Karen Pirie season 2 episode 2 recap: Is Catriona alive or dead?

Karen Pirie season 2 sees our hero Karen, now a detective inspector, given a huge high high-profile cold case to solve, the kidnapping of oil heiress Catriona Grant and her young son Adam. It is based on Val McDermid's 2008 novel, "A Dark Domain", the second story in the author's Karen Pirie franchise. Spoilers ahead if you've not seen episode 2! Here's what happened in episode 2...

Karen doesn't want Phil to call in the break-in. She says camera footage will show them walking home together and their relationship will be exposed, risking both their jobs. Phil fears for her safety and says she should move in with him. She refuses. She suggests they take a pause in their relationship until the case is over. River walks in. Phil gets his jacket and leaves.

Back in 1984, "Two Tribes" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood is playing in the club, and Mick watches Catriona dancing. We see them in a grand garden talking, and Mick says he didn't know who she was when they first met. Catriona says someone once threatened to kidnap her, Mick replies that is awful. She says the police got the guy.

Karen gives a team briefing. She says these are our three suspects, showing photos of Kevin, Andy, and Mick. She says Mick and Andy worked at the coalmine, while Kevin was a small-time crook. Karen says they need to find Mick, who entrapped Catriona. Mint has tracked down Mick's wife.

In 1984, we see Mick looking for Andy, but he can't find him. Mick drives to Andy's caravan. Andy answers. Andy is scared because of his debts. Andy is talking about killing himself. Mick says he's found a way out for both of them.

Karen and Mint go to talk to Mick's wife, Jenny. She says she's with Tom now and knows nothing about Mick. She says she hasn't seen him in 40 years.

We see young Jenny back in 1984. She reads a note from him saying he’s sorry and will send money. She goes to the strike, but there’s no sign of Mick. She speaks to Tom. She says Mick thinks there’s something going on between them, and he's left. He says Mick has gone to Nottingham and broken the strike.

In the present, Tom walks in. Jenny says she did want to divorce Mick, but she'd have to show the court she'd tried to track him down, and she didn’t want to do that.

Broderick calls his ex-wife. They talk about the case. Mary gets upset as a news report comes on her TV. Broderick is watching the same report and cries.

Back in 1984, Broderick discusses the case with the cop. Broderick loses his temper with the cop.

Bel approaches Phil in a cafe. He doesn't want to talk to her, but she makes him. She says she's trying to get an interview with Broderick. Isla walks past the cafe and sees Phil talking to Bel. Bel asks Phil to put in a good word with Karen. He refuses and walks out. Isla ducks so he can't see her.

Isla tells her boss she has no idea where the press leak came from. He again threatens her with putting her back in cybercrime if she doesn’t give him info on the case.

River asks Karen what she’s done about the break-in.

River gives the team a briefing about Kevin's autopsy. She says there's evidence of a serious fight. They found some material in Kevin's pockets, possibly documents. Looks like a counterfeit passport. Karen says it looks like he was going to start a new life under a different name. Karen wonders if Mick and Andy are alive under new identities. Karen says that means they could be anywhere.

Karen gets a call from Phil while in the car. Phil has tracked down some of the miners who went to Nottingham. They said Mick was always part of the plan, but on the night they went, he never showed up. So Karen thinks Mick came up with the Nottingham cover story so Jenny wouldn't come looking for him, thinking he’d betrayed her and the miners. Phil wants to talk, but she cuts him off.

Karen goes to talk to Tom. Tom says that a few months after he left, Mick sent him money, and there was a note. He said he knew if he sent it to her, she’d never accept it, but he wanted someone to take care of her, and that he was sorry. It was thousands. Tom says he's not proud of taking it. Tom said he never told Jenny. Tom says he noticed from the postmark on the envelope that Mick had sent it from France.

Karen tells Mint, Phil, and Isla about the fact Mick could be in France. Where did Mick get the money from? Phil wonders if someone had paid them to do the kidnapping. It could be someone with a grudge against Broderick or Catriona.

Karen goes to see Fergus (John Michie) in a posh office. Fergus doesn't see himself as Adam's father as he has never met him. Fergus believes Catriona and Adam are dead. Fergus says he doesn't know Kevin, Mick, or Andy. Fergus says he regrets not telling his wife everything and stepping up to be Adam's dad. But he can't change anything now. Karen hits a nerve when she says it was very convenient for Fergus that Catriona and Adam vanished, and he asks her to leave.

In 1984, the police make the kidnapping public at a press conference. Broderick hijacks the press conference and, much to the concern of the cops, offers a huge reward for information. After the shambles of the press conference, the lead cop is told by his boss he’s being removed from the case.

Karen answers the door to Phil. It's awkward! Phil says he thinks he knows where Kevin got the fake passport, someone called Bridget, who has convictions for that. She's currently in jail, and Phil says they can see her tomorrow.

Isla quizzes Mint about Karen and Phil. Mint lies that they hate each other and have very different political views. Isla doesn't look convinced. Karen arrives. Isla says there's some promising sightings of Mick in the south of France, and Karen asks her to send the sketch of how Mick might look today to the French police. Isla looked into Catriona's accounts, and she didn't have a lot of money.

Bridget is the ex-wife of a member of the Lennox crime family. Bridget says she doesn't know Kevin. Phil shows Bridget a picture of Kevin's fake passport and asks if it's one of hers. She wants her son transferred to a safer jail. They make a deal.

Bridget reveals that Kevin wanted three passports. Andy came to pick up the passports. He said he needed another passport, for a woman and a child, and Bridget wasn't to tell Kevin. Bridget says she did a fake passport for Catriona, and then a few weeks later, her face was all over the news.

In 1984, Mick is furious with Andy for bringing Kevin into their gang without telling him and promising him a third of the money. Mick says Kevin’s in, but they don’t tell him everything. Mick tells Andy not to let him down again.

Forensics confirm that Catriona was kept at the house. They found the bullet that killed Kevin embedded in the wall!

In 1984, we see Mick and Kevin in the house. Mick tells Kevin to leave and to get himself an alibi. Kevin says to Mick that he's not his dog's body to be pushed about. Mick asks for Kevin's gun. It appears Kevin got his gun from Lennox's and was then killed with it.

Forensics believe the shooter was 5ft 8 inches, Catriona's height! Both Mick and Andy were taller, says Karen.

Karen says Catriona had free rein of the cottage as her fingerprints are all over the building, and they had a passport made up for her. Karen believes Catriona didn't kill Kevin in self-defence; she murdered him. She was in on the kidnapping!

In 1984, we see Kat furious with Mick because Kevin had a gun. Mick says he’s sorry, but he has the gun now and shows her Kevin's gun. Kevin is listening in and finds out what's really been going on. Mick says to Catriona he doesn't trust Kevin, and that's why he’s not told him the truth. Mick says he wants to protect her, and this way, he and Andy will go to prison, but not her.

Kevin confronts Mick. They fight, and Kevin starts kicking Mick. Catriona points a gun at Kevin. He threatens to tell her dad everything and get his pay day that way. He throws insults at her, but as he moves towards her, she shoots him in the head.

Andy comes back and is shocked to find Kevin dead. Catriona says she shot Kevin dead, and that Andy needs to stay calm and help her clean up.

Karen goes to see Broderick. She asks him why he kept Fergus on, and he says he has a brilliant business brain and he didn't think his affair with Catriona should wreck his career. He says that after the Fergus issue, she didn't want his money, and that’s why she didn't have much in her account.

Karen tells Broderick that Catriona may have been complicit in her kidnapping. Karen says she has extensive evidence that Catriona shot Kevin dead. Broderick admits he had suspected that she might have been involved. Broderick wants the investigation to end. Karen says she can't do that. Adam is still a victim, and Catriona is now a suspect.

Mint has found a sighting that's of interest from 1984 in the south of France. There's a grainy photo that could be of Mick and Adam.

Karen and River go to a spot where the gun was found. River says something happened at this place. River says the cave they're looking at used to have another entrance, but it collapsed in late autumn 1984!

Isla has a brainwave. Andy was a gambling addict. The south of France has lots of casinos, and they keep records of customers.

Mint calls at Karen's and says Isla thinks Phil leaked information to Bel and is under pressure from the boss; otherwise, she will be taken off the case. Phil phones and says Karen needs to switch on the TV. She does and sees Bel interview Broderick and Mary. Broderick drops the bombshell that the police now suspect that Catriona knew her abductors. Karen fumes at the TV. Broderick says he will pay the money back used on the case, and he wants the case shut down.

Phil tells Karen after loads of work, he's found out who burgled her house. She takes Phil into her boss’s office and spills her guts, including approaching a witness in witness protection, taking her work computer home, and it being stolen. Then she declares she’s in love with Phil and has been for "a long while". He wanted to report the relationship, but she didn’t.

She's about to tell him she leaked to the press when he tells her to stop. He says there will be a full investigation into her, but after she solves the case. He's not shutting it down just because Broderick wants them to. He doesn’t get to tell them how to do their jobs. He says she’s maddening but also brilliant and tells her to get out and solve the case. Phil gives Karen a quick kiss.

Isla tells Mint he didn't tell the boss about Phil and Karen, she'd prefer to go back to cybercrime than be a grass.

Karen and Phil go and arrest Cameron, who stole her computer. Phil asks if he stole the computer for Craig Lennox, and he denies it.

Cameron says he was approached by a mysterious person and offered money to do the job. He said a person paid him cash, and as he was walking away, he heard the person say a name on the phone, Mr Sinclair. "Fergus," says a startled Karen.

Back in 1984, we see the cop who's been thrown off the case, saying he should have dug more into why Broderick is protecting Fergus.

Mint hears from a French casino about a man who had a fight with a croupier after a big loss. They send through a picture, and it looks like Andy, who’s going under the name Matthias.

River searches the cave and seems to find something. Andy/Matthias appears to have been arrested in Nice in 1985, and someone called Daniel, we assume Mick, paid his bill and gave an address in Italy. Mint wonders if they should expand the search to Italy.

Mint discovers Daniel has a son called Gabriel, who may well be Adam. There’s a warrant out for Gabriel's arrest.

In the cave, River has found Kat's body! The episode ends with us seeing Gabriel/Adam for the first time in Italy.