Original subtitles

Just a little bit, a little bit, yeah?

Good girl, good girl, good girl, okay.

Yeah, good, good girl.

Were you taken to church as a child?

This is not about indoctrination.

God was in my life before I was born.

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?

That's my gorgeous girls.

Hello. Ruben.

He's having lunch.

She needs routine.

He's changing, I'd say.

And Daddy came back just in time, didn't he?

He's on post, okay?

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 rationalize what's in the Bible. The essence of faith is love.

Hello.

Hello, Mr. BT.

It's me.

Don't forget your first one's in in half an hour.

Yeah, I'm on my way.

Who's that?

Vicky. There's a department meeting. She was just reminding me.

Ruben.

Love you.

Your CD must be scratched.

Did you find the repetition meditative?

Meditative's another word for monotonous. And yes, very... Highly

combating stress.

But I'm not stressed.

You don't think you're stressed.

You've assimilated it.

God, my 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 okay now?

Is she 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.

That's Tina for you.

I can't thank you enough, Mr. James.

Randolph, please.

Sir.

Not the best way to get a copper's number.

It wasn't her fault. It was the woman who crossed the road.

You're sounding a bit tense, James. Do you remember to grab your CD from the

car?

Brilliant.

Mac.

Who's Mac?

Was anyone in your family known as Mac?

My name's Maclean.

I'm sensing an older man.

Grey hair.

I can smell smoke.

I sound familiar.

He's very proud of you, Frank.

It can't be my dad, then.

Well, 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.

Hold. Found a text message from his colleague, Vicky.

She's pretty, super bright.

So are you.

With lovely shiny hair that doesn't sound 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 flea pit any day.

He better not be cheating, Josh.

Not after everything I've given up for him.

Neck okay, is it?

After your shunt?

Give it time.

Hello?

Jane?

Jane?

Mr. James?

The door was open.

Yes, so I went in.

Do 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.

You've been here before?

Yes.

I come to talk to Jeff.

Who's Jeff?

My husband.

Does he work here too?

No, he's dead.

Randolph James, the psychic.

Oh, right. I'm sorry.

George, I found this on the body.

Jeff and I always like the matter.

Tell him all my news.

About the kids.

Footy.

Randolph James, you say?

Well, he hasn't been shot, strangled, dabbed, beaten, bludgeoned, or had his

neck broken.

If we're listing all the things that haven't happened to him, 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?

Winters identified him as Randolph James, but he's Reuben Beecher on his

card. So he's leading a double life?

Randolph James is a practicing clairvoyant.

Certainly looks like he's seen a ghost.

He was at the department.

Maybe it's not Ruben. Someone could have stolen his card.

That's why we need him identified.

Do you need a minute?

I need to know.

Mrs. Beecher, is it Reuben? What happened?

Well, we're still waiting for the autopsy report.

Until we decide otherwise, we're treating your husband's death as

What was he doing in some office?

Reuben believed that he was moonlighting as a sidekick.

That's absurd.

He's a junior research fellow at the Department of Psychology. He's a

He investigates systems of belief, why people believe.

Could it have been part of his research?

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?

I'll never have a secret.

That's what you said.

When love strikes like this, you've got to trust it.

I married a precious boy.

It took us six days to get engaged.

And when we weren't together, we were incomplete.

It didn'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.

Sir Ruben Beatty lied to his wife. Why doesn't that surprise me?

Yeah, poor lass.

Lost not only a husband, but all her faith in him, too.

Stuck at home with a little, then. No idea what he was up to.

Probably thinking the worst.

If he was moonlighting, she didn't get a whiff of any cash.

Don't you mind what she was used to? Could have driven her to desperation.

Not kill, though, surely.

She said her husband investigated people's belief systems and destroyed

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 Beattie.

and his wife had a joint account that this one was set up in secret.

And he topped it up weekly with wadges of cash.

So far, no other trace of Randolph James. It seems to be an identity

a psychic's chair.

Why would Reuben, the post -grad 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.

Any more accurate?

We found four sets of 40 quid at the scene, which means he was doing it for

money. He was just taking advantage of the recently bereaved.

Some people are so gullible.

Well, if believing in the spirit well gets them through, we don't knock it.

You're on to his colleagues from the Department of Psychology.

Maybe they have some idea what he was up to.

Sorry to hear about your bump.

Thanks, Mum.

It brings back memories, the collar.

Anyone who ditches... 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

A little compassion wouldn't go amiss, Mum.

Someone had to keep a clear head.

And 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

as a single mother.

At least I got a good settlement out of your dad. Ruben'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?

8mm hypodermic needle.

Delivering what?

An extremely powerful paralysing agent called M99.

Pharmaceutical name, etorphin.

It's a controlled substance strictly for use on large mammals.

Retorphin'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.

But surely the barbiturate would have eventually stopped him breathing, so 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

out of it. Yeah, and then sometime after injected him with a lethal dose of

etorphine.

Like James said, why not just finish the job with a lethal dose of barbiturate?

Because that would involve a complete loss of control, a lot of wild thrashing

about. Could be messy, could be noisy.

Attract unwanted attention.

Whereas a massive overdose of etorphin would shut down respiration in seconds.

It explains the look on his face.

If he was 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

euthanasia.

This is a tall thing to use 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 Vicky.

Vicky Warmpley 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, psychokinesis. 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 of beliefs, thereby identifying the mechanisms that retain them. Thank

you very much.

Gentlemen,

Mr. Crane, Inspector Lewis, Detective Sergeant Hawthorne. I didn't have you

as volunteers.

It's such a shame about Ruben.

Professor Crane.

This is Vicky.

She worked alongside Ruben.

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 all. Sorry.

It came as a great shock to the department.

Do you 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 post -grads.

A true skeptic.

But you didn't believe in the paranormal?

Of course not.

Were you aware that he was practicing as a psychic in the Center of Terror?

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.

Yep.

Vicky? Who's Vicky?

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.

Yeah, okay, Mom.

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 Bunches.

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.

Ruben 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 and afterlife?

No, but I don't believe in conning people either.

How about you?

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 truly 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 Ruben the art of cold reading, rented an office...

Been stuck a night in the log of press.

Yeah.

Tuesdays and Wednesdays. You took money from people.

To pay the office rent? Well, it was the best part. Two grand left over.

Reuben reckons there was no difference between him or any other clairvoyant.

Apart from he knew it was nothing more than a trick.

He'd still help 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.

Are 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 objects.

That appointment book wasn't in Reuben's office.

Maybe he kept it at his flat. Take a look.

Is she lying, do you reckon, about an affair?

Not sure, but I do think she loved him.

Vicky's defence of Reuben was that he knew he was exploiting people.

That's disturbing.

I find it more disturbing if he actually believed he could talk to the dead.

Vicky was with Reuben all the time. His wife, Polly, hardly ever saw him.

But would that give her a concrete motive for killing him?

Well, I'm going to the Natural History Museum.

Meet Cannon Dutter. Cannon Dutter?

Oxford Campaign for Assisted Dying. He works there.

This Dutter, who did he lose?

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 a torpid.

It'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

anaesthetise large animals, elephants mostly.

The barbiturate was in a slice of cake.

Barbiturates are traditionally bitter -tasting.

Sweet cake would disguise that.

Oh, the victim was given cake.

Sedated and then killed?

I'm sure it wasn't some form of mercy killing.

It wasn't killed immediately.

We have reason to believe he was kept alive.

quite 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 Catherine, 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 realized 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 life was being needlessly prolonged, but...

We were refused permission to do anything about it. We wanted to protect

spare her from suffering.

Any parent would feel the same.

We brought her home.

It just felt like the right thing to do.

Then fate intervened.

Chest infection.

Not many people in our situation have that blessing.

wife torments herself about it every day.

Why weren't we able to do anything to help her?

Whereas you found a way to move on.

At least keep moving.

You still think it's wrong to want to put somebody out of their pain?

Just because I'm a cop tour with it doesn't make it wrong.

Who are they?

Detective.

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?

Apparently Crane liked to have his impromptu 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 a book.

Well, why didn't he tell his wife?

Were Ruben and Vicky more than just colleagues?

Not, according to Vicky.

Somebody went to his office with the sole intention of scaring him half to

before finishing the job off with an animal tranquiliser.

There must be some significance to the way he was killed.

They abused a lot of vulnerable people's trust in there. We need to know who

they are.

Yeah, listen to this.

National DNA database has got an ID match on a hair follicle found in

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 Ruben's flat.

Check that uniform didn't miss anything.

Ruben's death, yes.

I hope this won't compromise things too much.

I appreciate time.

Thank you, Vicky.

I don't find anything.

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 Vicky.

He thought of her grieving for him.

She had no right.

You took your time.

Back in a minute? Yeah. Reuben told me you'd come.

Didn't find anything except for Polly Beattie. She's not in a good way.

She's the woman that killed the cats.

Yeah, she was arrested for burglary and criminal damage just under a year ago.

She broke into a 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. Send 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.

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.

Days.

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 Kat's 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? Now I can't get rid of him.

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 offense, but you.

Looked like a policeman.

How's he?

Promised me this day's off the record.

That I'll be safe.

It's about Ruben. 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

for an external agency.

What sort of experiment?

Sleep deprivation.

How it affects willpower, breaks it down.

And the external agency?

Let's just say death military involvement.

Whose military? Ours? The state? Private contractor?

And for what purpose? Torture?

I honestly don't know.

Ruben got wind of the project until Craney thought it was unethical.

He was probably right, but I think he was just pissed off that Crane asked me

assist and not him. Because he missed out on a fee?

It was more of an ego thing.

How did Crane feel about Reuben finding out?

Well, Reuben told Crane that if he didn't pull out of the project, he'd go

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 Ruben was killed using two drugs, barbiturate and atorphin.

Well, some barbiturates are used to form the basis of so -called truth drugs

used by intelligence organizations all over the world.

Isn't it possible that they used that to find out what Ruben knew about the

project and then killed him when they realized 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.

You're going to leave?

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?

Yeah.

Present your warrant card to the camera.

Lovely play.

Business is clearly good.

Yes, I've never subscribed to the belief that work should be its own reward. I

much prefer actual money.

You must be very good at what you do.

The only creatures that are aware that life has a beginning, middle, and an

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 so -called

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 crappy

brush. He'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 Berkwood.

Jodie Osborne.

Justine Skinner.

Randolph James's real name was Reuben Beattie.

How hostile did you really feel to old Emerson McLean?

When did you visit him? Well, I would go twice.

The first to check them out, and the second to confirm my first impression.

I forwarded Randolph the same courtesy, and then I destroyed him.

What?

Online.

Hi.

I don't think Frank McClane's our killer.

He needs phony psychics to prop up his self -esteem.

How was your secret meeting?

Worrying. Meet you outside the Department of Psychology.

Yeah.

Crane was devising a secret military experiment.

He wanted Vicky on board, but not Reuben. Reuben threatened to sabotage

What kind of experiment?

Which means that Crane, Vicky, or whoever Crane was working for had ample

to want him out of the way. Yeah, but what... No, isn't that... No, that's

Vicky. Vicky!

Can we talk?

Vicky!

Look after her.

You're right.

Help me.

What's the matter?

Someone get an ambulance, please.

Tell me you'll be okay.

You'll be fine.

Can we get an ambulance, please?

When she told me about Crane, she was scared for her life.

You know, we're no different, you and I. So your subjects aren't criminals or

liars?

They won't make out if they're male or female. Why did you go to Reuben's

the day he was murdered?

Who's that?

What do you want?

Nothing.

Professor Crane!

And the story continues next week at 8.

Wednesday night, it's Midsummer Murders here on ITV1. The news is next, and

later at 10 .35, from an interview with Mick Jagger to the campaign to free the

Birmingham Six, we look back at the 50 years since World in Action was first

broadcast.