Return to Paradise episode 5 sees Mackenzie investigate when a player is shot dead on the bowling green! Original Neighbours actor Peter O'Brien guest stars as the murder victim.
We're at Dolphin Cove Bowls Club and Philomena is among the competitors in an intense-looking game. One of her opponents accuses Philomena's team of cheating! "You always have been a cheat Ted Haddon!," declares arch-rival Arthur (Peter O'Brien). And they end up grappling on the bowling green! The referee suspends the match as a no result! After the match, Arthur continues to act an idiot and things are tense. Later on, they clear up the bar and they hear a gunshot! And obnoxious Arthur is lying dead on the bowling green! As he was such an idiot everyone has a motive! His blood seems to be making a right mess of the green as well!
Colin and Mackenzie arrive. Mackenzie notes that Philomena is still playing even after saying she hated the game and was quitting forever! Mackenzie tells her boss to stay put while she inspects the body. Colin says the victim is Arthur O'Farrell, everyone called him Artie. Glenn is also at the scene. Mackenzie via touching Glenn’s chest works out where the bullet is lodged.
Interviewing the witnesses, it's revealed that Artie was a late replacement. Philomena said she'd never met him before. He used to play for Dolphin Cove but had been thrown out of the club 40 years ago. Philomena says no one else was with her at the time of the gunshot. Mackenzie recovers the bullet. Glenn claims not to remember Mackenzie giving his engagement ring back after the footy game. When of course he tried to slip it on her finger! He says he was very drunk.
The bullet is a lead ball from an antique gun. It's the one that belonged to Bushranger Bill, Dolphin Cove's very own Robin Hood. But Philomena says she saw the gun when the gunshot sound was heard. How did the killer murder Artie with a gun that never left the wall? Artie was shot at 4.10 pm, having left at 3.25 pm. Mackenzie tells Philomena to go home until they rule her out! This doesn't go down well. They say the main entrance was locked, but there's another way in via Lover's Lane. Everyone has heard of Lover's Lane except a bemused Colin! It appears Mackenzie and Glenn know it well! They find Artie's car, which is covered in blue paint. When Glenn goes, Colin confirms Glenn was very drunk on the footy night.
Felix and Reggie do a locker room search and find a shoe with blue paint on. Bowler Mal, the son of Ted who'd argued with Artie, admits throwing the paint on Artie's car. Artie caught him in the act but he claims he said nothing and drove off.
Back at the station, Mackenzie goes through the suspects. Ted, who'd had an argument with Artie. Mal, who was angry about Artie upsetting his dad who has heart issues and threw paint over the victim's car. They study a photo of Artie with his team with the gun behind him which killed him but didn't move. "It doesn't make sense!" complains Mackenzie.
Mackenzie heads to Glenn's to catch Philomena and Daisy's there in the kitchen cooking. All getting awks again! Mackenzie discovers Philomena is wearing a smartwatch — given to her by Daisy of course — and that tracks her movement thus Mackenzie can prove her boss wasn't on the bowling green at the time of the murder and clear her! OK, got all that?! Glenn and Daisy get a bit inappropriate in front of Mackenzie. Mackenzie is then talked into dinner somehow with them. Afterwards, she catches Glenn out about the ring and he admits remembering putting the ring on her finger. They have another little moment.
At the station the next day, Philomena is cleared and immediately takes her photo off the murder board! They watch camera footage of Helen walking out of the clubhouse and she's not taking the rubbish out as she stated. In fact, she threw something in the bin. They go through the rubbish and find a note from Artie about meeting at "our spot". Looks like they were having a relationship.
Helen says the relationship was 40 years ago and nothing. Mackenzie isn't convinced after all her husband Ted and Artie came to blows on the bowling green. She admits it wasn't nothing. She was in love with Artie all those years ago but he'd just vanished. Helen lets slip that there was a baby to think of and quick as a flash Mackenzie deducts that Mal is Artie's son and not Ted's! Helen says she's never told anyone. She says Artie left the note and she went to the meeting place but he didn't show up.
At the station, it's revealed that Artie received a huge sum of money from the Bowls Club, which he used to buy his car. They go to see Ted, who is the club treasurer, but he denies paying off Artie. Mackenzie then asks him if he knows Artie is Mal's father. He's stunned. He asks them not to tell Mal.
Colin feels unhappy they told Ted, but Mackenzie said they had to. Glenn confirms the antique gun was the murder weapon and they have a set of prints on them, Rita's, Helen's mum.
They go to talk to Rita who says she cleaned the gun because Artie's team had their grubby hands on it and that's why it's her prints on the gun. She doesn't exactly seem upset he's dead.
Back at the station, Felix says there's a transaction on Mal's credit card moments away from where Artie lived. They go to talk to Mal.
Mackenzie confronts Mal with her theory. When Ted had his heart problems, Mal went to donate blood but when his blood type came back different to his dad's he realised he couldn’t be his son. Mal admits she's right and says an old photo led him to Artie. He saw Artie, but he turned him away.
They head to Daisy's bar where Mal is drowning his sorrows. Mackenzie starts to wonder if the note was for Helen. Mal gets a cab home. The cops talk about Bushranger Bill and Daisy pops a balloon for the party she's got at the bar later and this seems to kick on Mazkenzie's brain!
"Everything about this crime is the difference between fact and myth," declares Mackenzie as she gathers the suspects in the club.
Mackenzie says that Mal was turned away by his father Artie. But Artie didn't stop there. He phoned Rita and told her to get him $25,000 to keep the secret that she paid him 40 years ago to leave her daughter, Helen. Rita was sure he wasn't good enough for her daughter — she has a point here! — and paid him off. But then she had to pay him off again!
But then Rita saw Artie's name on the team sheet for the game and knew he'd demand more money. The note confirmed it. Helen thought the note was for her, but it was meant for Rita. Mackenzie drags out an old photo of Bushranger Bill but he's with someone — Midnight Mo. Two bushrangers mean two guns! Both identical. And Rita used the secret gun to murder Artie. But how did she escape from the bowling green when everyone heard the gunshot? Well, Mackenzie says there was no gunshot! She'd muffled the shot using her cushion! And she blew out a tire on a lawnmower to create the sound of a gunshot. Then when everyone went to investigate the sound she switched the murder weapon on the wall with Bill's inoperable gun. Felix found the gun in Rita's garage. Rita is arrested for Artie's murder.
Back at the station, Mackenzie surprises Colin by agreeing to come out to dinner at the surf club. When she arrives she sees Frankie and she's stunned to see in the distance on the beach Glenn getting the ring out of his pocket apparently about to propose to Daisy! But she watches as Glenn puts the ring back in his pocket and in fact doesn't propose. For some reason best known to herself, she then later asks Glenn about what happened. Why didn't he propose? Just as Glenn's about to answer Daisy arrives and then she proposes as Mackenzie awkwardly looks on. Glenn says "Yes". But well surely that’s not the end of that story...
