.
Crackpot theories about why people do bad things
were all the rage when I was a cadet.
As, no doubt, were the twin innovations
of suspects having motives and fingerprints.
There was no DNA testing when I started.
You just had to be bloody good.
But what if good and evil
could be determined at a genetic level?
It's all hokum.
That's what they said about the Earth orbiting the Sun.
Bairns aren't born evil.
Given the right circumstances, people are capable of anything.
That's the second time you've checked your watch.
Do you have a woman simmering, chez Lewis?
No, I have a dodgy tooth about to explode chez my gob.
You are aware we have a brilliant new service now
called dentistry?
Yeah, been there, done that, got the bloodstained t-shirt.
Never again.
When was that?
20 years ago.
You haven't had your teeth checked in 20 years?
If it ain't broke...
It's probably rotting on the inside.
(phone beeping)
That'll be the tooth fairy, appalled.
No, it's the Chief Super, requesting the pleasure
of our company in her office before the...
(phone beeps)
Too late.
WOMAN: Sir.
Oh, look, it's Action Man.
Peterson.
Boys.
Ma'am.
DI Peterson and his unit
have been tracking local extremists,
so he may have valuable information
for the investigation.
We've been monitoring the anti-racist group
that disrupted Yelland's talk.
Myra Barnet.
Figurehead, old school, hardcore...
HATHAWAY: And other clichés.
We thought they were pretty harmless, until now.
We still don't have anything concrete to pin on them.
Needless to say the Vice Chancellor
was on the phone within minutes.
A guest at the university murdered on university premises
after giving a talk where, by all accounts,
university staff and students tore him apart.
The PR consequences are obviously horrendous.
I phoned the paper.
They're running the headline, "Lynched!
", exclamation mark.
Well, from what I saw,
he wouldn't have required much lynching.
What, you were at his talk?
Yeah, with Dr. Hobson.
I was just keeping an eye on things.
INNOCENT: The university need this wrapped up quickly.
And so do I.
The Director of the Department of Criminology
called me personally to request some protection
for Professor Yelland during his stay,
and I turned it down as unnecessary.
On advice from us.
You see, our intelligence said
no one had the slightest interest in targeting Yelland.
You couldn't have got that more wrong.
PETERSON: That's why we think the motive was personal
rather than professional.
INNOCENT: Liaise with one another
and let's find who did this quickly.
ALL: Yes, ma'am.
Why are you just sitting there,
looking at me like dogs being shown a card trick?
(phone ringing)
Come on, answer the phone.
Come on.
Sorry!
Talking to local radio.
You could have done that in the car.
The acoustics would've been terrible.
I needed to sound suitably authoritative.
What did they want to know?
Why Yelland was killed.
The spotlight is upon us, darling.
It's time to dance.
NINA CLEMENS: So what did he look like?
EMILY: We couldn't see much detail from where we were,
just his bloated face in the window.
Oh, disgusting.
Will freaked out.
I'm not surprised.
Whenever we had dissection in Biology,
he always had a note from home to excuse him.
(both laugh)
Weird to think you were listening to him
just an hour earlier.
Not just listening.
Accusing him of being a closet racist.
You probably pushed him over the edge!
If only I had that kind of power over men.
You don't do too badly.
What's that supposed to mean?
The hot professor.
Will.
To name just two.
Will?
Emily, Will's just a mate from home.
Are you sure that's all he is?
(door opens)
Yes.
How was your run?
Knackering.
I persuaded myself I was being chased by the dead guy
and chalked up a personal best.
I thought you were going to start running again, Nina?
After much deliberation,
I concluded my running days are behind me.
You used to love it.
Yeah, and then I stopped loving it,
same as I stopped loving
watching skinny doggies run round
after a teddy bear on a trolley.
Are you going to have a shower now, or can I nip in quickly?
Be my guest.
Thanks.
I've always wanted to learn how to run.
There's not much to it.
It's like walking, only faster.
Strangled with his own tie...
An advert for dress-down Fridays if ever there was one.
I can confirm cause of death was asphyxiation
due to strangulation.
He was 2 1/2 times over the limit when he died,
with the sleeping drug zolpidem in his system.
Toxicology puts ingestion
at around the time he was giving his talk, or just after.
Enough to make him more compliant to kill.
HOBSON: Any amount would have that effect.
This particular brand activates relatively slowly,
but it would have synergized with the alcohol
to speed up the conking out process.
The "conking out process" being...?
An internationally recognized medical term.
Ann-Marie...
Is that it?
I've pushed your boat out into open water, Robbie.
Get rowing.
You wouldn't have anything for a bad tooth in here, would you?
I can take it out if you like.
Of course, you'd have to be dead first.
Julie?
Is this all the evidence from Yelland's room?
Yes, Sarge.
I've got an opened envelope here with no letter in it.
That's everything.
Okay.
(computer beeps)
Gurdip, it's me.
I need your massive geek brain to crack a laptop password.
It shouldn't be too taxing.
Well, then you can get back to your online poker.
Yes, I've got it; I'll ask her and get back to you.
Thank you, bye.
(knock at door)
Can I help you?
Inspector Lewis, Detective Sergeant Hathaway
to see Professor Rand.
This doesn't have to be a problem.
Whichever way we spin it,
the events of last night are potentially catastrophic
for the department.
I agree.
What happened to Yelland in his room
in your college, Andrew, had nothing to do with what happened
during his association with us.
LEWIS: Did you get to speak
to Professor Yelland at all?
I served him wine.
But other than that...
Did you notice anyone unfamiliar hovering around him,
someone who might have slipped something into his drink?
There were lots of people milling about.
It was a public lecture, I didn't know everyone.
They're all after Professor Rand for a sound bite now.
Press, local radio.
She's in her element.
Not the shy, retiring academic type?
Anne?
You must be joking.
I once walked past her office
and I heard her on the phone shouting at him.
At who?
Professor Yelland.
She sounded furious.
About what?
I don't know.
But she was calling him a liar
and a fraud about something.
You won't tell her I told you, will you?
It could put me in a very awkward position.
I'm afraid we can't promise anything, Ms. Hunter, but...
Lilian, please.
We're nothing if not discreet.
(knocks at door) Come!
Inspector Lewis and Detective Sergeant Hathaway
to see you.
I hope we haven't come at a difficult time?
Not at all.
Can you tell us why you felt it necessary
to request police protection for Professor Yelland?
An academic from an unknown American university,
pushing an improbable twist on an old theory.
It's hardly the ace of spades in a pack of hate-figures.
LIPTON: Well, actually, he and I
were students here together at the same time.
He was a high-flying postgraduate back then.
ANNE: I don't think you're seeing
the whole picture, Sergeant.
Perhaps because it hasn't been framed very well, Professor.
Yelland believed biotechnology could breathe new life
into the prediction of criminal dangerousness.
Letter to The New Scientist, at best.
I think you're underestimating
Yelland's proposition.
Unlike the vociferous crowd outside the lecture building.
Rent-a-mob, according to our colleagues.
Vocal but harmless.
LIPTON: With all due respect,
somebody must have wanted to do him harm,
because somebody did.
Look, the truth is we wanted to develop Yelland's talk
into something of an event.
Robert!
An event?
LIPTON: To maintain the profile
of the department within the university.
And beyond.
Let's not be coy.
My wife never has less than one eye on "beyond."
I came across an article by Yelland
a few months ago in a minor journal
which gave him a few pages to lay out his "vision."
So you invited him to Oxford to deliver this talk
with the sole purpose
of stoking up some controversy
for your department?
In a nutshell.
There's somewhat more nuance to this
than my husband is presenting.
We invite an academic
with an "interesting" point of view,
put a few articles in the press
to stir up the locals.
The protesters outside the lecture building?
That was easy.
Robert's involved
with a little anti-racist group.
All white, of course.
Happy to give their self-righteous indignation
a bit of an airing once in a blue moon.
Isn't that right, Robert?
Yes, darling.
Spot on.
Yelland was well-compensated.
I even went to his room later on
to check if he'd suffered any ill effects.
You went to his room?
I may be many things, Inspector, but I'm not a monster.
Is it just me, or does the air smell cleaner out here?
No, it's not you.
Inspector!
I'd like to confess to murdering my wife.
Sir?
In advance of the inevitable.
In my experience, the ones who talk about it never do it.
I know she appears combative,
it's just she's very protective of the department.
And her career.
I understand.
Just as you left, I remembered something shouted from the crowd
as Nina and I walked Yelland away from the lecture building.
Nina?
One of my students.
"This isn't over yet, Yelland."
Male or female?
Female.
And even though Yelland
was pretty drunk, it really seemed to shake him up.
I thought you should know.
Thank you.
Sure.
The woman who disrupted his talk...
Myra Barnet.
Maybe she was threatening to finish off what she started:
the humiliation and destruction
of Professor Paul Yelland.
(doorbell rings)
If you're double glazing,
I don't want it.
Jehovah's Witness, I don't need it.
Changing my gas supplier...
You're all as crooked as each other,
so all in all it's a general "no, thanks."
We're the police.
Please, have a seat.
Why did you disrupt Yelland's talk at the university?
We wanted to convey the strength of feeling
against his racist proposition.
"We"?
The anti-racist group I belong to.
LEWIS: Is Robert Fraser a member?
You'll have to ask him.
He told me that he is.
Then you have your answer.
(phone rings)
Wouldn't it be courteous
to have that thing turned off?
I'm at work, not at the theater.
Excuse me, sir.
Hello?
LEWIS: Do you think it's possible your group has members
who want to make the message stronger than mere protest?
You mean, do I think any of our members killed Paul Yelland?
Do you?
Medgar Evers famously said,
"You can kill a man, but you can't kill an idea."
I've seen nothing to make me disagree with that.
When Professor Yelland was escorted
out of the lecture theater,
somebody shouted, "This isn't over yet, Yelland."
Did you hear that after you were ejected?
No.
Would you be willing to give me a list of names
of the members of your group?
Oh, I'm sure your colleagues
have us all on file.
I think you rather overestimate your significance.
I have no ambitions towards significance, Inspector.
The struggle, always, is to stay relevant.
Is that all?
(phone beeps)
No idea who sent this?
It's not the first one.
A few times I've had calls
that are just silent on the other end.
Well, I can hear breathing, but...
The number's withheld?
Uh-huh.
Robert, you...
don't think it's your wife, do you?
Anne doesn't know about us.
As far as you're aware.
If she did, she wouldn't hide
behind anonymous texts and silent calls.
Whatever she had to say would be to your face,
and it would be extremely scary.
Perhaps we should cool things down for a while.
Nina, you're beautiful, clever.
You've fought tooth and nail to be here,
unlike the privileged majority
who consider it their birthright.
It's bound to cause some resentment.
This isn't just resentment.
It's racist garbage.
No, it's just nonsense, Nina.
FRASER: Don't let it get to you.
Ah.
Who is he?
A Criminology professor.
Married.
Nina's moving on, William.
Why don't you?
So you follow up on this O'Brien lead.
I suppose I should liaise with Peterson's unit.
What do you think Hobson would see in Peterson?
Who knows?
(phone rings)
Yeah, Julie.
Sir, the fingerprint results have come from the laboratory.
Have you got pen and paper?
Yeah.
So two sets of fingerprints...
Okay, so two sets of prints
on the outside handle of Yelland's door,
one of which belongs to Professor Anne Rand.
Chimes in with what she said
about going to Yelland's room after the talk.
Why have we got Rand on our database?
Drink driving two years ago...
Drink driving two years ago.
Criminologist, heal thyself.
Okay, that's great.
Thanks, Julie.
So, as well as Yelland's fingerprints,
we've got two unknown sets
on the envelope we found on his floor,
one of which matches the unknown print on the door handle,
plus one known print on the envelope
belonging to an Adam Pettle.
No one heard of gloves?
So let's start with Mr. Pettle and work our way out.
So what do we know about him?
Local boy, 24.
Convictions for assault and breach of the peace,
all during demos.
Anti-Nazi, anti-war, anti-globalization.
In fact, if there was anything worth being anti about
in the last six years, he was there,
either hitting someone or breaking something.
How was he when your boys picked him up?
Pretty cool.
But then he is an old pro.
Actually, I saw him at Yelland's talk.
He was almost certainly put on the inside
to kick off if Myra couldn't get through.
Maybe he's decided to step it up a league.
Not just to hit this time, but to kill.
LEWIS: For the tape,
I'm showing Mr. Pettle an envelope
which we recovered from the crime scene.
Do you recognize this envelope, Mr. Pettle?
No.
Can you explain why we found a set of fingerprints
on this envelope which exactly match your own?
No.
Allow me to rephrase the question
to help you focus more clearly on your answer.
Can you explain why this envelope with your fingerprints
and Paul Yelland's fingerprints all over it
was found in his room on the night he was murdered?
What was in the envelope, Adam?
Let's try another one.
Did you kill Paul Yelland?
He's like the three wise monkeys
rolled into one bloody-minded urban guerrilla.
What's your instinct?
Well, he isn't exactly sweating like a killer,
but he's holding on to something.
The complete set of Yelland's business emails, sir.
Thanks, Julie.
Any more on the O'Briens?
No, but the camera footage you've been waiting for
is ready in the CCTV room.
Cheers.
I'm still printing the emails
from Yelland's personal account, sir.
Right, thanks, Julie.
Go through them with a flea comb, fetch me any fleas.
(phone rings)
Yes, sir.
Laura!
You've managed to pinpoint the exact time of death
and the person responsible.
Well, in an ideal world, my answer would be yes to both.
I'm calling you to let you know that I've managed to get you
an emergency appointment
with my very, very good, very, very popular dentist.
Ah, much as I'd love to,
I am in the middle of a murder investigation.
Well, the dead can wait, my dentist can't.
8:30, Robbie.
Likes his patients to be punctual.
Arrive late and he gets very stabby with the hypodermic.
Bye.
(phone beeps)
TUTOR:Come in.
ROBERT FRASER: Nina...
I just wanted to check you're okay.
That your thing, Professor?
Clever, inner city black girls?
Who the hell are you and what the hell
are you doing in my office?
I'm a friend of Nina's
and I'm here to tell you to leave her alone.
I'm calling security.
Good idea.
We can tell them all about
how you've been abusing your position.
While we're at it, we could tell your wife.
How dare you come to my place of work.
Leave her alone.
From now, for good.
Stop dipping your wick into the student body.
Got it?
ANNE RAND: As an international center of excellence, we attract many,
many leading academics from around the world.
Nothing like this has ever happened before.
You can imagine how shocked we are.
Thanks, goodbye.
(knocks at door)
Your post, Professor.
Thanks.
In goes Professor Lipton...
And on...
Okay, rewind.
Stop.
Can you zoom in on that?
Well, well, well.
Give me your phone.
What?
Before you have a chance to delete any texts or voicemails.
What are you talking about?
I am assuming this is true.
You're having sexual relations with a student.
Again.
Where did you get this?
I was sent it in the post.
I want your phone, Robert.
Now, please.
Don't do this, darling.
I want your phone.
This is nothing but a malicious lie
designed to slander me and then humiliate you.
Why?
God only knows.
I mean, maybe the person who sent it
is jealous of the attention you've been receiving.
I want your phone.
There's nothing to find,
and I urge you to resist your desire to look.
Please, don't let themdo this.
Trust me.
And the other one.
(crying, sniffling)
(doorbell rings)
We know that you visited Milton Hall College after the talk.
We need to know why.
I wanted to give something to Yelland.
What?
A letter from my mother.
You delivered the letter?
They were both students here almost 40 years ago.
He pursued my mother
while she was in a relationship with another man.
He managed to split them up and win her over.
After completing his master's,
he was offered a research scholarship
in a southern university in the United States.
She followed him.
Had to.
Why?
Because she was pregnant with me.
Yelland was your father?
Biologically.
When it became clear that having a "half-caste" child
would be "problematic" for his career, he sent us home.
HATHAWAY: Wasn't it somewhat coincidental, Ms. Hunter,
that your long-lost father was to give a talk
at the very department where you now work?
It's best to tell them.
I wanted to confront Yelland about what he'd done.
I showed Professor Rand
a somewhat controversial article he'd written
and suggested him as a speaker.
LEWIS: When exactly did you find out
that Yelland was your father?
My mother told me a few months ago.
The day before she killed herself.
In a long letter explaining everything.
The letter you slipped under Yelland's door?
She never saw him again after we came back.
She saw herself as trash, second-rate, disposable.
And then she started to drink.
I wanted Yelland to read what he'd done to her.
In her own words.
We recovered an envelope from Yelland's room, Ms. Hunter,
but no letter.
I'm sorry...
I'm not sure I understand.
We believe the killer must have taken it.
LEWIS: There were four sets of fingerprints on the envelope.
Yelland's, yours and another,
belonging to a young lad by the name of...
Adam Pettle.
You know him?
Yes.
Adam's my brother.
So Adam Pettle was holding something back:
his sister-in-law.
When you showed him the envelope,
he must have assumed that Lilian
had put it in Yelland's room, then killed him.
Question is, did she?
What did you make of that story about her mother?
I was watching her quite carefully.
She seemed genuine.
But why would she deliver the letter, kill Yelland,
and then take the letter back?
Maybe she wanted him to read it and weep, emotional revenge.
Then her and hubby garrote him, physical revenge.
She takes the letter back
because it's the last words of her dead mother.
Leaving the envelope?
What's a clue but a mistake by another name?
Miss Clemens?
Professor Rand.
I know my husband has asked you to meet him this morning.
You're not the first, you know.
He's going to try and persuade you
that you can continue to see one another.
I...
Look, with...
You can't see him anymore, Miss Clemens.
I simply won't allow it.
Excuse me?
I can't have you sent down over this,
but really believe me when I say that I can and will
make the remainder of your time at Oxford extremely difficult.
Are you threatening me?
Of course.
Now, as a bright girl on the make,
I'm sure you'll listen very carefully
to what it is I want you to do.
Professor Lipton.
Detective Sergeant Hathaway, how good to see you.
Have you got a moment?
Yes, of course, come in.
Well, I was wondering how long it would take you.
How long it would take me to do what, exactly?
Well, I assumed that you've been
looking at the security film from the porters' lodge
from the night that Yelland was killed.
Yes.
And you will have noted
the time at which I entered the college
and the time that I subsequently left.
Yes.
And you need to ask me
what exactly was I doing here for that hour?
Yes.
Well, I wanted to dig out a couple of papers
in the wake of the Yelland lecture.
I'm ashamed to say that I dropped off
when reading one of them.
It's rather alarming to realize that one's faculties are showing
the first signs of crumbling away.
What papers, may I ask?
They related to the "Theory of Dangerousness."
The impossibility of measuring it.
I took them home.
I give tutorials here, very little else.
Occasional mid-day snooze.
And reading...
Reading?
A Tale of Two Cities.
Oh, well,
in this case, re-reading.
Yes, I like to come here to read.
Robert...
Hi.
Thanks for agreeing to meet so early.
When your text came through at 6:00 this morning
I assumed it must have been from my rancid little stalker.
I almost deleted it without reading...
Anne knows.
What?
She received an anonymous letter.
At your house?
No, at work.
The same person who's been texting me?
Possibly.
God, Robert, what's happening?
What did she do?
She was surprisingly calm.
Perhaps not so surprisingly.
She's the most controlled person I've ever met.
I denied everything.
It's so good to see you...
I don't think... this is a good idea anymore.
What?
I've loved the time we've spent together, but...
I think we should bring it to an end.
I've been thinking about this for a while...
Nina, please...
You're hurting me.
I need you.
Let go!
Nina, this...
this doesn't have to be the end of us.
There's no direct line back to you.
I'm exceedingly careful.
Find someone else to give you the thrill you get
from sneaking around behind your wife's back.
Because that's what really turns you on.
Not being with me,
betraying her.
That's not true!
Good-bye, Robert.
You cold little bitch.
Thanks.
You just made this so much easier.
(dentist's drill whirring)
It's all right, it's all right.
(phone rings)
Okay, fine.
Keith Poland?
MOTHER: Yeah, that's us.
RECEPTIONIST: Okay, surgery two.
MOTHER: Come on, let's go.
Lauren, let's go!
(phone rings)
RECEPTIONIST: Patricia Hutchison?
That's me.
RECEPTIONIST Upstairs, first door on your left.
Thank you.
(phone rings)
Fred McLintock?
Yes.
RECEPTIONIST: The hygienist is ready if you just want to pop through.
(dentist's drill whirs)
(child crying)
(phone rings)
LEWIS: I'll be right with you.
HATHAWAY: I haven't told you where I am yet.
Wherever you are, I'm on my way.
(phone rings)
LEWIS: That's a lot of potential motives for killing him.
But why take Lilian's mother's letter?
Sir?
Yes, Julie.
I've been going through Yelland's personal e-mails.
There's a correspondence you might be interested in.
Between him and who?
Professor Anne Rand.
(phone rings)
It's Nina.
I've very sorry to bother you, but...
I really need to see you.
HATHAWAY: Why didn't you tell us
you'd had a private correspondence with Yelland
when you were first questioned?
I didn't think it was relevant.
Surely you can do better than that.
I was embarrassed that I was asking the man for a favor.
To help find you a position in America?
So were you, like he says, stringing him along?
Pretending to find him a position in Oxford,
while he was actively trying to find you a professorship
in the United States?
I was only surprised it took him so long to realize.
But when he did,
he threatened to cause you a great deal of trouble.
You think I invited him over to kill him?
Well, say I had killed him.
Why go to all the trouble of garroting him with his own tie?
It's a little self-indulgent
compared to the more clinical alternatives, wouldn't you say?
I wouldn't know, I've never killed anyone.
The e-mails seem to suggest that
you had a great deal to gain from Yelland's death.
And now he can no longer obstruct
your American ambitions.
It's an interesting theory.
But I'm assuming that's all it is
or you'd have already arrested me.
The e-mails give you motive.
The CCTV places you around the crime scene
about the time Yelland was killed.
Around but not in.
Purely circumstantial.
If there is any evidence linking you to Yelland's death,
it will eventually be found.
Oh, so this is what?
An opportunity to confess and save the taxpayer some money?
Yes, if you're guilty.
"If" guilty.
"If," Detective Sergeant.
Only two letters,
but a very big word.
(phone rings)
Laura, before you tell me
how very, very busy your dentist is,
let me explain.
Hathaway called me as I was about to go in.
We had a new lead...
I'd like to hear it, Robbie, just not right now.
We really appreciate you coming in to do this.
We are trying to contact her family,
but they're in the West Indies visiting relatives.
Proving difficult to locate.
Ready?
Yeah.
Yeah, that's Nina.
How?
Severe blow to the back of the head.
LEWIS: Professor Lipton was Nina's tutor.
Have a word with him, also the university counseling service,
see if there's anything we ought to know about there.
Young black working-class girl trying to make her way
in the most rarefied,
elitist environment in the country.
Did she feel alienated,
marginalized, ostracized enough to fall in with bad company?
Sir.
Also, any possible link to the Yelland case?
She was at that talk
and she walked Professor Yelland home from the college
with Robert Fraser.
Well, we shouldn't rule out tit for tat by the far right.
No, we don't rule anything out.
Let me know how you get on.
Okay.
There's something I didn't want to mention in front of them.
The blow to Nina's head would have resulted
in a massive external hemorrhage, and yet...
There was very little blood with the body.
A very small amount of coagulant.
She wasn't attacked there?
No.
Just stop it!
Take a seat, Emily.
I need you to think really hard.
Is there anything you know of in Nina's life
that might have led to this happening to her?
Anything at all?
I don't think so.
Will seems devastated.
They've known each other since childhood.
Well, at least he has a friend like you to support him.
That's not all you want him to be though, is it?
He barely sees me.
Not how I want him to.
How does that make you feel?
Emily?
It's my fault.
What is?
What's your fault?
She was so beautiful.
And clever.
I just wanted him to notice me.
What did you do, Emily?
I just wanted her to go.
I wanted her to feel she didn't belong here
so she'd leave, and I'd have Will to myself.
What did you do?
I sent her texts.
Horrible, anonymous texts.
And silent calls to her mobile.
Anything else?
I sent an anonymous letter to the wife of a professor
she's been having an affair with.
Which professor?
Emily, I have to ask you this.
Which professor was Nina Clemens having an affair with?
Robert Fraser.
Come in.
Shocking events, Detective Sergeant.
Our little world has gone mad.
Please take a seat.
Thank you.
Brilliant young girl...
Taken like that.
I have devoted my career
to trying to understand the competing forces
that lie behind what we call
criminal behavior.
As, of course, have you
from your side of the fence.
What it is that makes somebody cross that line
while others don't.
It's not always clear.
Even I find I can't better Jean Renoir's observation
that "the real hell of life is that everyone has his reasons."
But what reason would anyone have to kill Nina Clemens?
You're her tutor.
Did she say anything to you in the days leading up to her death
that would shine any light on that?
She did call and ask to come and see me
just hours before she died.
She confessed that she was
having an affair with Robert Fraser
and that his wife had warned her off.
She was also receiving
anonymous text messages.
Vile, racist stuff.
She suspected that Anne was sending them
to frighten her into leaving Oxford.
Oh, but how rude of me.
I haven't offered you a cup of tea.
No, I'm fine.
I'm making one for myself.
Just as easy to make two.
In that case, thank you.
Good man.
LIPTON: "It was the best of times,
"it was the worst of times.
It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness."
"It was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair."
"We had everything before us, we had nothing before us.
"We were all going direct to heaven.
We are all going direct the other way."
Darkness and light.
Death and resurrection.
Social revolution and the brutality of the mob.
No book has more.
Sugar?
One, please.
Will?
INNOCENT: So we have two independent reports of a relationship
between Nina Clemens and Robert Fraser.
Nina told Emily and Professor Lipton.
LEWIS: Emily was motivated by love
for a boy who only had eyes for Nina.
Whoever killed Nina was motivated by what?
Love spurned?
Jealousy?
Hatred?
Revenge?
We shouldn't rule out a racist assault.
Nor a link to Yelland's death.
No.
God, what a mess these kids have got themselves into.
Okay.
Bring them all in.
The adulterous husband, the humiliated wife,
the unrequited boy...
Sir!
We've just taken a report
of a disturbance at Robert Fraser's residence.
Come out, you murdering bastard!
Just please come quick, come quick!
Just hurry up!
Just hurry up!
If you're not going to come out,
I'm just going to have to come in.
Did you tell your husband
to break off his affair with Nina Clemens?
Robert doesn't do "affairs," he does periodic infatuation
with girls too star-struck to see the wood for the trees.
So you helped Nina Clemens see the wood.
I knew Robert wouldn't finish it.
He only knows how to initiate.
So I go directly to the girls
and I explain the situation very clearly to them.
And the smarter ones get it and comply.
And the less smart?
I kill them.
Do you think this is a joke?
I think it's embarrassing and humiliating
that an academic of my standing
should be put through this indignity
by a man she's stood by and nurtured for 20 years.
You repeatedly insist that you're an unlikely suspect
because of your standing.
Now, in the cases of Paul Yelland and Nina Clemens
you actually have very strong motive.
At this moment, my instinct is to reach across the table,
shake you by the lapels,
and demand that you stop being so ridiculous.
But look, despite my "very strong motive,"
I'm perfectly able to control myself.
All this death...
All these murders.
First Paul Yelland and now Nina Clemens.
You admit the affair between yourself and Nina Clemens?
Yes.
Which she broke off the day she was found dead.
I know this might look...
How might it?
That I may have killed her in a rage for rejecting me.
And did you?
I...
loved her.
I can't tell you how many murderers
I've heard saying exactly the same words,
in exactly the same way.
And you know what?
They all meant it.
I didn't kill her.
When you asked Nina Clemens
to break off her affair with your husband,
how confident were you that she'd comply?
I didn't take her word for it.
I followed her
to where I knew she was due to meet Robert.
She ended it all right.
How was your husband left?
Upset.
It bothers you, doesn't it?
That he had feelings for her.
That he might have loved her.
First and foremost, Robert loves himself!
First and foremost,
that may very well be true.
But after that...
Do you think he loves you?
I don't think you do.
You can think what you like.
Thank you very much.
I tend to.
LEWIS: Let me ask you another question.
Do you think your wife killed Nina?
Murderous rage isn't her style.
Isn't it possible that she killed Nina
to make it look like the murderous rage of someone else?
Like you?
Me?
Why in God's name would she want to frame me?
Did you know she was trying to find a position in America?
What are you talking about?
Without you.
What?
Well, I'll take that as a "no."
She was using Paul Yelland to explore the possibilities.
We have their e-mail exchanges.
She wanted to open a new chapter in her career.
New college, new position, new country.
You're not mentioned.
I don't believe you.
Try, because you should.
No, she wouldn't.
Well, perhaps the idea of fitting you up for Nina's murder
appealed to her sense of justice
after all you've put her through over the years.
Anne would never do that.
How well do any of us know anyone, Professor?
Really?
INNOCENT: Do you think her husband
killed Nina Clemens?
Robert Fraser's a philanderer, not a killer.
Anne Rand, on the other hand,
must rank as one of the most ruthlessly ambitious people
I think I've ever met.
What about the boy?
Will?
According to Emily, he's carried a torch for Nina
since they were at school together.
He sees her with another man-- older, more powerful--
he can't compete.
If Will can't have her, nobody can.
HATHAWAY: Apparently he hasn't said a word in the holding cell.
He just stares at the floor in silence.
Emily coughed to the texts
and the anonymous letter to Professor Rand.
What if she confessed to the lesser crimes
so as to distract us from her greater one?
They are smart kids.
If she did kill Nina Clemens,
she'll be thinking she's got away with it.
Surprise her.
Push her harder.
(phone rings)
Excuse me.
Dr. Hobson.
Laura.
Robbie, I need you to come and see me.
Now.
Hello, Emily.
May I?
Please?
Yeah.
Thanks, Laura.
No problem.
Speak later?
He came to discuss some forensic results.
And to invite me to dinner.
Ah, right.
When?
Never.
Not my type.
So, uh, talk me through these.
Well, these red and blue fibers are wool,
and they were found all over Nina's body.
Head to toe, front and back.
There were fibers in her nostrils and nasal passage,
suggesting she fell
face down onto a rug
and was alive long enough to inhale a few.
So Nina was hit on the back of the head
and put on the rug still alive?
Then rolled up in it
and transported to where she was dumped.
But no rug by the body...
No.
What about the thin mustard-colored fibers?
From the head wound.
Cotton, from book cloth apparently.
Book cloth?
Yeah.
Not used so much these days due to cost,
but in the past, textbooks, volumes of reference,
compendia, et cetera, were all covered with book cloth.
Right.
Sorry.
I messed your dentist around.
Forgiven.
You must think I'm horrible.
Sending all those things.
It's not my place to judge.
If you'd asked me six months ago
if I'd be the sort of person
to send disgusting anonymous texts and letters,
I'd have said you were mad.
Emily, is there something else you want, or need, to tell me
in relation to this?
Like what?
Like exactly how far you were willing to go to get Nina
out of the way so that you could have Will to yourself?
You think I killed her?
How could you possibly think that?
Both you and Will have strong motives.
Will loved her!
That was the whole problem!
Did he love her too much?
He had an explosive temper.
He couldn't have hurt Nina.
You don't know him.
And you do?
These belong to Nina's tutor.
I'm going to return them to him.
(phone rings)
Yep.
LEWIS: Where are you?
Just finished up with Emily.
She's pretty shaken up.
I think she's told us everything.
Either that or she's a damn good actress.
You?
I'm on my way to catch up with the SOCOs
in that woodland where they found Nina's body.
We reckon she must have been dumped there,
rolled up in a carpet or a rug of some kind.
I'm going to drop off some of Nina's tutor's old papers,
see if he can remember
anything else of use,
and then I'll come and join you.
I remembered this was in the kitchen.
It's Professor Lipton's as well.
One of a set, I think, but I could only find this one.
Thanks.
Ms. Hunter?
Detective Inspector Hathaway?
Still just a Sergeant.
Um, I'm returning a couple of Professor Lipton's papers
and a book that was in Nina Clemens's possession when...
Very good of you.
Come in.
I'll just tell Professor Lipton you're here.
Thanks.
OFFICER: Sir!
Sir!
(phone rings)
Sir.
LEWIS: James.
We've found the rug
about a mile away from where the body was.
The size is...
About five foot by eight.
LEWIS: Yeah, how did you know that?
Because I'm stood in Lipton's front room
looking down at where it must have...
Detective Sergeant?
(dial tone)
Let me take those.
Come through.
He won't be a minute.
Damn you!
LIPTON: I understand you've brought some of my papers back.
Yes.
And a book.
I gave them to, um...
Lilian, yes.
Yes, well, I'm afraid I've gradually taken the liberty
of extending her administrative remit to include me.
Are you married?
No, well, then as a fellow bachelor
you'll understand I need
all the help I can get on the domestic front.
Inspector Lewis...
Ms. Hunter.
And duster.
Oh, whenever I'm here
I give the place a quick once-over.
Andrew's...
Professor Lipton's a confirmed bachelor.
I think he stopped noticing the gathering dust years ago.
Sergeant Hathaway's just inside.
I'll let them know you're here.
Thanks.
Inspector Lewis.
Well, I feel honored
to be the focus of so much police attention.
Do you have some unreturned papers for me, too?
I'm afraid not.
Just a couple of questions.
We found the rug that Nina Clemens' body
was rolled up in
prior to being dumped.
I see.
Well, that is good news.
For us.
Less so for you.
You see, the size of the rug
perfectly matches this discolored patch.
And its color
matches these fibers
which I've just found on your floor.
Well, the world is full of rugs, Inspector.
Of standard size and color.
We also suspect that Nina was bludgeoned to death with a book.
Covered in old-fashioned mustard cloth.
And I have so many books.
Ipso facto...
since I am a rug owner and a voracious reader,
I killed Nina Clemens.
Where's the missing volume, Professor?
I can't keep track of everything I leave lying around.
LEWIS: Lilian just told me that she's been clearing up.
What has Lilian been clearing up, Professor?
Your house?
Or the scene of a murder?
Why did you kill Nina Clemens, Professor?
Were you jealous of her relationship with Robert Fraser?
Did you want her for yourself?
I do not prey upon undergraduates for sex.
So, again,
what has Lilian been clearing up?
Lilian comes here every now and then
out of the goodness of her heart.
Leave her out of it.
She is entirely innocent.
Well, not entirely, surely.
She served Yelland wine at the reception,
ample opportunity to slip him a sedative.
We've got her on CCTV going into the college later that night.
And here she is
two days after Nina Clemens is murdered
giving your place a "good old clean."
(footsteps)
Andrew, what's going on?
LEWIS: At our first meeting,
you said you and Yelland met at Oxford.
Now, coincidentally, Lilian's mother was studying at Oxford
at the same time.
Did you know her, too?
I did.
So Lilian knows all about you and her mother and Yelland,
doesn't she?
Lilian knows nothing.
If she knew that you were the undergraduate
in love with her mother
at the time that Paul Yelland showed up,
then she knows,
or strongly suspects, that you killed him.
What?
Or perhaps not.
Andrew?
I didn't fight hard enough for your mother
when I had the chance.
I have borne my cowardice all my life
like an indelible stain.
Don't say that.
LEWIS: Would the outcome have been any different
if you'd fought harder?
The entire universe would have been different!
But she chose Yelland.
He stole her!
He stole her
and he destroyed her!
When I heard about the suicide...
I tracked him down.
I persuaded Anne to invite him
to become the department's next guest speaker.
LILIAN: So the article of his that you gave me to show Anne...
That was all part of a murder plot?
I wanted him here to confront him, not to have him killed!
HATHAWAY: You orchestrated his visit.
And then after murdering him, you saw the letter
that Lilian had left earlier that night and you took it.
Where is the letter, Professor?
"We had everything before us, we had nothing before us.
"We were all going direct to heaven,
we are all going direct the other way."
That should have remained in the past tense.
"We were all going direct the other way."
Whether intentionally or not, you changed the tense.
Did I?
Why don't we check?
I killed Paul Yelland...
because he destroyed the life
of the only woman I have ever loved.
"I made a terrible, terrible mistake.
"Though he tried,
"I don't think Andrew was ever able to forgive me.
Andrew Lipton is the best man I've ever known."
LEWIS: And Nina Clemens, Professor?
Whose life did she destroy?
Nina?
Your mother's letter was on the table.
I left the room just for a moment,
and when I came back it was gone.
I confronted Nina about it,
but she denied taking it.
I don't understand.
She tried to leave.
I...
I grabbed her coat, I pulled her back.
She slipped on the rug.
Hit her head on that step.
But she was still alive on the floor.
You could have saved her.
You chose instead to finish her off
with one of your beloved books.
Many of the mistakes we make in life
can be rectified.
Sometimes we make a mistake which can't be remedied,
it can't be fixed.
We just can't go back to that moment before.
We're propelled forward.
What do you mean?
Nina had the power to destroy me.
Who'd have taken care of you?
My darling girl, I couldn't let that happen.
HATHAWAY: But despite your best efforts, it will.
And so you needlessly ended her life.
He is a good man.
He looked after us
when Yelland abandoned us.
He helped me get my job at the department.
Helped me cope when my mother...
He treated me like his own.
Professor Lipton, I'm arresting you
for the murders of Paul Yelland
and Nina Clemens.
You do not have to say anything, but you may harm your defense
if you do not mention, when questioned,
something which you later rely on in court.
Anything you do say
may be given in evidence.
Please...
It's all I have left of her.
I'm sorry, Professor.
It's evidence now.
Hear that?
What?
The flapping of chickens coming home to roost.
If he hadn't killed Nina,
we would have never got him for Yelland.
Now he's going to die in prison.
LEWIS: I've got a strong feeling he died years ago.
It's poor Lilian who's going to end up serving
that life sentence.
Ow!
Dammit...
You know, Lipton reminds me of you.
Stubborn, stuck in the past.
Come again?
He allowed his life to be marred
by an experience 40 years ago.
You're allowing yours to be marred
by a dental appointmentin 1992.
Hardly comparable.
Well, I've booked you an appointment
with my dentist tomorrow morning.
She's opening up especially.
I'll pick you up at 8:00.
I'll be going for a jog at 8:00.
You don't jog.
I just started.
You fancy a pint later?
Big match, stupid-sized telly
in a sweaty pub.
I've got a book to finish.
Have you learned nothing from this case?
Books are bad for your health.
Not if you just read them.
Why don't you invite Dr. Hobson?
Get in there quickly before someone whisks her away.
You said it yourself.
Stuck in the past, me.
Next time...
Call the guinea pigs, would you?
HATHAWAY: College hired out the lodgings
to a pharmaceutical company for a drug trial.
LEWIS: What kind of drug trial?
It's an antidepressant.
It's a class C drug; it's illegal.
Unless it's prescribed by a doctor, which I am.
LEWIS: That girl died because of his pills.
Strictly speaking, she died because someone killed her.
It must have been someone in this house.
But I don't want to name names.
Sure you do.
You want to calm down.
CUMMING: Inspector Lewis,
next time on Masterpiece Mystery!
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