Quotes
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DC Endeavour Morse : Strange, there's a blackboard there. Could you...?
[Strange gets the board]
DC Endeavour Morse : Each element is assigned a symbol: Typically an abbreviation of its name together with a unique one or two-digit atomic number. Can you write these down as I call then off?
[Strange cleans the board and writes the elements on the board as Morse calls them out]
DC Endeavour Morse : So, 74 gives us Tungsten. 17, Chlorine. 18, Argon. 19, Potassium. The elements spell out a name.
Chief Superintendent Bright : [looking at the first letters of the elements] T.C.A.P Tucap?
DC Endeavour Morse : No, not quite, sir, but you're on the right lines.
[Morse walks over to the blackboard and Strange gives him the chalk]
DC Endeavour Morse : Um, the chemical symbol for Tungsten isn't Tu as you might expect. It's W from the German Wolframite. And Potassium isn't P as you might expect but K after the Latin Kalium. Taken together they're Tungsten...
[close-ups of these four elements and their chemical symbols in the Periodic Table are seen as Morse writes the chemical symbol W]
DC Endeavour Morse : ...Chorine...
[Morse writes the chemical symbol CL on the blackboard]
DC Endeavour Morse : ...Argon...
[Morse writes the chemical symbol AR on the blackboard]
DC Endeavour Morse : ...and Potassium.
[Morse writes the chemical symbol K on the blackboard]
DC Endeavour Morse : W-C-L-A-R-K. Wallace Clark.
[flashbacks of Wallace Clark committing the murders are seen with close-ups of the Periodic Table]
Chief Superintendent Bright : [almost speechless] Good grief.
DI Fred Thursday : Derek's father.
Chief Superintendent Bright : But there's nothing to say he even knew the vicar.
DC Endeavour Morse : Ivy Clark, sir. Wallace's wife is buried in the churchyard.
[Ivy's Clark's tombstone is seen]
DC Endeavour Morse : The next plot but one to Lady Daphne Sloan. Reverend Monkford performed the service.
PC Jim Strange : [laughs] Bloody hell, matey. That's...
DI Fred Thursday : [stunned and impressed] Elementary.
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Chief Superintendent Bright : I understand you've a detective constable acting as bagman.
DI Fred Thursday : Morse, sir. Good man.
Chief Superintendent Bright : They're all good men, Thursday, but the rank system is there for a purpose.
[Bright opens Morse's file]
Chief Superintendent Bright : Bagman is a detective sergeant's post.
DI Fred Thursday : He's an exceptional officer, sir.
Chief Superintendent Bright : [reading the file] Barely two weeks in uniform before being transferred to CID. Which, you may rely, means no-one knew what to do with him.
DI Fred Thursday : Or his talents lay elsewhere.
Chief Superintendent Bright : A grammar scholarship and a failed degree might impress some, but the truth of it is he lacks experience.
DI Fred Thursday : I'm bringing him on.
[short pause]
Chief Superintendent Bright : I'd as soon we didn't get off on the wrong foot, Thursday.
DI Fred Thursday : Likewise, sir.
Chief Superintendent Bright : On your own recognisance.
[Bright closes Morse's file]
Chief Superintendent Bright : And for a probationary period only. The first hint of a hullabaloo, he'll be returned to general duties.
DI Fred Thursday : Sir.
[Thursday leaves the room]
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Chief Superintendent Bright : [walking through the scene of the crime with DI Thursday] No wallet you say? Robbery then.
DI Fred Thursday : Possibly, sir.
Chief Superintendent Bright : In any event, I think it best Sergeant Jakes assume management of the incident room for the duration.
DI Fred Thursday : DC Morse is my bagman, sir.
Chief Superintendent Bright : Morse may remain as your driver and aide de camp, but a case such as this requires an office of experience or senior rank to coordinate the inquiry.
[sees Morse examining a bicycle next to wall]
Chief Superintendent Bright : You're giving primary consideration to this bicycle, I take it? Quite right.
DI Fred Thursday : Sir.
Chief Superintendent Bright : I recall a not dissimilar case in Freetown. The usual mammy-palaver. But the killer left his bicycle at the scene. You should be able to trace its owner from the frame number.
DC Endeavour Morse : Really? In Oxford?
[Bright looks at Morse and Thursday quickly speaks up]
DI Fred Thursday : What Morse means to say, sir, is that there's probably more cycles hereabouts than anywhere in the country. Bikes get lost, borrowed... stolen. Right?
DC Endeavour Morse : Yes, sir. But if the registered owner isn't left-handed, then he's probably not our man.
Chief Superintendent Bright : Left-handed?
DI Fred Thursday : As you'd have noticed, given the opportunity to examine it yourself, the front and rear brakes cables have been swapped over.
DC Endeavour Morse : He'll also be an older man, and of limited means, possibly.
DS Peter Jakes : [almost jokingly] How did you get to that, then?
DC Endeavour Morse : Well, the bike's ancient. But well maintained. Which points to the thrift, I'd have thought. Taken together with evidence of absentmindedness...
Chief Superintendent Bright : What evidence?
DC Endeavour Morse : He sometimes forgets to wear his bicycle clip, sir. There are scraps of material torn from his trousers in the gears. One a cavalry twill, the other's a linen. Both black. He wears a subfusc as a matter of habit.
Chief Superintendent Bright : [impatient] A don, then? Hm?
DC Endeavour Morse : Perhaps, sir. But I think, given the limited means, we are looking for a man of the cloth.
DS Peter Jakes : [almost laughing] A vicar shooting somebody in a lav?
Chief Superintendent Bright : I hope you'll eliminate known criminals from your inquiries first, Thursday, before troubling any clergymen, what. Really Constable Morse, you should be on the halls.
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Chief Superintendent Bright : [entering the church with DI Thursday and DS Jakes] Perhaps you'd care to explain just what it is you're doing here.
DC Endeavour Morse : I think I know who killed Cartwright and Monkford, sir.
DI Fred Thursday : [seriously] Think or know?
DC Endeavour Morse : [confident] Know.
Chief Superintendent Bright : [not convinced at all] What's this? More threadbare legerdemain?
DI Fred Thursday : [partly convinced that Morse is on to something] Might as well hear him out sir.
Chief Superintendent Bright : But we're about to charge Pamela Walters, aren't we?
DC Endeavour Morse : [flashbacks show what Morse explains] Every Friday, Dr. Cartwright went to the East Cowley post office and had a postal order made out to the sum of 10 shillings. Every Monday, that order was cashed by Pamela Sloan.
Chief Superintendent Bright : Why would it matter if he was sending money to his sister-in-law?
DC Endeavour Morse : Three years ago, Pamela Sloan attempted suicide. Frank Cartwright had been keeping an eye on her, since she moved to London. He found her in the nick of time. His own marriage failing, Cartwright understood Pamela's desperation all too well. Two lonely people in a big city far from home, they looked to one another for companionship, and comfort.
DI Fred Thursday : [believing Morse] He got her pregnant.
DC Endeavour Morse : I spoke to the National Registry first thing. There was a man called Gerald Walters who worked at ICI and he did die in a car crash but there was no whirlwind romance with Pamela Sloan. No marriage. For two years, they kept their affair secret. Pamela passed herself off as a young widow and collected Cartwright's weekly postal order. Eventually, someone realised Dr. Cartwright was sending money to a woman who was not his wife. They fired a shot into the dark and hit the bull's-eye. The sender threatened to reveal what he knew to Cartwright's wife and sought to turn it to their own advantage. Cartwright paid off the extortioner with a regular delivery of amphetamines.
Chief Superintendent Bright : And the Reverend Monkford? How do you explain his involvement?
DC Endeavour Morse : He came upon Dr. Cartwright's killer at the scene. Unfortunately, the murderer also recognised the Reverend Monkford.
Chief Superintendent Bright : [not convinced] You might find this compelling, Thursday, but so far it seems to me nothing but surmise and rank flummery. If he knew who the killer was, why didn't he just come forward?
DC Endeavour Morse : And explain what he was doing cycling to a public convenience miles from his parish at 10 o'clock on a Summer's evening?
Chief Superintendent Bright : [not convinced] You can prove none of it.
DC Endeavour Morse : Actually, sir, I believe I can.
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Chief Superintendent Bright : [not convinced] What are you going to do? Produce some eye witness from thin air?
DC Endeavour Morse : As a matter of fact, sir, we do have a witness. The Reverend Monkford.
DS Peter Jakes : [almost jokingly] Shall I send back to the station for a Ouiji board?
DI Fred Thursday : [knowing Jakes' intention] All right Jakes.
DC Endeavour Morse : He's left us a message. It's been staring us in the face all along.
Chief Superintendent Bright : What message?
[Morse points at the Hymn board, which has the numbers 74, 17, 18 and 19 on it]
Chief Superintendent Bright : Hymn numbers?
DC Endeavour Morse : Actually, sir, that's the last thing they are. The first time I saw it, I thought it odd to have 17, 18 and 19 following on like that. The last time I saw Monkford, he hinted to leave a message. Something that might speak for him. Even if he wrote down what he knew and hid it somewhere, it might be found. And someone did search the vicarage the night he was killed looking for exactly that. Fearful for his life and afraid the truth would die with him, Monkford concealed the killer's identity in the hymn numbers.
Chief Superintendent Bright : Concealed?
DC Endeavour Morse : I've since found out that Monkford worked on ciphers during the war.
DI Fred Thursday : You're saying these hymn numbers are some sort of code?
DC Endeavour Morse : Exactly, sir. Only, I couldn't find the key until now. Actually, it was Strange who hit upon the answer.
[Strange looks surprised but says nothing]
DC Endeavour Morse : Before taking the cloth, the Reverend Monkford read Chemistry at Beaufort College. You'll find a copy of the Periodic Table hanging in his home.
DI Fred Thursday : Isn't that a list of the elements, Hydrogen, Carbon, Helium?
Chief Superintendent Bright : Yes, yes of course.
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Chief Superintendent Bright : [with a slight lisp] My name is Bright. Chief Superintendent Bright. Firstly, I would just like to express my gratitude to Detective Inspector Thursday for holding the fort so admirably pending my arrival. Secondly...
[Morse hurries in]
Chief Superintendent Bright : Secondly, you should be aware that I am putting this station on notice. I do not propose to speak ill of my predecessor, but where there are breaches of procedure of Spanish practices, you will find me a horse of a very different colour. That said, I want you to regard my appointment as a tabula rasa. A clean slate. You play fair by me, then I will play fair by you. Carry on.
[the officers chatter]
DS Peter Jakes : Around and around the rugged rock the ragged rascal ran.
[Morse gives Jakes a serious glance]
DS Peter Jakes : What?
DC Endeavour Morse : [seriously] Well, that's a bit cheap isn't it?
DS Peter Jakes : [jokingly] He'd be right up your street, I suppose. Tabula wasa. My Aunt Flo.
DI Fred Thursday : [standing behind Jakes] If you've no work, Jakes, some will be found for you.
DS Peter Jakes : [respectfully] Sir.
