<-- Dark Autumn | Tainted Fruit | Market for Murder -->
Episode Index
Main Page

 Title: Tainted Fruit
First broadcast: 23rd of September 2001

Cast:
Cully Barnaby...................Laura Howard
Joyce Barnaby..................Jane Wymark
Tom Barnaby....................John Nettles
Gavin Troy........................Daniel Casey

Location(s):
Midsomer Malham

Summary:
Melissa Townsend, the daughter of the rich Archie Townsend, is becoming unpopular fast in the village of Midsomer Malham. When an elderly resident of a house she rented him dies because she refused to repair leaks, the villagers blame her for his death. Then arrives the day the local tennis club is throwing a party. When the district nurse - Sally Rickworth - is found in a confused state in her car the following morning and the vet, Raif Canning, discovers there are horse-drugs and syringes are missing from his surgery, the police is informed, but when they get to Townsend Manor, they are too late: Melissa Townsend is dead by the pool, with a syringe still in her body. The killer is not down, however: Adam Keyne, Mellisa's friend, is blackmailing the murderer: soon after he is found dead in a barn, where he was empaled on a plough. When Raif Canning is also murdered, time is growing thin...

Solution

The murderer is Georgina Canning. Georgina was a very fanatical social climber in Midsomer society. After the tennis club party, she drove Sally (who was drunk and unconscious) home, but on the way crashed into another car. She quickly placed Sally behind the wheel, to make it appear as if she had been driving, and ran off. If people found out she had been driving with alcohol in her blood, her name would be ruined.

Unfortunately, Melissa Townsend witnessed the accident, and she and Adam Keyne (who had huge debts) decided to blackmail her. Georgina stole the syringe and the drugs from her husband's surgery and injected it all into Melissa's body as she was lying besides the pool.

Next, she had to get rid of Adam Keyne, so she used a saw to saw through the upper level of the barn, placed some money there and rang Keyne to tell him where the money was. Once he tried to grab the money, he fell trough the floor and was empaled on the plough.

Lastly, Georgina had to kill her husband - Raif - because he had seen her take the saw from their shed. Ultimately she tried to frame Sally, but Barnaby foiled her plan.