'A secret revealed is a secret destroyed', the Stranger declared to Ingrid, who was also Gabrielle Dunbar. Ingrid was into the blackmailing scheme for the money; they were saving up to buy a beach bar. The Stranger was happy enough to ask for money sometimes, but every time she wielded the power of her information, the power of the secret she held, there was a level of disdain in her that showed this was not all business to her. The Stranger genuinely hated secrets.
Did the Stranger ever think that her hatred of secrets was more than a little hypocritical of her? After all, she was able to operate by virtue of living in secret. Presumably, she never revealed the secrets of those who paid up. As Ingrid sniped at her, she, herself, was keeping secrets. It was almost as though the Stranger decided to become an arbiter of secrets; the ones revealed were the ones she chose to reveal.
When Ingrid and the Stranger saw the news of Heidi's death, suddenly, they were confronted with a very real danger of being exposed. The Stranger told Ingrid to immediately clear out their office. Their business went on when there were no complainants. That their blackmail victim ended up dead meant that they were about to become entangled in a murder inquiry. That was a whole different ballgame.
Ingrid wanted out. They already had enough to buy their beach bar. It was the Stranger who kept moving the goal posts. In the freebie secrets the Stranger revealed (with the exemption of Ed, whom she visibly despised), the Stranger appeared to believe that she was only trying to help. More and more, it seemed that discovering and revealing secrets was more like an addiction to this beautiful young woman.
What was the Stranger's connection to Martin? There has to be one, for the Stranger watched him whilst he yelled at the demolition team outside his home. Martin was an ex cop who investigated the missing in his free time. Both Ingrid and the Stranger were connected to a detective agency.
We now know why Martin fought so hard to keep his home from being demolished; he had been hiding a body there all this time. No, I never thought that was Corinne. Martin was already fighting the developer with Adam's help long before Corinne went missing.
It was Martin who found Ingrid's office. Adam drove there with Tripp, but Ingrid had security escort him out. Adam and Tripp waited for Ingrid and they followed her, but they eventually lost her. The whole time they were in the car, Tripp kept trying to get Adam to slow down, to be careful with the car.
Corinne's missing person case was now fully entangled with Heidi's murder investigation. From Vicky, Johanna and Wes found out that the key fob found in Heidi's café was an old one. From Bob, the detectives learnt that Corinne was suspected of stealing a large amount of money from the football fund. Bob also confirmed what Mike previously said, that Dante was a lurky kid who was not well liked.
After the emotional previous episode, this one feels more like it went back to presenting and piecing together the still scattered threads of the story. Nothing particularly stood out, except perhaps Martin's furious outburst against Ed, who tried to convince him his company's project was a good one. With the reveal of the body in the house, we now know that Martin's anger at Ed was not solely because Ed left young Adam and his mother to fend for themselves. Martin deeply disliked Ed, and it was not just because Ed was a lousy father to his then young boy.
Strays
■ The Stranger works in a cinema.
■ Johanna was not happy that Katz did not put Corinne Price in the missing person's database.
■ Mike was furious that (1) Daisy thought he was capable of posting naked photos online and claiming they were Ella's and (2) Daisy spiked his joint with PCP.
■ It was the sickly kid, Olivia Katz, who told Daisy that Mike posted Ella's photos. Mike claimed that Olivia was in love with him.
■ When the Thomas, Mike, and Daisy tried to see Olivia at home, Olivia's mother claimed she was not there. Olivia's mother was also mad at Corinne. The three kids saw Olivia's mother throw rubbish at the neighbour's bin; there were plenty of medicine boxes there, and rat poison.
■ Philip does not want to separate from Johanna.