As the second episode of The Chelsea Detective begins, DI Max Arnold (Adrian Scarborough) rides his bike to Astrid’s place and surprises her since she wasn’t expecting him. He wants the name of her friend who deals in rare books because he has some first editions from his dad’s shop. Astrid (Anamaria Marinca) doesn’t understand why he couldn’t just text her. Her new friend Patrick Thompson (Michael D. Xavier) arrives and buzzes her. Max snaps several pictures of Patrick before he rides away on his bicycle. Robyn Romano (Stella Stocker) stops outside her restaurant to sign one of her books for a fan. She steps inside before Lanfranco Astori (Martin Marquez) tells her that she got the keys. Although they agreed till the end of the month, he is still here.

Lanfranco says he needs time to find something else unless she will squeal on him to the big boss. Once Robyn hands him the keys, he admits he didn’t think she would. As he walks away, Robyn tells him he has until the end of the week. She approaches Julia (Pooky Quesnel) next to explain she had an errand to run. They begin kissing so Jonno Romano (Joseph Millson) warns them that frightens the fish. He wipes off the bowl to ensure it is perfect before sending it out to table 12. Julia begins complaining when she learns that Robyn bribed Luca Romano (Cayvan Coates) to come into work for the announcement because it is too soon. Robyn goes outside to confront Luca and remind him he wasn’t supposed to upset his mother. While she claims she is helping him, Luca knows what she is up to and just wants to be left alone.

He drives away on his scooter. Robyn goes back inside and creates a selfie video as she introduces viewers to Cousin Jonno, Beth, and the junior chef Nix Graves (Francesca Henry). Later that night, Robyn says hello to Nancy Cooper (Liz Crowther) as she arrives home. She goes inside and closes the door before hearing something behind her. She looks around to see what is going on. Robyn opens the door and steps outside. The light above her turns off but comes back on seconds later. She goes back inside, shuts the door, and locks it. Later, Nancy hears what sounds like a window being shattered followed by a scream. She looks up at the window as the lights are turned off. In the morning, Max gets a call about the case which he claims sounds like a missing persons case. He starts the coffee machine while looking through one of the Romano’s cookbooks.

Max meets up with DS Priya Shamsie (Sonita Henry) at the crime scene. After they argue about coffee, they begin discussing 29-year-old Robyn Romano who was a celebrity chef. Max is surprised Priya hasn’t heard of La Familia Romano. DS Shamsie says the neighbor called in at 23:17 to say she heard a yelling and a loud bang. It was a door being smashed. A few minutes later, the same witness saw the Romano’s Mini leave the property at high speed. There was also blood on the side gate. DS Jess Lombard (Lucy Phelps) shows them where a spot of blood was found on the ground outside too. Max snaps a picture or two while learning the phone company pinged the victim’s phone to a mast in Battersea. The last one happened at 1:09 before the phone went inactive so it was likely switched off. Max asks whether the car was facing the road or reversed out.

Max asks about hospitals before Jess says she heard Priya made the cut. Max questions what that is about, but Priya won’t say. DI Arnold goes inside to check the door and blood splatter above him. He introduces himself to Julie Romano who says she saw Robyn at the restaurant when she came in around six. Robyn does the PR for the restaurant. She left around half nine and they couldn’t leave together because Julia had some stuff to do. Julia left about an hour later and suggests Jonno or the camera would’ve seen her. She was going to take an Uber. However, she changed her mind and walked because it was a nice night and got home around 20 past 11. She called and left a message when she found out Robyn wasn’t home although she should’ve called 999.

Her first thought was that a bird has crashed into the glass. Max tells her about Robyn’s phone being tracked to Battersea, but Julia doesn’t think she knew anyone there. She asks Max what he thinks happened to the glass. He is concerned about the blood they found up there and out on the driveway. Jonno arrives outside seconds later. When Julia goes outside to greet him, they hug and Jonno asks whether she has spoken to Luca. Max learns that Luca is Julia’s son. Nancy Cooper tells DS Shamsie that the vehicle turned right and shot off. Priya believes she would’ve been watching long enough to see Julia come home, but Nancy says she didn’t see her. She tells Priya about Luca the bright lad who went to Catron College. He was there one day and gone the next. As for Julia Romano’s husband, he disappeared 15 years ago too.

Jonno tells Max he saw Julia leave work around half ten and he left around midnight because he was on late clean-up duty. Beth will be able to confirm that since she left five minutes before him. Max knows that Robyn Romano reported a break-in about two weeks ago at this address, but promptly withdrew the complaint. When Max asks whether it was Luca, Jonno says he is a good kid. He also confirms he was him briefly last night. Luca usually shows up for one reason. When he leaves, the restaurant is missing money that he likely stole. Then, Jess shows Max the size 8 Adidas Superstars footprints they’ve found nearby. It rained yesterday so they’re fresh. The tracks end at the fence meaning this is how they got into the property. Priya joins them to say the driver reversed out. Therefore, whoever was bleeding didn’t get behind the wheel. Back inside, Julia promises Luca wouldn’t hurt Robyn.

Jess comes down the stairs and says Luca has a large collection of trainers before getting Julia to sign something. Julia doesn’t know where Luca is staying now. She admits he was angry when he learned that Robyn reported the break-in, but they made up when he gave Robyn back the watch she received for her anniversary with Julia. When Priya returns, Julia recommends trying Nix because she might know where Luca is. She explains their junior chef Nix has an on and off thing with Luca. Priya asks about Luca’s father David in Westbury. Julia gets louder while saying she hasn’t seen or spoken to David since he walked out 15 years ago. They go to the restaurant where they speak to Beth Dalton (Liz White) who says Nix isn’t in yet. She thinks they’re joking when they say Robyn has gone missing. She says where there is trouble Luca is never far behind.

She says she’ll go call Nix. When they sit down with Nix, she claims her relationship with Luca is over. He is exhausting when he is using, but he doesn’t use anything too hard. She saw him last night although she is thankful that he rarely shows up for a shift. Nix says she regularly talked about his hard-knock life and things at home. His mom offered to let him manage the restaurant on his 21st birthday, but he turned it down and she doesn’t think anyone could’ve changed his mind. Nix tells them how Lanfranco has a hold over Robyn. Once she is asked if she has a number for Luca, she gives Priya her phone and says it is the only one she has. As Nix walks inside, Priya compliments her trainers. After that, they meet with Lanfranco who says it isn’t a big deal and Robyn has given him until the end of the week to book up or clear out.

Priya asks if it was normal for Robyn to borrow his van. He says she gets the van whenever she wants to borrow it. He claims Robyn loves attention and is a gold digger. She might be doing this to get attention. His last delivery at 23:03 was a stone’s throw away from the Romano house. He says he was near there the night before and the night before that too. Priya asks if he was upset when Robyn fired him, but he jokes that this is his dream job. His mom was born in Milan although he is not a Romano. Priya keeps pushing until he claims his mom was born in South Milan. Beth tells Max that Jonno locked up before her just before midnight.

She claims everyone gets on with Robyn and wishes she would’ve told her if something was wrong. They begin talking about Luca who steals from the till. When asked about the harmonious Robyn and Julia, Beth says no way. He asks about David. Although it was before her time, Beth confirms it isn’t a secret. At the station, Priya says Robyn’s car was picked up at 23:19 on CCTV heading west on Brompton Road toward the hospital, but it wasn’t seen on the cameras in the hospital approach. From there, the car went on the A40 to Oxbridge. As Max turns on his computer, Priya sees information for Patrick Thompson and quickly asks about him. Max admits is Astrid’s new fella, but says he accidentally ran his plates. Jess reveals Julia never reported her husband missing. There is no social media for him and his HMRC records haven’t been updated since October 2006. There is nothing from immigration either.

He legitimately disappeared so Julia Romano was granted a divorce in absentia in 2015. She married Robyn three years ago. They theorize that Robyn asked too many questions about David causing Julia to take her out. Max asks what time the Marston Ealing last detected Robyn’s phone. Priya says it was 23:48. The police were at the Romano residence speaking to Julia for 20 minutes prior to that. They can’t place Julia in the car so Jess suggests she had an accomplice. Connor (Peter Bankole) calls DI Arnold to reveal a resident said a black Mini nearly ran him over on his way home from the pub. The car was found near Sheep Cut Lane in Battersea. Once they get the car and do the examination, Max finds blood on the passenger seat. The foot mat is soaked with water leading Max to believe everything was wiped down.

Priya finds wipes. While they look in the back, they say Nix gave them the name of Luca’s mate, but nobody has seen him. Next, they visit Ashley Wilton (Sophie Stone) who tells them about a hair found in the boot of the car. It was pulled out at the root and belonged to Robyn Romano. Since the boot is too small to hold a body, the hair could’ve fallen off the weapon. A pendant was found under the foot mat. Analysis on it didn’t find anything useful. However, they discovered something else under the wiper. As they wait for Ashley to return, Max asks Priya about the cut she made or whatever Jess mentioned earlier. He finds out that she joined the MET Police Chelsea & Kensington Veterans sprinters club although she isn’t crazy about it saying veteran. Max insists 40 isn’t old. Ashley returns with a piece of a parking ticket they found under the wiper.

Next, they meet with Julia who has received an email from Robyn saying she is okay and will explain everything. The message asks Julia to come to Column Gardens tomorrow at 10 AM. They ask whether anyone has access to Robyn’s email. She doesn’t think so. Julia learns about her car as well as the blood and hair. She doesn’t recognize the pendant found on the floor of the car. DI Arnold has been piecing together Robyn’s movements and believes she was at the restaurant until 3 PM when she left to go to Hammersmith. Julia admits she has been secretive all week, but she believes it is innocent because her 50th birthday is next week. She believes she has been planning something. Max tells her about her car being seen in Oxbridge last night. She is asked whether Robyn or Luca had a reason to go there. Priya says Robyn’s internet history shows she was trying to track down Julia’s ex-husband, but she didn’t know that.

Jess tells Max that she checked Robyn’s financials and found that the restaurant had a few bumpy years although it is back in the black now. Last November, Robyn deposited 300,000 pounds into her savings account. Over four months, there were multiple payments via PayPal, Google Pay, Western Union, and such. There is no way to trace the recipient and the amounts are random too. Flora is helping her trace the 300,000. Connor says the parking ticket was issued from a private firm by an overeager operative. It happened at a quarter past midnight in a car park near Oxbridge. They go to the car park and around.

Sure enough, Max finds blood on the ground so he decides to call in a search team. While they wait for the search team to finish, they agree it’d be better to have an innocent explanation and for Robyn to return to Julia tomorrow morning. Priya remembers passing a lake on the way here and suggests it might have something to do with the soaked foot mat. Moments later, a body is pulled out of the water. Max wonders who wrote that email after all. They immediately go to Julia to tell her about the discovery and ask her to keep it to herself. They explain that Robyn’s phone was turned on briefly today and pinged the Marston Chelsea wall so whoever sent it may still show up tomorrow. They ask her about the 300,000 pounds transferred into a savings account last November.

She reveals Robyn used to co-own a PR firm called Hillside PRP. Only 5,000 were left in the bank account, but Julia doesn’t know what happened to it. They kept their finances separate while Julia didn’t keep track of her spending. Jonno hears something at the restaurant. He screams that he called the police before running up the stairs before seeing Luca in front of him. Jonno admits he didn’t call the police, but they’re looking at him because they think he was at the house on Friday night. Luca says his mother can think whatever she wants. He asks Jonno not to tell anyone he was here. Jonno goes back downstairs for a second so Luca grabs some money from the tips jar. Once Jonno returns, he gives Luca money and tells him to be careful. Max walks with Julia who tells him about her first foray into publishing.

She and Luca stapled pages in the kitchen and sold the book for five pounds each. DI Arnold admits she signed her copy. Then, she says this was one of their favorite places. She talks about the cruelty of sending that email before Max says it is time. Julia goes to her spot while Max goes to Connor and tells him the press office is waiting to announce the discovery of the body until six. The door-to-door didn’t find anyone who saw Robyn. Connor’s phone goes off so they talk about his girlfriend Becky. When a woman approaches and says this is for David, the police rush in and grab her. The woman explains David is her husband and she wanted a book signed for him. After they deal with her, Priya says the email was sent to get Julia out of the house. After they return to the house, Priya finds that the door panel has been ripped off.

Jewelry and cash upstairs weren’t taken. Max asks Julia whether anything is missing or out of place.  Priya leaves to get the team to check for prints while Max asks Julia if she thought the woman was delivering a message from her ex-husband David. She insists she just panicked before revealing it was Robyn’s idea to make the book. Julia hired her to find a way to save the restaurant, but quickly fell in love with her. She begins breaking down before telling him she’ll let him know if she thinks of anything. When she is alone, she begins crying while listening to Robyn’s voicemail message. Next, Ashley tells Max that the water has likely washed away their chances of getting any useful fibers or DNA. Robyn was likely in the water for six to 12 hours based on her skin changes. She was dead before she went into the water.

Ashley says she had a frontal temporal fracture caused by blunt trauma by a heavy object. A pattern bruise overlays the fracture with small indentations close together. Astrid has one. When they searched the house, they didn’t find one though. Then, they discuss Ashley’s four boys. Max wants to make sure that they’re talking about one of the hammers used to hit a steak. After that, DI Arnold begins watching some of the videos Robyn made for the restaurant. He looks through her social media pictures until he finds one containing the hammer that was likely used to kill Robyn.

Back on his boat, Max finds a recipe from the cookbook and decides to cook it. He sits down and enjoys a cup of noodles moments later. He searches for the La Familiar Romano on his computer. Meanwhile, Nitin (Davood Ghadami) visits Priya while she trains for the sprinter’s competition. He admits he is mad that she forgot about their date night and even rehearsed a speech on the way over here. The purpose was to say he was angry and hungry, but he is just hungry now. He ends up going to the bar to eat pizza alone. Meanwhile, Max plays his piano on his boat. Later, he says security footage shows Luca leaving the restaurant at 19:05 and Robyn was upset with him. He continues watching the footage until he sees Patrick leaving. They bring him in for questioning a bit later.

He claims he had an engagement with a gallery owner he knows on Friday before staying at his office until the early hours. He was with his legal team and will give them information about them to prove it. Max knows he is lying because he is on CCTV footage at 20:43 on Friday at the restaurant. He isn’t eager to say what he was doing there so Max asks Priya to get a search warrant for Patrick’s properties. He says there is no need for that and explains he didn’t want to scupper anything. He explains contracts are ready to go for the restaurant and he was there on Friday to finalize the details. Priya and Max are surprised to learn that he is in the process of purchasing Julia’s business in a deal worth roughly 3.5 million. He admits it is a hot property. He insists he didn’t force anyone’s hand because Julia and Robyn were both behind it.

As they walk out, they briefly discuss Priya’s upcoming OAP race with Max saying she is the youngest in the group. He says he’ll be there cheering her on. Priya jokes about Patrick being gorgeous before Jess tells her she has been running background checks on the restaurant staff. She reveals that the P60 for Lanfranco has something interesting. Meanwhile, a man in a white van pulls up next to Beth and asks if she is Robyn Romano. She says yes. She signs for the packages as the deliveryman begins unloading them for her. Julia tells Max she didn’t want the staff to know until it was a done deal although Patrick promised to keep them all on the roster. She had hoped it would inspire Luca and make them close to one another again. She spent her life trying to save the restaurant and promised her dad she’d never sell it. Max understands that since he told his dad the same about his bookshop.

Julia gets emotional when she says the plan was to go traveling with Robyn. She is allowed to see Julia’s body moments later. Max calls Astrid leaving a message saying he was hoping to catch up with her. He stops midway into his message and says never mind. Julia admits she didn’t tell them about the restaurant sale because her ex-husband has a stake in the business and is still on the paperwork. She doesn’t want him benefiting from what she and Robyn built together. She was working every hour trying to keep the restaurant open. When she came home one day, David was gone. Luca was seven at the time and his father never left a note or called. She eventually found that he was living outside Cork under a different name. She would beg David to contact his son and used to buy Luca gifts pretending they came from his father.

She and Robyn were good at having false hope with the latter hoping Luca would try to find his father because she didn’t know the truth. Before the conversation ends, Julia admits she isn’t sure how to explain everything to Luca. Lanfranco is brought to the station for an interview. Priya confronts him with the evidence that his name is actually Andrew Stafford. Andrew admits he got into a pickle and has been laying low. When asked what kind, he says it comes with extortion at interest. He explains that Lanfranco is a lad he knows in the Coventry. He was given permission and has an email from him saying he can use it.

Although Robyn found out and terminated his employment, he insists he didn’t go to her house. Instead, he went to his girlfriend’s place after work. He made a deal with Robyn that he’d go quietly and she wouldn’t report it after he had done her a favor or two. Andrew admits he got her the watch back last week when Nix asked if he’d help flog it. He knew Luca had stolen it so he told him to give it back. Max and Priya visit Nix to see if Luca has been staying with her. They push until she eventually admits Luca is asleep on the sofa and lets them in. She tells Max that Luca was waiting when she got home from work on Friday around a quarter past 11. Max says they’re going to need the clothes Luca was wearing. Luca is brought down to the station and asked about Robyn.

He is told about the footprints found near the garden and they match Luca’s shoes. He is also questioned about the pendant found in the car, but Luca says it isn’t his. As for his shoe collection, Robyn takes him shopping whenever he falls out with his mother. There were many times when he fell out with his mother. It was often because of the restaurant, money, and his father. Julia promised she’d tell him where his father was when he turned 21 and Robyn was helping him search for him. Luca asks whether she suffered. When asked about being at the house on Friday night, he admits he was although he claims he didn’t see Robyn. When she came home early, he jumped over the garden wall and went straight to Nix’s place. That was around a quarter to 10 and cameras will support what he is saying.

Max asks what he thinks happened to Robyn, but Priya interrupts before Luca can answer. Priya tells Max that the footprints in the garden match Luca’s trainers. There is no blood on his clothes so they don’t think he did it. They found something in the financials and called Mrs. Dalton in for a chat. Beth comes down while Max and Jess visit Julia. Jess asks Julia about the 300,000 pounds that were deposited into her wife’s account six months ago. Beth looks at the transactions which they believe Robyn tried to disguise using multiple online payment methods. In four months, she spent more than 294,000 pounds. Beth insists this is the first she has heard of the money. Jess tells Julia that the money was from a remortgage loan. She has never seen the application that has both their names on it. Beth is shown the same application and asked to explain why her signature is on it.

Julia insists she didn’t sign it while Beth says Robyn asked her to sign it although she never looked at it. She says Robyn showed up to work and asked her to sign something for her so she did. She doesn’t think Julia ever knew about it. Julia is asked whether Robyn told her she had forged her signature. They believe she is selling the business to pay off the debt. Beth is asked about the trips to Hammersmith that started around the same time as the transactions. Julia refuses to believe Robyn could’ve been in a relationship with Beth. Once Max and Jess leave, Julia calls Beth and leaves a message demanding to know what she and Robyn were up to. Julia takes the picture of herself and Robyn down from the wall and smashes it. She receives a message from Beth who says it’d be easier to show her.

Julia meets with her at the storage unit and finds boxes full of books. She learns that Robyn started buying the books because they weren’t selling well. She took them to a book recycling place in Hammersmith. Robyn was going to come clean after the store was sold and ask Julia to pay off the debt using the profit from the sale. Beth insists Robyn did all of this for Julia. Meanwhile, Max tells Connor that CCTV footage confirms Luca’s alibi. Jonno, Beth, Julia, and Lanfranco have alibis as well. As Priya messes with her shoes, it makes Max think of things. They begin talking about the Christian Louboutin shoes which are very expensive.

Max argues it doesn’t make sense for a junior chef to be wearing a pair of them. Nix is brought in for questioning and immediately denies that Robyn bought the trainers for her. Robyn’s credit card statement shows she bought a pair of those trained from Harrods just three days before she died. They were size seven and gift-wrapped. Nix reveals she didn’t want anything to do with this. She says she walked in early last week and found Jonno arguing with Robyn because he wanted to know when the royalties were coming in. She bought Nix the trainers to prevent her from telling Julia about the argument. Later, Max goes through the two cookbooks and discovers that they have the same recipes in them. They were Jonno’s recipes. Beth told them he was at the restaurant until midnight, but they’re starting to doubt that.

DI Arnold watches the video again and the way Beth touches Jonno makes him suspect Jonno and Beth were in a relationship. Beth sits down with them again and denies knowing anything. When she is shown the pendant found in Robyn’s car, she says oh god. She reveals it was a gift for Jonno that she gave him the day that Robyn died. DI Arnold and the others try to track down Jonno as quickly as possible. They find his car as Max suggests he is at the lake. They walk down there and find him on the ground. Max walks over to join him. Max tells him they found the necklace Beth gave him. He suspects that is why he sent the email to get Julia out of the house. He wanted to get the necklace to avoid being caught. Jonno says he was going to make his pitch when his royalties came through so he could run the restaurant with Beth.

He was set to earn 50 grand from the royalties although Robyn forgot she had promised it. She told him in the house he’d have to wait until the business sold to get his money. When he went to talk to her after work, she told him he could continue working in the kitchen under the new owner. She laughed at his plans and ideas. He picked something up and swung it. He missed smashing the window before hitting her. He was going to take her to the hospital, but it was already too late. Max reveals they’re dredging the lake tomorrow so they should find the hammer. Jonno pulls out a knife and tries to stab himself. Max struggles with him for control of the knife before he gets his hand sliced open. Jonno begins apologizing. He tries to run away, but Connor tackles him seconds later. Jonno is taken away in a squad car while Max’s hand is wrapped up.

Priya agrees to let him off the hook for the veteran’s race since he’d only be able to clap with one hand. Luca returns to Julia’s place to see if he can make her something to eat. Julia hugs him and says she’d like that. Priya returns home to Nitin and says she thought they’d have a date night instead of going to the competition. Max returns to the boat where Astrid waits for him. She asks what happened to his hand. Astrid hands him a card and says he’ll give him a fair price for the books. She reveals she isn’t dating Patrick who was only interested in her gallery, but she told him it isn’t for sale. Although Max says they used to laugh at rich guys like him, Astrid says not everyone thinks it is a crime to buy nice things. If you take away his money, good looks, and charm, you’re left with Max.

 

The Chelsea Detective Review

The Chelsea Detective has a lot to like including a decent cast with respectable acting. The scenery and camera work are good as well. Adrian Scarborough’s relationships with Sonita Henry and Anamaria Marinca are fun and help carry the story from one episode to the next. I also enjoy the scenery and even the indoor scenes are nice. I just don’t understand why they felt the need to make each episode last an hour and a half when everything could’ve reasonably been covered in an hour or less.

I suppose the runtime wouldn’t be nearly as bad without the need to recap the series, but it still feels like the episodes are overdone. Suffice to say, it takes more than a few hours to thoroughly recap each episode, but I do appreciate what The Chelsea Detective is doing. It may prove to be an above-average crime series for Acorn. The second episode scores a 7 out of 10. Recaps of The Chelsea Detective can be found on Reel Mockery here. Learn how to support the Reel Mockery project by following this link.