The only clue is a single, untouched item: a flat disc made of shellac, etched with a spiraling groove. Finch’s apprentice, a young woman named Ada, explains that Finch had recently perfected a method to capture sound with “perfect fidelity” onto these discs—far superior to any wax cylinder. He called it a “FLAC disc.” He’d been recording private conversations for wealthy clients, guaranteeing “the truth, unaltered.”
In Season 10, Detective William Murdoch investigates the death of a reclusive audio engineer whose priceless collection of FLAC-format master recordings becomes the key to a conspiracy reaching the highest levels of Toronto society.
The investigation leads to a rival inventor, Silas Vane, who has been stealing Finch’s FLAC process. Vane has been splicing recordings—taking real words from Brackenreid, Murdoch, and even Mayor Clarkson—to construct entirely false, incriminating conversations. His goal: blackmail the city’s elite into selling the waterfront to a US railroad tycoon. murdoch mysteries season 10 flac
Murdoch brings the disc to the station. Constable Crabtree, ever the enthusiast, rigs up a playback device. From the brass horn emerges a crystal-clear voice—Inspector Brackenreid’s—saying, “I don’t care if the railway land deal robs the orphanage blind. Get it done, or I’ll have your badge, Murdoch.”
Case closed.
Julia asks Murdoch if he fears a future where sound can be faked as easily as a photograph. Murdoch replies, “Then we must trust not in what we hear, but in what we can prove—one groove at a time.” Crabtree walks off, humming into a wax cylinder, trying to capture the perfect “FLAC” of his own whistling.
In a tense climax at Vane’s hidden recording studio—walls lined with FLAC discs labeled with dates and names—Murdoch confronts the killer. Vane plays a “recording” of Murdoch confessing to a murder he didn’t commit. The room fills with police who believe it. But Murdoch notices a tiny skip in the groove—a splice. The only clue is a single, untouched item:
Enter Julia Ogden. The autopsy reveals a precise blow to the head before the rack fell. Murder.