The Long Call

At the station, Matthew, Ross, and Jen share information. Matthew chastises Ross for not having made more progress on the topic of Simon’s finances, and Jen reveals that she saw Colin Marston at the Woodyard the previous day. Matthew goes to the Marstons to question Colin, who discloses that he teaches a naturalism class at the Woodyard; this is why he was there the day before. He also complains about the administration of the Woodyard, backhandedly blaming Jonathan for the Woodyard’s financial disarray. When Matthew returns to his car, he sees that he has missed a call from Maurice. Matthew heads to Maurice’s house, and the old man reveals that many years ago, when his wife was still alive, Grace Salter came to them one night with a bruised face. Maurice suspects that Dennis Salter is physically abusive.

Jen, now at the Shaplands’ house, oversees Jonathan as he asks Christine about what happened to her. Christine reveals that a well-dressed man picked her up from the Woodyard and took her to an apartment, which Jen quickly identifies as Simon’s secret apartment. The man asked her questions, the details of which she is unable to recall, and then left her there with some chocolates for two days. He then returned in the early morning and took her to the place where she was later found. Jen ascertains that the apartment was clean when Christine got there, so it must have been ransacked after her departure.

Jen heads to St. Cuthbert’s, where Caroline is running a class for women with mental health concerns. Jen questions Caroline and the class about the circumstances surrounding Simon’s death. She also asks whether anyone at St. Cuthbert’s seemed to have come into money recently. When the class leaves, Jen tells Caroline that Simon probably had an alternate source of income. Caroline asks if she can arrange for Simon’s funeral.

Matthew speaks with Jason Cramer, a lawyer from the firm who was in contact with Simon right before his death. Jason discloses that the firm helped Simon with his will, and Simon initially intended to leave his money to the Woodyard. However, Simon got back in contact with the firm shortly before his death because he was rethinking the terms of his will and also wanted help with a related but unspecified issue. On the day of his death, Simon sent an envelope to the firm with £200,000 and a note to keep the money safe. The check is made out to the Devonshire Building Society. After Jason leaves, Ross arrives with information about Simon’s finances. Simon kept two accounts: one for his wages from the Kingsley, and a savings account with the Devonshire Building Society.

Caroline asks Gaby to join her and her father, Christopher, on a walk on the anniversary of her mother’s death by suicide. Caroline confesses that she blames her father for her mother’s death and has never truly forgiven him. On the walk, the conversation between Caroline and Christopher quickly escalates as Caroline accuses her father of cheating on her mother as her mental health condition escalated during her final weeks. In return, Christopher accuses Caroline of retreating into religion rather than dealing with her mother’s mental state. Christopher admits to having had an affair. In this moment of openness, he also admits that he met with Simon before Simon moved into Caroline’s apartment; he wanted to assess Simon and ensure that he was fit to move in with his daughter. Christopher also admits that he is concerned that the investigation into Simon’s murder will affect the Woodyard’s reputation.

Matthew heads to the Salters’ and questions Grace while Dennis is out. While Grace won’t admit to Maurice’s assertion that Dennis is abusive, she also doesn’t deny it. Dennis returns home, and Matthew questions him about Simon’s holdings in the Devonshire Building Society. (Dennis sits on the society’s board.) Matthew also asks about Dennis’s whereabouts on the morning of Christine’s disappearance, and this line of questioning irritates Salter.

At the station, Jen tells Matthew that she obtained no useful information from Jonathan’s conversation with Christine or from her visit to St. Cuthbert’s. Ross arrives and tells Matthew that the CSIs have found both Christine’s and Gaby’s fingerprints at Simon’s apartment. Matthew goes to the Woodyard and questions Gaby about this, and she confesses that she was in a relationship with Simon; she is the woman that a witness spotted at the café with Simon on the morning of his death. At that time, Simon told her that he was working on a project that might finally alleviate his guilt, but he gave her no concrete details about what this project might be.

Maurice takes Lucy into town for a coffee and meets an old friend named Pam. While Maurice is talking to Pam, he stops paying attention to Lucy, and she disappears. A distraught Maurice contacts Matthew, who gets Lucy’s cell phone from Maurice and begins to investigate.

Matthew brings Jen and Ross into the search for Lucy. Jen canvasses the area where Lucy was last seen and finds a shop owner who saw Lucy by herself that morning. The owner saw someone have a small accident outside the shop while Lucy was also standing in the same area, but when she later checked to see what had happened, Lucy was already gone and the accident was cleared up.

At the police station, the officers deliberate their next steps. Jen speculates that Simon might have told Lucy something that could implicate his murderer, and Ross goes to look for CCTV footage of what happened outside the shop where Lucy was last seen. Meanwhile, Matthew sends Jen to talk to Christine Shapland now that more time has passed since her release from the hospital.