Murdoch Mysteries

How many this time?

- 12. It's double our last attendance. - Wonderful.

At this rate, we'll have a best-seller in 40 years.

There is not a lot of people, but the ones that are here

are very much looking forward to your reading.

Ahem.

I know you're all dying to hear Detective Murdoch

read from his and Dr Ogden's new book.

Let's have a big round of applause for Toronto's most famous detective!

Good evening. Thank you for coming.

Each chapter in our book recounts a different murder investigation.

Chapter one

is about a most peculiar case.

It was a bright, sunny day on July 16th, 1904,

when strollers at Cawthra Park

- happened upon a most unusual statue. - There's really nothing to...

- Oh, my! - .. nothing to see here! Just stay back!

Where did the statue come from?

No one knows. It certainly wasn't commissioned.

A nude not commissioned by our city fathers.

Why am I not surprised?

I must say, it's very good. She looks almost real.

- Hysteria is clearly what the artist intended. - No, sir!

- Sir, get back here! - This vulgar display is an affront to decency!

Sir! Sir! Give me that!

Oh, my God. Sir.

- Doctor. - What is it, George?

I believe this is no ordinary work of art.

The statue was, in fact,

the electro-plated body of a young woman.

Excuse me. What is it, Henry?

The owner of the Windsor House Hotel has asked for you.

She thinks she's found a body in her lobby.

"She thinks"?

It's best that you come, sir.

You'll have to excuse us.

We have an urgent matter to attend to. Ahem.

Is it a murder?

Possibly.

- The books are for sale in the lobby. - I'll take one!

Hello, Miss Matthews.

Thank you for coming. I hope this isn't a waste of your time.

If it isn't the famous detective

and published author, I'm to understand.

You remember our hotel detective.

Mr Fellows.

We understand you've discovered a body.

It was delivered anonymously to the lobby,

and I told Ralph to have it carted away.

But I recognised it for what it was.

Oh, my goodness. It--

I believe you'll find it's an electro-plated body.

Just as in our book.

Have you read our book, then?

It may astonish the two of you that the world

doesn't revolve around just you.

The case was in the newspapers.

I think you'll need this.

You were just reading about this; it's chapter one.

It may be a coincidence.

Mr Fellows is right. It was all over the newspaper.

In my professional opinion,

this is the work of a copycat.

You're a hotel detective, Mr Fellows.

Your professional opinion is hardly required.

- Nevertheless. - You may be correct, Mr Fellows.

But is the killer copying the newspapers or our book?

During the electroplating process,

dissolved metals are drawn by electrical attraction

to form a thin, coherent coating

on a surface of opposite charge.

In this case, a waxy coating.

The waxy substance likely contains a pulverised nitrate of silver.

The body is then immersed in copper sulfate

and the electrical current is applied.

The result is a metallic mummy, as it were.

George, were you able to find any information

- on electroplating facilities? - Yes, sir.

There's only one electroplating factory in Toronto.

We actually had cause to visit there on another case some years ago.

An endeavour such as this required a large electrolyte bath,

and the capacity for large current draws,

suggesting the killer made use of a purpose-built factory.

"James Kirkham's electroplating facility on Niagara Street

provided the perfect means."

And there you have it.

All the instructions on how to electroplate a body.

You even gave the killer the address.

Henry, head down to Kirkham's factory

- and see if anyone's been in there after hours. - Sir.

It's horrific, but we must face the possibility

that the killer got the idea from our book.

It shouldn't be too difficult to obtain the identities

of those who purchased the book.

Perhaps it's a good thing that so few have sold.

Hmm.

I'm sorry, folks. It is impossible to know who has the book now.

But you told us we've only sold 12 copies.

Sold, but we've given copies to libraries,

police stations, book reviewers.

The number of people with access to your book

would be in the hundreds.

Inspector Hamish Slorach! What brings you to my station house?

I'm packing it in, Tom.

Had a long talk with the dog, and we decided it's time.

You're younger than me, aren't you?

Oh, no, no. I'm just better looking, and I plan to keep it that way.

Well, the constabulary won't be the same without you.

Ah. Well, I'm having a little bash tomorrow night,

- and I would like you to give the farewell speech. - Me?

What, is there a cop I've known longer? Huh?

- Well, I'd be honoured. - Thank you. Thank you.

It means so much to me. It really does.

Detective Murdoch! Oh, I was hoping I'd run into you!

I bought your book. Heh!

Soon as it came out. I couldn't put it down.

- Entertaining as well as instructive. - Thank you.

Can you imagine how many more criminals I would have caught

if I'd read this thing earlier?

Boy oh boy, huh?

Can I get you to sign my copy?

Oh, certainly.

Oh, allow me.

I am the co-writer, after all.

- To Hamish, my good friend. - Hamish.

Good friend.

There's a man, huh?

And I'd like to invite you to my farewell bash tomorrow night.

- Oh, you're retiring. - Dying, actually.

Just kidding! I'll see you all there.

- Is this the way I came in? - Yes.

OK.

Sir, Mr Kirkham died last April. His factory is closed,

but the lock on the back door was broken.

So, the killer could have accessed

the facility at any time without detection.

Also, sir, a Mr Robert Brown claims his daughter is missing.

That's my Amelia.

What kind of monster would do such a thing?

We intend to find out.

She was stabbed in the heart,

just as in your book.

Oh, you've read the book?

The relevant passages.

This page in particular.

"The victim had been stabbed in the heart, but that's not how she died."

A single thrust to the heart.

The wound was very clean, suggesting the knife

was pushed in and withdrawn at the same angle.

Which led you to believe that she was incapacitated

- when she was killed. - Yes. I analysed the stomach contents.

She'd drunk and eaten shortly before she died.

I found significant amounts of the sedative sulfonyl.

He wanted her unconscious.

She died approximately 18 hours ago.

The killer waited until rigour had set in.

And once rigour was fully in evidence,

and the body was fixed in the pose,

he set about the task of electroplating.

It's quite the operation.

She sat down to share a meal with her killer.

It might have been someone she knew.

I don't know why you came to that conclusion.

She could have just as easily dined alone.

But in all other respects--

The meal, the sulfonyl and the timing of the rigour

are the same in Amelia Brown's case.

I raised her by myself.

She was a handful as a child,

but she grew into a fine young woman.

I can think of no one who would wish her harm.

Although,

I could name a few who would wish harm on me.

How so?

I've been with the Pinkerton Detective Agency for 30 years,

and I've dealt with my share of hoodlums and bad actors.

And you fear one of them may be out for revenge?

Sir? We've found another body.

His body was pulled from the lake an hour ago.

He appears to be in his 60s or early 70s.

He was struck in the back of the head with a blunt instrument,

and then fell or was pushed into the water and drowned.

So, not inspired by our book.

That's something of a relief.

- I know this man. - You do?

Dr Morley.

He was a surgeon at Toronto General for many years.

Dr Ogden, his blood is black.

The vessels of his brains, lungs and liver

are all filled with black blood.

- Poisoned. - Precisely.

What kind of poison turns blood black?

- Something organic? - An alkaloid, perhaps.

- Was it ingested? - Most unlikely.

The dosage required to kill someone would need to be massive.

- Injected, then. - It's much more likely. Far more efficient.

Then there would have to be an injection site.

I was hoping to have found it before you arrived.

Ah.

I can wait.