Vera

Get off my bus now, or I'll report you.

You're fake, both of you.

Lyle.

Got to go. It's work. It can't wait.

Morning, ma'am.

- Malcolm's in a foul mood. - Oh, nothing new there, then.

Our victim's male, looks to be in his 40s.

A lighthouse technician, Amy Watson,

saw him on the boat and called it in.

I've left a message for Missing Persons.

- Morning, Jac. - Morning, ma'am.

Have we got a name for our sailor yet?

No I.D. was found on the victim or the boat.

But there was a registration number on its radio.

I'll run it through the U.K. Ship Register.

- Great. How about the Coastguard?

- Any distress signals? - No, nothing.

That boat could have come in from anywhere.

Right. Come on.

Let's check the tide,

see what we can narrow it down from.

Ah, and another police officer

tramples all over the crime scene.

I just prefer it

if people didn't stomp all over the evidence.

I'm funny like that.

I'm never known you to be funny, Malcolm.

So, what can you tell us?

You're not a schoolteacher, Stanhope?

I'll know an awful lot more once I get him back to the lab.

What time of death?

It doesn't look like he died this morning.

Rigor mortis is absent, so the best I could offer you

is sometime in the last two or three days.

So Friday or Saturday.

Any clue as to how he died?

At the risk of repeating myself, D.C.I. Stanhope...

Yeah, well, something happened here.

Yes, the injury on his cheekbone

was sustained shortly before he died.

There is minor swelling, but not the colour change

I'd expect from an older bruise.

Move.

There's a nastier head injury back here.

- Assaulted? - Too early to tell.

He could have injured himself on the boat.

Aw, come on, Malcolm, give us something to go on.

- Right. Well, you see

this lividity pattern on the side of his face?

This tells me that he was lying on something very specific

for several hours after he died.

And that pattern doesn't match anything else in the vicinity.

Are you saying he's been moved?

Or whatever it was, was washed overboard.

Alright, thanks, Malcolm.

As quick as you can on this one,

cos if he has been dead a couple of days,

there will be someone at home needs to know about this.

Don't forget to trample on more evidence on the way out.

- Ma'am? - Oh, tell me you've got a name.

- Frank Channing. Missing Persons got back to us.

- He lived in Tritlington. - Oh, so he's local.

Yeah. I checked the electoral register, as well,

- and got his next of kin. - Great work, Jac.

Now, when you get back to the station,

make a start on the timeline.

I want to know where he was last week,

what he was doing, and who he met.

- Ma'am. - So, who is the next of kin?

Looks like his wife, Julia Channing.

I hate this bit.

Right. Wish me luck.

Dad?

I'm very sorry, Mrs. Channing.

What am I gonna tell Lyle?

Uh, our son.

Just turned 18.

They were tight.

More mates than father and son.

Well, at least, they used to be.

I can tell him what's happened if you want.

Mrs. Channing, when did you last see your husband?

She's already said this to Missing Persons.

Don't you lot speak to each other?

Friday, he came back for lunch just before 1:00.

And... And then he left almost straightaway.

Said it couldn't wait.

So, what was the emergency?

- I don't know. He... He didn't say.

What was his job?

Principal licencing officer, Northumberland and City Council.

Why didn't you report him missing on Friday?

Why wait until Sunday?

He messaged me Friday, said he was going sailing.

He said he'd be back Sunday.

Sunday.

And where would he have launched from?

It varied on the tide.

And then he'd just moor up wherever the fancy took him.

Okay, love.

Um, now, can you let me

have your husband's car registration number?

What's that got to do with anything?

Well, presumably it'll be parked

wherever he set sail, love.

Oh, yes. Right. Sorry.

Thanks, love.

Was it usual for your husband to go sailing all weekend?

Aye. Weekend, night sailing.

He... He just liked the solitude of being out on his boat.

Hmm. And he'd normally be back by Sunday?

He'd arranged to meet Lyle.

Him and Frank are doing up a... an old boat.

Working on this together at Oxley Sailing Club.

And is that where your husband kept his own boat?

Aye. He was a member.

It was practically his second home.

- Oh. - It's alright.

Well, that's it for now, love.

Thanks for your time, Mrs. Channing,

Mr. Allen.

If told your missus on a Friday you'd be back Sunday,

she'd want to know chapter and verse

about what you were doing, where you were, wouldn't she?

Or she'd be ringing you up to complain.

So what's the next step, ma'am?

Now, Frank was a licencing officer

with the Northumberland and City Council.

Some sort of emergency there on Friday.

So meet me there. Let's see what they can tell us.

We've only just heard about Frank.

- Couldn't this have waited? - Ah, no, pet, it can't.

How long had Frank been in the council?

- Since university. But in licencing, five years.

He's practically part of the furniture.

We know, on Friday afternoon,

he was dealing with an urgent work matter.

- Oh, no, no, no, no. That's incorrect.

Frank wasn't at work.

He'd taken the afternoon off to go sailing.

Well, is it possible he changed his mind

and decided to work instead?

Frank was dedicated to the council and its values,

but he had a good work-life balance.

Where's his office?

- His desk is, uh... it's over there.

- I'll check it out. - No, I'd prefer it

if it went through the proper channels.

I need to inform our legal department,

chief exec's office.

We're not looking for state secrets, love.

We're just trying to ascertain what sort of person Frank was.

He was popular with everyone.

So no problems with disgruntled licensees

or friction with counsellors?

No, nothing like that.

Did he ever talk about his home life?

Frank was professional.

He kept his private life out of the office.

Do you have permission to do that?

Detective Sergeant Aiden Healy,

Northumberland and City Police.

- Oh. - Did you work with Frank?

Ever since I left college.

I'm Leonie Becker.

How did he die? Bosses didn't tell us much.

It's too early to say, but we believe that he may have

been handling some kind of emergency on Friday.

Anything major's flagged up on the staff intranet.

It doesn't look like anything came in.

We don't have major emergencies as such.

You might get a nasty phone call

if someone's lost their licence, but that's it.

Okay.

Day to day, what did his job entail?

The usual management responsibilities,

staff appraisals, inspection regimes.

I can send you a copy of his job description.

That'd be helpful. Thanks.

Right. Well, that's everything.

I'm surprised he wasn't running his own department,

having worked so many years at the council.

Well, we both went for this job, head of licencing.

Ah, but you got it.

They liked the work I'd done in procurement.

They wanted a fresh face, fresh ideas.

Being overlooked, though,

that must have been a bitter pill to swallow.

Well, if it was, he never showed it.

Now, I'm going to need access to Frank's computer

and any other devices he might have used.

- Well, I'll have to refer up. We handle sensitive data here.

Oh, well, while you're doing that,

I'll refer up to the magistrate, come back with a warrant,

maybe get access to everyone's computer.

I'll see what I can do.

Anything useful in that diary?

Cos talking to her was like

wading through red tape and treacle.

Endless meetings.