Protection episode 2 recap: Who is the leak?

This Protection episode 2 recap contains spoilers... DI Liz Nyles (Siobhan Finneran) discovers her lover, DS Brandice (Barry Ward), had a third phone. However when she finds it, she doesn't share with DCI Wheatley's investigation, as she has serious suspicions about her colleague.

Elsewhere, someone makes another attempt on Amy McLennan's life, but who? And who's leaking information about her whereabouts?

We open with a look at Liz’s first encounter with DS Brandice, the newest recruit to the witness protection team, who says he asked for a transfer because his wife wanted to be closer to her family. But did he really?

Back in the present day, when Liz alerts DCI Hannah Wheatley (Katherine Kelly) to DS Brandice’s car, she’s furious to find it was under her nose the whole time and is clearly wondering why her colleague didn’t share the information and has now chosen to do so. “You took it upon yourself to chase it up at 11pm?” she asks Liz, after seeing the photos DS Brandice took. Yet Liz didn’t tell Hannah about DS Brandice’s third phone, which she's kept.

Later on, Liz is questioned by DCI Wheatley and the very serious DCI Kelman (Nadine Marshall). The surveillance photos DS Brandice took of her are damning, however Liz maintains she stuck to protocols at all times when interacting with the witness.

DCI Wheatley isn’t buying it and continually pokes at Liz, asking how close she is with DS Brandice, before explaining how his phone data reveals he was at an address owned by her father a couple of times. Thinking quickly, Liz says it must have been while he was surveilling her.

Either way, Wheatley is convinced DS Brandice is the leak. We can’t say we blame her, but Liz just about manages to keep the ship steady under some serious pressure. Yet it’s clear they have some serious misgivings about her story.

However that’s not the only interview going on, because across town Eddie Crowther (Alec Newman) is chatting to DI Rick Bewley (Andrew Knott) about the murder of the McLennans. The druglord almost certainly ordered the hit, but is quite relaxed about the police’s inability to pin it on him and very pleased to see his former employee, who was due to testify against him, is dead. “Poor little Amy McLennan,” says Crowther creepily. “Is she safe?”

Yet while DCI Wheatley is convinced Crowther had Brandice in his pocket, Liz tells Bewley she isn’t so sure. Whether that's just wishful thinking remains to be seen. Meanwhile Bewley wants Liz to try and find Soran Ahmadi (Waj Ali), another of Crowther’s former employees who was due to be a witness against him, who’s now too scared to testify.

He asks Liz to persuade Ahmadi to come to court, but she has no idea where he is and accessing his file would be against protocol. “Without Ahmadi, chances are Crowther will get off scott-free,” he tells her.

Why are they still after Amy McLennan?

At the police station, a specialist officer questions Amy McLennan (Tilly Kaye), who says she didn’t see anything on the day her parents were killed. Wheatley is also disappointed when Amy fails to recognise DS Brandice.

However when Liz is driving Amy home, she notices a motorbike following them and realises both of their lives are in serious danger. She calls Raj (Chaneil Kular) and asks him to meet her at the shopping centre and after some tasty driving, they escape into the crowd. Yet it’s a very close call and a stark warning that Crowther’s crew are still out for blood.

It’s now clear the location of the interview with Amy was also leaked and Crowther’s crew want her dead, but DCI Kelman is wondering why they’re so desperate to kill her if she saw nothing on the day her parents were murdered. Yet she reluctantly agrees to let Amy stay with Liz.

Later on, Liz suggests to Kelman as the latest leak happened while DS Brandice was in a coma, maybe he’s not the culprit. “He’s either innocent or he has a co-conspirator,” she replies, so it’s clear he’s not out of the woods yet, in any sense. “Right now everyone is under suspicion.”

Liz then speaks to DI Bewley in the hope of finding the hitman who chased her and Amy, so she can link that back to Crowther and try him for attempted murder, but is unwilling to tell Wheatley about her plan. As far as she’s concerned, the latest development means there’s a leak in Wheatley’s team as well as hers.

Did DS Raj Koli betray the unit?

Hunting for new leads, Liz thinks back to the start of her affair with DS Brandice and pays his wife Gemma (Nichola Burley) a visit. She explains how it was his idea to transfer to witness protection, which is not what he told her when they met. It’s not good news for Liz and casts more suspicion on her lover’s motives for their affair.

Furious, she asks Raj if his brother — who works in a phone shop — can unlock DS Brandice’s third phone. Raj is furious she didn’t hand it over, but she persuades him they can’t trust Wheatley’s team. “If Brandice had an accomplice then their number will be on here,” she tells him.

Raj has it unlocked and begins to suspect there’s more to the phone than Liz is letting on. Nevertheless, Liz calls the first number and arranges a meeting with John Gibson, one of his old friends from the army.

She tells him what happened to Brandice and Gibson reveals that he saved his life on more than one occasion when they were in the forces. “The last time I spoke to Paul he didn’t seem himself,” says John. “He said he’d developed feelings for someone else.” This reassures Liz, but can we trust ‘John Gibson’.

Liz calls DI Bewley asking him to check up on Gibson, but he tells her Eddie Crowther has been granted a mistrial and is being released. Liz goes to Kapoor asking to know where Ahmadi is, but before he can answer Wheatley and Kelman turn up to arrest Raj on suspicion of conspiracy to murder. “He has a messaging app on his work computer, which he used to send a message to a burner account sharing the location of the McLennan safehouse.”

Is Raj working for Crowther? He swears he’s been set-up. But if that’s true, by who? Meanwhile, Liz wants to move Amy in case Raj is lying, but Kapoor says she’ll need to go through Kelman, who’s vetting all his operational decisions.

Elsewhere Amy is chatting to someone on a tablet she found in Liz's daughter's bedroom, which is definitely not a good idea, especially as it's Arlo, Eddie Crowther’s son! Shhiiiiittt…