Death in Paradise

Where are you going?

I'll be at the mill.

It's 12:00, 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.

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.

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.

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.

I think the conversation may be a little bit stilted.

- Chief. - Sarge.

Roger Seymour, 71 years old.

Found by his family doctor, around 1 p.m.

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?

You seen this?

Clean, freshly broken.

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

Could be.

Why would he be using a torch in here.

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.

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.

Interesting concept.

Wait!

This is where the 50 slaves disappeared.

Yes, I've heard about this.

Every slave on the plantation.

They were all 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.

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.

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.

Yes.

Yes, we all were.

Roger said he had an announcement to make.

No.

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

till what time?

Around noon.

Yes.

But everyone was already here,

so Kim asked me to go and get him.

And that's when I found him.

Kim Neville. Roger's...

young lady.

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.

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.

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

Oh, what now?

His index finger, look.

There's blood on it.

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.

Could 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.

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 1 p.m.?

I was here, on the veranda.

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,

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.

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 Mr Seymour was going to make an announcement,

does anyone know what that was?

He was going to announce our engagement.

!

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.

Ah, right. Well, we may need to

speak to you all again later.

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