New Tricks: Season 4, Episode 6

4 - 6: Buried Treasure

When Brian Lane is left to fend for himself for a few days by Esther, his dog, Scampi, digs up a skeleton on a routine walk on the common, as the drama about an unlikely team of crack detectives continues. Back in the office, the team receives an unusual amount of interest in the details of the human remains from a local youth worker, Andrew Bartlett, and the widow of a notorious criminal, Jackie Small, who goes on to confess to killing her husband's lover, Tina Murphy. Having discovered that the skeleton is actually 600 years old, Brian is keen to get involved in the case, but is forbidden to do so by Det Supt Pullman under DAC Strickland's instruction. The boys finally convince Pullman to let them pursue both Jackie Small and Bartlett after Jack Halford looks into Bartlett's past and discovers he was interviewed in connection with the disappearance of an MP, Neil Williams, some years earlier. The MP's body was never discovered, but his then business partner, Michael Evans, is serving life for his murder. The team needs to find out if the common hides the grim remains of more than one victim, and Brian enlists the help of a local academic, Professor Alice Sandwell.