Ludwig

Hello!

- The Elvis Presley of puzzle setters. - Where's James?

James is on some case.

Until three nights ago, when he didn't come home at all.

In fact, the only person that can access the police station is James.

Or somebody who looks remarkably like him.

Looks like a cipher.

He's using this to take notes about whatever he was investigating.

I will solve it.

Just need more data.

Need to find out what he's been doing,

what he's been working on, who he's been working with.

I've met most of his colleagues.

I can brief you on all of them.

- DCI Taylor... - Ah!

I'm led to believe that you've been performing miracles recently.

The man they arrested for the Sinclair murder has killed himself.

Something is being covered up here.

We know that.

Is this all connected to the Sinclair case?

The one that you and James were working? The blogger.

My husband is still missing.

He left you, all right?

My brother left you.

Holly Pinder was discovered dead.

Your wife has been arrested on suspicion of murder.

There's files here so restricted,

even I don't have access.

Adam Newsum, I'm arresting you on suspicion of murder.

I'm not DCI James Taylor.

I'm his brother, John.

The only Taylor who'd been working at this station

was the one who was actually a detective.

We're offering to put John on the payroll as a consultant.

A consultant in what?

Puzzles.

It's the source code.

It's how we solve the cipher.

- I think this is it. - It's an address.

It's all of Sinclair's research.

Somewhere in here, there's one story

important enough to kill him over.

How often do people get murdered around here?

Just taking these to Miss Kemper.

Box on the right.

Mummy, I think the tickets are in...

I know exactly where they are, thank you, Patricia.

- Can I just say...? - No, you can't.

- You've said enough. - Mummy, I really think... - Enough.

Let's discuss this when we're at home.

- Come along. - You're in the left box, ladies.

Through the door, straight up the stairs.

Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats.

The show will commence in two minutes.

That's two minutes to curtain.

Thank you.

- Can't see a bloody thing in here. - Quiet, Mummy!

For heaven's sake, turn it off.

Well, you'd expect the usher to usher.

- Really! - Sit down. Why do you have to make such a fuss?

No standards any more.

Just sit down. People are looking at us.

Ladies and gentlemen, please turn off your devices.

- Now what? - Recording is not permitted.

- Rack and ruin, this place. Shocking! - Sh!

APPLAUSE

OPERATIC SINGING

Find a back exit, bring the car around.

Now.

Um... What's happening?

Call Cambridge police. Ask for Ziegler.

SINGER CRESCENDOES

THEY SCREAM

You were always her best friend.

I may have been the one to marry her,

but that never changed.

I disappeared from my family's life

weeks before I disappeared from home.

And I told myself I was doing so in search of answers

and the greater good.

But the truth is...

...I was just looking for anything

to pull me away from a life I'd grown unhappy with.

KNOCK ON DOOR

I thought I could hear Dad's voice.

How do you know it wasn't your Uncle John?

Is he still in bed?

Mm-hm.

And slightly more nasal.

Why do you keep playing it?

Maybe I miss his non-nasal tone.

You know he had to say all that.

He was trying to protect us.

He knew someone could be listening in.

It was his only cover.

You know, your Uncle John says two things can be true at once.

Yeah.

- Don't know what that means. - Me neither.

I am glad you're more Betts than Taylor, sweetheart.

Thanks.

DOOR CLOSES

No, no, no, no, no.

Morning.

Oh, is this for me?

I'm going to make an early start.

"Shop burgled."

That's the story?

That is the entire story?

- Where's my breakfast gone? - I don't know.

You enjoy doing this, don't you?

I've always enjoyed looking for needles in haystacks.

Mm.

Two weeks you've been at it now.

14 whole days

wading through Sinclair's files.

You've... found nothing out at all.

Well, I wouldn't do yet, would I?

This is just the first stage.

I'm... I'm cataloguing them all.

That pile on the right there,

that's for nonsense -

UFOs, ghosts, giant cats.

- "Giant cats"? - Yes.

I don't think they're giant-giant,

just... bigger than normal.

And that pile in the middle there,

that's people who qualify as famous under the modern definition.

That one on the end there

is for anything that mentions police or criminal investigation.

Ironically, it's the dullest.

And what happens when you have your three piles?

I'll discard the first,

shuffle the other two together...

LUCY EXHALES ...and then start the process again,

this time with stricter criteria.

Do it enough times and we'll end up with the one file

that Sinclair died for

and the reason for my brother's disappearance.

Probably.

- I made that, you know. - Mm?

Oh, thank you, Henry.

Very nice.

We had so much momentum.

Why hasn't the station called?

We need you back in there. That's where we need you.

Digging about, finding some facts, for God's sake.

You attended a crime scene,

you solved the crime within five minutes.

Why has nobody been in touch since?

Well, presumably, nobody's been murdered since.

Do you want someone to get murdered?

I don't WANT that... per se.

PHONE RINGS

Well, I hope you feel very guilty.

Hello, Russell.

This seems smoother than usual.

What gear are we in?

The correct one.

That must be it.

John, do you think James wants us doing this?

Has it ever occurred to you that,

far from leaving a trail of breadcrumbs

for his genius brother...

...if not his wife to follow,

he's actually just using us to safely store the files he stole?

And now expects us to just sit waiting in the dark again?

Of course it has.

- Really? - Obviously.

But he should have got someone else to store them, then, shouldn't he?

Because I'm going to go through each and every one of them,

I'm going to find out what this is all about

and I'm going to find him, and I'm going to bring him home.

I'll probably need a lift then as well.

Good. Glad I'm involved somehow.

WIPERS CREAK

OK. OK.

- Hello, DI Carter. - Hi, Lucy. How are you?

Um... Yes. Yes, good.

I'm pretty much totally over that whole

being-framed-for-murder thing, so...

How are you?

Fine. Um...

You're going to laugh when I tell you this

but turns out I don't have a driving licence.

JOHN LAUGHS

Or rather, I do,

but I didn't realise that they run out.

When did it run out?

During Covid, apparently.

It was a confusing time for everyone.

So, the entire time you were impersonating a detective,

you were also driving around without a licence?

Yeah, but it seems rather minor by comparison.

Are you going to wait for me here?

John, the super wants to debrief,

and then we're attending a crime scene. We could be hours.

Right.

Is that OK?

We'll have someone run him home.

What does the super want? Is it good news?