Death in Paradise

Where are you going?

I'll be at the mill.

It's 12, people will be here for lunch soon. Look, here's the doctor.

He's early. I won't be long.

Go, hurry.

Doctor. Mr Seymour.

The storage barn needed a good clear-out.

Why don't you, er, come to lunch with us? I don't know, sir.

Miss Kim? Doctor?

No, no. No excuses.

12:30, prompt.

Why has he summoned everyone?

He said he has an announcement to make.

We shouldn't arrive together. It's 12:30 now.

I'll walk up, wait five minutes. I don't know if I can do this.

It'll be fine.

Dear God, Louis, are you done with that clanging?!

Yes, miss. Sorry, miss.

Well, we can't wait for Nicole any longer.

Where is she, anyway? It's ten to one.

He's not picking up.

Paul, would you be a dear and go and get Roger? He'll be in the mill.

Of course. Thank you.

At last!

Mrs Seymour.

Oh! Nice of you to join us, Nicole.

And I see you're off the wagon again, how very you.

Drop dead, bitch.

Someone! Call an ambulance! It's Roger!

Ambulance, please. The Seymour Plantation.

It's tradition.

Mama, do we really need to do this? But we've never missed a year.

Yeah, then maybe it's a good time to start! But they weren't all bad. No?

Oh, I have to go.

Tomorrow night, seven o'clock. Don't be late.

If I strangled my mother do you think you'd catch me?

Almost certainly.

She thinks I'm still 16.

Mothers can be a real hazard. Particularly yours.

What is it this time? Erzulie celebrations.

Oh, right. Well, that explains it!

Erzulie is the voodoo goddess of love.

And every year my mother uses it as an excuse to try and find me a man.

She's just told me I've got a blind date tomorrow evening.

Well, I hope it's not with a man called Roger Seymour. Why?

I think the conversation may be a little bit stilted.

Chief, Sarge.

Roger Seymour, 71 years old.

Found by his family doctor, around 1pm. Doctor?

Yes, he was at the house for lunch.

The rest of the family are there waiting for you now.

Well, there's no mystery about cause of death.

Yes, and it looks like the handle has been wiped

clean of fingerprints.

Chief.

At least we know where it came from. Opportunistic, do you think?

Or did the killer know there was a weapon there?

Someone who knows the plantation well?

Sorry, Fidel? Sir?

You seen this?

What is that? Clean, freshly broken.

It's not watch glass, it's too big.

A torch, maybe? Could be.

Why would he be using a torch in here? And where is it?

Is this a working mill? Hasn't been used since the '80s.

These days, all the sugar cane goes to a new mill on the other side of the island.

The Seymours have had a set-up here for 300 years.

You seem to know a lot about it. I had family who used to work here.

My grandfather used to tell me stories. Stories about what?

Hard times, mostly.

They didn't treat their workers very well.

It was a hangover from when they used slaves.

Time moved on they didn't.

Some people thought that the Seymours were devils, you know?

That they could appear out of thin air to catch you

if you wasn't working hard enough.

Demonic time and motion? Interesting concept. Wait!

The Seymour Plantation? This is where the 50 slaves disappeared.

1820. Disappeared? Yes, I've heard about this.

Every slave on the plantation. They were locked up for the night

and, the next morning, they'd all vanished.

Never to be seen again.

You know, even if they turned out the lights and closed the door,

the killer still wouldn't have needed it.

Excuse me? The torch.

It's so bright in there. Oh.

Still, as you say, means of death should be pretty straightforward.

A machete sticking straight out of his back

should point them in the right direction.

The victim was very rich, by all accounts,

so let's concentrate on who benefits most from his death.

It's quite a physical murder, though. Go on.

Well, I imagine it's difficult to plunge a machete into someone's back.

It must take passion or anger.

So, perhaps this wasn't about money?

Perhaps he wasn't too popular with his workers?

Right! Well, time to talk to the family, I think.

Coming? Yes. The main house is up there.

Very impressive.

Hello, I'm Dr Johnson. It was me who called you.

Detective Inspector Richard Poole, Detective Sergeant Camille Bordey.

Hi. I understand, you found Mr Seymour's body? Yes.

You were here to have lunch? Yes, we all were.

Roger said he had an announcement to make. Do you know what about? No.

And he went to the mill before lunch? Yes.

The mill was something of a passion of his.

He was planning to restore it,

wanted to open it to the public as a museum.

And Mr Seymour was with you here at the house, until what time?

Around noon. And when he left to go to the mill, you stayed here? Yes.

But everyone was already here, so Kim asked me to go and get him.

And that's when I found him.

Kim? Kim Neville. Roger's... young lady.

And the others? That's Alex, Roger's nephew.

That's Louis, he works here.

Roger took something of a shine to him, treated him like a son.

And that's Nicole, Roger's ex-wife. Ex-wife? But, er...

Yes, I can see how that might seem strange to other people,

ex-wife and a new partner at the same lunch.

But it was all very amicable.

For heaven's sake, have you no shame?!

Oh! You can talk!

Yes. So I see.

Can you tell me what time you discovered Mr Seymour's body?

Yes. It was 12:53.

I'm a doctor, it's a force of habit.

So between noon, when he left to go to the mill, and 12:53,

when you discovered his body, everyone was still at the house?

Oh, yes. Absolutely.

Boy, this place gives me the creeps.

Yes, of course, there's a lot of history in here.

Yes, but the wrong kind of history.

Bad things happened here, Fidel, I'm telling you. Yes, I know.

Come on, let's go.

I've got important phone calls to make before the chief gets back.

Who to? It's Erzulie week. I've got to spread some loving around!

OK, now you see, I thought you were actually talking about work.

It is work. I have to devise a system for the week

or they could all start bumping into each other.

You know something, Dwayne? What?

You could just stick with one. One?

I'm a lot of things, Fidel, but I'm not selfish.

Hold on, hold on. Wait a minute, wait.

Oh, what now?

His index finger, look.

There's blood on it.

So? How you mean, "so"?

Fidel, the man has a machete in his back. There's blood everywhere.

Yes, yes, but not on his hands, Dwayne. Look.

Just on the tip of the finger.

I'm sorry for your loss.

Thank you.

Of course. Can I ask how long you and Mr Seymour have been together?

Almost a year. We became close when I helped him through his divorce.

Actually, Uncle Roger left Aunt Nicole for her.

Well, their marriage was on the rocks. He confided in me.

I'm sure he did. I know what you're thinking. Do you?

A woman dating a rich man twice her age. But it wasn't like that.

I loved Roger. He was the only man who saw the person inside.

He respected me. Where were you between noon and 1pm?

I was here, on the veranda. Outside?

I may have gone in the house for a moment, I'm not sure.

But, I was here with everyone else.

I hope you're not suggesting...

It's just procedure.

Between the time that Roger left and when Dr Johnson discovered his body,

you were all here together? Yes.

I wasn't at the house, sir. I was cleaning the storage barn, there.

But I was outside and I could still see everybody.

Wait. Alex wasn't here. He was late.

He didn't arrive until 12:30 and Nicole was even later.

I was at the Harbour gym, got held up a bit. I don't know about Nicole.

Yes, where is the ex-Mrs Seymour? I took her upstairs.

She was a little emotional.

Emotional as a newt.

Her husband has just been found dead! EX-husband.

Right, well, I think we had better leave you alone to grieve.

Actually, one last question.

We understand that Mr Seymour was going to make an announcement, does anyone know what that was?

He was going to announce our engagement. What?!

We'd talked about it. What else could it be?

He'd never marry you. We were together, Alex.

He loved me, whether you like it or not.

And I know, Roger, it's Erzulie week, he would have thought it perfect.

Erzulie is the voodoo goddess of love.

Yes, so I understand. Sir?

Ah, right. Well, we may need to speak to you all again later.

Including Mrs Seymour, when she's, you know, fully rested.

Inspector?

It's about Nicole.

Kim would like you to think badly of her, but she is a good person.

We're sure she is. Yeah, you and your aunt are close, I take it?

Yes, well, when I was 11 I lost my parents.

And Uncle Roger and Aunt Nicole took me in.

They brought me up, we were a family.

Well, until she came along.

And I can tell you

that, Erzulie or not,

there is no way that Uncle Roger would have married her.

Don't worry. We'll talk to your aunt when she's feeling stronger