Last time, the threads connecting our murder victim to the various characters we’ve met this season started to make themselves known. And this week, we’re starting off with an update: DS Beanpole has managed to find some of the victim’s staff from the bar, who hopefully can shed some light on the tips Sunny and Jess got from DCI Suspect and Markaj. Even better, Pathologist calls Sunny to let him know that she’s had a breakthrough: she found a pub near the office that isn’t too loud. LOL.
Meanwhile, Martin’s out and about applying to jobs (without much luck, unfortunately), and Jess has stopped in at Juliet’s house for another visit.
Jess: From what we’re finding, it looks like the money your husband owed to that loan shark actually was paid back before he went missing. We’ve got receipts.
Juliet: Huh.
Jess: Yeah. We’ll confirm, of course, but it seems as though Markaj isn’t a suspect.
Juliet: Great. This is just as useless as the last time.
Jess: One thing that the previous detective looked into was the idea that the attack on your husband was committed by an angry employee. A young man who hadn’t been furloughed? Does that ring any bells?
Juliet: No, sorry.
Jess: Last question: was there ever any indication that your husband was having an affair?
Juliet: Are you kidding? That’s offensive! No, absolutely not!
Hm. Methinks the lady doth protest too much, and so does Jess. Even Taylor, who’s been low-key snooping on the interview from the kitchen, has questions. But like Juliet did to Jess, she brushes her kiddo off: no, no affair! Juliet also tries to beg off of the therapy session for that evening, but when her daughter insists, reluctantly agrees to attend. Beaten down, she even agrees to go along with the union requirements. For now.
Meanwhile, Melinda does something that is both a little unwise and very on brand for her job: she starts looking up what happened with Gerry. While she watches a news report on the case, Hassan and Asif go to the beach. While they’re having a great day at first, the ocean reminds Asif of his own immigration journey, which involved an overcrowded and unseaworthy boat that capsized during the voyage. He called the coast guard, but despite the fact that there were children in the boat, it took them 40 minutes to arrive. At that point, seven of his fellow passengers had been lost, including his brother.
Later, DC Babyface starts looking over the archived police footage from the parking lot, while DS Beanpole chats with a woman who used to work at Gerry’s bar. The former employee says that while her boss was a nice guy, he was also an older white dude who had some rough edges. She also says that it looked like Juliet wasn’t super thrilled with her husband running a pub, and while she was nice to the employees, she seemed to have a tense relationship with her husband. She could be dismissive, and sometimes the employees heard fighting through the walls. Also, the employees all got along fine with their boss… until lockdown.
DS Beanpole: One of your coworkers didn’t get furloughed, right?
Former Employee: Yeah… his name was Martin.
Another dot connected! Back with Melinda, she’s visiting her fiance’s doc to ask a hard question: would it be possible for her partner to conceive a child?
Rehab Doc: Well, in almost all cases with his injuries, no. But everyone is different. There’s also sperm harvesting, as an option, if that’s of interest?
Melinda: No, thanks, that’s all I needed to know.
And with that, she hightails it out of the office to have a private cry session in the hallway. Also an inch away from needing a private cry session? Jess, who’s just gotten a text from Dirtbag Husband saying he’ll need to stay over at work that evening because of meeting rescheduling. She sends an annoyed text but keeps it together, because she’s in a meeting with Sunny and DS Beanpole about their new lead Martin. Basically, it sounds like Martin and Gerry had a falling out, which led to a physical altercation witnessed by another staff member who’s unfortunately out of the country right now. Then, Martin moved across the country to his hometown almost immediately after Gerry disappeared. That’s promising, but so is the infidelity angle: Juliet’s reaction has everyone’s antennae up.
While the detectives get to work, Asif continues to suggest to Hassan that the legal route to immigration is pretty fraught. Asif was assaulted in the detention centre many times, and it was awful. Yes, he’ll soon pass his citizenship test and have full legal rights to settle and work in the UK, but he insists that if he could do it again, he’d take the less legal path. He’s just wrapped up his argument when they’re interrupted by the arrival of a man in full army uniform. A man who recognizes Hassan right away.
Asif: You’re back a week early.
Army Guy: Yeah, our exercise got cancelled… Can someone explain what the hell is happening here?
Hassan, quite understandably, flees the room and leaves the other two to hash everything out. Army Guy? He’s Asif’s partner, Sam, and he’s pretty mad that Asif has clearly planned this whole thing behind his back.
Asif: Well, you were supposed to be gone! Why bother telling you about a thing you’d just try and stop me from doing?
Sam: So the only issue is that you got caught?
Asif: Don’t talk to me like you’re my boss, ok? You’re not in charge of me!
Sam: Well don’t talk to me like I did something wrong! I just came home and found an illegal immigrant in my house!
Asif: Yeah, OUR friend Hassan! It’s not illegal for someone seeking asylum to cross the channel however they need to!
Sam: I know! And it’s horrible that he had to do that! I’m sorry I sound unsympathetic, but the fact remains that until he formally seeks asylum, he’s here illegally. How did he get here?
Asif: In a truck. And yes, I paid for it! I owe him so much more than that, and so do you; he saved both of our lives. Or did you forget?
Sam: No, I didn’t forget. What’s his plan?
Asif: He’s going to stay with a friend, and then he’ll get documents, and live here.
Sam: Illegal documents.
Asif: Yep.
Sam: I can’t be here, if he’s here. I’ll go stay at my sister’s house tonight, but he needs to be gone by tomorrow.
So, that’s not great. Also not going great? Caretaker has brought a social worker to visit Martin and his mum. Basically, they’ve decided that Martin’s Mum really does need to move into a care home where she can be looked after properly, and while they say this doesn’t have to be permanent, it does sort of seem like that might be a better outcome — for Martin’s Mum, at least.
Martin: But what about me?
Social Worker: We’re actually also recommending some help for you; either here, or in a similar house to where your mother will be.
Caretaker: I know this is a lot to process.
Martin: Um, YEAH.
Social Worker: None of this has to happen right away — it takes a while to set this type of thing up. If you have any concerns, just call us!
Is this probably a safer outcome for everyone in the long term? Yes. Am I also quite concerned that Martin’s going to have a hard time coping with the change, and might lash out? Also yes! He’s pretty mad, and lest we forget, was just given a higher dose of medicine that can have a side effect of violent outbursts. Not good!
Another tense family standoff is happening at the family therapist office, where Juliet and Taylor are sharing what they hope to get out of therapy.
Juliet: Well, I guess it’s not fair for me to hope that Taylor is happy, given everything, but I want her to be able to cope with school, and life. And me, I guess.
Therapist: Ok. And what do you want for yourself?
Juliet: The same. But if she’s ok, I’ll be ok?
Therapist: Taylor, what about you?
Taylor, no hesitation: Honesty. I’d like real honesty between me and my mom.
Reader, she knows something, I’m almost sure of it. Anyway, while they continue their session, Martin listens to more conspiracy talk in his online chat, takes his medicine, and ignores his mother calling to ask if he’s ok from the next room. And, back in the city, Sunny and Pathologist meet up at the promised quiet pub and chat about their respective families. Reader, while so far these two have been firmly in the coworker space, their convo is trending into the kind of stuff you might ALSO ask on a date. And given how Sunny’s relationship seems to have fully imploded at the end of last season, I can’t say I blame him; Pathologist is cool! But speaking of possibly imploding relationships, Jess arrives at her sister’s house and comes inside to find what I can only describe as a total depression cave. There’s mess everywhere, every dish is dirty, and there’s no basic groceries. Horrified, and taking some pity on her sibling, Jess sends her sister out for milk while Jess makes a start on the dishes.
Back at the bar, Pathologist is telling Sunny that it’s annoying how everyone assumes she’s sad that she’s single. Her life rocks, actually: she’s got money, freedom, cool family members, and great friends. Crushing it! Sunny toasts to that, but honestly, reader, I’m not so sure he’s as happy about his relationship status. Anyway, later, leaving the pub, they both agree that they had a lot of fun, and then Pathologist totally plants a kiss on Sunny. She apologizes and plays it off immediately, heading off into the night, but somehow I feel this is going to make work a little weird.
Later, after Jess’ sister’s place is more or less put to rights, Jess asks how she’s doing. Well, the answer is… OK? She’s gotten new meds, which seem to be working, kinda, and she turns down help from Jess when offered.
Jess: Look, I wanted to talk to see if we can move forward. Because you’re my sister and I love you.
Jess’ Sister: I love you too.
Jess: The thing is, I have be sure you’re being totally honest with me. Did mom tell you what Dirtbag Husband said about the two of you? That you lied to me about sleeping with him, and it was just a kiss, just a weird emotional thing. Was that true?
Jess’ Sister: I don’t know what to say. I want you to forgive me.
Jess: Just tell me the truth. That’s all.
Jess’ Sister: Ok. It WAS a weird emotional thing. I was pretty lost, and he seemed to be in the same boat, and we just kinda connected for a bit. But it also wasn’t just a kiss. We did sleep together, like I told you. And… it wasn’t just one time.
Jess doesn’t say anything, she just takes a second to process and then gives her sister a big hug. Yeah, based on Dirtbag Husband’s behavior, I’d believe my sister over him too. The next day, Jess calls to ask her mom to come over that evening before heading into work. Across the parking lot, Sunny’s calling Pathologist to see if she wants to get dinner later that week. Once again, everyone’s personal lives are about to make this weird, I can just tell. Anyway, inside, the team gathers to share updates. DS Beanpole reports that a friend of the victim’s from childhood said that he had also seen Gerry with a not-Juliet woman, who he’d been introduced to by name (first name only, alas, but yes, it’s Melinda). The friend had also been able to give a specific day for when he met not-Juliet, because it was the day after the second lockdown had ended and pubs reopened.
Jess: Well it’s something – let’s put in a request for Gerry’s mobile data.
Sunny: And we can look at social media and email too.
DC Babyface: I was able to track down two addresses for Martin.
DS Beanpole: Nice, and I think we can start with the one in Kent, since he moved home in March 2021.
DC Babyface: I also got three USBs of video footage from the parking lot. Just have to go over those.
DS Grumpy: My update is that Juliet dropped off a bunch of documents yesterday, which is great. But I’m actually starting with looking at the attack on Gerry. He said he was struck from behind by someone in a hoodie. We found two CCTV clips that showed a person like that, but the footage was set about 30 minutes after we thought the attack happened. The thing is: Gerry was knocked out, so when his wife found him she assumed he’d just been attacked. But he could have been out for a while.
Sunny: Which would make the timing for that CCTV footage actually match.
Sure would! DS Grumpy plays the footage, which appears to show a man walking down the street and gesturing with his hand in the air. Reader, we know, but they don’t yet, that the man in the video is Martin. After a few minutes, Sunny realizes that the man on the tape might be stimming; moving repetitively to relieve stress, and that only makes Jess more certain that they need to go interview Martin quickly since his former coworker thought he might be autistic.
While uniforms head to Martin’s address, DS Beanpole continues her research on their victim, and pulls up the name of the person Gerry had assaulted: don’t forget, he’d been attacked, but he also had a record as an attacker. Life’s complicated! DS Grumpy talks to a woman who had managed rental contracts for Gerry, who pretty freely volunteers that working with him was a nightmare.
Rental Lady: He was a huge cheapskate; never wanted to spend money, even on safety stuff or regulations. And look, not only did that cause us legal issues, it’s also obviously unethical! The year before we stopped working with him we actually scaled back from doing property management on his behalf and JUST found tenants for him. He was a pretty combative guy; he’d solve problems with threats or intimidation.
DS Grumpy: Were there any particular disputes you remember from 2020 that might have been a big problem?
Rental Lady: I’d need to go over emails to get you specifics, but yeah. That happened a few times.
DS Grumpy: That’d be really helpful, thank you. What kind of people did he rent to?
Rental Lady: Almost all asylum seekers. He had some kind of deal with the council I think. Actually, there’s one case you should start with — there was a long-running issue between him and a very nice Afghan family, the Dowaris. I’d start by talking to the man who interpreted for them.
And wouldn’t you know it: that man is none other than Asif. Speaking of whom: he’s out having coffee with Sam, and things are a little tense.
Asif: Look, I’m just sick of everyone acting like I should be grateful about my situation.
Sam: Nobody is saying that!
Asif: No? It’s how you responded to what I did; that I had the gall to bring Hassan here.
Sam: That’s not why I was angry! I was upset that you didn’t seem to care about how your actions might impact me.
Asif: Dude, you’re fine. Your government doesn’t want to kill you for being gay.
Sam: It’s my house, which makes me part of criminal activity! My career could be over if someone finds Hassan! They’d also probably charge YOU, which would end your path to citizenship, your ability to stay here, and would be the end of our relationship. I’m very ashamed of what the government did to you, but I don’t think this fixes anything!
Asif: It makes it better for HIM.
Sam: Yes, but at a lot of risk to US.
Asif: Look, he would have been killed if he hadn’t left. I don’t feel at all bad about ignoring the system; turnabout is fair play.
Blerg. I totally get where both of them are coming from; this is just a tough situation all around. Meanwhile, Sunny and Jess arrive in Kent to speak with Martin. Inside, Martin’s Mum insists that he can’t have had anything to do with a murder. Martin tells her to shut up, and tells our friends that he doesn’t want to talk there. So while Jess escorts Martin to the car, Sunny calls the office to request an advocate for their conversation later. The advocate explains her role to Martin, to which he asks if he should lie… so he probably knows SOMETHING.
While that’s happening, DS Beanpole talks to Gerry’s friend, a boxing gym owner, who saw him out with Melinda.
DS Beanpole: So you’d known each other for a long time. The assault he was charged with — that was at a rally? Did you go to that together?
Gym Owner: Uh, no. We ran into each other. It was right around the Brexit vote; I voted remain, but he was pro Brexit. Everything started out friendly, but we started talking about the vote and things got pretty unpleasant pretty quick. We had both been drinking, which didn’t help. He made me so mad.
DS Beanpole: Explain?
Gym Owner: I’m sure I was partly at fault; he’s got a right to his opinions, and I admit I was enjoying winding him up. But then he poked me, I swiped his hand away, and then he hauled off and punched me in the face. Hard. You know, we’d fallen out of touch, but over the last ten years he got more and more bitter.
DS Beanpole: About what?
Gym Owner: Well, like he thought people like him deserved more. He felt like he’d been abandoned politically.
DS Beanpole: And was the anger aimed at anyone in particular?
Gym Owner: No, it was kind of across the board; all conspiracy theory related. But in 2016 he made an online forum called UK United. It was exactly what you’d expect: anti-immigration, racist garbage about getting back to the good old days.
Hey remember how I said things were about to get weird at work between Sunny and Pathologist? Yeah, she’s sending him to voicemail. But Sunny’s got bigger fish to fry at present: he and Jess are about to interview Martin. Everything starts off pretty chill; Martin’s got an excellent memory for detail, and quickly gives the overview of how he came to work at the pub, including the exact time and day he was hired.
Jess: And did you get along with your boss?
Martin: Oh, definitely! He was also a chatty guy, just like me!
Jess: What did you guys like to talk about?
Oh, yah know. A bunch of racist conspiracy theory stuff. Everyone sort of lets that sit, and they move on to what happened after Martin was laid off.
Sunny: Can I ask you, were you given furlough? We have a note from a fellow employee who thought you weren’t.
Martin: Gerry applied for me, and got the money, but then he didn’t pay me.
Sunny: And how did you find out about that?
Martin: My dad found out. And then I talked to Gerry about it, and he said he WOULD pay me but he was in a temporary pickle and needed to wait. But then he never paid me.
Sunny: That doesn’t sound very fair! Did that make you angry?
Advocate: Please be careful putting words into his mouth.
Sunny: I’m sorry about that. How did that make you feel Martin?
Martin: Angry.
Advocate: Ok, one second. Martin, do you need a break?
Martin: No thank you!
Sunny: Did you ever argue with Gerry about the money?
Martin: Yes, and it was heated.
Sunny, thinking through how to ask this in a way the advocate will approve: Did it ever get physical?
Martin: Yes. It did.
Sunny: When was that?
Martin: One time, outside of the pub in the parking lot. He pushed me, I pushed him back up against the wall, and then I walked away. That’s all.
Sunny: You didn’t hit him?
Martin, affronted: Violence is never the answer.
Sunny: You’re absolutely right, of course, but can I tell you why I’m asking? We have some CCTV footage of someone who looks a lot like you walking away from the pub around the time we know your boss was pretty badly beaten.
Martin: I would like to take my break now please so I can get my story straight.
Tense! Also tense? Juliet and her boss are meeting with a group of students, including the one who filed a complaint. They argue that Juliet giving a book that isn’t on the syllabus is at best being unwilling to change and at worst a deliberately antagonistic move. Juliet fires back that it was meant to be educational and address the student’s concerns. Things get heated, and end with Juliet blowing up and telling the students that she knows more than them: she’s lived almost four decades longer! She also insists that two white people talking about race in an empty classroom is unlikely to actually do much to change anything, which isn’t a bad point (but doesn’t change the fact that the syllabus remains all white authors, so I don’t know that I think either of these arguments are totally watertight). She then rather emotionally tells the student to get a life, and storms out.
Meanwhile, DS Beanpole has returned from the gym, and, in the middle of scrubbing through the victim’s social media feeds, she’s found a clip from the pub which includes Melinda. Alas, there’s a price to fame: not only does DS Beanpole recognize her, she also puts two and two together: this must be the potential affair partner! And Melinda’s not the only new mystery for us to unravel. In Kent, Martin’s Mum calls his phone and leaves a message which basically amounts to: I don’t know if they’re listening, but don’t say anything about dad. What did Martin’s dad do? We’ll just have to wait until next week for answers!
