Wycliffe (1994–…): Season 4, Episode 5 - Seen a Ghost - full transcript
Morna Petheric runs over and kills Dinah Curran, insisting that Dinah was a ghost come back to haunt her. The pathologist notes that Dinah bore stab wounds from years earlier and Morna believes she killed her when she was a little girl. Dinah was once married to Morna's uncle and her infidelity with Morna's father caused somebody, not necessarily Morna, to take drastic action, as Morna's mother is forced to confess. Superintendant Le Page returns. Her report fully exonerates Doug Kersey but criticizes D.C.C. Stevens for bad management.
[theme music]
AUCTIONEER: 110 pounds, 120, 130, 140.
Are you all done at 140?
Any advance?
Sold for 140 pounds.
Thank you.
Now we come to Lot 19 in the catalog, this Victorian chest
of drawers here, seen here.
65 pounds for this lot, anybody?
65 pounds?
No.
50 pounds then for this Victorian chest of drawers
here.
50 pounds? 50 bid.
Thank you.
55, 60, 65, 70, 75.
Any advance then on 75 pounds here?
80 pounds.
That's against you now, madam.
85 pounds?
90, 100 pounds, 110 pounds.
At 110 pounds here then.
Any more?
Sold for 110 pounds.
Thank you.
We've got a lot left in the catalog, ladies and gentleman.
Thank you.
A nice solid piece this, miss, very.
Yeah.
I'm gonna paint it and stencil vine leaves on it.
Oh, lovely.
It's a nice size for a bedroom, isn't it?
PORTER: Yes.
There you go, my lover.
Thanks.
[beeping]
[otherworldly hissing]
[tires squealing]
[otherworldly hissing]
[engine revving]
WOMAN: Oh, Lord.
Oh, dear.
What the hell were you doing?
Ah, at least we've got that sorted out, Charles.
Thank you.
Do you expect Superintendent Le Page's report this week?
Yes.
You've been very open in your support for Doug Kersey.
You've considered your own prospects, I suppose.
Yes, I have. Thank you, sir.
There's a point beyond which it would
be very imprudent to go in supporting
a dishonest colleague, Charles.
That's because he's not dishonest.
I admit he failed to write up his notes straightaway,
but he was tired after working nearly 12 hours
overtime the previous two days.
Isn't tired rather a euphemism given
Kersey's personal problems?
Anyway, that's not the real point.
It is now clear that when he realized he could be held
accountable for selling suicide, he
covered up by lying about the time of his interview
with the prisoner.
Doug denies that, and I believe him.
This old style, shoulder to shoulder
with the troops, Charles, it isn't
relevant to modern policing.
It makes people a bit wary these days.
I take care of my team.
I leave public relations to you.
Sorry, Doug.
DOUG: Sir.
Lunch took a bit longer than expected.
What have we got?
Well, eight witnesses from Penzance
all say more or less the same thing.
We've got accident investigators at the scene.
And the victim?
Dinah Curran, 51, married, lives in Penzance.
She was certified dead on arrival at the hospital.
The next of kin have been informed.
Uh, and what personal history have got on the driver?
Well, her name's Morna Petheric.
She's 28.
She's single, lives in Porthminster,
works in the family business, which is a guest house,
I think.
WYCLIFFE: Tell us what happened, Morna.
Was it an accident?
Did your foot slip?
No.
I had to destroy her.
WYCLIFFE: Who?
She wanted to haunt me.
She would never have gone away unless I did.
Who wanted to haunt you, Morna?
MORNA: A ghost.
So it was a ghost that you saw today?
Have you seen ghosts before?
Do you often see them?
No.
Never.
Did you hear voices telling you it was a ghost?
No.
WYCLIFFE: Do you ever hear voices telling you things?
No.
Are you a religious person, Morna?
Not very.
WYCLIFFE: But you believe in spirits, the supernatural.
You believe in people coming back to haunt you.
I don't know.
When she was there, I saw her.
So, the woman you saw today had come to haunt you?
Why else would she be there?
Look, Morna, it wasn't really a ghost, you know.
It was an ordinary woman crossing an ordinary street.
No.
No, that's not possible.
I know. WYCLIFFE: It's all right, Morna.
It's all right. It's all right.
We can talk about this later.
Interview suspended, 14:10.
[distant sirens wailing]
She's not fit to be interviewed.
She may well be mentally disordered.
Yeah.
I'd like a doctor to see her as soon as possible.
Right, sir.
Thank you for coming in.
Ma'am, would you like to follow me?
Yeah, they came for me at work,
took me straightaway to identify her.
I didn't stay long.
LUCY: I'm sorry.
Well, it's not the first time I've had to do it, you see.
My first wife, she died in a coach crash.
We'd been married 26 years.
Thank you.
So Dinah was your second wife.
Yeah, five years.
Well, I hated being on my own.
And Dinah was a bookkeeper in the company I work for--
packaging, we make.
I'm in quality control.
And, well, we've neither of us children,
only ourselves to please.
We were company for one another.
What about her family, Mr. Curran?
Are they local?
She never had any.
Her parents died, ooh, long way back.
No, she'd no brothers or sisters.
And she'd never spoken of any cousins or that.
LUCY: Had she been married before?
No.
Very quiet woman, Dinah.
And the name Morna Petheric means nothing to you?
Not at all.
These cars are so powerful nowadays.
I suppose she got in the wrong gear or something?
Maybe.
I don't know.
I can't believe it.
Twice that's happened to me.
I've given her a mild sedative.
But I can't actually put my finger on what
her mental condition is.
I'd like the community psychiatric nurse
to take a look at her as well.
She says she saw a ghost.
Mm.
Yet I can't see that she's suffering
from any misperceptions.
She knows where she is, what time
it is, the name of the prime minister, all the usual things.
There's no evidence of paranoia.
Is there any history of mental illness?
She says not, but you can't rely on that.
You'd have to check with her GP or her family.
Sorry not to be more precise.
That's all right.
Thanks, Doctor.
Whatever she thought she saw, it
was a pretty powerful delusion.
I had a word with Stevens this morning.
DOUG: Oh, yeah?
He told me, uh, Le Page will deliver
her report to him this week.
She wants to see me again?
Well, in my meeting with her, I
wouldn't expect her to jump to conclusions
nor to bend to pressure.
I know the score.
There's a few people that wouldn't be sorry to see
the back of me, to be honest.
If they go on messing me about, I've more or less made
me mind up to leave anyway.
I'd be very sorry to lose you, Doug.
I know you've done what you can.
And I appreciate that.
It's things have changed so much these last few years.
Nowadays, maybe I'd fit in better somewhere else.
I'd like to leave before I get too bitter.
Here we go.
The Holly and the Ivy, cute.
[distant radio playing]
Good afternoon.
I have some vacancies.
Do come in.
WYCLIFFE: Mr. Petheric.
Yes?
We're not looking for rooms, I'm afraid.
MR. PETHERIC: Mum.
Detective Superintendent Wycliffe.
[radio clicks off]
This is Detective Inspector Kersey.
You are Mrs. Petheric?
Alma Petheric, yes.
This is my son, Richard.
And your husband?
Uh, he no longer lives here.
We're here about your daughter, Morna.
She's being held in police custody.
RICHARD: Morna?
What on earth's happened?
She was involved in a traffic incident in Penzance
this morning.
The pedestrian has been killed.
Your daughter was driving.
RICHARD: An accident.
WYCLIFFE: Apparently not.
Someone was killed?
How terrible.
Make us all a cup of tea, Richard.
Would you like a seat?
How was she this morning?
Was she upset in any way?
We have five guests at the moment.
We served their breakfast, and then Morna went out.
Has she been depressed recently,
suffering mood swings?
She's been fine.
She's fine.
I'd like to talk to her GP.
Oh, she hasn't had to see a doctor in years.
Please, get me the name and address.
Of course.
Can we see her?
Of course we can't.
She's been arrested.
RICHARD: Can we?
We'll have some shortbread with our tea.
Your sister's been charged.
And she'll appear before the magistrates in the morning.
And we'll be asking that she be remanded to a secure hospital.
Hospital?
To make sure she's probably taken care of, yes.
She must feel awful.
WYCLIFFE: Mrs. Petheric, I have to ask you this.
Does your daughter have a history of mental illness?
No, of course not.
Are you sure she's never received
treatment or counseling?
No.
Why?
Well, she seems unable to give a rational account of what
happened to her this morning.
She seems to believe that the woman that was killed
was a ghost.
RICHARD: Poor Morna.
Can I see her?
You'll be able to visit her, yes.
You can be present in court in the morning.
She's charged with murder.
Milk or lemon?
Milk, please.
DOUG: Uh, milk, please.
Yes.
Sugar?
DOUG: Two, please, then.
ALMA: We always serve tea at this time.
Supper, by arrangement, is at 8:00.
No wonder Morna has some strange ideas,
coming from a home like that.
Maybe it's just the mother's way of dealing with the shock.
Sir.
Yep.
What about a word with the neighbors?
OK.
Yeah.
Yeah, of course I know Alma Petheric.
She's my sister.
Your sister?
So you know Morna well?
No, not really.
I know who she is.
Naturally I would.
You see, our two guest houses used to be all one,
belonged to my parents.
Well, we decided to go our separate ways.
I don't really see much of them now days.
WYCLIFFE: When did you last see Morna, Mr. Randall?
Hm.
WYCLIFFE: To speak to?
Not since she was a little girl.
You've not spoken to your niece for, what, 20 years?
I suppose it is about that, yeah.
Family feud, is it?
Not at all.
DOUG: What then?
Nothing. I told you.
It's just the way things are.
Doesn't that bother you?
Well, that's always regretful when these things happen.
But you go on day to day and never think about it really.
WYCLIFFE: Would it surprise you to learn,
Mr. Randall, that your niece, Morna Petheric,
is in custody charged with murder?
No.
WYCLIFFE: She ran someone down on a pedestrian crossing,
quite deliberately.
That's terrible.
I don't understand. Deliberately?
Why?
We're not sure about her state of mind.
But she says that she saw a ghost.
Well, who did she kill?
A Mrs. Dinah Curran from Penzance.
[suspenseful music playing]
[silverware clattering]
Have you finished?
Yes, thank you.
It was very nice.
I'll bring you some more toast, shall I?
Marmalade or jam? - Uh, marmalade, please.
Thank you.
I'm going then.
Did you take the butter out of the fridge?
Are you sure you won't come, Mum?
Only I don't want to serving butter that's too hard.
It's on the table.
All right.
See you later then.
Mr. Petheric.
I was unsure where to go.
We're not on yet, I don't think.
Do you want to sit down?
My mother wouldn't come.
They take things differently, don't they?
I still can't believe it.
I thought Morna had gone after some auction in Penzance.
Each year, we refurbish one of the bedrooms,
and she's keen on all these decorative paint finishes.
There was nothing wrong, nothing at all.
They'll take the car apart to check
for any mechanical failure.
But Morna doesn't deny what happened.
She's not crazy.
Maybe not.
I'm no doctor.
Even if she is, I mean, it's--
it's no shame.
Hey, even police officers go for counseling
these days, stress or whatever.
Does a lot of good sometimes.
You know, getting everything out in the open will help.
No.
Morna's never been crazy.
If she was, I'd tell you.
Spoke to your uncle, Vernon Randall.
What happened there then?
Mum never likes to talk about it.
Don't you know?
You must have wondered.
Well, I think, perhaps, they couldn't
agree about running the guest house when it was all one.
Do you think the rift between your mother and uncle
could have upset Morna in some way?
Well, I don't see why.
We're used to it.
It was not like we're enemies or anything.
If we've got no vacancies, we send people next door.
It's just we've got nothing to say to one another really.
CLERK 1: You're on now, Mr. Kersey.
Right. That's us.
Thanks.
Don't forget this.
I'll see you there.
[sighs] Of all the times to have to socialize with DCC.
You're right.
I'm gonna have to be nice to his wife.
I don't mind if you really don't want to come.
Oh, don't tempt me.
You support me in what I do.
And this is what you want to do.
I think Stevens would be more than happy if I didn't.
Charlie, wherever you go, there's
going to be someone like him banging on
about performance standards, fraternization,
customer responsiveness.
You can't escape it.
I'm not selling a package of tea, you know.
No, you're not, which is precisely why
you'd never do anything else.
I'll see you later.
CLERK 2: Court rise.
MAGISTRATE: You are Morna Petheric, living at 39
St. Andrews Road, Porthminster.
I am.
Your date of birth is the 17th of December, 1968.
MORNA: Yes, it is.
MAGISTRATE: You are charged that on the 15th day of April, 1997,
at Brook Hill, Penzance, within the jurisdiction of the county
of Cornwall, you did unlawfully kill Dinah Curran with malice
of forethought against the peace of our sovereign lady,
the Queen.
Please sit down.
This is the first hearing.
Obviously, in due course, this case will be
committed to the Crown Court.
And I ask for an adjournment in order to prepare
papers for a committal.
She's in good shape her age.
But I found something interesting
I thought I'd follow up.
Probably not relevant to your inquiries at all,
but see here and here on her hands.
WYCLIFFE: Stab wounds?
Yes.
How old?
Oh, years.
This scarring would've all healed up when she
was still quite a young woman.
Even so, it shows she's led not an entirely quiet life.
When I saw the scarring, I thought I'd have her X-rayed.
Take a look.
It must have been a fairly long-bladed knife
and quite a savage attack.
There's more than one penetration to the chest.
Well, he just missed the heart and lungs.
Now, these are defensive wounds.
Obviously, she did her best to fend off her attacker.
Mr. Curran never mentioned this.
Well, presuming it was all reported and documented
at the time, it shouldn't be too difficult to find
out exactly what happened.
You're right.
We have to pull together.
I mean, since you were last in here, there must have been,
what, maybe 2,000 people stayed in this house?
And they've all been comfortable,
all enjoyed their stay.
Now, that says something, doesn't it?
Yeah, we did our best to put things
straight now, both of us.
Well, then.
Oh, you're upset.
I knew you would be.
You shouldn't have gone.
Vernon's come to see if he can help.
And I've just said to him, if we don't know what happened,
then we can't lay awake at night fretting about the details.
VERNON: She's right Richard--
best not to know.
The police will deal with that.
And when we go and see Morna, it will
be as if it never happened.
That's the best way.
Yeah, but she'll go to prison, won't she?
Maybe not.
Lawyers will sort it out.
Now you put plenty of sugar in your coffee
and forget all about it.
[tv cartoon music]
GUARD: There she is.
Uh, please, sit down then.
LUCY: Thank you.
I'd been promising Dinah for ages to get it done.
Mr. Curran, you must have noticed
the scars on your wife's hands.
Yeah, on her chest too.
How did she get them?
Did she tell you?
Oh, she said it was an accident ages ago.
Did you believe her?
She said it was a time she preferred to forget.
I really don't know much about it.
According to our forensic pathologist,
your wife had been the victim of a savage knife attack.
Hm, well, I did sometimes wonder
if it wasn't something more.
What was your wife's maiden name, Mr. Curran?
Trewithen, Dinah Trewithen.
And do you know where she lived as a young woman?
Look, we both had sadnesses to contend with.
And we decided when we got married always to look
forward, to keep cheerful.
We, neither of us, liked to dwell on the past.
Yes, a very intriguing case.
Morna remains convinced that she's destroyed
a ghost, not a human being.
We don't know near an explanation either.
Oh, her brother was here earlier.
Yeah, he seems very concerned.
Hm.
Tell me, from what Morna says, I gather that her family life
is very closed, very rigid.
There's no father apparently and clearly a
rather controlling mother.
Yes.
The mother's brother lives next door.
He told us that they haven't spoken to each other
since Morna was a child.
Oh, well, when a family doesn't speak like that,
it's seldom a lack of feeling.
You told us yesterday that the woman you ran down in your car
was a ghost.
Is that right?
How did you know that?
She'd come after me to haunt me.
Why did you think that?
Had you ever seen this ghost before?
Did you know the woman?
Her name was Dinah Curran.
Did you ever see her before?
[sobbing]
You told us she wanted to haunt you.
Why would she want to do that?
Because it was all my fault.
WYCLIFFE: What was?
That she died.
How did she die?
I killed her.
WYCLIFFE: And how did you do that, Morna?
There was blood everywhere, screaming.
It was all my fault.
WYCLIFFE: And when was this, Morna?
When did you kill her?
Years ago, when I was little.
[humming]
How are we doing?
Well, I've been checking to see if there's
any record of an assault on Dinah using her maiden name,
Trewithen.
But with no date or location, it's a needle in a haystack.
There must be some connection between the two women.
Dinah was attacked, and Morna has
memories of some childhood incident
involving brutal violence.
What about medical records?
DOUG: Lucy's on to that.
Uh, nothing on [inaudible].
But Dinah Curran had to be married before.
I'll check the records again under the name of Randall.
Randall?
You know that Vernon Randall is
Morna's uncle, lives next door.
LUCY: No, I didn't.
Right.
I must go.
I'll have to leave this to you.
You look frightfully smart, sir.
Thank you.
Um, let me know what you get.
I hope Stevens chokes on his volleyball.
Prat.
[piano music playing]
[indistinct chatter]
Oh, how marvelous.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, ma'am.
Thank you.
Dinah Trewithen.
Yes, my wife.
Such a bizarre coincidence.
I can't believe it.
DOUG: Would Morna have recognized
her aunt, do you think?
Well, I don't know.
Morna was so young when Dinah left.
It was 20-odd years ago.
How did your wife come to leave you, Mr. Randall?
Well, we had more or less agreed things
weren't working out between us.
One day I found the proverbial note on the mantelpiece.
Did you report her missing?
No.
Why should I?
Did your wife have any scars on her hands, Mr. Randall?
Scars?
DOUG: Mhm.
No.
- Are you sure? - Positive.
Why do you ask?
The post-mortem shows that some years ago your wife was
the victim of a knife attack.
Is that why she left you, Mr. Randall?
No.
Oh, people do sometimes just go missing from the lives they
lead, you know, and lose all connection
with their past selves for all sorts of reasons.
Huh, I think if someone tried to kill you
might be a very good reason.
If Morna did recognize Dinah Curran in Penzance
yesterday as her long-lost aunt, you'd
agree that it would make some sense of why she
thought she was seeing a ghost.
Oh, I suppose so.
Who knows?
Oh, this is uncanny.
I can't get used to it.
DOUG: But why would Morna want to kill
her aunt to destroy her ghost?
RANDALL: I have no idea, not at all.
I'm as lost in all of this as you are, Inspector.
[chatter]
We thought the Algarve again this year.
Oh.
Uh, you don't play golf, do you?
Afraid not.
Oh, Richard and I enjoy it.
Charles plays, doesn't he?
Occasionally.
Maybe you should consider taking it up.
Oh, I'm quite happy walking miles without hitting a ball.
But remember, sharing something
that gets you out of the house together is no bad thing.
Richard and I have discussed early retirement too.
We haven't discussed early--
Oh, it's always more of an upheaval for the wife,
don't you think?
[phone ringing]
Sorry.
One minute.
Wycliffe.
Yet, they can be such a boon sometimes, can't they?
Always on duty.
You're never off the hook either, are you?
It's the Petheric case.
STEVENS: Yes?
There's a body buried in the garden.
I have to go.
Yes.
We'll see Helen home.
Charles, the press will be onto this like a shot.
Until I see Superintendent Le Page's report,
I'd like Kersey kept out of the limelight.
If we have to suspend him in the morning,
we don't want him out there in front of a camera crew tonight,
do we?
DOUG: Careful.
FRANKS: Oh, thank you.
Oh, we've got a body, all right.
WYCLIFFE: Hey. - Charles.
[inaudible]
Sir.
FRANKS: A adult male.
He's been in there for some considerable time.
RICHARD: I never thought.
I was just trying to help Morna.
What happened?
It was that really hot summer.
1976?
I think so.
What happened?
RICHARD: Well, I remember that heat.
Everything was dry and dusty.
WYCLIFFE: Go on.
And afterwards, we went out in the garden.
That's all.
I just remember Uncle Vernon left the hose
pipe running in the garden.
They wouldn't let me play in it.
Then he was digging in all the mud.
And I wanted to help.
But Mum took us down to the beach instead.
WYCLIFFE: You must remember more than that.
I mean, you knew enough to be digging, didn't you?
I never believed it really happened.
But why else would Morna--
Whose body is it in the garden, Richard?
I can't say.
Will we find other bodies out there?
You see, we know your Aunt Dinah was attacked years ago.
And Morna saw that happen, didn't she?
Saw the blood.
Yeah, that's what she told me today.
And I do remember Uncle Vernon digging.
How old were you in 1976, Richard?
Um, five.
And Morna was how old, seven?
Neither tall enough nor strong enough to stab an adult
repeatedly with a knife, an adult
trying to defend themselves.
Whose body did you find in the garden, Richard?
Uh, you--
Richard.
You don't understand.
It can't be true.
Our dad just left.
That's what Mum said.
I was no different from all the other kids at school,
and nor was Morna.
I mean, things like that just don't happen, do they?
We're a normal family.
Mrs. Petheric, the body of an adult male
has been found buried in your garden.
What can you tell us about it?
Nothing.
Nothing at all.
You've no idea whose body it is?
No.
How long have you lived here, Mrs. Petheric?
All my life.
I was born in this house.
And you know nothing of a body buried in the garden.
Where's your husband?
What's his name?
Robert.
Robert Simon Petheric.
And where is he now?
ALMA: I don't know.
Your sister-in-law, Dinah Randall?
Mr. Wycliffe, I'm very sorry, but I really can't help you.
Well, perhaps you could help Morna.
[knocking at door]
Come in.
Sit down.
I'm just finalizing my report for DCC Stevens
to pass on to the Police Complaints Authority.
Now, in earlier interviews, you have
maintained that you last visited Sennan in the cells at 6:30.
That's right, yes.
Although this is conflicted with the written custody record
kept by Sergeant Cannon.
Yes.
Well, if the custody record is correct,
you last spoke to Sennan shortly after 8:00.
You were the last person to see him alive.
He must have set about killing himself immediately
upon your departure.
I was at home at half-past 7:00 in the bath.
This you have maintained throughout.
But due to the lack of a contemporaneous written record,
your account has remained uncorroborated.
This will be noted in your record.
However, if you did visit Sennan at 6:30,
and Sergeant Cannon then visited him at 7:00 and then
at 8:00 o'clock, which he maintained in his custody
record, then surely he would have noted the distressed state
of the prisoner.
And he would have noted Sennan tearing
up his shirt to make a noose.
That would take a bit of time, wouldn't it?
I now have evidence in the form of a witness statement
to support your version of events.
What?
Who from?
Another prisoner.
He was released that night without charge.
His presence in the cells was not
immediately made known to me.
It took me some time to trace him through the custody record.
I can't tell you any more at the moment,
but it will all be in my report.
However, I think it's important that you
know why I was confident that your account would
be vindicated.
Not one officer that I spoke to would believe
there could be such negligence and dishonesty in the colleague
they all admire and respect.
I know these inquiries can be very demoralizing--
I mean, sometimes, justifiably so.
But I do hope you'll take time to digest what I've told you
and not to make any hasty decisions about your future.
Thank you.
It could very well be Robert Petheric, the right sort of age
and so on.
Dental records should be apt to confirm it.
Well, I can't give you the precise cause of death.
The body's been in the ground too long.
But this chap has very similar wounds to Mrs. Curran.
But if you are arguing that Dinah Curran was attacked
at the same time, then you're probably looking
for two assailants, not one.
Why?
Different knife.
Well, this one has a serrated edge like a bread knife.
You find none of the suggested charges against Inspector
Kersey approved.
How can that be?
I have recommended that it be noted on his service record
that he failed to keep a contemporaneous written record
on his interview with Sennan.
That's a flea bite.
There will be charges brought against Sergeant Cannon.
It's proved he did falsify the custody record.
He's already taken early retirement.
It's not going to make any real difference now.
You'll find my main findings in the conclusion, sir.
I also thought it appropriate to note the excellent morale
of Superintendent Wycliffe's team
under difficult circumstances.
Low staffing levels, excessive case loads,
lack of support for senior officers,
unacceptable delays in the implementation
of new force structures-- what is this, a witch hunt?
You were supposed to be investigating
a death in custody, not carry out a management survey.
You assured me you didn't want to whitewash, sir.
[police radio chatter]
All done?
All done.
The DCC's a bad loser.
And Doug Kersey?
Well, he's had to think about his priorities--
no bad thing, perhaps.
I think he'll be fine.
He'll soon be back on track.
Thank you.
Oh, you're welcome.
WYCLIFFE: Morna, we now know that the woman
you saw in Penzance was your aunt, Dinah Randall.
Is that correct?
And you hadn't seen your Aunt Dinah for--
since you were a little girl.
Do you remember her leaving?
[sobbing]
Now, when we spoke to you yesterday,
you told me that you killed her.
Is that right?
Yes.
When you said that, you didn't mean
that you killed her in Penzance two days ago with your car.
No, years ago, at home.
There was blood everywhere, in the bedroom on the walls,
everywhere.
How did it begin?
I went to talk to Mum and Uncle Vernon.
And there was shouting and crying and screaming.
Who was shouting and crying?
- They were. - Who?
The grownups.
What else did you see?
Uncle Vernon in the garden.
WYCLIFFE: What was he doing?
Digging.
Mum said it would be all right then.
I was to forget about it.
They'd look after me.
We went to the beach.
And after that, the guest house was divided into two.
But no one ever spoke about what had happened.
I don't need to talk about those things.
It was all my fault. They were just making sandwiches.
It was me that made them all so angry.
That's why Aunt Dinah came back to punish me.
[sighs] Morna, the tragedy is that you have killed your aunt,
but not when you are a little girl.
Things did happen to you when you were young--
frightening, fearful things.
But you couldn't understand because no one
explained them to you.
It grew into dark shapes, in the shadow of which none
of your family cared to linger.
Tell me.
Your Aunt Dinah was attacked.
Somehow, she escaped from the house and survived.
And then she just disappeared.
Maybe she was too scared to go to the police.
We don't know.
15 years later in Penzance, she met
and she married John Curran.
And when you saw her again, all those frightening memories
of blood and screaming came flooding back to you.
And that's where the ghost came from.
But I saw Uncle Vernon bury her.
Morna, we have found a body buried in the garden,
but it's not your aunt.
Now, just think, Morna.
Who were the grownups involved?
There was your Uncle Vernon, your Aunt Dinah, your mother,
and who else?
[eerie music playing]
[reporters shouting]
Alma has the children to think of.
It's not for to her to tell you. I don't want to upset her.
She's my sister.
Get into the car, Mr. Randall.
[siren wailing]
Sir.
Doug.
You OK?
Yeah, um, you were right about Le Page.
I think I'll hang around a bit longer.
I'm glad to hear it.
Why did you want us to come up here, Mrs. Petheric?
I want you to judge for yourself.
There.
It's a pleasant room, isn't it?
You can tell, can't you?
Nothing bad has ever happened here.
Your daughter is going to stand trial for the killing
of Dinah Randall.
I think she deserves an explanation
of what's happened in this room, even
if it is 20 years too late.
It was Morna who came running to tell me.
She's was only little.
She thought it was funny that her daddy and her Auntie Dinah
were in bed together in the middle of the day,
right under the sheets together, she said, in this room.
And what did you and your brother do about that?
Vernon and I were cutting sandwiches.
We had the knives in our hands, and we came up here.
DOUG: And then?
But Dinah survived.
When we found out she'd gone, we
expected the police any minute.
But, well, no one ever came.
I never thought Morna would remember.
I never imagined she really understood what had happened.
I thought we'd be all right.
I redecorate this room every year.
[police radio chatter]
[camera shutters clicking]
[reporters shouting]
Looks like you're on your own now.
Yeah.
I'll try and keep things going for Morna's sake.
Maybe you'd be better off starting again somewhere fresh.
No.
I'm not going to pretend it never happened.
That's what my mum and Uncle Vernon tried.
It's why they never spoke to each other.
That's no good.
Silence doesn't make things go away, does it?
No.
Better to stay here, face up to everything.
I still can't believe it.
People would want to stay here, especially now, wouldn't they?
[theme music]
AUCTIONEER: 110 pounds, 120, 130, 140.
Are you all done at 140?
Any advance?
Sold for 140 pounds.
Thank you.
Now we come to Lot 19 in the catalog, this Victorian chest
of drawers here, seen here.
65 pounds for this lot, anybody?
65 pounds?
No.
50 pounds then for this Victorian chest of drawers
here.
50 pounds? 50 bid.
Thank you.
55, 60, 65, 70, 75.
Any advance then on 75 pounds here?
80 pounds.
That's against you now, madam.
85 pounds?
90, 100 pounds, 110 pounds.
At 110 pounds here then.
Any more?
Sold for 110 pounds.
Thank you.
We've got a lot left in the catalog, ladies and gentleman.
Thank you.
A nice solid piece this, miss, very.
Yeah.
I'm gonna paint it and stencil vine leaves on it.
Oh, lovely.
It's a nice size for a bedroom, isn't it?
PORTER: Yes.
There you go, my lover.
Thanks.
[beeping]
[otherworldly hissing]
[tires squealing]
[otherworldly hissing]
[engine revving]
WOMAN: Oh, Lord.
Oh, dear.
What the hell were you doing?
Ah, at least we've got that sorted out, Charles.
Thank you.
Do you expect Superintendent Le Page's report this week?
Yes.
You've been very open in your support for Doug Kersey.
You've considered your own prospects, I suppose.
Yes, I have. Thank you, sir.
There's a point beyond which it would
be very imprudent to go in supporting
a dishonest colleague, Charles.
That's because he's not dishonest.
I admit he failed to write up his notes straightaway,
but he was tired after working nearly 12 hours
overtime the previous two days.
Isn't tired rather a euphemism given
Kersey's personal problems?
Anyway, that's not the real point.
It is now clear that when he realized he could be held
accountable for selling suicide, he
covered up by lying about the time of his interview
with the prisoner.
Doug denies that, and I believe him.
This old style, shoulder to shoulder
with the troops, Charles, it isn't
relevant to modern policing.
It makes people a bit wary these days.
I take care of my team.
I leave public relations to you.
Sorry, Doug.
DOUG: Sir.
Lunch took a bit longer than expected.
What have we got?
Well, eight witnesses from Penzance
all say more or less the same thing.
We've got accident investigators at the scene.
And the victim?
Dinah Curran, 51, married, lives in Penzance.
She was certified dead on arrival at the hospital.
The next of kin have been informed.
Uh, and what personal history have got on the driver?
Well, her name's Morna Petheric.
She's 28.
She's single, lives in Porthminster,
works in the family business, which is a guest house,
I think.
WYCLIFFE: Tell us what happened, Morna.
Was it an accident?
Did your foot slip?
No.
I had to destroy her.
WYCLIFFE: Who?
She wanted to haunt me.
She would never have gone away unless I did.
Who wanted to haunt you, Morna?
MORNA: A ghost.
So it was a ghost that you saw today?
Have you seen ghosts before?
Do you often see them?
No.
Never.
Did you hear voices telling you it was a ghost?
No.
WYCLIFFE: Do you ever hear voices telling you things?
No.
Are you a religious person, Morna?
Not very.
WYCLIFFE: But you believe in spirits, the supernatural.
You believe in people coming back to haunt you.
I don't know.
When she was there, I saw her.
So, the woman you saw today had come to haunt you?
Why else would she be there?
Look, Morna, it wasn't really a ghost, you know.
It was an ordinary woman crossing an ordinary street.
No.
No, that's not possible.
I know. WYCLIFFE: It's all right, Morna.
It's all right. It's all right.
We can talk about this later.
Interview suspended, 14:10.
[distant sirens wailing]
She's not fit to be interviewed.
She may well be mentally disordered.
Yeah.
I'd like a doctor to see her as soon as possible.
Right, sir.
Thank you for coming in.
Ma'am, would you like to follow me?
Yeah, they came for me at work,
took me straightaway to identify her.
I didn't stay long.
LUCY: I'm sorry.
Well, it's not the first time I've had to do it, you see.
My first wife, she died in a coach crash.
We'd been married 26 years.
Thank you.
So Dinah was your second wife.
Yeah, five years.
Well, I hated being on my own.
And Dinah was a bookkeeper in the company I work for--
packaging, we make.
I'm in quality control.
And, well, we've neither of us children,
only ourselves to please.
We were company for one another.
What about her family, Mr. Curran?
Are they local?
She never had any.
Her parents died, ooh, long way back.
No, she'd no brothers or sisters.
And she'd never spoken of any cousins or that.
LUCY: Had she been married before?
No.
Very quiet woman, Dinah.
And the name Morna Petheric means nothing to you?
Not at all.
These cars are so powerful nowadays.
I suppose she got in the wrong gear or something?
Maybe.
I don't know.
I can't believe it.
Twice that's happened to me.
I've given her a mild sedative.
But I can't actually put my finger on what
her mental condition is.
I'd like the community psychiatric nurse
to take a look at her as well.
She says she saw a ghost.
Mm.
Yet I can't see that she's suffering
from any misperceptions.
She knows where she is, what time
it is, the name of the prime minister, all the usual things.
There's no evidence of paranoia.
Is there any history of mental illness?
She says not, but you can't rely on that.
You'd have to check with her GP or her family.
Sorry not to be more precise.
That's all right.
Thanks, Doctor.
Whatever she thought she saw, it
was a pretty powerful delusion.
I had a word with Stevens this morning.
DOUG: Oh, yeah?
He told me, uh, Le Page will deliver
her report to him this week.
She wants to see me again?
Well, in my meeting with her, I
wouldn't expect her to jump to conclusions
nor to bend to pressure.
I know the score.
There's a few people that wouldn't be sorry to see
the back of me, to be honest.
If they go on messing me about, I've more or less made
me mind up to leave anyway.
I'd be very sorry to lose you, Doug.
I know you've done what you can.
And I appreciate that.
It's things have changed so much these last few years.
Nowadays, maybe I'd fit in better somewhere else.
I'd like to leave before I get too bitter.
Here we go.
The Holly and the Ivy, cute.
[distant radio playing]
Good afternoon.
I have some vacancies.
Do come in.
WYCLIFFE: Mr. Petheric.
Yes?
We're not looking for rooms, I'm afraid.
MR. PETHERIC: Mum.
Detective Superintendent Wycliffe.
[radio clicks off]
This is Detective Inspector Kersey.
You are Mrs. Petheric?
Alma Petheric, yes.
This is my son, Richard.
And your husband?
Uh, he no longer lives here.
We're here about your daughter, Morna.
She's being held in police custody.
RICHARD: Morna?
What on earth's happened?
She was involved in a traffic incident in Penzance
this morning.
The pedestrian has been killed.
Your daughter was driving.
RICHARD: An accident.
WYCLIFFE: Apparently not.
Someone was killed?
How terrible.
Make us all a cup of tea, Richard.
Would you like a seat?
How was she this morning?
Was she upset in any way?
We have five guests at the moment.
We served their breakfast, and then Morna went out.
Has she been depressed recently,
suffering mood swings?
She's been fine.
She's fine.
I'd like to talk to her GP.
Oh, she hasn't had to see a doctor in years.
Please, get me the name and address.
Of course.
Can we see her?
Of course we can't.
She's been arrested.
RICHARD: Can we?
We'll have some shortbread with our tea.
Your sister's been charged.
And she'll appear before the magistrates in the morning.
And we'll be asking that she be remanded to a secure hospital.
Hospital?
To make sure she's probably taken care of, yes.
She must feel awful.
WYCLIFFE: Mrs. Petheric, I have to ask you this.
Does your daughter have a history of mental illness?
No, of course not.
Are you sure she's never received
treatment or counseling?
No.
Why?
Well, she seems unable to give a rational account of what
happened to her this morning.
She seems to believe that the woman that was killed
was a ghost.
RICHARD: Poor Morna.
Can I see her?
You'll be able to visit her, yes.
You can be present in court in the morning.
She's charged with murder.
Milk or lemon?
Milk, please.
DOUG: Uh, milk, please.
Yes.
Sugar?
DOUG: Two, please, then.
ALMA: We always serve tea at this time.
Supper, by arrangement, is at 8:00.
No wonder Morna has some strange ideas,
coming from a home like that.
Maybe it's just the mother's way of dealing with the shock.
Sir.
Yep.
What about a word with the neighbors?
OK.
Yeah.
Yeah, of course I know Alma Petheric.
She's my sister.
Your sister?
So you know Morna well?
No, not really.
I know who she is.
Naturally I would.
You see, our two guest houses used to be all one,
belonged to my parents.
Well, we decided to go our separate ways.
I don't really see much of them now days.
WYCLIFFE: When did you last see Morna, Mr. Randall?
Hm.
WYCLIFFE: To speak to?
Not since she was a little girl.
You've not spoken to your niece for, what, 20 years?
I suppose it is about that, yeah.
Family feud, is it?
Not at all.
DOUG: What then?
Nothing. I told you.
It's just the way things are.
Doesn't that bother you?
Well, that's always regretful when these things happen.
But you go on day to day and never think about it really.
WYCLIFFE: Would it surprise you to learn,
Mr. Randall, that your niece, Morna Petheric,
is in custody charged with murder?
No.
WYCLIFFE: She ran someone down on a pedestrian crossing,
quite deliberately.
That's terrible.
I don't understand. Deliberately?
Why?
We're not sure about her state of mind.
But she says that she saw a ghost.
Well, who did she kill?
A Mrs. Dinah Curran from Penzance.
[suspenseful music playing]
[silverware clattering]
Have you finished?
Yes, thank you.
It was very nice.
I'll bring you some more toast, shall I?
Marmalade or jam? - Uh, marmalade, please.
Thank you.
I'm going then.
Did you take the butter out of the fridge?
Are you sure you won't come, Mum?
Only I don't want to serving butter that's too hard.
It's on the table.
All right.
See you later then.
Mr. Petheric.
I was unsure where to go.
We're not on yet, I don't think.
Do you want to sit down?
My mother wouldn't come.
They take things differently, don't they?
I still can't believe it.
I thought Morna had gone after some auction in Penzance.
Each year, we refurbish one of the bedrooms,
and she's keen on all these decorative paint finishes.
There was nothing wrong, nothing at all.
They'll take the car apart to check
for any mechanical failure.
But Morna doesn't deny what happened.
She's not crazy.
Maybe not.
I'm no doctor.
Even if she is, I mean, it's--
it's no shame.
Hey, even police officers go for counseling
these days, stress or whatever.
Does a lot of good sometimes.
You know, getting everything out in the open will help.
No.
Morna's never been crazy.
If she was, I'd tell you.
Spoke to your uncle, Vernon Randall.
What happened there then?
Mum never likes to talk about it.
Don't you know?
You must have wondered.
Well, I think, perhaps, they couldn't
agree about running the guest house when it was all one.
Do you think the rift between your mother and uncle
could have upset Morna in some way?
Well, I don't see why.
We're used to it.
It was not like we're enemies or anything.
If we've got no vacancies, we send people next door.
It's just we've got nothing to say to one another really.
CLERK 1: You're on now, Mr. Kersey.
Right. That's us.
Thanks.
Don't forget this.
I'll see you there.
[sighs] Of all the times to have to socialize with DCC.
You're right.
I'm gonna have to be nice to his wife.
I don't mind if you really don't want to come.
Oh, don't tempt me.
You support me in what I do.
And this is what you want to do.
I think Stevens would be more than happy if I didn't.
Charlie, wherever you go, there's
going to be someone like him banging on
about performance standards, fraternization,
customer responsiveness.
You can't escape it.
I'm not selling a package of tea, you know.
No, you're not, which is precisely why
you'd never do anything else.
I'll see you later.
CLERK 2: Court rise.
MAGISTRATE: You are Morna Petheric, living at 39
St. Andrews Road, Porthminster.
I am.
Your date of birth is the 17th of December, 1968.
MORNA: Yes, it is.
MAGISTRATE: You are charged that on the 15th day of April, 1997,
at Brook Hill, Penzance, within the jurisdiction of the county
of Cornwall, you did unlawfully kill Dinah Curran with malice
of forethought against the peace of our sovereign lady,
the Queen.
Please sit down.
This is the first hearing.
Obviously, in due course, this case will be
committed to the Crown Court.
And I ask for an adjournment in order to prepare
papers for a committal.
She's in good shape her age.
But I found something interesting
I thought I'd follow up.
Probably not relevant to your inquiries at all,
but see here and here on her hands.
WYCLIFFE: Stab wounds?
Yes.
How old?
Oh, years.
This scarring would've all healed up when she
was still quite a young woman.
Even so, it shows she's led not an entirely quiet life.
When I saw the scarring, I thought I'd have her X-rayed.
Take a look.
It must have been a fairly long-bladed knife
and quite a savage attack.
There's more than one penetration to the chest.
Well, he just missed the heart and lungs.
Now, these are defensive wounds.
Obviously, she did her best to fend off her attacker.
Mr. Curran never mentioned this.
Well, presuming it was all reported and documented
at the time, it shouldn't be too difficult to find
out exactly what happened.
You're right.
We have to pull together.
I mean, since you were last in here, there must have been,
what, maybe 2,000 people stayed in this house?
And they've all been comfortable,
all enjoyed their stay.
Now, that says something, doesn't it?
Yeah, we did our best to put things
straight now, both of us.
Well, then.
Oh, you're upset.
I knew you would be.
You shouldn't have gone.
Vernon's come to see if he can help.
And I've just said to him, if we don't know what happened,
then we can't lay awake at night fretting about the details.
VERNON: She's right Richard--
best not to know.
The police will deal with that.
And when we go and see Morna, it will
be as if it never happened.
That's the best way.
Yeah, but she'll go to prison, won't she?
Maybe not.
Lawyers will sort it out.
Now you put plenty of sugar in your coffee
and forget all about it.
[tv cartoon music]
GUARD: There she is.
Uh, please, sit down then.
LUCY: Thank you.
I'd been promising Dinah for ages to get it done.
Mr. Curran, you must have noticed
the scars on your wife's hands.
Yeah, on her chest too.
How did she get them?
Did she tell you?
Oh, she said it was an accident ages ago.
Did you believe her?
She said it was a time she preferred to forget.
I really don't know much about it.
According to our forensic pathologist,
your wife had been the victim of a savage knife attack.
Hm, well, I did sometimes wonder
if it wasn't something more.
What was your wife's maiden name, Mr. Curran?
Trewithen, Dinah Trewithen.
And do you know where she lived as a young woman?
Look, we both had sadnesses to contend with.
And we decided when we got married always to look
forward, to keep cheerful.
We, neither of us, liked to dwell on the past.
Yes, a very intriguing case.
Morna remains convinced that she's destroyed
a ghost, not a human being.
We don't know near an explanation either.
Oh, her brother was here earlier.
Yeah, he seems very concerned.
Hm.
Tell me, from what Morna says, I gather that her family life
is very closed, very rigid.
There's no father apparently and clearly a
rather controlling mother.
Yes.
The mother's brother lives next door.
He told us that they haven't spoken to each other
since Morna was a child.
Oh, well, when a family doesn't speak like that,
it's seldom a lack of feeling.
You told us yesterday that the woman you ran down in your car
was a ghost.
Is that right?
How did you know that?
She'd come after me to haunt me.
Why did you think that?
Had you ever seen this ghost before?
Did you know the woman?
Her name was Dinah Curran.
Did you ever see her before?
[sobbing]
You told us she wanted to haunt you.
Why would she want to do that?
Because it was all my fault.
WYCLIFFE: What was?
That she died.
How did she die?
I killed her.
WYCLIFFE: And how did you do that, Morna?
There was blood everywhere, screaming.
It was all my fault.
WYCLIFFE: And when was this, Morna?
When did you kill her?
Years ago, when I was little.
[humming]
How are we doing?
Well, I've been checking to see if there's
any record of an assault on Dinah using her maiden name,
Trewithen.
But with no date or location, it's a needle in a haystack.
There must be some connection between the two women.
Dinah was attacked, and Morna has
memories of some childhood incident
involving brutal violence.
What about medical records?
DOUG: Lucy's on to that.
Uh, nothing on [inaudible].
But Dinah Curran had to be married before.
I'll check the records again under the name of Randall.
Randall?
You know that Vernon Randall is
Morna's uncle, lives next door.
LUCY: No, I didn't.
Right.
I must go.
I'll have to leave this to you.
You look frightfully smart, sir.
Thank you.
Um, let me know what you get.
I hope Stevens chokes on his volleyball.
Prat.
[piano music playing]
[indistinct chatter]
Oh, how marvelous.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, ma'am.
Thank you.
Dinah Trewithen.
Yes, my wife.
Such a bizarre coincidence.
I can't believe it.
DOUG: Would Morna have recognized
her aunt, do you think?
Well, I don't know.
Morna was so young when Dinah left.
It was 20-odd years ago.
How did your wife come to leave you, Mr. Randall?
Well, we had more or less agreed things
weren't working out between us.
One day I found the proverbial note on the mantelpiece.
Did you report her missing?
No.
Why should I?
Did your wife have any scars on her hands, Mr. Randall?
Scars?
DOUG: Mhm.
No.
- Are you sure? - Positive.
Why do you ask?
The post-mortem shows that some years ago your wife was
the victim of a knife attack.
Is that why she left you, Mr. Randall?
No.
Oh, people do sometimes just go missing from the lives they
lead, you know, and lose all connection
with their past selves for all sorts of reasons.
Huh, I think if someone tried to kill you
might be a very good reason.
If Morna did recognize Dinah Curran in Penzance
yesterday as her long-lost aunt, you'd
agree that it would make some sense of why she
thought she was seeing a ghost.
Oh, I suppose so.
Who knows?
Oh, this is uncanny.
I can't get used to it.
DOUG: But why would Morna want to kill
her aunt to destroy her ghost?
RANDALL: I have no idea, not at all.
I'm as lost in all of this as you are, Inspector.
[chatter]
We thought the Algarve again this year.
Oh.
Uh, you don't play golf, do you?
Afraid not.
Oh, Richard and I enjoy it.
Charles plays, doesn't he?
Occasionally.
Maybe you should consider taking it up.
Oh, I'm quite happy walking miles without hitting a ball.
But remember, sharing something
that gets you out of the house together is no bad thing.
Richard and I have discussed early retirement too.
We haven't discussed early--
Oh, it's always more of an upheaval for the wife,
don't you think?
[phone ringing]
Sorry.
One minute.
Wycliffe.
Yet, they can be such a boon sometimes, can't they?
Always on duty.
You're never off the hook either, are you?
It's the Petheric case.
STEVENS: Yes?
There's a body buried in the garden.
I have to go.
Yes.
We'll see Helen home.
Charles, the press will be onto this like a shot.
Until I see Superintendent Le Page's report,
I'd like Kersey kept out of the limelight.
If we have to suspend him in the morning,
we don't want him out there in front of a camera crew tonight,
do we?
DOUG: Careful.
FRANKS: Oh, thank you.
Oh, we've got a body, all right.
WYCLIFFE: Hey. - Charles.
[inaudible]
Sir.
FRANKS: A adult male.
He's been in there for some considerable time.
RICHARD: I never thought.
I was just trying to help Morna.
What happened?
It was that really hot summer.
1976?
I think so.
What happened?
RICHARD: Well, I remember that heat.
Everything was dry and dusty.
WYCLIFFE: Go on.
And afterwards, we went out in the garden.
That's all.
I just remember Uncle Vernon left the hose
pipe running in the garden.
They wouldn't let me play in it.
Then he was digging in all the mud.
And I wanted to help.
But Mum took us down to the beach instead.
WYCLIFFE: You must remember more than that.
I mean, you knew enough to be digging, didn't you?
I never believed it really happened.
But why else would Morna--
Whose body is it in the garden, Richard?
I can't say.
Will we find other bodies out there?
You see, we know your Aunt Dinah was attacked years ago.
And Morna saw that happen, didn't she?
Saw the blood.
Yeah, that's what she told me today.
And I do remember Uncle Vernon digging.
How old were you in 1976, Richard?
Um, five.
And Morna was how old, seven?
Neither tall enough nor strong enough to stab an adult
repeatedly with a knife, an adult
trying to defend themselves.
Whose body did you find in the garden, Richard?
Uh, you--
Richard.
You don't understand.
It can't be true.
Our dad just left.
That's what Mum said.
I was no different from all the other kids at school,
and nor was Morna.
I mean, things like that just don't happen, do they?
We're a normal family.
Mrs. Petheric, the body of an adult male
has been found buried in your garden.
What can you tell us about it?
Nothing.
Nothing at all.
You've no idea whose body it is?
No.
How long have you lived here, Mrs. Petheric?
All my life.
I was born in this house.
And you know nothing of a body buried in the garden.
Where's your husband?
What's his name?
Robert.
Robert Simon Petheric.
And where is he now?
ALMA: I don't know.
Your sister-in-law, Dinah Randall?
Mr. Wycliffe, I'm very sorry, but I really can't help you.
Well, perhaps you could help Morna.
[knocking at door]
Come in.
Sit down.
I'm just finalizing my report for DCC Stevens
to pass on to the Police Complaints Authority.
Now, in earlier interviews, you have
maintained that you last visited Sennan in the cells at 6:30.
That's right, yes.
Although this is conflicted with the written custody record
kept by Sergeant Cannon.
Yes.
Well, if the custody record is correct,
you last spoke to Sennan shortly after 8:00.
You were the last person to see him alive.
He must have set about killing himself immediately
upon your departure.
I was at home at half-past 7:00 in the bath.
This you have maintained throughout.
But due to the lack of a contemporaneous written record,
your account has remained uncorroborated.
This will be noted in your record.
However, if you did visit Sennan at 6:30,
and Sergeant Cannon then visited him at 7:00 and then
at 8:00 o'clock, which he maintained in his custody
record, then surely he would have noted the distressed state
of the prisoner.
And he would have noted Sennan tearing
up his shirt to make a noose.
That would take a bit of time, wouldn't it?
I now have evidence in the form of a witness statement
to support your version of events.
What?
Who from?
Another prisoner.
He was released that night without charge.
His presence in the cells was not
immediately made known to me.
It took me some time to trace him through the custody record.
I can't tell you any more at the moment,
but it will all be in my report.
However, I think it's important that you
know why I was confident that your account would
be vindicated.
Not one officer that I spoke to would believe
there could be such negligence and dishonesty in the colleague
they all admire and respect.
I know these inquiries can be very demoralizing--
I mean, sometimes, justifiably so.
But I do hope you'll take time to digest what I've told you
and not to make any hasty decisions about your future.
Thank you.
It could very well be Robert Petheric, the right sort of age
and so on.
Dental records should be apt to confirm it.
Well, I can't give you the precise cause of death.
The body's been in the ground too long.
But this chap has very similar wounds to Mrs. Curran.
But if you are arguing that Dinah Curran was attacked
at the same time, then you're probably looking
for two assailants, not one.
Why?
Different knife.
Well, this one has a serrated edge like a bread knife.
You find none of the suggested charges against Inspector
Kersey approved.
How can that be?
I have recommended that it be noted on his service record
that he failed to keep a contemporaneous written record
on his interview with Sennan.
That's a flea bite.
There will be charges brought against Sergeant Cannon.
It's proved he did falsify the custody record.
He's already taken early retirement.
It's not going to make any real difference now.
You'll find my main findings in the conclusion, sir.
I also thought it appropriate to note the excellent morale
of Superintendent Wycliffe's team
under difficult circumstances.
Low staffing levels, excessive case loads,
lack of support for senior officers,
unacceptable delays in the implementation
of new force structures-- what is this, a witch hunt?
You were supposed to be investigating
a death in custody, not carry out a management survey.
You assured me you didn't want to whitewash, sir.
[police radio chatter]
All done?
All done.
The DCC's a bad loser.
And Doug Kersey?
Well, he's had to think about his priorities--
no bad thing, perhaps.
I think he'll be fine.
He'll soon be back on track.
Thank you.
Oh, you're welcome.
WYCLIFFE: Morna, we now know that the woman
you saw in Penzance was your aunt, Dinah Randall.
Is that correct?
And you hadn't seen your Aunt Dinah for--
since you were a little girl.
Do you remember her leaving?
[sobbing]
Now, when we spoke to you yesterday,
you told me that you killed her.
Is that right?
Yes.
When you said that, you didn't mean
that you killed her in Penzance two days ago with your car.
No, years ago, at home.
There was blood everywhere, in the bedroom on the walls,
everywhere.
How did it begin?
I went to talk to Mum and Uncle Vernon.
And there was shouting and crying and screaming.
Who was shouting and crying?
- They were. - Who?
The grownups.
What else did you see?
Uncle Vernon in the garden.
WYCLIFFE: What was he doing?
Digging.
Mum said it would be all right then.
I was to forget about it.
They'd look after me.
We went to the beach.
And after that, the guest house was divided into two.
But no one ever spoke about what had happened.
I don't need to talk about those things.
It was all my fault. They were just making sandwiches.
It was me that made them all so angry.
That's why Aunt Dinah came back to punish me.
[sighs] Morna, the tragedy is that you have killed your aunt,
but not when you are a little girl.
Things did happen to you when you were young--
frightening, fearful things.
But you couldn't understand because no one
explained them to you.
It grew into dark shapes, in the shadow of which none
of your family cared to linger.
Tell me.
Your Aunt Dinah was attacked.
Somehow, she escaped from the house and survived.
And then she just disappeared.
Maybe she was too scared to go to the police.
We don't know.
15 years later in Penzance, she met
and she married John Curran.
And when you saw her again, all those frightening memories
of blood and screaming came flooding back to you.
And that's where the ghost came from.
But I saw Uncle Vernon bury her.
Morna, we have found a body buried in the garden,
but it's not your aunt.
Now, just think, Morna.
Who were the grownups involved?
There was your Uncle Vernon, your Aunt Dinah, your mother,
and who else?
[eerie music playing]
[reporters shouting]
Alma has the children to think of.
It's not for to her to tell you. I don't want to upset her.
She's my sister.
Get into the car, Mr. Randall.
[siren wailing]
Sir.
Doug.
You OK?
Yeah, um, you were right about Le Page.
I think I'll hang around a bit longer.
I'm glad to hear it.
Why did you want us to come up here, Mrs. Petheric?
I want you to judge for yourself.
There.
It's a pleasant room, isn't it?
You can tell, can't you?
Nothing bad has ever happened here.
Your daughter is going to stand trial for the killing
of Dinah Randall.
I think she deserves an explanation
of what's happened in this room, even
if it is 20 years too late.
It was Morna who came running to tell me.
She's was only little.
She thought it was funny that her daddy and her Auntie Dinah
were in bed together in the middle of the day,
right under the sheets together, she said, in this room.
And what did you and your brother do about that?
Vernon and I were cutting sandwiches.
We had the knives in our hands, and we came up here.
DOUG: And then?
But Dinah survived.
When we found out she'd gone, we
expected the police any minute.
But, well, no one ever came.
I never thought Morna would remember.
I never imagined she really understood what had happened.
I thought we'd be all right.
I redecorate this room every year.
[police radio chatter]
[camera shutters clicking]
[reporters shouting]
Looks like you're on your own now.
Yeah.
I'll try and keep things going for Morna's sake.
Maybe you'd be better off starting again somewhere fresh.
No.
I'm not going to pretend it never happened.
That's what my mum and Uncle Vernon tried.
It's why they never spoke to each other.
That's no good.
Silence doesn't make things go away, does it?
No.
Better to stay here, face up to everything.
I still can't believe it.
People would want to stay here, especially now, wouldn't they?
[theme music]