I know I've had a lot of confusing plotlines so far but answers will start coming soon, I promise! Stella D.
Previously on Doc Martin: The Movie: Martin still has another week off from the surgery. He has been investigating a case of oleander poisoning that sickened Michael Wenn, the owner of Wenn Hall, and possibly killed his dog. The actress Wynnie Barlow also had a mysterious illness while filming a movie at Wenn Hall. Martin and Penhale wanted to question the housekeeper Mrs. Daniels about the cases of suspected poisoning but ended up having to flee when they were tacked by a sinister armed drone. Mr. Wenn's first wife Rachel disappeared in a boating accident a year before and her body was just recently found aboard her sunken sailboat, in the aftermath of a storm on the night of the masked ball. Al Large accidentally revealed that the new Mrs. Wenn had lied about never having been to Portwenn before. Meanwhile, after the masked ball Louisa is disillusioned with both her father's and Jago Powell's misdeeds but she is also frustrated by Martin's behaviour. Jago has invited Louisa to a picnic to try to reconcile with her.
Chapter 35: The Inquest
Monday Morning
The rain continued falling heavily all weekend, but by Monday morning it had cleared. There was a freshness in the warm summer air as Martin stepped out onto the stone terrace. He looked about cautiously, then recoiled as the dreaded gull launched itself from the slate roof.
At that moment the girl gang that roamed the narrow village streets like a plague of cackling hyenas was walking up the hill. They laughed as the gull swooped at him, then their laughter quickly turned to shrieks as the aggressive bird took a sudden turn and dove at them, sending them running back down the hill.
With gull and girls gone, Martin breathed a sigh of relief, straightened his tie, and drew himself up to his full height to regain his dignity. The surgery was still closed for another week, so he walked down to the Village Hall to be there when the inquest convened. Having been informed that he might be called as a witness, he made a point of leaving home in plenty of time to be early. And privately, he admitted to himself he was interested in seeing the proceedings.
By the time he got down the hill, he was dismayed to see a small crowd already gathered, waiting for the doors to open.
"Everyone knows when a body has been in a watery grave for even a short time there's not much left when it's found," Bert Large was saying. "Pity, she was a real beauty that Rachel Wenn."
"Now Bert, it's enough of a tragedy without folk dwelling on what happened to her, what's left of her after a year down there," said Caitlin Curran, a local shopkeeper.
"It's just stating a fact about what happens. A body won't last long when the fish come round and start nibbling at it. Mr. Wenn even said so himself in the paper," Chippy Miller said.
Mrs. Tishell then weighed in. "If you ask me, he's probably relieved there's nothing but bones left. Conveniently reduces the evidence of foul play. Isn't that right, Dr. Ellingham?"
"I couldn't say," Martin replied. "I'm not a forensic pathologist."
The doors swung open and Martin took advantage of his imposing size to authoritatively step ahead of everyone else, stride into the hall, and secure himself a front row seat, whilst ignoring the glares of those around him. The gossipy speculation continued as his fellow early birds filled the seats.
"I'm just saying," Mrs. Tishell continued, "it's very odd that the man would go ahead and marry again when he couldn't know for sure his first wife was deceased, not unless he knew something no one else knew."
"Not that their marriage was even legal, not knowing what happened to Rachel; and the new wife such a naïve child," Mrs. Curran said.
"Not naïve at all, if you ask me," Mrs. Tishell replied sternly. "She has a scheming look about her. It's a wonder the two of them can even show their faces in public, let alone at the inquest for the first wife's mysterious death."
They all turned to watch as the Wenns came into the hall, avoiding eye contact with anyone, taking their seats in an area reserved for relatives of the deceased. The rest of the hall quickly filled up with all available seats taken and as many standees in back as Penhale determined the fire code would allow.
The magistrate was an older woman with a serious expression, who'd come up from Truro. "The purpose of an inquest is to answer four questions," she announced to the eager audience. "Those are: What is the identity of the deceased? What was the place of his or her death? What was the time of his or her death? And how did the deceased come by his or her death?"
"Evidence admitted here must be solely for the purpose of answering these questions. It is not for the inquest to ascertain the broad circumstances of how the deceased came to die, or determine criminal or civil liability for the death. However, the inquest should set out as many of the facts in the case as the public interest requires," she added.
And with that, she called the first witness, the coroner Dr. David Jameson, who swiftly dealt with the first question. He declared the dental records had determined the deceased was indeed Rachel Angela Brading Wenn, resident of Wenn Hall, Portwenn.
Then the coroner dropped a bombshell. "Contrary to expectation, the body was far better preserved than usual in such situations," he said. "Owing to the fact that it was enclosed in the sailboat cabin, which filled up with water but was left largely intact, thus denying entry to any but the smallest sea life; and additionally the fact that the deceased was wearing a wet suit which preserved the body excepting for the exposed head, hands, and feet; we were able to determine that she did not die from drowning. There was no water in her lungs. She was, in fact, already dead when her boat sank."
This aroused a reaction from the room that started as shocked murmurs and quickly escalated to a speculative din. Martin glanced over to the Wenns but both husband and wife were stoned-faced, almost refusing to show any reaction to this revelation.
"Quiet! Quiet!" the magistrate shouted. Once order was restored, she questioned the coroner further. "Have you determined the cause of death?"
"Not as yet," he replied. "There's no evidence of trauma to the body. We've sent tissue samples to the pathology lab and we should have some results within a few days."
In the meantime, the magistrate decided to call Michael Geoffrey Wenn to the stand. Mr. Wenn quietly got up, ignoring the curious eyes on him, and went forward to take his place.
"Can you tell us what prompted your wife, Rachel Wenn, to go out alone in her boat? On a night when a severe storm was expected?" the magistrate asked.
Mr. Wenn seemed reluctant to recall this information, speaking quietly at first, and then gaining confidence and volume as he went on. "Well, she had told me the day before that she thought she was pregnant. It was something of a surprise as I was under the impression she was taking contraceptive pills. Rachel was not fond of children. However, she seemed open to the idea of having a baby when she told me. It's just that… well, look, I know the missing persons police report at the time said the cook Mrs. Philpotts overheard us arguing. That was just because I was aware that Rachel had been seeing someone behind my back, so she was not certain of the paternity."
There was loud reaction from the crowd and Mr. Wenn became visibly defensive.
"I know people think I married Rachel for her money. The manor house is very expensive to maintain and the Wenn family has… well, I suppose our fortunes have declined a bit. But it wasn't like that at all. I loved Rachel, I really did, at least at first. It's just that after we were married, I realized she wasn't the person I thought I knew. She wanted to marry me for my family name, the Wenn name still means something around here. And she wanted to be the lady of the manor. But she had quite a bit more past than she had let on, lots of men she had been involved with, and some women as well, she was quite a free spirit."
"Mr. Wenn! Please stick to the relevant facts and try to answer the question," the magistrate said.
He took a deep breath, and glanced over at the second Mrs. Wenn as if to boost his confidence, before returning his attention to the magistrate.
"Sorry. I know all this is probably not relevant but you did say you wanted to set out as many facts of the case as you could. The public seems to have a morbid interest in my personal business so you might as well all know the truth. Anyway, Rachel went out the next day for hours, she drove somewhere, and when she came back she seemed changed. Very serious, which was unusual for Rachel. She wouldn't say two words to me, except to tell me she was going out in her boat. I tried to tell her there was a storm coming but she wouldn't listen. It was obvious anyway, the wind was picking up and the clouds were out over the ocean, there's no way she wouldn't have known it for herself. And that's the last I saw or heard of her. Until they found her boat Friday night, that is."
After Mr. Wenn's testimony, the inquest adjourned for the day. The crowd was abuzz with speculation about what it all meant as people exited the Village Hall.
Martin went back up the hill to the surgery. The answer machine was blinking so he pressed the button. A voice he hadn't heard in quite some time responded. It was a voice he would have been happy never to have heard again, a voice that evoked images of gum chewing; and braided, pink-tinted hair; and a sensation of nails on a chalkboard.
"Hey Doc, love your rhyming answer message. Our Pauline must be livening up the place. Dunno why you're closed for the fortnight but I been hearing on the news about this boat they found with Rachel Wenn dead and her face chewed off by fish and all. Terrible, innit. Anyway, you need to look up Mrs. Wenn's notes. You're bad with names but you probably remember she was the posh lady that thought she was preggers but there was things going on with it. Don't ask how I know, sometimes the files fall open and I can't help seeing what you wrote in them, it's not like I'm blind, innit. Pauline doesn't know anything about it, she came in before she was there. Before Pauline was there, that is. Anyway, I'm here with Greg in Pompey, got a new tattoo, learning to scuba, if you care."
A second message, left a moment later, was much shorter. "It's Elaine, if you can't tell, innit. Just look up that file."
Martin sat at the receptionist's desk and went through the files. He couldn't find anything under W for Wenn. Remembering Pauline's peculiar filing system, he looked up R for Rachel. There it was. He made a mental note to have Pauline redo her system when she got back to work. He took the file to his office and read through it, frowning. Yes, it was coming back to him now. He looked up the coroner's number and rang him.
"Erm, yes, this is Dr. Ellingham for Dr. Jameson. I have some information that may be relevant to the Rachel Wenn case. But first, I'll need you to check if Mrs. Wenn was in the early stages of pregnancy… Yes, that's right. And er… you might want to check for traces of oleander in her remains.
Martin reflected for a moment and then rang a second number.
"Penhale? Dr. Ellingham here. Do you have an inventory of items found in Mrs. Wenn's sailboat cabin? Yes, well I'd like to see it as soon as possible."
To be continued…