"Come on, Sarah, please." "Just a little bit." "One little bit." "Yeah?" "Good girl." "Good girl." "Good girl." "OK." "Yeah?" "Good?" "Good girl." "Good girl." "Were you taken to church as a child?" "This is not about indoctrination." "God was in my life before I was born." "And is that what they taught you?" "At church." "Is God the law?" "Yes." "Can he see you doing wrong?" "Of course." "How's my gorgeous girl?" "Both my gorgeous girls." "Hello." "Reuben." "She's having her lunch." "She needs routine." "She needs changing, I'd say." "Then Daddy came back just in time, didn't he?" "Beans on toast OK?" "Why not?" "It was yesterday." "Are you afraid of God's judgment?" "He is gracious and merciful." "He's also vengeful." "Angry." "Like any concerned parent." "Yes." "One who imposes irrational rules no child can follow." "It's up to us to rationalise what's in the Bible." "The essence of faith is love." "Hello?" "Hello, Mr Beatty." "It's me." "Don't forget your first one's in half an hour." "Yeah." "I'm on my way." "Who's that?" "Vicki." "There's a department meeting." "She was just reminding me." "Reuben." "Love you." "Your CD must be scratched." "Don't you find the repetition meditative?" "If meditative's another word for monotonous, then yes." "Very." "Highly effective in combating stress." "Yeah?" "But I'm not stressed." "You don't think you're stressed." "You've assimilated it." "God, man, watch out!" "Come on!" "There is someone trying to get through." "She's a little disorientated." "She didn't expect to go so soon." "Can you see her?" "Does she look OK now?" "She's standing on a road." "There was an accident?" "Yes." "A car crash." "She's in a safe and peaceful place." "Any time you need to talk." "If you can get a word in edgeways." "Ha!" "That's Tina for you." "I can't thank you enough, Mr James." "Randolph, please." "Thanks." "Not the best way to get a copper's number." "It wasn't her fault." "It was the woman who crossed the road." "She..." "You're sounding a bit tense, James." "Remember to grab your CD from the car." "Brilliant." "Mack." "Who's Mack?" "Was anyone in your family known as Mack?" "My name's McLean." "I'm sensing an older man." "Grey hair." "I can smell smoke." "It sounds familiar." "He's very proud of you, Frank." "It can't be my dad, then." "Oh, I think it is." "He's saying he appreciates everything you did for him towards the end." "But it was a great relief to go." "To escape my mother?" "He's laughing." "He loves you very much." "He's with family now." "On the other side." "This is so strange." "It shouldn't be." "You see, my dad... is in the pub down the road." "So I looked through his phone..." "Poll..." "Found a text message from his colleague Vicki." "She's pretty, super-bright." "So are you." "With lovely shiny hair that doesn't smell of baby sick." "What did it say?" ""This afternoon was fun." "Can't wait to do it again."" "Right." "And a kiss." "Not a word to Mum." "Hell no." "She'd kill to have you back home." "You and Sarah." "Give us our little fleapit any day." "He'd better not be cheating, Josh." "Not after everything I've given up for him." "Neck OK, is it?" "After your shunt?" "Mm-hm." "Give it time." "Hello?" "Mr James?" "Mr James?" "Mr James?" "She's in the car." "Get back a bit, please." "Thank you." "The door was open?" "Yes, so I went in." "Did you see anyone in the building?" "No." "No-one at all." "Any lights on in any of the other offices?" "I don't think there were." "Have you been here before?" "Yes." "I'd come to talk to Geoff." "Who's Geoff?" "My husband." "Does he work here, too?" "No, he's dead." "Randolph James is a psychic." "Oh, right." "I'm sorry." "Sarge." "Found this on the body." "Geoff and I always liked a natter." "I tell him all my news." "About the kids." "Footy." "Randolph James, you say?" "Well, he hasn't been shot, strangled, stabbed, beaten, bludgeoned or had his neck broken." "If we're listing things that haven't happened, why not include that he hasn't been struck by lightning or savaged by wolves?" "Robbie, do I stand in your office asking "Have you caught them yet?"" "What is it about those eyes?" "Strong painkillers, warm bath." "That's Robbie sorted." "How about you?" "Witness identified him as Randolph James but he's Reuben Beatty on his debit card." "So he's leading a double life?" "Randolph James is a practising clairvoyant." "He certainly looks like he's seen a ghost." "He was at the department." "Maybe it's not Reuben." "Someone could have stolen his card." "That's why we need him identified." "Do you need a minute?" "I need to know." "Thanks." "Mrs Beatty, is it Reuben?" "What happened?" "We're still waiting for the autopsy report." "Until we decide otherwise, we're treating your husband's death as suspicious." "What was he doing in some office?" "We've reason to believe he was moonlighting as a psychic." "That's absurd." "He's a junior research fellow at the Department of Psychology." "He's a scientist." "He investigates systems of belief, why people believe." "Could it have been part of his research?" "Well, he never mentioned it." "Then again, he was hardly home." "Are you sure?" "One of his clients found him." "She knew him as Randolph James." "It just gets worse." "What does?" ""We'll never have secrets." That's what he said." ""When love strikes like this, you've got to trust it."" "We met at a fresher's ball." "Took us six days to get engaged." "And when we weren't together, we were incomplete." "Couldn't function." "Whirlwind romance, eh?" "That's what my mum said." "The sooner we get her back home the better." "Right." "Thanks." "Not one word." "There was no meeting in the Department of Psychology yesterday afternoon." "Not cancelled." "Never scheduled." "Reuben Beatty lied to his wife." "Why doesn't that surprise me?" "Yeah, poor lass." "Lost not only her husband but all her faith in him, too." "Stuck at home with a little 'un, no idea what he was up to." "Probably thinking the worst." "If he was moonlighting, she didn't get a whiff of any cash." "Bearing in mind what she was used to, it could have driven her to desperation." "Not kill, though, surely." "Well, she said her husband investigated people's belief systems." "He destroyed hers." "According to the landlord of his office building," "Randolph James was six months into a 12-month lease." "The rent was paid out of a building society in the name of Reuben Beatty." "He and his wife had a joint account but this one was set up in secret." "And he topped it up weekly with wodges of cash." "Found no other trace of Randolph James." "It seems to be an identity confined to a psychic's chair." "Why would Reuben, a postgrad scientist, moonlight as Randolph the clairvoyant?" "Well, lots of scientists have irrational beliefs." "Isaac Newton thought the Bible was a cryptogram set by the Almighty." "Walking Wikipedia." "Only more accurate." "We found four sets of 40 quid at the scene, which means he was doing it for the money." "Just taking advantage of the recently bereaved." "Some people are so gullible." "Well, if believing in the spirit world gets them through, who are we to knock it?" "Get on to his colleagues from the Department of Psychology." "Yeah." "Maybe they had some idea what he was up to." "Sorry to hear about your bump." "Thanks, ma'am." "Must bring back memories, the collar." "Only when it itches." "This is my home." "You're not thinking clearly." "Why is it whenever I make a decision you don't agree with I'm not thinking clearly?" "This flat belongs to the college." "Reuben is no longer a student here." "A bit of compassion wouldn't go amiss, Mum." "Someone has to keep a clear head." "We can always rely on that from you." "Yes, actually, Joshua, because I'm the one that brought you up." "If I was pushy..." "Only you could turn Reuben's death into a platform for your sacrifices as a single mother." "At least I got a good settlement out of your dad." "Reuben's left you with nothing." "You always hated him." "I hated how he rushed you when you had so much potential." "They're going to ask you to leave sooner or later." "I can't." "Not yet." "I've got your old room ready." "You'll have my support." "I know how hard it'll be." "Think about it, Polly, please." "Apologies for the delay, gentlemen." "It took some time to find." "But if you screw your eyes up really tight, you'll see a tiny puncture wound." "A bite?" "Eight-millimetre hypodermic needle." "Delivering what?" "An extremely powerful paralysing agent called M99." "Pharmaceutical name Etorphine." "It's a controlled substance strictly for use on large mammals." "Etorphine's a sedative." "He didn't seem very sedated when he died." "That's because first of all he was fed barbiturate." "How?" "Piece of cake." "For you maybe." "He was fed a piece of cake soaked with barbiturate." "Surely the barbiturate would have eventually stopped him breathing." "Why two drugs?" "If you want him dead..." "Barbiturates operate in three broad stages." "Sedation stage, unconsciousness and death." "Based on his weight and height," "I've calculated he was only given enough barbiturate to sedate him." "So his murderer wanted him woozy but not completely out of it?" "Yeah, and then some time after injected him with a lethal dose of Etorphine." "Like James said, why not just finish the job with a lethal dose of barbiturate?" "That would involve a complete loss of control and a lot of wild thrashing about." "Could be messy, noisy." "Attract unwanted attention." "Mm." "Whereas a massive overdose of Etorphine would shut down respiration in seconds." "It explains the look on his face." "Conscious enough to know what was happening to him but unable to do anything to stop it." "But no physical pain." "On that front his murder was as considered as the most compassionate form of euthanasia." "If this Etorphine's used to knock out animals we should get on to all the local vets, see if any significant dosage has gone missing." "'Guess what, we're not here but you know what to do and when to do it.'" "'Hello." "It's Vicki." "'Vicki Walmsley from the department." "'I just wanted to say, Polly, I'm really sorry.'" "Hello." "Parapsychology..." "The study of contested mental phenomena such as telepathy, near-death experiences, clairvoyance, psychokenesis..." "If any of you believe in such phenomena, then knock three times." "Or should I say, more fool you." "No other species lives within such a complex framework of competing beliefs." "You will learn under my guidance how to conduct a rational attack on the subject's beliefs, thereby identifying the mechanisms that retain them." "Thank you very much." "That's all." "Gentlemen..." "Professor Crane?" "Inspector Lewis." "This is Detective Sergeant Hathaway." "I didn't have you down as volunteers." "It's such a shame about Reuben." "Professor Crane..." "This is Vicki." "She worked alongside Reuben." "We're sorry for your loss." "Do you know how he was killed?" "He was sedated and then given a lethal injection of Etorphine." "Oh, my God." "Excuse me." "That's mine." "Sorry." "It came as a great shock to the department." "Have any idea why someone may have wanted him dead?" "None whatsoever." "He was well liked, he was very popular." "He was one of my best postgrads." "A true sceptic." "What, he didn't believe in the paranormal?" "Of course not." "Were you aware that he was practising as a psychic in the centre of town?" "I'm sorry." "There must be some mistake." "Excuse me." "I'm sorry." "I'm going to have to take this." "Gentlemen, please." "Thank you." "Excuse me." "Sorry." "Excuse me." "Yep?" "Vicki?" "Who's Vicki?" "Hi, Mum." "Darling, it's a truly terrible thing that's happened but you need to think about restarting your life." "Yours and Sarah's." "She needs you to be strong." "Polly." "Polly." "Yeah." "OK, Mum." "What the hell was Reuben up to?" "Going out on a limb, going against everything he ever believed in." "Maybe he was questioning the rationalism imposed on him by Professor Bumptious." "Excuse me." "I wasn't as honest in front of Professor Crane as I might have been." "About what?" "Reuben." "What he was doing." "Crane is old school." "Conducts all his experiments under laboratory conditions." "Our subjects know what they've signed up for." "Reuben had this idea that he'd get better results in the field." "Real people." "People who've just lost their loved ones, in the depths of despair." "Nice." "Do you believe in God, an afterlife?" "No." "But I don't believe in conning people, either." "How about you?" "I don't think that's relevant, is it?" "We all know there's nothing after death but people cling on to the idea." "They carry their lives on as normal." "Why aren't they running down the street telling people that no-one really dies, or why aren't they killing themselves to be with their deceased loved ones?" "Faith and rationality aren't mutually exclusive." "That's what we wanted to investigate:" "the mechanism that allowed that exact dissonance between what we believe and how we behave." "So you taught Reuben the art of cold reading, rented an office and stuck an ad in the local press." "Yeah." "Tuesdays and Wednesdays." "Took money from people." "To pay the office rent." "Well, there's the best part of two grand left over." "Reuben reckoned there was no difference between him or any other clairvoyant." "Apart from he knew it was nothing more than a trick." "He still helped them." "Do you have any idea how lonely it feels?" "Having this discussion without him to back me up." "If you want to know what loneliness feels like, ask his wife." "And she could have done with some of that money." "Were you having an affair with him?" "No." "Do you have any idea who his clients were?" "He kept an appointment book." "I never saw it, never knew their names." "Why would you?" "They weren't important." "They were only subjects." "That appointment book wasn't in Reuben's office." "Maybe he kept it at his flat." "Take a look." "Was she lying, do you reckon, about an affair?" "Not sure but I do think she loved him." "Vicki's defence of Reuben was that he knew he was exploiting people." "That's disturbing." "I'd find it more disturbing if he actually believed he could talk to the dead." "Vicki was with Reuben all the time." "His wife Polly hardly ever saw him." "But would that give her concrete motive for killing him." "Come on, we're going to the Natural History Museum." "Meet Kanan Dutta." "Kanan Dutta?" "The Oxford Campaign for Assisted Dying." "He works there." "This Dutta, who did he lose?" "A teenage daughter in a diving accident." "She was in a persistent vegetative state for a year." "Why do you think it's personal?" "Most advocates of euthanasia have seen a loved one suffer." "It overwhelms their belief in the sanctity of life." "Sorry for the delay in getting back to you." "I presumed you'd got in touch about the campaign." "No, that's not what this is about." "We've been investigating a murder where, to all intents and purposes, the victim's been put to sleep." "Our pathologist says it has all the hallmarks of euthanasia." "Most murder is unplanned and violent." "This was planned and pain-free." "Sedated with barbiturate, murdered with Etorphine." "That's a bit over the top." "A single drop can kill a man within seconds." "Are you familiar with the drug?" "My wife and I used to work as conservationists in Angola." "We often used it to anaesthetise large animals." "Elephants mostly." "The barbiturate was in a slice of cake." "Barbiturates are traditionally bitter-tasting." "A sweet cake would disguise that." "So the victim was given cake?" "Sedated and then killed?" "Are you sure it wasn't some form of mercy killing?" "He wasn't killed immediately." "We have reason to believe he was kept alive for some time." "The whole point of euthanasia is to prevent prolonged suffering." "It sounds like your murderer knew the technique and callously abused it." "I'm sorry but Katherine, my wife, is waiting." "Was there anything else?" "I'm sorry, by the way, about your daughter." "It must be, well..." "Just trying to remember her as she was before." "Celebrate that, you know." "What was she like?" "She was so... full of energy." "She came on all our conservation trips from the age of five." "And after the accident, we convinced ourselves there might be a miracle." "Classic denial." "But as time dragged on, we soon realised that all that lay ahead for Jo was just lying there." "Wired up to some machine." "Feeling God knows what." "Terrified maybe." "We knew that her life was being needlessly prolonged but we were refused permission to do anything about it." "We wanted to protect her, spare her from suffering." "Any parent would feel the same." "We brought her home." "It just felt like the right thing to do." "And then fate intervened." "A chest infection." "Not many people in our situation have that blessing." "My wife torments herself about it every day." "Why weren't we able to do anything to help her." "Whereas you've found a way to move on." "At least keep moving." "And you still think it's wrong to want to put somebody out of their pain?" "Just because I'm uncomfortable with it doesn't make it wrong." "Who are they?" "Detectives." "I don't like the police hounding us at every turn." "It wasn't about the campaign." "They just had some technical questions about a murder case." "How was your morning?" "Well, I made it." "To the hairdresser's." "They had no idea what to say." "Which makes a change." "Why keep the clairvoyant experiment a secret?" "Crane likes to have his imprimatur on everything." "The plan was to do the research without anybody knowing about it and then make a big splash in their own right with some kind of book." "But why didn't he tell his wife?" "Were Reuben and Vicki more than just colleagues?" "Not according to Vicki." "Somebody went to his office with the sole intention of scaring him half to death before finishing the job off with an animal tranquiliser." "There must be some significance to the way he was killed." "Well, he abused a lot of vulnerable people's trust." "We need to know who they are." "Here, listen to this." "National DNA Database has got an ID match on a hair follicle found in Reuben's office." "Belongs to a Justine Skinner." "She's in our system for breaking into a neighbour's house and killing their cats." "Bring her in." "Yeah, I'll do that." "You go back to Reuben's flat." "Check that Uniform didn't miss anything." "OK." "Reuben's death, yes." "I hope this won't compromise things too much." "As you can appreciate, I've..." "Thank you, Vicki." "You won't find anything." "The college have cleared it out." "All trace of us gone." "Like we were never here." "Where are you living now?" "My mum's." "It's fine." "Except the fact she's there." "I want to have good memories but all I can think about is him and Vicki." "I hate the thought of her grieving for him." "She has no right." "You took your time." "You were expecting me?" "Yeah, Reuben told me you'd come." "I didn't find anything." "Except for Polly Beatty." "She's not in a good way." "Is this the woman that killed the cats?" "Yes." "She was arrested for burglary and criminal damage just under a year ago." "She broke into her neighbour's house and lethally injected four cats." "CPS decided not to prosecute because of her mental health issues at the time." "Maybe she's had a relapse." "Turned her attention from cats to people." "Reuben came to me not long after he passed." "He told me you'd need my help." "Justine, the questions I'm about to ask you have nothing at all to do with the spirit world." "Do you understand?" "I'm not stupid, Inspector." "We know that you visited Reuben on the day he died." "Why was that?" "I wanted to talk to my mother." "My channels were blocked." "I get angry, you see." "No good for anyone." "So I thought I'd try new blood." "But he was no good." "A charlatan with a fake name." "How did that make you feel?" "When you found that out." "Disappointed." "I told him so, too." "He won't tell me how he was killed." "He was given a lethal injection." "Sound familiar?" "I wasn't well." "What did you use to put your neighbour's cats to sleep?" "I can't remember." "I had blackouts." "Daze." "Grief." "Drink." "Anger." "It all broke down." "Who were you angry with?" "I was my mother's sole carer for 25 years." "She had cats." "Four of them." "When she died, she gave them to the neighbour and everything else to Cats Protection." "Left me with nothing." "I could hear them next door." "Mewling, taunting me." "So I broke in." "I did to those cats what I wished I'd done to her." "She let me down." "Reuben Beatty let you down." "And now I can't get rid of him." "Are you OK?" "Justine?" "He's trying to tell me who killed him." "There's a woman in danger." "Who?" "Such anger in his office." "Someone wants him to feel terrible fear." "A woman." "No." "No." "A man." "Justine, if you're trying to throw me off the scent here..." "I know him." "He's a psychic." "Frank." "Frank..." "McLean." "Thanks for coming all the way out here at such short notice." "You're worried about being seen with me." "No of fence but you look like a policeman." "Oh, dear." "Promise me this stays off the record." "That I'll be safe." "It's about Reuben." "You want us to find whoever killed him, don't you?" "You loved him, didn't you?" "Three weeks ago I was asked by Professor Crane to help him devise an experiment for an external agency." "What sort of experiment?" "Sleep deprivation." "And how it affects willpower." "Breaks it down." "And the external agency?" "Let's just say... there's military involvement." "Whose military?" "Ours, the state, private contractor?" "And for what purpose?" "Torture?" "I honestly don't know." "Reuben got wind of the project and told Crane he thought it was unethical." "He was probably right but I think he was just pissed off Crane asked me to assist and not him." "Because he'd miss out on a fee?" "It was more of an ego thing." "How did Crane feel about Reuben finding out?" "Reuben told Crane, if he didn't pull out, he'd go to the department board with a complaint." "And that would have stopped the project?" "I don't know." "It might have been enough to jeopardise Crane's involvement." "So what are you telling me?" "Crane had Reuben killed in order to silence him?" "You told me that Reuben was killed using two drugs." "Barbiturate and Etorphine?" "Mm." "Well, some barbiturates are used to form the basis of so-called "truth drugs"." "Used by intelligence organisations all over the world." "Isn't it possible that they used that to find out what Reuben knew about the project?" "And killed him when they realised he knew too much." "Why didn't you tell me this before?" "I've never felt this scared before." "Some of us don't have the safety net of life after death." "I should go." "Do you want a lift?" "No." "I can't be seen with you." "Hello?" "Frank McLean?" "Who wants to know?" "Detective Inspector Lewis." "You want to talk to me about Randolph James?" "Er, yeah." "Present your warrant card to the camera." "Lovely place." "Business is clearly good." "I never subscribed to the belief work should be its own reward." "I much prefer actual money." "You must be very good at what you do." "We're the only creatures aware that life has a beginning, a middle and an end." "Every life has a story and for a small fee I help my clients find a shape to theirs." "Using psychic ability?" "Whatever you take me for, Inspector, don't take me for a fool." "You and I both know that I'm one step up from the fairground." "The skill lies in presenting the logical as mystical." "For example, how did I know why you've come to see me?" "Because I've got a notorious website on which I'm roundly critical of fellow "practitioners"." "And I also assume you've seen my latest blog post." "I haven't, actually." ""Randolph James." "A terrific stage name that sadly wasn't matched by his cold-reading skills."" "Unless we maintain a certain standard, we all get tarred with the same brush." "Someone's got to sort the wheat from the chaff." "And that's you?" "I don't trust anyone else." "In this world or the next." "I take it you know that Randolph James has been murdered?" "I heard a whisper, yeah." "So when did you post this?" "Tuesday night." "If you didn't know about it, how come you're here?" "Did somebody point you in my direction?" "I'm not at liberty to say." "Keith Poland?" "Liz Burkewood?" "Jodie Osbourne?" "Justine Skinner?" "Randolph James' real name was Reuben Beatty." "How hostile did you really feel towards him, Mr McLean?" "When did you visit him?" "I always go twice." "The first to check them out and the second to confirm my first impression." "I afforded Randolph the same courtesy." "And then I destroyed him." "What?" "Online." "Aye." "I don't think Frank McLean's our killer." "He needs phoney psychics to prop up his self-esteem." "How was your secret meeting?" "Worrying." "Meet you outside the Department of Psychology." "Yeah." "What's this about?" "Crane was devising a secret military experiment." "He wanted Vicki on board but not Reuben." "Reuben threatened to sabotage it." "What kind of experiment?" "It means that Crane, Vicki or whoever Crane was working for had ample reason to want him out of the way." "Yeah, but what...?" "Oh, isn't that..." "That's Vicki." "Vicki, can we talk?" "Vicki!" "Excuse me." "Vicki!" "Vicki!" "Look after her." "Help me." "What's the matter?" "Someone get an ambulance, please!" "Tell me I'll be OK." "You'll be fine." "Get an ambulance, please!" "I'm frightened." "Pray with me." "When she told me about Crane, she was scared for her life." "You know, we're no different, you and I. Except your subjects aren't criminals or liars." "Anyone make out if they're male or female?" "Why did you go to Reuben's office the day he was murdered?" "Who was that?" "What do you want?" "You see anything?" "Nothing." "Professor Crane!"