Plot

Jane and Davey investigate when the owner of an ice-cream factory is found dead in a freezer.

Robert Talbot is found dead in the freezer at his ice cream factory on the eve of its sale to an American company. His son Andrew and Jane are suspicious of his glamorous trophy wife Christine, who has already buried two other husbands but Davey is convinced that cash-strapped Andrew is the culprit. When Christine survives being poisoned Jane is less sure of her initial deduction and seeks the truth from Robert's loyal manager Rose Porter.—don @ minifie-1

A middle aged man is coming in from the balcony of a large modernist house on the waterfront. He muses about building a garden on the balcony. A woman comes out of a shower in nothing but a towel. She teases him about what his wife would think about his garden idea. He says he needs a hobby. She says his wife might argue that's what she's for, and she comes close to him -- it's clear this is his wife. She says to go right ahead with the garden if it makes him happy. He kisses her hand and arm. She nicely holds him off, saying she needs to dress and can't be late. The man is worried about what someone is going to think about something, but she says they'll be fine about it.

Cut to the man and woman in an office, with another younger man, Andrew. He tells them to drop dead, and storms out. The man is stunned at the young man telling him off. An older woman comes by and tells the man one of the freezer doors is broken, and he dismisses her and tells her to take care of it. His wife is reassuring him that he is doing the right thing. The man goes to have a drink, but she puts the decanter away. She says Andrew needs his independence.

The man has second thoughts. The woman advises him not to let Andrew walk all over him. He says Andrew needs him, but his wife says Andrew is just using him. She gets disappointed and walks out as he calls after her.

The wife, Christine, gets into a nice convertible car outside the factory, Talbot's Ices. The man is in his office, staring at his computer screen, and shakes his head.

The next morning, at the factory, the older woman is showing the broken door to a repair technician. She remarks an employee got trapped in it the other day. She opens the door, and finds the older man, on the floor, frozen stiff. She gasps, and tells the technician to call an ambulance.

Jane Kennedy is going through papers. Her mother is gossiping on the phone. She tells Jane that Robert Talbot, the ice cream magnate, has died, frozen to death in his own freezer. She suspects he was murdered. Jane is dubious.

Jane arrives at the ice cream factory. Davey briefs her. He will introduce her to Talbot's wife (Christine), son (Andrew), and Rose Porter, the factory manager, the woman who found Talbot's body.

They are all waiting in the office. Jane misidentifies Rose as Mrs. Talbot. Davey wants to know who saw Robert alive last. Rose feels guilty as she left work before Robert did, around 7:30 pm, and feels she should have stayed. Andrew consoles her. Christine says she last saw Robert around 5 pm. She gets flustered and leaves.

Davey and Jane go to look at Talbot's body. Jane notices Talbot had his phone on him, but Davey says there's no signal there. Jane muses that one would normally notify their spouse when they are working late. Talbot's phone isn't working due to the freezing temperature. Jane wonders why Talbot didn't try to get out, and Davey suggests he didn't want to.

Davey goes back to talk to Andrew and Rose. Rose says they went out for a meal the night before, stayed until after 11 pm. Davey asks why Andrew was meeting with his father the day before. Andrew says that Talbot was planning to sell the company.

Speaking to Rose separately, Davey suggests that Talbot's announcement to sell the company must have been a shock. The company has been in the Talbot family for over 80 years. The previous night, Talbot was working on the paperwork for the transaction. Rose offered to help, but he insisted she leave it up to him. She says he felt guilty, as the buyer is not going to keep the factory running, but is just buying the company's intellectual property. Rose says she was planning to retire anyway. She's worked there for 40 years. Jane plays with a souvenir from Rose's desk, which Rose grabs from her.

Davey asks who knew about the sale, and Rose says it was only her and Andrew. She remarks that the sale will probably be put on hold given Talbot's death. Her voice starts to crack. Davey asks her about when she left work. She left around 7:30, as she had a reservation with Andrew at the local pub. She wanted to check on Andrew's emotional state regarding the sale, and says he's fine, as he wasn't interested in the business.

Jane asks Rose if she thinks Talbot could have killed himself. Rose is taken aback at the idea. Davey asks if she knows of anyone who would have wanted to hurt Talbot. Rose says he was loved by all. Davey asks for their CCTV footage.

Davey goes over the footage. He sees Rose leaving work. Fast forwarding, he sees Christine entering around 9 pm. She leaves 20 minutes later. The duty officer hands Davey Talbot's cell phone logs. He called Christine just after 8 pm.

Jane goes to the Talbot house to meet with Christine. She knocks over a folder, which contains financial records for the company. Christine has been calling Robert's contacts about his death. Jane hands her a pair of sunglasses that she left behind. Christine apologizes for being scatterbrained.

Jane asks if it's strange that Robert didn't come home last night. Christine says he must have been working. Jane asks if there's anything odd she might want to tell, and Christine infers she doesn't think his death was an accident.

Davey arrives at the house to question Christine. She butters him up. Davey asks about her statement that she last saw Robert at 5 PM, which she confirms. Then she adds that she stopped by the factory later that evening, around 9, but didn't see Robert. She'd gotten a voicemail from him, and remarked that they'd argued earlier that day. She wanted him to come home but he insisted on working. She plays back the voicemail of Robert saying to meet him at the factory at 9. She couldn't find him there, and assumed he'd gone to get food; she got tired of waiting and left. She now realizes he must have been trapped in the freezer by then. Davey asks why she didn't mention it before, but she says she was in shock. She feigns apprehension, and Davey softens. She flirts with him silently. Jane makes a face. She points out that it was withholding evidence. While Christine makes eyes at him, Davey suggests Jane has something else to do. Jane, seeing through all of this (and Christine smarmily knowing it), impassively leaves.

Andrew arrives at Jane's office. Clint tries to sneak out, but ends up hiding behind his desk. Jane wanted to ask Andrew why he didn't mention his argument with his father. Robert was cutting him off financially. Andrew says ever since his father married Christine, all he and his father have done is argue. He doesn't so much care about the money, as he is upset how Christine had his father in her clutches. Andrew didn't care about selling the company as he had no interest in taking it over. As a vegan, he doesn't even eat ice cream. His father was a workaholic, just like his father before him. Andrew doesn't want that for himself.

Jane asks if Robert could have killed himself. Andrew denies it, saying that despite all appearances, his father was happy with Christine. Before leaving, Andrew asks Jane to keep Christine in the equation. Andrew says despite their arguments, he loved his father.

Davey arrives at Jane's. He has the postmortem. Time of death was between 8 and 10 pm, although his phone call to Christine cuts that down. Talbot was also drugged with a sedative. Talbot left his estate half and half to his son and wife. Davey says that gives Andrew a motive, but Jane points out it also gives Christine one. Jane tells him Andrew didn't care about the company or money. Davey needs to confirm Andrew's alibi of being at the pub all night with Rose. Jane urges him to consider Christine as a suspect, but he argues if it was her, she'd have come up with a better alibi and not be caught on camera. He also says her nails are too fancy, if she'd moved Robert's body, she'd have broken a nail. Jane is incredulous at that argument. Davey points out that if she was going to murder her husband for money, she'd wait until after the company was sold in order to reap the proceeds. Davey also says she's too nice. Jane mentions that Christine was going through Robert's financial records, but Davey asks how she knows that. He chides her for peeking at private records, but Jane still insists he can't rule Christine out.

At the office, Rose is bossing around employees and going through files. There is still a business to run. Jane arrives. She expresses sympathy for Rose having found Robert's body. Jane presses about whether there was anyone who might want to hurt Robert. She says when Robert first met Christine, he asked Rose to do some checking. Robert and Christine met at a widower's support group. Christine had been widowed twice. Her first husband's daughter was suspicious of Christine, but there was no concrete evidence of any foul play. Robert dismissed it, but Rose also became suspicious.

Davey is talking to Andrew, who is pulling up a noxious weed from a garden. He says it is bindweed, a plant that blooms beautifully, but chokes other plants out. He calls it Christine. Davey probes. Christine said Andrew told his father to drop dead. Andrew says she must have enjoyed telling it. Andrew didn't talk about the argument because it looked bad and he didn't mean what he said. Andrew is happy to look after himself with his own private job. Davey presses, saying he knows Andrew has debts his job can't cover, but his inheritance will.

Christine is in Jane's office. She's already been buttering up Clint as Jane returns from court. Clint has blabbed to Christine that Robert was drugged. She points the finger at Andrew, saying his meek persona is just a facade. She knows Andrew is probably accusing her as well. Jane asks why, and Christine says it's because she's an easy target, everyone always suspects the wife. Jane alludes to Christine's history with dead husbands. Christine stiffens up, and insists there was nothing suspicious about her previous two husbands' deaths. She throws shade at Jane for bringing it up, and abruptly leaves. Jane tells Clint to get the postmortem reports for Christine's previous husbands, and to get in contact with the first one's daughter.

Davey is at Mick's pub, asking about Andrew Talbot. Mick says he was in the pub all night with a woman. Judith says Andrew and Rose came in just before 8, but then Andrew left and came back an hour later. Rose was there all night, save for some bathroom trips.

Davey remarks that Andrew claims not to care about money, despite being in debt for 30K. Now he has a significant gap in his alibi. He begins to devise a possible sequence of events. Jane wants to talk about Christine, but Davey cuts her off and breaks into a run.

Davey runs from the pub to the factory. He times the run. Davey goes in and talks to Rose about Andrew leaving the pub. She says it was only for a short while, but Davey says it was 40 minutes. Davey ran from the pub to the factory in seven minutes, which theoretically leaves 25 minutes unaccounted for. Rose insists Andrew isn't a killer; he's a vegan. Rose says Andrew simply stepped out for a smoke, and ran into a friend and got chatting, but she doesn't know who. Davey asks why Rose and Andrew met that night, and suggests it was about Andrew losing his allowance. Rose acknowledges he was sad and disappointed.

Davey gets a call. It's Christine. She is upset that Jane brought up her past husbands' deaths. As he leaves, Rose calls Andrew and warns him about the hole in his alibi being discovered.

At the station, Jane talks to Davey. She tells him about Christine's past husbands. Davey tells her that Christine already told him about their chat, and that she has made an official complaint against Jane for accusing her of murder. Jane denies ever saying that. He criticizes her professionality, echoing what Christine said to Jane. Jane wants to know why Davey is excluding Christine as a suspect. Dave and Jane spar over Christine. Davey argues Jane is a busybody and know-it-all, and Jane retorts that Christine has him wrapped around her finger, and how embarrassingly easily he fell for her wiles. Davey throws her out, and she slams the door.

Jane is at her home office, looking at a photo of Christine. She muses aloud what would attract a youngish, shapely attractive woman to a workaholic overweight middle aged millionaire. By going on the offensive, Christine is pre-empting suspicion of herself. She remarks that Christine wasted no time in over-reacting to Jane's comments about her previous husbands. Jane looks at the coroner's reports for the other husbands.

A young woman hesitantly approaches Jane's office building. She meets Jane inside and introduces herself as Lucy Everidge, the daughter of Christine's first husband. Lucy challenged the coroner's verdict of her father's death. She insists Christine murdered him. Jane remarks the official reason was from a car accident while speeding. Lucy insists that Christine made it look like an accident. Lucy's father was a recovering alcoholic, had been 12 months sober, and Christine lured him back into alcoholism. Lucy argues that in doing so, she created the circumstances for her father to have such an accident. Lucy spoke to a waiter who had served him and Christine before the accident, who reported that they argued during dinner. It drove him to drink and he drove off. Jane wonders if the argument was about drinking, but the waiter said it was Christine who kept pouring wine for him. Lucy argues Christine knew what was likely to happen if he got drunk and angry and left. She spoke to the police, but they ignored her story. Jane asks how her father met Christine, and Lucy says it was a widowers support group, where she also met her second husband. At that time, though, Christine wasn't a widow. Lucy calls it Christine's hunting ground.

Jane points out that Christine's second husband died of a heart attack. Lucy is a doctor, and she checked on the second husband; he didn't have any heart condition. She says he was given something that induces heart problems. The chemical dissipates after death making it hard to detect. Lucy says she has proof of this. She hands Jane a vial of the chemical she believes was used, which she found under Christine's kitchen sink, after breaking into her house. She therefore couldn't bring it to the police. Christine caught her doing it, and threatened Lucy's career. Lucy believes Christine's fingerprints must be on the bottle. Jane invites Lucy to talk to Davey, off the record.

Lucy goes to see Davey outside the police station. She tells him her story. Christine is watching from her car. Davey knows about Lucy's story from Christine, and he chides Lucy for stalking and harassing Christine. He remarks that since Christine was the sole beneficiary of her father's death, she has a vested interest in Christine being convicted for Talbot's death, as it could lead to her also being convicted for Everidge's death, surrendering the inheritance to Lucy. When Lucy tells Davey she was sent by Jane, he brushes her off and leaves. From her vantage point, Christine makes a phone call.

Christine meets with Andrew over coffee. She insists she loved Robert and had nothing to do with his death. Andrew is sure the culprit will be found, but Christine argues it may have been an accident. Andrew refuses to believe his father, owner of an ice cream factory, would get himself stuck in a freezer. Christine wants to talk about Robert's funeral arrangements. She is going to have him cremated. Andrew balks, saying his father bought the plot next to his mother, but Christine refuses to bury her husband next to his former wife. He storms off as she grins.

In her car, Christine is finishing her coffee. She starts to make a face and look uncomfortable. She drops the coffee and leans back in her seat. She stirs, and fumbles with her phone to call Davey. She asks him meekly for help, and then passes out.

Davey arrives at Jane's office. He tells her Christine has just come out of the hospital. There were sedatives in her coffee. Davey insists Andrew must have drugged her coffee, and intended for her to have a car accident. Davey also remarks that Andrew's alibi of running into a friend has fallen through, as the friend says they haven't spoken in years. Davey leaves to arrest Andrew.

Jane and Clint are remorseful that they were wrong about Christine, now that Andrew is the obvious suspect.

Jane goes to see Christine, bringing flowers as an apology offering. Christine is gracious. Christine says she understands why Jane had suspicions. Jane offers to help. Christine asks for Robert's body to be released so she can carry on with funeral arrangements, and Jane agrees.

Jane is at the pub drinking her sorrows. She blames herself for getting it all wrong, as it's her job to get death investigations accurate. She opens the paper and sees an article about the community's grief over Talbot's death. In the article there is a photo of Talbot with Rose, in Paris, showing off an award certificate.

Mick is on the phone with a repair service. He demands to have someone come look at his kitchen equipment, or he'll cancel his support contract. Jane has a realization and leaves.

Jane goes to talk to Davey. She brings up the question of why Rose didn't call someone to look at the freezer the day she noticed it broken, but the next day. Davey assumes no one was available, but Jane says that's just an assumption. Davey brushes her off and leaves. Clint runs over and needs to speak to Davey. Clint realizes that Andrew grows something specific: marijuana. He deals to a number of high profile individuals whose careers would be at risk, so no one will admit anything. On the night of Talbot's death, Clint himself bought pot from Andrew at 8:20 pm. Jane has a realization and heads off. Clint begs her not to fire him.

Jane goes to the factory and meets Rose. She tells her that Andrew has been arrested. Rose insists it wasn't Andrew, but Christine. Jane asks Rose if the dinner with Andrew was her idea, which she admits. Jane asks to see her phone, saying it might save Andrew. Rose gets her phone, and says there must be some kind of mistake. Jane goes through Rose's messages and voicemail, and finds a voicemail from Robert. She plays it back.

Jane asks why the freezer repairmen didn't come out the night they found the broken door. Rose says no one was available. Jane says she could have escalated, as Talbot's was a major customer. She remarks that Rose was pushing the staff to get orders out the day after Robert's death, so functioning factory equipment was a priority.

Jane suggests that the reason they didn't come out is because Rose didn't want them to. The broken freezer door gave Rose an idea. Rose drugged Robert, and took his body to the freezer, trapping him inside. Rose had met Lucy, who had told her how Christine would make her husbands' deaths look like accidents, so Rose made Robert's death fit the same pattern. Rose then made the plans with Andrew so they would both have an alibi. Jane says Rose deliberately led Jane to suspect Christine by being coy about the right details.

Rose argues that Robert called Christine and asked her to come here. Jane challenges her. It was Rose who called Christine, having taken Robert's phone from his drugged body. Jane plays back the voicemail she found on Rose's phone. It is Robert, saying to meet him at the factory at 9. It's an old message from Robert to Rose. Rose played back that message over Robert's phone to Christine's voicemail. She then planted the phone back on Robert's body after the fact.

Rose argues that she had no reason to kill Robert. She wasn't upset that he was selling the company. Jane replies it's because dowdy Rose secretly loved Robert, and was jealous of slinky Christine. Jane refers to the photo in the paper of Robert and Rose on a trip to Paris, happy together, before Robert met Christine. The souvenir she snatched away from Jane was a gift from Robert to remember the trip. But then, Christine took Robert away from her, and then made Robert take away Rose's job, too. By killing Robert, she makes him pay for jilting her, and by framing Christine, makes her pay for stealing him from her. Jane tells Rose it isn't going to happen. Andrew instead will go down for his father's murder. Jane knows Rose is protective of Andrew. Rose breaks down.

Rose admits she loved Robert, and devoted her life to him and his business, and he repaid her by humiliating her in front of his trophy wife and treating her like dirt. She reminisces about her whirlwind month with Robert, and then laments him meeting Christine, after which Robert abandoned her.

Davey is interrogating Andrew. Andrew admits to dealing marijuana, but does not admit to drugging Christine's coffee. Davey is called out of the room by a duty officer. Jane is calling him and is insistent. He sighs and takes the call. He barks at her for interrupting his interrogation. Then his face changes to surprise.

Jane has driven Rose to the police station, where a uniform takes her into custody. Davey comes out, and Rose begs him to release Andrew, but Davey says he's already been charged with drug production and dealing. As Rose is taken in, Davey tells Jane that Andrew burned his marijuana crops on Rose's warning. Davey confirms he met with Clint. Jane is sad she'll have to fire him, but Davey says there's no point in charging Clint for buying weed as they'd have to arrest half the city. Jane and Davey reconcile. Jane asks about Andrew drugging Christine, and Davey says he completely denies it. He says she bought the coffees and her prints were the only ones on the cup, so it's a mystery. Jane perks up and stares off as Davey leaves with a pat on the shoulder.

At the Talbots' house, Christine is dumping Robert's ashes into the toilet. She nonchalantly says goodbye to him with a smile as she presses the flush button. Jane arrives. Christine is packing up to leave, saying it's time to move on. She plans to move somewhere tropical and far away. She remarks about Rose's guilt, as she was sure Andrew was guilty. Jane says of course, that's why Christine drugged her own coffee. Jane implies it was to further throw the scent off of herself. Christine laughs it off as fantasy. Jane remarks that if she had been coroner at the time Christine's previous husbands had died, they would have seen a lot more of each other, as Jane would have been a lot more inquisitive. Christine changes the subject to Rose, saying it's remarkable what people can get up to when they want something someone else has, and she implies that Jane is doing the same. Jane leaves, taking the flowers she brought previously.

Davey is at the pub and Jane shows up with the flowers. She jokingly offers them to Davey, but then reveals a cone of his favorite ice cream. Clint appears, and Davey remarks that his drinks are on Clint all night, and Clint meekly concurs. Jane stares at Clint, and tells him his files are a mess, he needs to be in early tomorrow to sort them -- in other words, she's not firing him. He is thrilled and gives her a hug.

Clint returns and says they need to leave for a hanging a few towns over. Jane is planning to go shopping with Beth, as she's canceled five times already. Clint looks at Davey and they agree they can take care of it without her. Jane and Beth go on their shopping spree.

The next morning Jane and Clint arrive at coroner's court. Her verdict for the death of Robert Talbot: Unlawful Killing.