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Prominent artist Hedley Shale is shot in his home, while his mistress Francesca (the model from his latest masterpiece) is found bound and gagged with thick tape in his bedroom. The whole thing looks like a robbery as some of his wife's jewellery is found dumped on the lawn outside. Revenge is the obvious motive, with Hedley's wife, Serena Shale, as the prime suspect, who simply threw the jewellery out the window to cover her tracks.

Hedley was murdered at approx. 11:30am, and Serena had been in her office (she's editor of Eve magazine) from 9:30am until the police came to inform her at 1pm. The question is how did she get out of her office, go home shoot her husband and get back to her desk without anyone seeing her?

Meanwhile, Adam Klaus is practising his latest illusion designed by Jonathan Creek. Backstage, Adam tells Jonathan that a couple of people are off with flu, and he needs someone to escort the volunteers around at his next show. As Jonathan knows the illusions well, and has nothing better to do, he agrees!

The police have brought in a man (Stephen Grismal) for questioning, but he denies anything to do with the murder. He's told the MO of the crime fits him, and while he admits to another crime, he refuses to take the blame for Hedley's murder. He argues that the finger prints found on the gun were not his. Detective Sergeant Davey dismisses this by saying he could have stolen the gun and then worn gloves - hardly conclusive that he didn't murder Hedley. Grismal then exercises his right to an investigative journalist.

Elsewhere Madeline Magellan (Maddy) is having problems in her current relationship with camera man boyfriend, Trevor. Her publicist calls with news of Grismal, so she goes to the police station, to talk with him. He tells Maddy that he's convinced Serena Shale killed her husband and is framing him for the murder. Serena is being terribly cool about her husbands' death, and so Maddy takes the case.

Maddy taps into Francesca's answer phone, and discovers that she is meeting someone in the foyer of the Prince of Wales Theatre, so Maddy goes along. Who should be performing but Adam Klaus. Adam spots Francesca in the audience, and has her picked for an illusion in the second half of his act. During the interval, Jonathan accidentally stabs Maddy's hand with a cocktail stick when his small sausage escapes. Maddy then pretends to have met Francesca's at a previous party. She offers to help Francesca over her grief, by pretending to be a councillor.

After the interval Adam picks Francesca to take part in an illusion which all goes without a hitch. The following day, Jonathan is sent to Francesca's with a present in tow. When he arrives, Maddy is already there as Francesca has taken her up on her counselling offer. He brings Francesca a dress, and she tells Jonathan to tell Adam that she will have dinner with him, tonight after the show. As Jonathan leaves, Maddy starts to think about the murder. How could Serena have gotten out of her office without anyone seeing? The best person to ask would be a magician....or the man who works for him....

She runs after Jonathan, and takes him to lunch to pick his brain about the case. They talk for a bit, and then she asks him to do a trick for her. He does but once it's explained, all the magic is taken out of it! Jonathan agrees to help Maddy with the case, but he would need to know some more information, like the layout of Serena's office.

Maddy then sets up a mock interview posing as someone from Channel Four, and Jonathan is the camera man! They go to Serena's office, and while Maddy pretends to interview Serena, Jonathan wanders around the office for clues. He also talks to Serena's PA, who tells him the only time she saw Serena after she shut herself away in her office was to collect a file. But she can't remember what the name on the file was "Bates" or "Yates". After that she left the office closing the door, and never left her desk until one O'clock.

Jonathan then goes away to ponder the case, and comes up with a solution of how Serena could have left her office which is on the 13th floor with no ledges, without her PA seeing her. Maddy drives to the windmill where Jonathan lives to hear his solution. His solution involves Serena never actually entering her office to start with. Instead she ducks down behind the sofa in her outer office and while her PA retrieves the file slips out the door. (This explanation really needs to be seen to be understood!).

However after his explanation, he immediately dismisses it. Serena wouldn't really have left her office for three hours with just a pair of legs propped up on her desk. What if there was a fire drill? She would have been found out.

They then set about finding another solution. The main problem is the finger prints on the gun. Francesca says the killer wore gloves, so why take them off? And why leave the gun behind in the first place? They then return to the scene of the crime, and invite themselves in to the Shale house. Katrina the cleaner is the only one there. While Maddy goes upstairs (on the pretence of going to the loo) to have a look around the bedroom for clues, Jonathan keeps Katrina occupied by accidentally pushing over a coffee table. As they pick up the cups and letters which were on the table Katrina becomes upset. She explain that one of the letters has her footprint on it, as she accidentally stepped on it the day Hedley was shot. It's an inland revenue letter which hasn't been opened. As Jonathan comforts her (his arm goes around her shoulder, and he offers her a tissue), her husband appears at the window. He is a very jealous man who promptly gets a vacuum cleaner and sucks Jonathan's face with it.

Meanwhile upstairs Maddy has found a rubber band on the floor near the bed, and some bloodstains on the rug. Just as they are leaving, Serena drives up and they have to hide. As they drive away Maddy says she is convinced Serena killed her husband, but she doesn't know how. Jonathan is slightly troubled by something, as he knows something is staring him in the face but he can't see what it is. Then he sees the time, and realises he's late for an appointment.

Jonathan appears at Francesca's house along with Adam, who wants Francesca to appear in his show next Sunday. For the illusion of the iron maiden, which involves not only shutting her in a box with spikes on the inside, but switching places with Adam. Jonathan reluctantly agrees, even though a camera crew is going to be at the show. Later in the evening Adam insists on seeing a painting of Francesca that Hedley did which is hiding in the cellar. As Adam puts the lights on in the cellar, they find the painting with a number of bullet holes in, someone clearly has been using it for target practice! Jonathan then finds an elastic band on the floor.

Adam then takes Katrina back to his place, saying she's not to leave his side. And Jonathan gets a cab to Maddy's flat, but sees her with Trevor, and decides to go home instead. Next day, Maddy sees Katrina at the art gallery where Hedley's work is being shown. She finds out that Katrina had posed for Hedley, and had had an affair with him.

That night Jonathan is watching TV, when Maddy rings to tell him about Katrina. She also tells him that she knows about the painting in Francesca's cellar, as Adam was down the police station demanding police protection for Francesca. The sexual tension then builds and they have a mini argument about Maddy living with Trevor when she had implied that she wasn't living with anyone. Maddy gets so worked up she accidentally pulls the phone lead out of the socket. Jonathan then puts down the phone and continues to eat his TV dinner. For some reason he's no longer interested in what's on the TV, so he turns it off by using his foot on the remote control. Suddenly things start to make sense.

Back stage at Adam Klaus's show a body guard is coming out of the loo and receives an ear bashing from Adam. He was supposed to be on guard outside Francesca's room. Adam is interrupted by a scream from Francesca's room, they rush in only to find her crying about having put on three pounds since last Monday. She can't do the show! Adam has a few words and she appears to be okay. He leaves her with Jonathan who locks the door after Adam has gone. Francesca then goes to freshen up in the bathroom, and the phone rings, so Jonathan answers it. It's Serena calling for Francesca, with the surprise suggestion that she wants to buy Francesca's story of her affair with her husband. She's absolutely serious, and it is purely a professional decision, it will sell magazines. Serena is coming to Adam's show that night, so would like to meet Francesca after the show. Jonathan says he will relay the message, and as Serena replaces the phone, we see Maddy's last book on her desk.

While the camera crew is setting up in the theatre, Jonathan tries for a third time to call Maddy. As he puts the phone down, she appears back stage, where he tells her he thinks he knows who killed Hedley.

The audience including Serena starts arriving for the show, and the show goes on. The iron maiden trick goes ahead, but as the door closes, the spikes pierce the back and blood runs out the holes. Serena smiles in the audience. However it all turns out to be an extra gimmick Adam has put into the act, and nobody is dead.

After the show, Jonathan asks Maddy if they are all set. And she nods towards the policemen who are now in the theatre. Backstage there is a party going on, and Serena is talking to Francesca when Maddy and Jonathan walk into the room. Maddy tells Serena that the police have dropped the murder charge against Stephen Grismal this afternoon due to new evidence.

The letter on the door mat was the first thing to make sense to Jonathan. The postman arrives at the Shale house around 8:30am in the morning. If Hedley had opened the door to let Francesca in at 9:10 - 9:15am, he would have seen the letter and picked it up, an important letter from the tax man, it's something you'd want to look at. So if it wasn't a burglar who killed Hedley, the obvious reason is revenge. But it wasn't Serena, it was Francesca who shot Hedley. She found out he was sleeping with Katrina. The truth is that Hedley rejected Francesca and she made him pay for that rejection.

Francesca climbed over the wall, then went up the spiral staircase that leads to Hedley's bedroom outside the house. Once inside she forced the draw Serena kept her jewellery in and threw some out the window. She then roughed up the bed a bit, to make it look like a struggle, and then.....tied herself up. Placing the roll of tape over the bed head (which is one of the old fashioned ones which has small poles sticking up at either end), and wraps the tape around her wrists. She then braces her self against the wall, and knocks over a vase to get Hedley's attention. Okay so now your thinking, she's just bound and gagged herself with tape, her hands are behind her back, how the hell is she supposed to have shot Hedley?

It's not immediately obvious, but she did it with her feet! She uses the elastic bands to attach the gun to her feet, and when Hedley arrives at the door, she fires the gun. Hard? No, as she had used the painting in her cellar for target practice!

This is an elaborate explanation, and can't possibly be proved, at least not without hard evidence. Which is why Jonathan gave Maddy a set of bathroom scales to take to the police to eliminate Francesca's toe prints from their enquiries. Unfortunately, for Francesca, they match the prints on the gun!

Case closed.

Guest cast
Adam Klaus	Serena Shale	Hedley Shale	Francesca Boutron
Katrina Toplis	DS Owen Davey	Joy	Barry Opper
Trevor	Stephen Grismal	Yasmin	Mr. Winstanley
Supermarket cashier	Supermarket customer	Rhino	Supermarket Manager
Waiter

© 2024 Liane Frydland
Written by Liane Frydland except where cited. See also Disclaimer and Accessibility.