Original subtitles

RADIO: Live across the capital, this is Radio London Live.

Oh. Hello. Hi.

I'm Susan Ryeland. This is... This is my place.

I've just come to get some clothes. Right.

Oh, erm, do you know when you might be finished?

We should be out some time later on. Great. Thanks.

What are you doing here?

SUSAN GASPS

Well, actually, this is my flat. How about you?

Just wanted a shot of this before they paint over it.

Why? You think that's going to help you?

It'll make a nice souvenir.

SUSAN CHUCKLES WRYLY

I hope you don't mind if I don't stay for a chat.

You know he's playing you?

I'm sorry?

DI Blakeney.

He's not your friend, if that's what you were thinking.

It's what we always do.

I don't know what you mean.

Get close to the main suspect.

Quiet meal, glass of wine.

We both know you did it, Susan.

He's just drawing you out, waiting for you to give yourself away.

Are you serious?

Do yourself a favour and admit what you did.

It'll save us all a lot of time.

THEME MUSIC

Is he going to help you? That detective of yours.

Oh, erm, he's called DI Blakeney,

and I'm not sure I want to see him again.

But I thought he was on your side. So did I.

You said he was trying to help.

I... I'm not sure what he's up to any more.

Right, well, treat the place as yours.

I'll be back at five.

May I ask something?

Oh, erm... Yes, of course.

Why did you want a job?

Erm...

Well, it's...it's my life, David.

Books, publishing.

Does it pay well? Well, yeah, she does all right for herself.

Don't you, Susan? Not really.

Perhaps you're making a mistake.

No, Susan loves publishing. It's all she's ever done.

You're going to miss your train. Oh, yeah... I'll get my things.

I usually drop David off at the station on my way to work. Mm.

Are you sure you're going to be all right on your own?

Yes, I'll be fine! I'm worried about you, Susan.

What happened at the flat, that was dreadful.

And Hugo!

The flat's being redecorated and Hugo's going to be as good as new.

Actually, I've quite taken to him. If I'd known he was going to

get stabbed, I'd never have let you have him. Dave!

Yeah, I'm here.

Erm, what I meant was, perhaps you're making a mistake

working for somebody else.

Well, there's no chance of that right now. Nobody wants me.

Erm... Revenue, 7.1 billion, a year-on-year increase of 3%,

which is not bad in the current climate.

Export market, 4.4 billion.

Digital revenue up 13%.

You don't want to WORK for a publishing house.

You want to be one.

Thank you.

I'll definitely think about that.

Right, I'll... I think he's trying to help.

Oh... Yeah.

Are you sure you're going to be all right? Yes. Thank you, Katie.

I'm going home today. Right, well, just call me if anybody else gets killed.

Right, come on, then. Let's get your train. Yes, yes.

Look, we are here about Eliot. Then why are you asking these questions?

I had nothing to do with the death of my grandmother.

Are you denying that the three of you planned to kill her?

We talked about it, but we were children.

We talked about lots of things. You also concocted some kind of poison.

It wasn't poison. It was stuff from the house,

it was stuff from the garden. It was chopped-up leaves,

it was cough mixture my brother stole from the family doctor.

Whatever it was, your brother Eliot saw you carrying it

towards your grandmother's bedroom. The very same night she died.

That is rubbish. That is ridiculous. I d...

Oh, my God.

Tell me.

OK, we made this "poison",

but we were never going to use it.

I was scared to have it in my room. I had to get rid of it.

There's a toilet opposite my grandmother's room.

DOOR CREAKS

So I poured it down the toilet.

That was the end of it.

So, you're saying...

..that it's just a coincidence your grandmother died

a few hours later?

Yes. Yes! That's exactly what I'm saying.

She was ill. I mean, it could have happened at any time.

What about the night that Eliot was run down?

When did you leave the party?

Well, that question is irrelevant, Detective Constable,

because I can't drive. Why not?

I'm colour-blind. Hmm? It's something I inherited from my grandmother.

Being colour-blind doesn't stop you from driving.

Not legally, no, but I never felt comfortable behind the wheel,

so I never took the test. Look, I didn't kill my brother!

I didn't kill my grandmother.

So can you just, I don't know, leave me alone?

"..resented me from the moment I came onto the scene."

HE CHUCKLES

Yes!

HE EXHALES LOUDLY

The following day, Atticus Pund...

..returned to the Villa Belmar.

Oh.

KNOCKING

Good morning, sir.

They are all here? Yes, sir.

Then it is time to bring this matter to a close.

Come and get it!

BUZZER

Susan. Oh! Sorry. Are you in the middle of something? Erm...

Just some cleaning. I was just passing and... Yeah, come in.

So, wh...?

I was burgled. Oh, my God! Mm.

It's one thing after another with you.

You should've called me. You could have come and stayed with me.

I stayed a few days with Katie. Oh, that's nice.

To be honest, Elaine, I'm a little up to my eyes at the moment.

Is this important? Yes... Yes, I think it is.

I need to talk to you, Susan.

I want to help you.

Help me? How?

You're in terrible trouble.

I didn't know how bad it was, but...

..you need to know.

They're about to arrest you for Eliot's death.

Who told you that? I spoke to that policeman.

Detective Inspector Blakeney.

They have all the evidence they need,

and they could be here any time.

I know it sounds impossible. It is impossible.

It wasn't me. Of course not, but that's not going to stop them.

They're going to arrest you and I know what you'll go through.

It's so horrible.

It's so humiliating.

Elaine... Remand, custody,

court, the newspapers...

..and then prison. It's not going to happen.

Well, you think that, but there's so much evidence.

And you had a motive.

If it goes to a jury, there's no way you're going to get off.

So what are you saying?

SUSAN SIGHS

What do you think I should do? I...I don't know, Susan, but...

..I saw what happened to Charles.

Every time I visit him, it makes me sick to my stomach.

And you know what he says?

He says he wishes he'd taken pills...

..or thrown himself under a train before they arrested him.

He says it would've been easier.

So what are you suggesting?

That I...

..kill myself?

Believe me, as a friend...

..don't let them do to you what they did to Charles.

Maybe you're right.

Oh...

But there is...one thing.

There's one thing I don't understand. What's that?

How did you know where I live?

I never told you.

Eliot told me.

Oh, right.

And, of course...

..you've been here before. No.

I've never been here.

SUSAN LAUGHS

Oh, maybe you've forgotten.

When you called me after I'd visited Charles.

You were here then.

No, I was at home.

That's not true.

I know.

While we were talking, the doorbell rang.

DOORBELL

Damn. I've got to go. Talk later.

But your doorbell plays a piece of piano music.

PIANO MUSIC

Susan. You haven't changed the doorbell.

No. That's Charles playing his favourite Bach prelude.

It wasn't your doorbell that I heard. It was mine.

And who was it who rang it? Well, I can answer that, too.

At 3:27, I got a delivery.

And I've checked.

That's exactly the same time...

..that you called me.

Susan... You smashed up...

..my house.

You wrote "Killer"...

..on my wall to make it look like it was someone

who blamed me for Eliot's death.

But it wasn't me, and you know that.

You were the first person who found him

when you came out of the party, weren't you?

And that's when you got the idea

that you'd been looking for all along.

You didn't call the police, you didn't call for an ambulance,

you just leant down and just took a little piece

of what he was wearing.

And then you kicked in the grille of my MG

and you placed this little piece of cloth right there.

And of course you were the anonymous witness who called the police

and gave them part of my registration number.

Do you really hate me...

..that much, Elaine,

that you'd do all of this to hurt me?

Yes.

I hate you more than you can possibly believe.

I hate you for your high-mindedness.

The cruelty of what you did to Charles.

Charles killed Alan Conway...

..and he tried to kill me. I wish he'd succeeded!

He had done so much for you.

He gave you your career.

And you turned on him.

You betrayed him, without a thought for me,

for my children, for my grandchildren.

You're out of your mind. You're as bad as he is.

I think you should go. The police still think it's you.

You're still going to prison.

The police don't think anything of the sort.

If the police thought that, they'd have arrested me.

Well, then, maybe I should give them something to think about.

Come on, Elaine. You're not serious. You're not going to use this.

Why not?! You've left me with nothing.

I'm on my own, my friends have abandoned me, Charles is in jail.

I've got nothing to live for.

No, no!

Just stop this, Elaine! This is crazy!

I don't care, I don't care, I don't care.

Argh!

You've ruined my life.

Elaine, no...

BUZZER

Elaine, you can go.

You can just go. You can just walk away. No!

BUZZER

Help... Help me!

Arrgh!

Help me! I'm in here!

Stop!

You stay there! Don't move!

Are you hurt?

I'll live. SUSAN BREATHES HEAVILY

How's that feeling?

Fine.

It's just a scratch.

You should probably still get it looked at by a professional.

I thought you were a professional.

First aid and emergency life support training, 30 years ago.

And that's the first time I've used it.

So what'll happen to her? She'll go to prison.

She tried to kill you.

SUSAN SIGHS

She didn't know what she was doing. I think she did.

And there's the matters of obstruction of justice,

wasting of police time.

I feel sorry for her. You shouldn't.

So why were you here?

Elaine said you were coming to arrest me. She was lying.

I know why you're being kind to me, Detective Inspector.

Dinner the other night, driving me to my sister and now this.

And why is that?

I could still have killed Eliot before Elaine found him,

and you hope that by...

..cosying up to me, you'll get me to give myself away.

Is that what you think? Well, are you going to deny it?

Who have you been talking to?

Did you see Wardlaw?

We met, yes.

And that's what she told you?

Are you saying it's not true?

Emma Wardlaw is a good detective...

..but she's had a rough time recently

and sometimes gets the wrong idea about things.

About me.

All right.

I came here...

..to give you this.

What is it?

The final chapter of Pund's Last Case.

You found it? Wrote it.

I worked it out.

And I thought I'd put it down on paper, just to give it a try.

You said you wanted to be a writer.

Well...

You'll probably think it's rubbish.

Oh... The style, I mean.

But I'm pretty sure I've got it right.

This is what Eliot intended.

Wow.

Wow.

SUSAN CHUCKLES

I'm sorry about the things I said.

So, let me read it.

"The following day, Atticus Pund returned to the Villa Belmar..."

Good morning, sir. They are all here?

Yes, sir.

Then it is time to bring this matter to a close.

JEFFREY SIGHS What's all this about, Mr Pund?

I don't mind helping you with your enquiries but what's he doing here?

Mr Carter is very much part of this story, Lord Chalfont.

It's only right that he should be present. Harrison Carter is a fake.

He's no detective.

He's a retired professor who came here and accused me of theft,

in my own home!

I think you need to listen to what Mr Pund has to say.

Thank you, Police Lieutenant.

Everyone in this family, with the exception of Mr Waysmith,

who is independently wealthy, had need of the money

which might have been left to them in Lady Chalfont's will.

Harry Lyttleton, he was having financial difficulties

with his new hotel, while his wife, Judith,

needed money to protect the Nazca Lines in Peru.

The new Lady Chalfont, she needed backing for her musical,

while her husband was having major difficulties

running his estate back in England.

Four people in desperate need of money.

But it was Elmer Waysmith who is the reason that I first invited

to the Villa Belmar

following a chance meeting with Lady Margaret Chalfont.

A week ago, while I was sitting in my room at the villa,

I overheard something that shocked me to the core.

Something relating to your second husband?

Yes.

Lady Chalfont had learned that her husband was involved

in a dreadful crime perpetrated by the Nazis.

The theft and resale of stolen Greek and Roman antiquities.

You can go to hell, Mr Pund!

I don't have to listen to this!

You will sit down and be silent if you don't wish to be arrested!

Sit down, Pa. I know you didn't do it. Mr Pund is just playing games.

The investigation of murder is never a game.

But I have to tell you, Robert,

every piece of evidence, it points to your father.

Don't listen to him!

He was in his room above the kitchen.

He could easily have come down to place the aconitine in the tea.

He had a book dedicated to the study of poisons, in his possession.

We know that the man who bought the poison, he had white hair,

spoke no Greek.

The same man had taken a room at the Poseidon Hotel

near to the harbour and signed his name in turquoise ink.

The same colour preferred by your father.

There was an American newspaper left in the room!

I mean, it's a simple matter to piece together

the sequence of events.

At exactly 12 o'clock,

Elmer Waysmith purchases aconitine in the market in Kassiopi.

We know the time because the church bell struck the hour.

The timing was perhaps no coincidence.

It would have made it impossible for him to return to the old town

in time for lunch with his son at one o'clock.

Unless, that is, he came by boat and not by car.

He then enters the Poseidon Hotel,

he changes into the clothes that he will wear for lunch,

he discards the white linen suit, the hat, the sunglasses,

all the other elements of his disguise, in a bin,

which is where we will later find them.

This is nonsense!

I...I never went to the hotel!

I never went to the market!

Then how do you explain this matchbook...

..which I found here, in the house?

I can't.

I never saw it before. It could belong to anyone.

Cedric was right.

It was you all along!

You put poison in her tea.

You went down the service stair to the kitchen. I heard you.

Pa, tell them it's not true.

Oh, what does it matter what I say?! He's already made up his mind!

I wish, in a way, it were so simple. MR PUND CHUCKLES

There's much that troubles me.

Tell me, my friend, would you say

that Mr Waysmith was an intelligent man?

Intelligent? Yes. Very much so.

Then how could such a man have made so many mistakes?

The book of matches that directs us to the hotel,

the American newspaper thrown into a bin, the turquoise ink,

the book - Erskine's Toxicology - protruding from a shelf,

and, most damning of all,

the lid of the teapot that now contains poison,

placed to one side.

He never thought there would be a police investigation.

He assumed it would look like a natural death.

And so it would have, Mr Lyttleton.

But it was you who, for no reason at all,

insisted that the police be called.

Well, you should thank me.

Hmm.

And so we come to Lady Margaret Chalfont herself.

From the very beginning, something has puzzled me.

If she believed that her husband was guilty of theft

and collaboration with the Nazis,

and had called her solicitor, Mr Lambrose, to change her will,

so why did she never mention his arrival?

Indeed, she seems to have completely forgotten it!

So what are you saying, Mr Pund?

I'm saying that nothing is as it seems

and that, to make sense of it, we...

Well, we must begin again.

So let us ask, was Lady Chalfont the real victim?

Or could it have been the one person hated by every single person here,

who was the target?

Elmer Waysmith!

Lady Chalfont gave him control of all the money,

but with him out of the way... Exactly.

If he were to face the firing squad as a result of being found guilty

of the murder of his wife, all the money would pass to the family.

You're saying one of the family planned to frame my father?

Which one was it?

Well, it was not one of them.

But you know that, Robert.

It was you.

Me?!

That's... That's ridiculous. I would never hurt my father.

He's looked after me my entire life. You hate your father.

You tried to disguise it when you spoke to me,

but it was not difficult to see the true nature of your relationship.

We don't need you, Robert. I'll talk to these people on my own.

Whatever you say, Pa. If that's all right with you?

I said we don't need you! Just do as I say!

You told us exactly who he was.

This is a man who would not return home even after the suicide

of your mother, for which you also held him to blame.

No. Hey, no! I never... I never said that.

He dominated you and bullied you and you wished to be rid of him.

This was a murder in which every last detail had been planned,

and it all began with the chance arrival of Mr Harrison Carter,

who was investigating the theft of stolen antiquities.

But it was the maid who came to me and told me about the calyx.

But it was Robert who invited you to the house.

Yes. He said I should see the calyx with my own eyes.

His father wasn't too pleased.

He led you into the living room. The windows, of course, were open.

Yes.

Robert had opened them.

He did so deliberately because he knew that every word

could be heard by Lady Chalfont in the bedroom directly above.

How dare you, sir?

How dare you come to my home...

You invited me. ..and make these foul accusations

with no evidence whatsoever?!

Mr Waysmith, I have eyewitness testimony

that this piece in front of me right now was stolen from the Vathy Museum

in Ithaca, and that the director was murdered trying to protect it.

That's a lie.

You mean Robert wanted Lady Chalfont to know?

Yes! Because Robert wanted the police to think that she had

decided to cut Elmer out of her will

and that Elmer had killed her to stop her doing so.

But she did want to change her will. She called her lawyer.

No, she did not! She loved your father and wanted to trust him.

What she did was ask me to investigate him.

So who called Lambrose?

I would suggest a talented actress who could imitate her voice.

An actress such as Lola Chalfont.

She's not talented. How dare you!

It's not true.

I had no part in it.

And who bought the aconitine in the market, if it wasn't Elmer?

It was Robert, disguised as his father.

White suit, hat, sunglasses.

Aconitine.

They're father and son. They have similar appearance.

But what about his hair? The old man in the market, Georgios Leonidas,

was sure that the man he met had white hair.

That was Robert's one mistake.

That's what finally made it all clear to me.

What was the object that was found under the bed in the hotel?

A tin of shoe polish. White shoe polish!

Do you not see?

He used the white shoe polish to change the colour of his hair.

And it would also have had a smell not dissimilar to surgical spirit.

Which is why Leonidas thought that he might be a doctor.

You made it appear that your father had murdered his second wife.

That was not enough.

You wanted us to think that he had attempted to cover his tracks

with a disguise, the timing, all the rest of it,

knowing that in the end it would only incriminate him further.

And it was also you

who pretended to be in love with a...

..poor, innocent girl,

Sofia Androulakis.

The assistant to Mr Lambrose.

That wasn't me. That was Harry.

Wait a minute! No, Robert.

You are handsome, clever, young. You are also unmarried.

You would have had no difficulty in manipulating her.

She had his photograph.

No! No, you took it!

You're right, Mr Pund. It was Robert from the very start!

He used my picture to take the heat off himself.

He was the one who did it. And I had an alibi. I was here.

Harry, you shut your mouth!

It's too late, Robert. I know!

You persuaded Miss Androulakis

to inform you of the contents of the will.

She was terrified from the moment that Lady Margaret was poisoned.

I am conducting an official murder investigation.

Murder?

Fearing that she'd played a part in the crime.

And that was why you had to silence her.

You strangled her on the beach.

But Harry Lyttleton knew what was going on?

He was part of it. They were all part of it. The whole family.

No! That's outrageous! It's impossible! Enough!

Why?

Because they had an immediate need of the money.

They'd learned from Sofia that Lady Chalfont left everything to you,

but if you were arrested and executed for murder,

you'd receive nothing. It would all pass to them.

You're wrong, Mr Pund. We loved our mother.

Maybe you did. But she was dying anyway.

What would it matter if the end came a week or a few days earlier?

No, no, no, no. You've got this all wrong.

I am never wrong.

Every one of you played a part in it.

You planted all the evidence, all the clues.

KNOCK ON DOOR

Luan?

KNOCK ON DOOR

Hello, Mama.

Are you coming out for tea?

When Lady Chalfont died, you called the police,

shouted that she'd been poisoned.

You spoke badly of Elmer every opportunity.

Even the fight when the will was read was staged only for my benefit.

You're a crook! A gold-digger!

Just like we always thought.

Do not talk to my father like that. It's true!

Ladies and gentlemen, please.

He turned Margaret against us from the day he married her!

Now, you listen to me! You killed her, didn't you? You knew about

the will, so you put poison in her tea! You take that back!

Your father is a thief and a murderer!

Argh!

It wasn't real?

It was staged...

..to make us think that they were unaware

of what was contained within the will.

That they were enemies.

HE SIGHS

But this is the truth.

Robert Waysmith, he longed to be free of the man

who tormented him all his life.

He led you into this, but you are all guilty.

And all of you must pay.

It was...

..my...

Robert Waysmith. It's an anagram, isn't it?

So you spotted it, too. Mm.

It's very well-written, what you've done.

Really.

Very Alan Conway, and the solution makes complete sense.

Robert Waysmith.

Mm. "It was my brother."

Suggesting that it was Roland Crace who killed his grandmother.

And also killed Eliot. Trouble is, I've spoken to Roland,

and he admits the three of them concocted a poison of sorts

but he then says he poured it away.

Do you believe him? He also couldn't have run over Eliot.

He doesn't drive.

He's colour-blind.

Colour-blind? Says he inherited it.

From Miriam Crace.

Oh, my God!

What?

I know who killed them.

Both of them.

I've had quite enough of this family so,

if you don't mind, I'm going to keep this brief.

Eliot always believed that it was Roland who killed Miriam Crace.

But he kept it quiet all these years because...

..he revered and loved the brother

who'd looked after him when they were young.

But then Roland betrayed Eliot in the worst possible way,

by sleeping with his wife.

So Eliot decided to get his revenge

by naming him as the killer in his book.

What happened between me and Gillian was wrong.

You should be ashamed of yourself.

I am.

But I didn't kill anyone.

But Eliot didn't know that.

And, at the party, he still thought it was you.

Ladies and gentlemen, forgive the interruption.

I think we should raise a toast to someone in the room.

Someone who killed my grandmother.

"Someone in the room."

He meant Roland, but there was someone else who heard him,

and that person had every reason to be afraid.

The real killer. Mm. It could have been any one of you.

All of you were bullied by her.

Edward, Jonathan, you were terrified of her.

I... I wouldn't hurt her. She was my mother.

She needed me. We needed each other.

What about you, Frederick?

She didn't bully me.

She saved me.

You were a second-class citizen in that house.

You lived in the attic, you were trained to be

the family's accountant and you ended up as a tour guide.

Mrs Crace adopted me...

..and she gave me a home.

Still "Mrs Crace". You weren't even allowed to call her "Mother".

That was because I respected her.

No... No, it was because she didn't respect you.

As far as I can see, there was no love between you.

She was almost ashamed of you. This is nonsense!

You couldn't be more wrong.

Let me ask you a question, Frederick,

about all these injuries of yours.

How exactly did you manage to crash your car?

I told you. I wasn't concentrating and I had a bad cold.

Leilah, you were there. Is that how you remember things? No.

You weren't ill.

I told you. He went through a red light. He didn't even see it.

And that was when Frederick discovered that he was colour-blind.

A genetic trait which, like Roland, he'd inherited from his mother.

His real mother.

Miriam Crace.

What?! Nonsense. No.

You're even left-handed, just like Miriam,

who had a collection of left-handed pens.

I noticed at the party.

I have to say, I didn't expect to see you here tonight.

You picked up your wine glass with your left hand.

Miriam was many things, but she was also a Roman Catholic.

And, according to Charles Clover, who I visited in prison,

she was sexually promiscuous.

The big secret about Miriam Crace was that throughout her marriage

she was a nymphomaniac, chasing anything in trousers.

She was having it away with half the domestic staff,

and there were rumours that included one of the nannies.

So...it makes you think, doesn't it?

Why do you think she kept a photograph

of her Albanian chauffeur in her library?

You're talking about Luan?

Yes. Luan was name-checked in Eliot's book as the gardener

at the Villa Belmar, so maybe he was trying to tell us something.

He was your father... Luan?

..wasn't he, Frederick?

No, I told you, my father was a traveller.

You see, I think Miriam became pregnant

and that's why she disappeared to a clinic in Lausanne for six months.

She went away to give birth...

..and then she placed the baby into her own orphanage.

That baby was you, Frederick.

And then, later, she "adopted" you,

but she never treated you decently.

She never even told you who your father was.

Uncle Fred?

No.

This is wrong.

You can't think I killed her.

It's over, Frederick.

You've been living a lie your whole life.

You can stop now.

You know, I feel sorry for you.

The way she treated you must have been hard to bear.

Hard to bear?

I never knew my father.

She fired him before she brought me to Marble Hall,

so that I would never get to meet him.

And she lied to me about who I was.

What I was.

She was my mother!

You poisoned her?

Yes, Jonathan.

I'm sure it amused her,

me taking over my father's job as an unpaid chauffeur.

But after the accident...

..I asked questions, found my birth certificate,

and, when I realised the truth, I had no choice.

She deserved to die. What?!

You knew about us? About Roland, Eliot and me?

Oh, yes.

You and your witch's potion in the garden.

You were the perfect cover.

Except you didn't use aconitine or Liqufruta. You used arsenic.

How do you know that?

It was something Dr Lambert said. He treated Miriam's husband, Arthur.

He had a hobby. Taxidermy.

It brought him into contact with some quite unpleasant chemicals

and he developed a skin disease.

I put him on a course of dimercaprol and it cleared up in the end.

The Victorians used arsenic in taxidermy.

Dark skin and lesions are the symptoms of arsenic poisoning.

Dimercaprol is the cure.

You're right.

I cut open one of his specimens. A kingfisher in a glass case.

The insides were coated in white powder.

Arsenic.

I didn't know if it would work, but the children had given me

the perfect opportunity, so why not try?

And what about Eliot?

Wait, he wouldn't...

You couldn't... Yes, I killed him, too.

I had to stop him.

I thought he was threatening me,

so what was I meant to do?

ENGINE STARTS

You waited for him outside the party, and you ran him down.

TYRES SCREECH

LOUD THUD/GLASS SMASHES

But there was no need. It wasn't even you he was talking about.

That was his own fault. He shouldn't have boasted like that.

He wasn't boasting, Frederick.

He was in pain.

Just like you.

Poor Eliot.

SHE LAUGHS RUEFULLY

What a family!

Hello, everyone.

Hello. Thank you for coming.

Right, this evening we are celebrating the first book

published by my own imprint, Redlayn Books.

APPLAUSE

And for those of you who haven't noticed, "Redlayn" is an anagram.

I'll leave you to work that one out! SUSAN LAUGHS

Anyway, here it is,

Pund's Last Case, and this time I really do think it will be.

Ian Blakeney, he might be a first-time writer,

but he's done a fantastic job not just of working out who did it,

but also writing the missing chapters of Eliot Crace's book.

And I'm happy to tell you that I'm going to be publishing

his first original novel, Mile End Murders, next year.

I'd also like to thank my wonderful sister, Katie,

who first introduced me to Alan Conway,

even though it nearly killed me. LAUGHTER

Twice!

And her partner, David, who is an investment fund manager,

who managed to raise the funds to launch Redlayn... Oh. ..so...

APPLAUSE

Thank you. Thank you, David.

Anyway, thank you for your support,

thank you for being my friends.

I suppose this is what I always dreamed of.

And I can't quite believe that it's actually arrived, so...

SUSAN CHUCKLES

Anyway, thank you.

APPLAUSE

I hate making speeches.

You did great.

Listen, would you mind signing a few books? Do I have to?

Oh, come on. You ought to know by now, a signed book...

Is a sold book. Yeah.

Are you and him? Mind your own business.

Ssh, ssh.

Can you just give me a minute? There's... What?

There's somebody I need to see.

Did you see that?

Well, I didn't expect to see you here.

How could I stay away?

Did you ever go to any of Alan's book launches?

I think not.

SUSAN CHUCKLES

Is something wrong?

No, no.

Not at all.

Let's go somewhere quiet.

So, tell me what's the matter.

I was just thinking.

We've said goodbye to each other twice...

THEY LAUGH

..but this time, I believe it really is over between us.

Why do you say that?

Well, I've come to the end of my story.

And as for you...

..you have your own detective now.

Ian's left the force.

He's going to become a full-time writer.

I wish you every happiness. Hmm.

No... No, no, no.

You don't get rid of me quite that easily, Atticus.

HE SIGHS

I'm sorry?

Well, you obviously haven't seen my list of upcoming titles.

Unusual of you to miss a detail like that.

HE EXHALES LOUDLY

So, what are you publishing?

I have a very interesting book coming out soon.

It's a sort of...

..meditation on the nature of crime and detection,

with illustrations.

It's called The Landscape Of Criminal Investigation.

You are publishing my book?

Why not?

You have a huge following, you know.

No... Nobody cares who writes detective novels.

It's the detectives they care about, and a great many care about you.

But it's not yet complete. Who... Who will finish it?

I suppose you and I will.

Together.

All my life...

..I waited to see my book in print.

You can do this?

Of course I can.

I'm a publisher now.

THEY CHUCKLE

Are you going to come back to the party? Oh, no.

No, you...you...you go ahead.

I need to think about this.

All right.

HE SIGHS

Don't be long.

SHE CHUCKLES KNOWINGLY

MUSIC PLAYS/CHATTER