Sherlock & Co. - The Copper Beeches - Part Three

Episode Date: August 18, 2026

MEETING MR. FOWLER - It was time to regroup. To piece everything together. To lick our wounds. Alice and Violet needed our help. Or so we thought...Part 3 of 3This episode contains swearing, dread, references to abduction, confinement, abuse, suicideListener discretion is advised.A new clothing store has opened: www.sherlockwear.comFor merchandise and transcripts go to: www.sherlockandco.co.ukFor ad-free, early access to adventures in full go to www.patreon.com/sherlockandcoTo get in touch via email: [e-mail] me @DocJWatsonMD on twitter and BlueSky, or sherlockandcopod on TikTok, instagram and YouTube.This podcast is property of Goalhanger Podcasts.Copyright 2026.SHERLOCK AND CO.Based on the works of Sir Arthur Conan DoylePaul Waggott as Dr. John WatsonHarry Attwell as Sherlock HolmesMarta da Silva as Mariana AmetxazurraEzra Saifie as Violet HunterLauren Ingram as Juniper RocastlePete Gold as Matthew FowlerLee Jarrell as Officer PowellHannah Melbourne as Janet TollerAdditional Voices:Darcey FergusonAdam JarrellWritten by Joel EmeryDirected by Adam JarrellEditing and Sound Design by Adam JarrellProduced by Neil Fearn and Jon GillExecutive Producer Tony Pastor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, Sherlock Holmes here. John has put here that I am apparently delighted to tell you, further tickets have been released for our South Bank Live show at the rest is best on the 5th and 6th of September. So go to Southbank Centre.com.com.uk and gobble up. Those seats while they remain available. That's South Bank Cent... No, no, I'm not saying that again. I'm sure you can work out how to get tickets for a Sherlock and Co-show show at the South Bank Centre.

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Oh, patreon.com forward slash Sherlock and Co. Thanks. Previously on Sherlock and Co. Oh, yeah, no. It's only the back of her, but that's her. Hair is not her style. She looks like a Victorian doll. That's what Juniper wants?

To dress her up in bright blue dresses and put her in some creepy bedroom? Phone is off. It's moving towards her. Just to fill you in, listeners. Violet is sat in a bedroom back against the window and I think

someone is talking to her there's a shadow on the wall just kind of turned her head towards it holy shit what's she doing impossible she's now

facing a window she's waving us away right what we should I think there's security dogs or something she wrote on the window leave me

alone I'll write a note on my breakfast serviet here. Tie it to the mic. I have a hair tie. Here. Excellent. What are you writing? Violet.

Record your findings. Mike at dawn. Regards Sherlock. And co. Alice, tell him to leave. Tell him to go away. My name is not Alice. My name.

He's Violet Hunter. You know that. This is for your own good. He's a bad, bad man, a truly monstrous sorting film. You must, you must, for both our sake, you must. I am trying to protect you from him. Juniper has basically got her prisoner. There's an attack dog.

There's some creepy guy on the lawn. I told you it was impossible they knew we were here. They knew of another person out on the lawn, which means he visits frequently. At the same time, each night. night. But also, I would bet our entire business, including Archie here, that Alice no longer has hair this length. Why? Because Violet is here to impersonate Alice. Yeah, exactly, Sherlock, because she's dead. Alice is dead and Violet is going to be next. I'm going to that house and I am

taking her out of it. Mariana, God's sake, Archie, don't follow her, mate. Violet! Archie! No, no, no, no, no, no. Archie! My hero. Archie? Or the bloke whose house we're now in? Well, both. Good boy. Do you know what's nice? That I didn't get torn to pieces by a dog, and neither did Archie?

Well, those are definitely one and two, golden silver. But the bronze medal in all of this is... You did something really, really stupid. Yep. Like really stupid. Yeah. Yeah. Usually, that'll be me. Might be Sherlock. And you sit there going, why did you do that? Why didn't you do it like this?

I can speak Spanish. I can speak Japanese. And now... I know. Now, you nearly got eaten by Carlo, because, as we've all discovered, Spanish accountants can be stupid too. I guess we can. I cannot believe you, Arch. Don't be mad at him. He saved my life. Yeah, but he's...

You're a little bulldog, mate. You can't go after big fellas like that. He can when they're hunting me down. Oh, look at him. He's proud of himself. Yeah. Yeah, blood around your mouth and everything, mate. You fiend, you beast. He bit his balls.

John, he bit the dog's balls. Oh, you fight dirty, don't you, mate? Hit him where it hurts. I tell you what, if you had ripped his balls clean off, we could have charged a neutering fee, eh? How are we feeling? Ah, better. Thank you, Matthew.

Especially in this place. How come I didn't see a cabin this nice on the website? No, this one is mine. Permanent. Ah, right. Oh, I thought you were just staying here. No, I built them all. The cabins? Oh, yeah. Now I maintain them. That's amazing.

It's all right. And that is how Carlo, our canine security friend, knows you. Yeah, and now he knows this guy. Totally, eh? Good for you, man. I know I stepped in, but I reckon you could have. Adam, eh? A bit of late night wandering, Mr.

Fowler, Matthew Fowler. Well... Well, what? Where were you last night? Here in the cabin. You were in your cabin? Of course. This one?

Yeah. Everything all right. Well, if that's the case, you may wish to report that somebody came into your cabin, took your little walking boots there, traips them across a recently mowed lawn, and pop them back there in the porch. It... They're still the... wet from the condensation, so much so

the blades of freshly cut grass are still clinging on. It actually soaked right through to the mysterious man's socks. He's even drying them on your window sill there. How unusual, Mr Fowler. Right, yeah, they're mine, but that's

probably from this morning. It is this morning. You weren't wearing those, you were wearing the trainers you have on now. Where is she, Mr Fowler? Where is Alice? Juniper Roadcastle has had a tough life, right? A tough life.

Doesn't look it, Matthew. I know it doesn't now, but she is carrying lots. And she's not all there, all right? I'm not trying to do whatever it is she's telling you I'm doing. We are yet to have the pleasure. What I've meeting her? That's right. Well, then, sorry, I don't understand.

No, I don't understand. Why did Carlo not attack you? Because, like he said, he works the grounds. He's built these cabins. He's maintained them. He's a known presence, just in the same way. I suspect Carlo would not attack the tollers. Right, look, I think we're all losing it a bit here. Cabin fever, eh?

I like the little games and puzzles provided with the accommodation, Mr Fowler. I will often utilise a puzzle to calm myself down to regulate frantic thoughts. It occupies two distinct cognitive processes, perception reasoning and spatial memory. Observation is of little value without retrieval, i.e., if I can observe a dark figure lingering outside the Roecastle residence at night, yet fail to retrieve that figure with additional perceptions and reasoning, then there is very little point to it.

Right, Mr. Fowler, you would just remain a faceless, odd figure in the darkness, but fortunately we have spatial memory. a background operation only accessible by sudden beams, signals of light. Watson here, the very finest conductor of light I have known in my time working as a detective, but others can do it too. Mariana has done so on plenty of occasions, and now Archie has. The dog. The dog, yes, or rather his foe and its private parts.

Archie here attacked Carlo's testicles, unlikely a calculated defence. Rather, that's the height he could reach, and he went for it. Sorry, I'm not quite sure where you're going with this. Yeah, he's going somewhere, you just have to wait. And that attack, Archie's chosen target on Carlo sent a signal to me of something I had heard the night before. Juniper had requested the same of her dog to attack. You, to rid us of your seed. Your seed, Mr Fowler.

I can see that Juniper has idiosyncrasies in her manner, and I had put it down to that at first, but now, when I look at you, not as a shadow on the grass, but as the sympathetic carpenter, dashing, creative, manly. I do see where the concerns of the snobbish juniper row castle are coming from. Suffice to say, with your fixation and concern over Alice, it is abundantly clear that the seed is well and truly planted. Now just hold on a second. There will be no holding on.

There is no equivocation or missing pieces. I have completed the puzzle, and now I get to see its picture, and you will provide that picture, Mr. Fowler. In full, that is what I deserve, because you see, when it comes to puzzles, I really am the dog's bollocks. Where is Alice? Matthew?

Where is she? She's... In the house. Where? Same place she always is. I check on her every night. That's what you're doing out there? Yeah.

Why? Because she's pregnant with his child. Yes, that's true. But she's... The last few nights... She's made it very clear. Made what clear? She doesn't respond to messages.

She doesn't leave the house. and when I try and see her at 11, that's what I was doing out there. We used to do it when we were first... Couting? Yeah. But now, last night, she wants me to leave. She just wants me away from her. It could be hormonal or maybe a woman thing.

Yes, well, the woman thing would be that it's not actually Alice. but a different woman entirely. What? Matthew, that wasn't Alice last night. Yeah, it was. No, it wasn't. It was a girl by the name of Violet Hunter. No, that's Alice's room.

I saw her. Did you see her face? It's Alice. Trust me. Matthew, a deliberate deception is in place by Juniper Roe Castle. I completely understand why you think. It's Alice in the window. That's the point of this whole thing to make you think.

but it's not her. We followed Violet here. We planned to get her out and home to her mum, okay? Where the fuck is Alice? Where is my child? Let's just slow down a little bit. I'm gonna... She's hurt her. I swear to God! We must remain calm, Matthew. I'm with Matthew. Let's get this bitch. This is what we call... the mother block. This is the heart of the vineyard, the oldest vines, the richest textures and flavours.

Here from the very beginning, this is what makes up our limited release wines, because they really are that special. And... Oh, oh my God! Recording! Ah! Ha! Ha! Ha! Fence! Fence! Okay, never mind. You can get someone in. I feel it. I'll fix it. Right, fair enough. Think flying towards the house in a jeep at this speed is to foul it does rather ruin the element of surprise. She's at the vet we call her. Besides, I'm not going for surprise. What are we going for exactly?

Blind fucking rage! Right, but how do you suppose that gets us into the house? Yeah, I mean... Yes, that is rather effective, isn't it? Alice! Milit! Alice! Are you here? Watson.

with me, Mariana and Matthew, clear this ground floor. We'll do. Come! Yep. Left, we'll take us to Violet's room. Right, I believe, will eventually take us to Junipers. We should probably check on Violet, first and foremost. Yes, this way.

This one. Yes. Look at the door. Indeed. Alice's room. She's had it since she was a child. Come on. Hello? Violet, are you decent?

She's gone. Yeah. But it is the daytime. Maybe she just comes here for bed. What do you mean? With hair. Well, that is a long hair. That's the same as the noose one. Yes.

She had it very long then. Certainly passed her waist. Did she cut her hair, or did Juniper cut it off for her? at some point after her attempted suicide. That's why Violet was required to cut hers in order to pull off the imitation and dismiss Matthew to break his heart, to end a relationship she didn't approve of.

Yeah. There's a hair tie here. There are a few further strands in this drawer. It was kept here. All the hair she cut. off. Yes. But it's not there now. No.

All right, come on. We should probably check the rest of the house. Nothing in her room? No, we found Alice's hair that she cut, but nothing. Juniper's room is somewhat disturbed. The mattress is a little out of place, but no signs. Then

where are they? Call the police, and check in. See how far away they are. Did none of you call the police? police? Um, I just assumed someone else would. Yeah, I kind of got carried away in the moment. And what's your excuse? Oh, I don't have one. I didn't call them and I generally tried to avoid police officers entirely. For God's sake, are you out of your mind? Never, unless I'm on recreational drugs. What? Hold your judgment. You work at a vineyard, the net destruction of the alcohol industry

vastly outweighs... Call the police now. In every grape, vine and cellar on this plot, there is a drug that will make its way into the body of a vulnerable abit. Cellar. Wine cellar. She's a wine snob. She's bound to have a wine cellar. Yes, John. Of course. Look to the frame of the stairs. Uh, yes, yes, under here. Pullet? Yep, I'm trying.

Just give it here. Thanks, Matthew. I sort of loosened it, but... Christ, who took the ladder away? Violet? Violet. Alice! Where is she? Sherlock. Yes, I saw it. It saw what?

Can we tell me or... There's a few scuff marks on the floor here and this rope. The same we saw in the forest. You'd think it was used to detain? It looks that way. What did you see in the forest? Uh... Her noose.

Sorry, Matthew. We didn't mean to... No. It's all right. She... Yeah, she did try. Alice tried to end her life Yeah I climbed the tree and pulled her down

We're lucky that she had no idea what she was doing On that front She's an amazing girl But she is fragile I first met her Two and a half years ago I'm eight years older than her And she's the boss's daughter

But The second I shook her hand She might as well have buried it in my chest and ripped my heart out. I swear to God, just looking at her, talking to her, turn my life around.

So, to see her go to a place where I've been before, where I know just how dark it can be, heartbreaking. We'll find her, Matthew. We'll find Alice and your baby. And we'll find violet too.

Sorry, Sherlock, this is sort of a serious moment. We won't find them. What? Well, not if they're as skilled at hiding as they are running. What do you mean? Violet cut the ropes. How? Do you know that? Because she left her hairdresser scissors right here under this shelving unit.

Oh my God! In answer to your earlier question, John, who took the ladder away? I suspect it was Juniper Roe Castle. Because she was keeping her here. And now she's taking them someplace else. I'm coming, Alice. Wherever you are, I'm going to find you. I'm going to save you, I promise.

I'm afraid. Alice does not require saving by her handsome prince. Neither does Violet. They have already saved themselves. Well, how did they climb up out of here? And wait, how do we climb up out of here? here. Look. See? The long hairs. They have come from a lock of hair, a very full one, and a very, very long one. It was in Alice's drawer. Looks like Violet held onto it, probably to give to us as a clue.

But I feel it had another use. Oh, handsome prints. I get it now. Funny. Share look. Thank you. I thought it was rather good. Sorry, why is this funny? Yeah, what is this in reference to Exactly? Rapunzel, my dear Watson. It is in reference to Rapunzel. But rather, we have the reverse. Hair was not let downwards. It was thrown upwards.

She... You think she, like, lasuda, onto that hook right there. You think that's possible? When you have time, and the skill of a hairdresser to braid and buttress the lock of hair, to utilise some of the rope that was used to detain you also, it's possible. It's absolutely possible.

So what do we do? Hey, hey, hey, my hair won't reach, so don't even try. We could try stacking some of these boxes, standing off. I mean, it would have to be sherlock, because I don't think I'd reach even with multiple boxes. What are you doing? I'm doing what you asked, Mr. Fowler. Which is what?

I'm calling the police. Juniper Rowcastle. I was at the vets for my poor dog. That was getting stitches, and you accosted me. Do you know why we did it? You? No, because you're mistaken. We're not mistaken.

Oh, you are. You are mistaken. We have reason to believe, Juniper, that you've done some detaining of your own. Would that be fair to say? Did some detaining? Not done some detaining. Could you answer the question, please? I have lodgings. To house a lodger is perfectly reasonable.

And that's Miss Violet Hunter? Yes. And do you have any idea where she is? where she is? Do you? I'm asking you. Well, if I have the misfortune of being here in your company, perhaps you do know where she is,

and you have taken it upon yourself to meddle in personal affairs. The wine cellar. So what if they're in the wine cellar? The weather is hot? It's a cool place for them to be, is it not? I don't think that a young woman who you coerced down from London and your pregnant daughter should be kept in a cellar, regardless of the weather. Do you think that's okay, Juniper?

He's an abuser. Who is? Matthew Fowler. How so? He has had his way with her. He has completely warped her mind, turning her against her own mother. He has impregnated her

And I said to her I said if it wasn't for me If it wasn't for your mother That would be your life over Over Like that But the tallest you see The tallest will raise the baby

As their own Alice will be permitted to see The Barset if she wishes Which I really do doubt Once the milk dries up The mother is simply there to provide a clean environment for the child. Juniper, Juniper, if he is an abuser, why do you employ him?

Perhaps he has his wicked ways working on my mind too. Who knows? Do you believe that he is abusive to Alice in any way? Or, would you rather believe that than the truth? which is that you disapproved of their consenting, respectful and loving relationship. Shut up. And you did everything you could to end it,

to be able to raise Alice, not as your daughter, but as an extension of your own person. Oh, this is just ridiculous. As an extension of your own beliefs, your own reputation. I was raised with standards. God forbid she have the same. God forbid I instilling her the value of class and self-respect.

She thinks she found out the hard way. I found out the hard way. Divorce? DeVorce? Debt? You think, you think being separated from Matthew Fowler from your temporary source of sexual gratification is suffering? Well, then her and her kind really are done for.

I should have tied that noose for her last year, and we wouldn't have all this nonsense. Now I must really... Carlo will be feeling ever so groggy. So I must get on. We're going to take a break for a moment. Your solicitors are here, so... Hi, mum, it's me.

Try calling, but just to let you know there's going to be a delivery of 180 bottles of copper beaches. That's from me. That's a gift. But just, you know, that covers Christmas this coming birthday, the Christmas after that, and then also your 60th. So, all right. Yeah, enjoy those responsibly, please. Okay, speak later. Bye, bye.

Right, she's getting 180, but she will be the biggest customer, to be fair. Wiggins is getting 10. Langdale says they'll take 50. Can you do that? I think we can. Yes. I'm going to take like 30 bottles. to Scotland Yard?

Oh, okay. So we're... Yeah, we'll keep, what, ten? Yeah, I'll have three downstairs. Cool, cool, I would say we have shifted them, haven't we? I would say so, my friend. Well, good work, aren't you? I know you didn't do anything, but it's a team effort.

And the tollers think this scarcity will help them? Well, the news story damages them, and then the scarcity for the next vintage or whatever... I don't know, Mariana, they offered hundreds of bottles of free wine. I just said yes. So, what's happening with this adventure, then? What about it? Are you going to release it?

Of course I am. The Adventure of the Copper Beaches. But they saved themselves. We didn't save them. Yeah? So? Oh, good point. I do make them from time to time.

Afternoon. I have pleasant news. Oh, on violin? Not on Violet, no, but on Alice. Okay. Okay. Yes, just tell us. I don't need to. It's all here.

A photo? Oh, it's the baby. An ultrasound of the baby. Yes, and you can see the details of the mother. There. Alice Fowler? Holy crap, she married quick. I can't imagine it was a particularly big ceremony, to be honest. Let's have a look. Oh, look at the baby. Well, as long as she doesn't take any parenting tips from her mother, she'll be absolutely fine. Nothing from Violet?

No, but I think that's for the best. Sherlock, I still think we should be able to know where she is and check in. This isn't some fairy tale ending where she just goes off on her merry way and we go, all right, yeah, see ya. No, it's not. It's a real ending to a real case and discretion is vital. Why? Juniper is going to prison now. Yes, she is. And I'd rather, Violet, didn't.

Why would she? Well, if they found who took 35,000 pounds from under Juniper Roe Castle's mattress, they might put that person in prison. Oh, yes, that person, however that may have been, would be prosecuted, yes. You say, person could have been Carlo the dog. Mm-hmm, yeah. It's been through a lot. Maybe you took the money and ran. Well, they have asked Sherlock.

and co for help on the matter. I'll let the police know the dog remains our number one suspect. Good idea. Right then. Hey! A toast. To Violet Hunter. To Alice and Matthew.

To Archie and to the adventure of the dog's bollocks. We're not calling it that. Thank you for listening. We couldn't have done it without you guys. So well done to you. High fives all round. Don't buy that wine if you see it in the supermarkets. Matthew and Alice have run away. I've discovered Janet Toller and her husband have now left

and Juniper is technically still getting money from the sales. So they can bugger off. And speaking of buggering off, I'm going to do that now. So I will see you right here in my bedroom next time. Farewell.