* This After The Flood episode 3 recap contains spoilers *
After being promoted to the murder team, Jo Marshall must tread a fine line. She knows much more about the case than her colleagues, but it will be difficult to bring that knowledge to bear without revealing how egregiously she's stomped all over Data protection Law. Nevertheless, she comes up with a new theory about how Daniel Eden's body got into the lift, while Lee fills her in on the pair's chequered history.
What does Lee know about Daniel Eden's death?
Tasha explains that she’s known Lee "forever" and used to visit him and Daniel every summer. Jo is taken aback by this revelation and after Lee explains that he hadn’t seen his old friend "for a while", she breaks the news that he passed away a few days ago.
Jo asks Lee why Daniel was going by the name of "Alex Welland" and he seems surprised by the news. Yet if he knows so little about his old friend’s recent movements, why is he at his old office? Lee says he was looking for Daniel because he was worried about him, but we’re not sure we believe him.
Lee's also at a loss to explain why Daniel might have faked his own death, but there’s no time for further interrogation because Jo’s husband Pat — aka the detective officially investigating the case — has arrived to snoop around. Jo makes her escape, but Pat realises what she’s been up to when he talks to the receptionist.
As she leaves Chris from Riverside court calls to tell her he’s got that locked room open. “I think you’re going to enjoy taking a look inside — it’s a proper head-scratcher,” he says.
What was in THAT room at Riverside Court?
Molly Marshall visits the Uplands Eco Housing Estate to remind Jack Radcliffe about the money he donated to the Flood Relief Fund, which he still hasn’t transferred. “It slipped my mind!” he says, before sharing news that another storm is due in the area that could see Waterside flooded — again.
Radcliffe is very keen to prevent that, as it will lead to his investors pulling out. The answer is a ten-foot Levy, which will need sign-off from the council, but before the discussion can continue, Radcliffe receives an urgent text message that calls him away.
At the council offices, Jack Radcliffe and Molly Marshall try to persuade Councillor Mackie to authorise a flood wall before the next storm comes, but she hides behind bureaucracy. Jack and Molly are exasperated.
Back at the station, Jo is promoted to the murder team and will be investigating the death of Lift Man, whom Jo knows to be Daniel Eden — aka Alex Welland. At the briefing, it’s clear DCI Roy doesn’t see Tasha Eden’s story as credible and the name Daniel Eden isn’t high on his list.
Jo soon fixes that by checking Tasha Eden’s social media and finding an image of her with Lift Man. She also tells DCI Roy about the mysterious red car that was in the car park when the body was found, but had been moved by the time the crime scene was photographed. Despite being told not to, she heads off to investigate. Already breaking the rules on her first day on the job! She’s a natural TV detective!
Down at Riverside Court, Chris the caretaker hasn’t turned up for his meeting with Jo, which is odd, but one of her colleagues lets her in. The room he wanted to show her is completely bare. We presume whatever was so interesting when Chris called has now been removed and the room cleaned. But what was in there? Or was Chris simply calling to say it was strange the room had been cleaned?
Jo starts to wonder if leaving Lift Man in the lift wasn’t the murderer’s plan after all. Did they kill him in that room and were transporting him to a car to dump the body when they were caught out by the flood? Is it all somehow connected to the red car?
Jo checks the lift and finds someone could easily have climbed out through the ceiling of the lift as the flood waters rose. But is that what happened? And who do we know who’s strong and fast? Lee Ellison is our prime suspect!
What are Jack Radcliffe and Lee Ellison up to?
Meanwhile Lee has taken Tasha back to his place (not like that) and she’s keen to know more about what her brother was up to before he died. Lee says Daniel told him he needed a "clean" name for the new business, but that he had no idea he’d faked his own death. “Clearly he had something going on that neither of us knew about” says Lee.
On that note, there’s a knock at the door and it’s Jack Radcliffe, who seems very upset with Lee. Was Lee the man Jack’s been talking to on the phone? Given the tractor’s parked everywhere, it looks like Lee is living in Jack’s barn.
Back at the police station, Pat reports Tasha Eden’s visit to Nanta and DCI Roy realises that Alex Welland could well be their man. Pat doesn’t tell his boss that his wife has been sniffing around that part of the case as well though. Yet the DNA tests confirm that Tasha Eden is Lift Man’s sister .
Over at Waterside allotment, Molly Marshall finally catches up with Finn Allen, who has been doing some digging into Jack Radcliffe’s Uplands Eco Housing development. He reckons Radcliffe skipped some crucial safety measures and the flooding has become much worse since it was built.
Later on they go up to the development and find the drains that appear on the plans have not been built, before Molly catches a glimpse of Jack Radcliffe and councillor Sarah Mackie kissing. Crumbs!
Why did Chris kill himself?
Later on, Jo learns from her sister-in-law Kelly — who works for Jack Radcliffe — that car park caretaker Chris has been sacked because he was hiring out parking spaces on the sly. Well that’s the official story at least, but it seems a bit of a coincidence to us.
When Pat gets back he quizzes her about her first day and asks if she’s been doing anything interesting. She says she hasn’t but he knows differently. But after she walks off, Kelly’s husband Keith asks Pat if they were talking about Alex Welland. What does he know about the case? Intriguing!
That evening Jo receives a call from a very upset Tasha, who’s been taken in by the police. Later on, she bumps into Lee at her hotel, who tells her she’s gone to identify Daniel’s body, before spilling a load of secrets about his old pal.
He then tells her he and Daniel both had criminal records from their pasts, so Daniel got a new identity to get a business grant. Apparently, he faked his own death because he wanted a fresh start for the company — but there's no way we're having that.
Jo asks Lee to tell the police, but he tells her he has a past and doesn’t want the police digging into that, before revealing that £100,000 is missing from the Nanta accounts. “I worked so hard for that to build myself a better future and now he’s left us with nothing!” says Lee.
With that bombshell still ringing in her ears, Jo sets off to Chris the caretaker’s house, but is devastated to find he’s hung himself. But why?
