Frankie Drake Mysteries

You certainly know how to take advantage of a day out.

Just passin' the time.

"Passing time." Is that what we're calling it?

- OK, knock it off now. - Sorry to make you wait.

It took us longer to wrap things up than we thought.

- Thanks for doing this, Flo. - Well...

I like the morgue, but this is a nice change.

Did you get a picture of the suspect?

I did. And I had that fellow print a photo, just like

you asked. I think I could've done better with the framing.

This is who has been sneaking

in to breed with Mrs. Timmons' Great Dane?

Don't underestimate him. He's small but determined.

I don't know, I think the composition is challenging.

Really? Thank you.

You know, I do some of the shots down at the morgue.

It's a real art to put together a shot that's the...

There is someone in that house with a gun.

- A gun? - They have a stocking

over their head. You take the back, I'm gonna go to the front.

- Do I get a gun? - No!

Look, whatever you want, we'll pay it!

Sh.

FREEZE!

Come on!

Come on!

Go, go, go!

Flo, what the hell were you thinking?

I suspect an adrenaline rush overcame better judgment,

so I wasn't thinking. - Never do that again. - Trust me, it's not a problem.

Just what were private detectives doing

in this neighbourhood? Were you spying on me?

Well, that is quite an accusation, Mr. Conroyd.

Well, as you witnessed, I have good reason to be cautious.

It was an unrelated case which is now resolved.

Yeah, fortunate for us. Thank you

for saving our family. It was a group effort.

Prohibition makes little sense at the best of times

and right now, it makes none.

Single malt, directly from Scotland. Do you care for some?

How can I say no?

I'll get right to the point.

I want to hire you to find the bastards who did this.

All right. Well, let's start with the obvious.

Who would want to harm you or your family?

I can do better than that. I know precisely who they are.

- You do? - Communists. Anarchists.

Union agitators. Why would communists

want to hurt your family? At worst,

to make an example of capitalist swine by killing us.

- And at the least? - To intimidate me.

We've been having problems with them at my factory for months.

Well, that is quite a leap from labour unrest

to attempted murder.

Yeah, but it's been growing

progressively worse. We even

called in the Pinkertons, but their speciality

is administering beatings,

not weeding out extremists. They got nowhere.

Right. Is this the rope that you were bound with?

Yeah. It cut into my wrists.

Looks like hair. Maybe hog.

I wouldn't know.

One last question.

Besides our stellar abilities,

why do you think we'll have more success than other agencies?

Well, I think your team could

move amongst our employees in a way that other detectives can't.

Communists?

I thought the police cracked down on them back in 1919.

There was some excuse to round them up.

Association with unlawful organizations

advocating force to change the government of Canada.

Or something like that.

I guess it forced them to go underground.

Yeah. I mean, who can blame them? A lot of these workers

came back from the war only to end up

earning peanuts in factories owned by war profiteers.

Yeah, if you made it back. And what if you're one

of those women went to work to support the effort?

Then you made half the amount that the men did

or you lost your job. Try being black.

- Spoken like a true Bolshevik. - I decided to keep

- my politics to myself. - What?

An opinionated black woman isn't always appreciated?

- Not always. - Well, regardless,

a political stance is no excuse for attempted murder.

- So what's our first step? - Well...

let's find out why Mr. Conroyd

believes we are the ones best suited for this case.

What Mr. Conroyd was referring to

is that Conroyd Industries

employs a very large number of female employees. Most of them

came to us during the war, and then when their husbands

didn't return... It wasn't women behind the attacks, Mr. Scanlon.

There are men working here too, in shipping and receiving.

Not a lot, but a few. And you think

that there are communists amongst your employees?

Absolutely. We can't just bust heads

and get rid of them. The general strikes in Winnipeg and Boston

taught us that. So what will you do?

- Negotiate? - Ha ha ha! Lord, no.

We just need to be more clever

in eradicating them.

Conroyd Industries is a very forward-thinking company.

Well, if they are responsible...

- They are. - If they are responsible,

then we will get to the bottom of things.

I'm counting on it.

Well, call me if you need anything.

Of course.

You must be the new girl.

Clara Pavey!

Hello there.

You gave me a terrible start, Detective.

- I'm sorry, Miss Higgins. - Fern.

I was wondering if we could talk about what happened this morning.

There's not much to tell. I was working at the table

and the next thing I knew, there was a man standing in the doorway.

Which doorway?

- The inside one. - Not from the backyard?

No...

Did you get a look at him? Even just the slightest glimpse

- under his mask. - Wish I had.

What about any... any markings,

tattoos or scars? Nothing like that.

Did he say anything? Maybe he had an accent, or used a specific turn of phrase?

Nothing, but it was clear what he wanted.

It all happened so fast, I... I didn't even have time to scream.

Thank you.

I was just reading the Daily and the next thing I knew, a man was there.

He hit me, and... I don't really know what happened after that.

Does your father have any enemies?

- I thought Communists were responsible. - I like to keep an open mind.

So what you

really want are the skeletons in the family closet.

Just the ones that come back to haunt.

Well, my father has a mistress.

Probably one in a long line.

I'm sure he has a number of business enemies.

My mother's good for half a bottle a day.

She'll soon be off to her annual "dry out."

It's nothing unusual for the Rosedale set.

Well, I appreciate your candour.

If you think of anything else,

please get in touch.

It must have gone very well with Mr. Scanlon.

I don't remember him ever hiring a gal as quickly as you.

Well, I just told him I needed a job

and he seemed to appreciate it.

It's nice to have someone new to chat with.

I'm Zelda.

People call me a talkie-tooter

but I always get my work done.

I saw you when you came in.

Gosh, you dress nice.

I like to try to be real up on things too.

And your shoes

- are so pretty. - Thanks.

Hey, do you know anything about this terrible rumour

that someone tried to kill Mr. Conroyd and his family?

- Isn't it awful? - I heard it was Communists.

You heard that too?

Word is they may even

be working right here at the plant.

Go on! Not here!

I don't think they are,

but this whole business has gotten me to wondering.

Have you ever met a Communist?

Never! But I have my eyes and ears open

you can be sure of that. That's good to hear.

Me too.

Nice meeting you. Nice to meet you too.

All right! That's it! It's break time!

- Can I come in? - Of course.

- I just want to apologize. - For what?

For getting in the way back at the Conroyd house.

Flo, you don't need to apologize.

Still, I want to make it up to you so I did some asking around

about your case. I hope you don't mind. Not at all.

You see, I made a friend while I was working on your dog case.

That man that I saw you speaking with?

He works at Mrs. Timmons' household.

My first friend since Herb didn't make it back.

Good for you.

Anyway, he knows all the dirt in Rosedale,

so he told me about the Conroyds:

The husband's affairs, the wife's drinking problem. And the son's a layabout.

Flo, I knew this already, but I don't think it's relevant.

But thank you.

He also told me

about a vehicle that was parked in the alley

a couple of times over the last few weeks.

They were casing the place, planning the attack.

But you know what bothers me, Flo?

The getaway vehicle was parked in the alleyway.

- So? - So there was a clear path

from the alleyway to the kitchen, yet the attackers

used an entirely different path

that left them exposed. That doesn't make sense.