The Chelsea Detective

Good morning, Archie.

Good morning, Zoe.

Thanks for that.

So on a scale of 1 is meh and 10 is "help me,"

how nervous are you?

Meh.

Yeah, meh.

Great.

I must say, I prefer this vibe.

But what did you do with that awful, dreary Archie

from last year's conference?

Thank you.

Ha.

Wouldn't you like to know?

That's fine.

Siobhan, darling.

Can you put Daddy on?

No, I'm afraid he's not here.

Mom, just put him on.

I don't want you upsetting him.

Tell him everything is in hand.

Yes, I will.

You're right.

Look after yourself.

Bye.

Key... key drivers.

Sea level rise.

You left your phone in the office.

It pinged.

Everything all right?

Yeah.

Hunky dory.

Nah.

Nah.

Give me the thing.

Oi.

Nah.

Do these things even work?

How would I know?

Did you see his face?

- Shit. - No, no.

- Look. - Okay, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nice, nice.

The front door's open.

My days.

It's fine.

I just want you to slow down.

I got my foot on the floor. My foot's on the floor.

Look.

What's happening?

Poor thing's died.

Gonna have to ditch it here or something.

Reporting an abandoned vehicle.

Registration, Golf Lima 72 Victor November Papa.

Evidence of blood on vehicle.

Location, Trellick Estate.

Yeah?

Are you the registered owner of an Audi motor vehicle?

So this is John's eldest daughter.

How old?

Just turned 17.

She's coming up to celebrate her birthday.

And what the hell are 17-year-olds into nowadays?

This is where your detecting skills

come into their own.

You're a detective. What do you suggest?

ABBA.

Everyone loves ABBA.

She won't know who ABBA are.

She'll want to film us doing the latest

TikTok dance or something.

Why is that funny?

So the car owner claims total ignorance.

If he's lying, it's a bold place to dump your car

with a body in the boot.

Looks like he left in a hurry.

Key fob's inside.

Car's out of charge.

So Mr. Bukhari sideswipes a pedestrian, runs out

of juice before he has time to bury the evidence?

I've got uniform in a door-to-door around the estate.

Might get something from CCTV.

No, there must be three ANPR cameras

within 500 yards of this.

We know who it is yet?

Meet Professor Archie Matthew Draper.

Professor of climate sciences at

the British Geographical Society and lives

on Marcia Crescent.

What?

I should have stuck with a career in academia.

Time of death, from the vicar, estimate

of 12 to 24 hours.

He still had his phone in his pocket.

There's blood there.

If he did dump the car, wouldn't you

wipe that off first?

No external damage to the vehicle.

I'm not working on the assumption

of mechanical impact.

From an in-situ check, there's no fractured bones or bruising.

One hell of a whack on the side of the skull there.

As a veteran in the war between motorists and cyclists,

maybe this fella cut up the driver.

The driver got out and attacked him.

What makes you think he was on a bike?

Isn't that chain oil on his trousers?

And if it is, where's the bike?

The car is a satnav.

Pull the GPS data.

Retrace the route.

Check for accidents.

Have you dusted the interior for prints?

Not yet, Max.

I thought I would prioritize the dead body

we found in the boot.

So when did you last see your car?

I got back about 1:00.

I did some work once I got back here, made some dinner,

watched the England game, and then

went to bed about midnight.

And you didn't check your car before heading to bed?

No.

And you didn't hear anything?

Sorry.

What is it I'm supposed to have heard?

The V8 accelerating away?

It's an electric car.

Voices, anything.

No, I had no idea the car was even

missing until the police came knocking on my door

this morning.

So you can't explain to us how

your car ended up by the Trellick Tower

with this man's body in the boot?

What?

No, I don't know.

I don't know.

You last saw your husband yesterday morning?

Briefly, around 8:00.

Archie was heading to work.

I was getting the girls ready for school.

How did he seem?

Normal.

Nothing came to mind, a bit nervous about his conference.

Which conference was that?

On climate change at the British Geographical Society.

I was under the impression that this was a car accident.

Is that not the case?

At this stage, we're keeping an open mind.

Hello.

George Rushland.

DS Walsh.

Detective Inspector Max Arnold.

Siobhan.

I came as soon as I heard.

I'm so, so sorry, darling.

What am I going to tell the girls?

We'll all be together.

When you're ready, we'll send the car

to collect them from school.

Mrs. Draper, did you have any contact with Archie

during the day?

You texted him in the afternoon.

Yes.

I tried to call him later too.

Then you had plans to see him last night?

We had theater tickets.

Which theater?

The King's in Waterloo.

You weren't worried when your husband didn't show up?

It's conference week.

When I booked the tickets, I half expected him not to show.

What did you see?

"Six Characters in Search of an Author."

After it finished?

I came home.

Got back after 11:00.

Can anyone confirm that?

I can.

I was here, babysitting.

Mrs. Draper, when you got home...

Detectives, can I suggest that we

end things here for now?

My family need time to process this.

And we have a couple more questions...

I'm not asking.

Neither are we.

Mrs. Draper, when you got home and your husband

wasn't here either, where did you think he was?

For...

Dad, it's fine.

I was expecting him to be sleeping at his office.

He did it during conference week last year and the

year before.

Mrs. Rushland, where were you yesterday?

I was working from home.

Then I collected the girls from school,

came back here, cooked dinner, and stayed