When a wealthy Toronto couple are found dead in their swimming pool, a suicide note is found in their home. But Detective Murdoch (Yannick Bisson) believes it could be murder, in this week’s Murdoch Mysteries episode, Drowning In Money.
Murdoch discovers a burglary had taken place on the same night of the “suicide” of Franklin and Louise Westerbrook, although it could just be an “unlucky coincidence. Extremely unlucky if you ask me,” Murdoch tells Detective Watts (Daniel Maslany).
During a discussion about the deaths at Station House No. 4, Henry Higgins-Newsome (Lachlan Murdoch) enlightens his fellow officers on what he knows about the Westerbrook couple. As it turns out, the couple’s daughter Diana had just married a duke’s son, Albert, The Earl of Lincoln. And according to Higgins, this made the Westerbrooks think they were royalty.
Murdoch and Inspector Brackenreid (Thomas Craig) interview Albert’s parents, the Duke and Duchess of Somerset. When they tell the pair that the evidence in the case points to suicide, the Duchess questions this conclusion. “They finally got what they wanted – a family member with a title,” she tells Murdoch and Brackenreid.
Caught In The Act
When Pauline, one of the Westerbrook’s maids, shows up at a pawn shop with a bag full of silverware, Detective Watts (Daniel Maslany) and Constable John Brackenreid (Charles Vandervaart) are waiting for her. She tells Murdoch her friend Anthony Pottier convinced her to help rob the wealthy couple.
In the interrogation room at the station house, Pottier tells Murdoch he never saw the Westerbrooks and didn’t even finish the job. He says he saw lights coming up the driveway while he was inside the house committing the burglary.
Murdoch dispatches Julia (Hélène Joy) to speak to the deceased couple’s daughters, Diana and Persephone, who are understandably shaken by the death of their parents.
“It’s a bloody nuisance when rich people die, Murdoch,” Brackenreid says.
Ambulance Chaser
Meanwhile, George Crabtree (Jonny Harris) unsuccessfully tries to hide from Effie Newsome, when she appears at the station house. She tells George her cousin, Martin Erskin, sustained “grievous injuries in a motorcar accident and he is seeking recompense.”
Erskin’s brakes had recently been repaired at George’s auto shop, Bloom and Crabtree. George says he stands by his work but looks uncomfortable when Effie brings up the fact that Henry now works at his shop.
Later, George is about to give Effie a cheque for Mr. Erskin but changes his mind. “I’m saying Henry’s an honest man, if he says he fixed that brake rod properly, I believe him.”
Henry suggests that Mr. Erskin is faking his injuries. George and Henry decide to team up to catch Mr. Erskin in his lie. The keystone cops follow him around Toronto all morning, but will they be able to prove his injuries are bogus?
While performing the autopsy, Miss Hart (Shanice Banton) discovers the Westerbrooks had ingested ground glass shortly before their deaths and that venom had entered their bloodstreams. She just has to figure out what kind of venom it was. Watts takes her to visit his friend Mr. Sweeting, an entomologist who introduces her to a tarantula and has a foot-long centipede under glass in his office. Mr. Sweeting and Miss Hart determine the Westerbrooks had scorpion venom in their blood. But the question remains, who killed the couple?
Drowning In Money had many twists and turns and numerous suspects with plenty of motive. The episode appeared to be loosely based on the real-life case of Toronto billionaire couple Barry and Honey Sherman.
Murdoch Mysteries airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on CBC. You can watch this week’s episode, Drowning In Money here.
