Inspector Brackenreid has brought a crowd of dockers into Police Station 4 for questioning. There has been a murder at the Westerly Club, and Detective Murdoch and Constable Crabtree have gone to investigate. Dr Ogden Has arrived at the house of her father, Dr Lionel Ogden, in response to a telephone call from him, only to be told by his housekeeper, Mrs Hastings, that she is too late: her father has died. Julia is shocked to learn that her father's body is to be cremated; she had expected him to be buried alongside her mother.
The dead man at the club is Oliver Hoyle, a member of a puzzle-solving fraternity. His body was in the snooker room, near a blackboard on which there is a string of unusual characters and punctuation marks, which is a cipher puzzle designed by Edgar Allen Poe. One of the puzzlers claims to have seen the solution written on the blackboard the previous evening, but the janitor says that there was nothing on the blackboard but the cipher, when he saw it early in the morning. The hunt for evidence now shifts to finding Hoyle's personal puzzle notebook, to see if the solution is written in it, which would be confirmation that he had solved the puzzle and had been killed for it.
Meanwhile, Julia is not satisfied with what her father's medical attendant, Dr Bradley, has to say, and she cannot persuade him to conduct a post-mortem examination. As far as Dr Bradley is concerned, the death of Julia's father was not unexpected, as he was over 70 and had been complaining of chest pains. Dissatisfied, Julia telephones Detective Murdoch to tell him that she is suspicious. Murdoch rushes to be with Julia, who tells him that she intends to perform a post-mortem herself. Murdoch is clearly surprised by this, but leaves her to it while he goes to see Dr Bradley. While undertaking the PM, Julia imagines her father watching her. Dr Ogden's ghost also tries to dissuade Julia from looking into his death. A knock at the door interrupts Julia's work. At the door is Caroline Hill, an elderly neighbour of Dr Lionel, who explains to Julia that she had become close to him in recent months.
At the club, one of the puzzlers, Roger Newsome, has written the solution to Poe's puzzle on the blackboard. Inspector Brackenreid promptly arrests him, and eventually draws from him the admission that he did not solve the puzzle himself, but found the notebook in the bar, and wanted the other puzzle fraternity members to accord him the kudos of solving the problem.
After speaking to Dr Bradley, Detective Murdoch returns to Julia, who has found that her father's heart was healthy, and therefore Dr Bradley must have been lying. The discovery that one of her father's syringes is missing prompts Julia and Murdoch to examine her father's body for a puncture wound. Murdoch finds just such a mark on Dr Lionel's neck. It was indeed a murder. Soon, Murdoch learns from Lionel's will that Catherine Hill is due to inherit a substantial legacy.
With Murdoch away from Police Station 4, Inspector Brackenreid decides it is time to emulate Murdoch's methodology, and acquires a blackboard of his own to draw up a matrix of the evidence he has collected to see if there is a pattern.
So, who killed Dr Ogden? Who killed Oliver Hoyle? What other surprises lie ahead? Will the Inspector's new blackboard make a difference?
This really is a must-see episode. It borrows from Due South the motif of one of the main characters talking to a dead father, but that only adds to the charm of the story.
But, just when you think everything is turning out right, there is a nasty sting in the tail.
The dead man at the club is Oliver Hoyle, a member of a puzzle-solving fraternity. His body was in the snooker room, near a blackboard on which there is a string of unusual characters and punctuation marks, which is a cipher puzzle designed by Edgar Allen Poe. One of the puzzlers claims to have seen the solution written on the blackboard the previous evening, but the janitor says that there was nothing on the blackboard but the cipher, when he saw it early in the morning. The hunt for evidence now shifts to finding Hoyle's personal puzzle notebook, to see if the solution is written in it, which would be confirmation that he had solved the puzzle and had been killed for it.
Meanwhile, Julia is not satisfied with what her father's medical attendant, Dr Bradley, has to say, and she cannot persuade him to conduct a post-mortem examination. As far as Dr Bradley is concerned, the death of Julia's father was not unexpected, as he was over 70 and had been complaining of chest pains. Dissatisfied, Julia telephones Detective Murdoch to tell him that she is suspicious. Murdoch rushes to be with Julia, who tells him that she intends to perform a post-mortem herself. Murdoch is clearly surprised by this, but leaves her to it while he goes to see Dr Bradley. While undertaking the PM, Julia imagines her father watching her. Dr Ogden's ghost also tries to dissuade Julia from looking into his death. A knock at the door interrupts Julia's work. At the door is Caroline Hill, an elderly neighbour of Dr Lionel, who explains to Julia that she had become close to him in recent months.
At the club, one of the puzzlers, Roger Newsome, has written the solution to Poe's puzzle on the blackboard. Inspector Brackenreid promptly arrests him, and eventually draws from him the admission that he did not solve the puzzle himself, but found the notebook in the bar, and wanted the other puzzle fraternity members to accord him the kudos of solving the problem.
After speaking to Dr Bradley, Detective Murdoch returns to Julia, who has found that her father's heart was healthy, and therefore Dr Bradley must have been lying. The discovery that one of her father's syringes is missing prompts Julia and Murdoch to examine her father's body for a puncture wound. Murdoch finds just such a mark on Dr Lionel's neck. It was indeed a murder. Soon, Murdoch learns from Lionel's will that Catherine Hill is due to inherit a substantial legacy.
With Murdoch away from Police Station 4, Inspector Brackenreid decides it is time to emulate Murdoch's methodology, and acquires a blackboard of his own to draw up a matrix of the evidence he has collected to see if there is a pattern.
So, who killed Dr Ogden? Who killed Oliver Hoyle? What other surprises lie ahead? Will the Inspector's new blackboard make a difference?
This really is a must-see episode. It borrows from Due South the motif of one of the main characters talking to a dead father, but that only adds to the charm of the story.
But, just when you think everything is turning out right, there is a nasty sting in the tail.
