The following article contains spoilers from an episode of Emmerdale that hasn’t aired on ITV1 yet, but can be viewed on ITVX.
No-one mourns the wicked – and they don’t come more wicked than Ray Walters (Joe Absolom). Now he’s dead, half of Emmerdale are under suspicion.
Under the influence of his chillingly ruthless mother Celia, Ray ran an insidious drug-dealing and human trafficking run from Buttler’s farm, exploiting the needy and grooming the vulnerable.
Not only did he coerce troubled teenager April Windsor (Amelia Flanagan) and her boyfriend Dylan Penders (Fred Kettle) into selling illegal substances, but he extorted money from April’s parents Marlon Dingle (Mark Charnock) and Rhona Goskirk in return for staying away from their daughter.
Then there’s Bear Wolf (Joshua Richards), who Ray manipulated into living in appalling conditions as a forced labourer on Butler’s farm alongside dozens of other victims, while his son Paddy Kirk (Dominic Brunt) was worrying where his father was.
So it wasn’t exactly the twist of the century when Ray turned up dead. There’s already more suspicious characters than a Dingle family reunion, and that’s before we even mention the fact that April was given a lift by village bad boy Ross Barton, who ominously advised her not to mention where they went and what they got up to. Eep…
But wait! There’s more! Today’s episode will see two fresh subjects fall under suspicion when the police investigation gets underway led DS Walsh (Amanda Ryan), a police officer so tenacious that she deserves her own spin-off.
First under interrogation is Laurel Thomas (Charlotte Bellamy). The biggest sweetheart in the village was involved in an unlikely romance with Ray when she fell for his charms. However, as soon as Dylan finally revealed Ray’s colours.
Laurel was horrified to realise that she’d let her children be in the same room as an amoral people trafficker and wanted nothing more to do with him. When DS Walsh asks if Ray left any personal effects in her home, Laurel evasively claims that he didn’t… but we know that’s not strictly true.
At Christmas, Ray brought Laurel a very expensive bracelet as a token of his affection. In the episode where his death was revealed, Laurel was seen alone wracked with guilt, fiddling uneasily with the bracelet. Did she just hide information from the police?
Next up in the hotseat is Laurel’s ex-husband, Jai Sharma. It’s not looking good for Jai – mainly because Ray’s body was found in the back of his van during the explosive events of Corriedale. But despite his protests of innocence, Jai’s in for the shock of his life when DS Walsh marches him down the police station for questioning.
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In the interview room, Jai is given a thorough grilling by DS Walsh. She accuses Jai of still carrying a flame for Laurel, and wonders how far he would go to protect her from a monster like Ray. Although Jai denies everything, Wash has another theory. She suggests that Laurel and Jai were involved in Ray’s murder together, vowing to get to the truth.
Are Walsh’s suspicions correct? Did Laurel and Jai kill Ray?
