The Waterway Murder

Detective Sergeant Timothy Wallace stumbles across a body washed ashore at an English seaside town. When it looks like a case of murder and the corpse is identified as a courier, there are two chief suspects. Count Frederico Ferrano, who employed the deceased courier, is a seemingly wealthy businessman who sponsors a rag-tag soccer team. Nicole Carlisle is a forty-something single mom. She was also a courier, but now she spends her retirement gardening. However, if the neighbors are to be believed, Nicole is involved with witchcraft.
Tim's career is a mess. His interviews with the count and Nicole are not helping the investigation. Tim's aggressive female boss is angry with him for his attempt to link the waterlogged corpse with her failure to arrest a drug dealer three years earlier. She even blames Tim for the stray dog living in the police station car park. His boss thinks that the courier's death is connected to a string of burning barns in the surrounding farmlands. She brings in a hotshot arson investigator to head the inquiry and undermine Tim's authority.
Tim's personal life is just as chaotic. He is romance-challenged at the best of times, but his relationship with his girlfriend has hit a critical roadblock. Unfortunately for Tim, his boss is his girlfriend's mentor, and any missteps Tim makes are almost immediately relayed upwards.
Tim's boss has received permission to eavesdrop on the local couriers when they meet periodically at Haywood House. Nicole attends one of the meetings, having traded her rubber boots and a sunhat for a form-fitting dress. Detective Sergeant Wallace is captivated by her new appearance. Since the count and Nicole are longtime friends, Tim joins the count's soccer team in an effort to find out more information on the deceased courier and get closer to Nicole.
One evening, Tim sees two men in business suits crossing a field, which he thinks is strange. He attempts to follow them, but they hear him and chase him to the towpath that runs beside the waterway. Slipping on the muddy path, he falls into the canal. Tim manages to hide in the water but gets lost when trying to locate his car. Eventually, he makes his way to Nicole's home, where she takes care of him. But Tim's plan to see more of Nicole is thwarted when his boss belligerently interviews Nicole in connection to the recent death, and Nicole wants nothing more to do with Tim. To make matters worse, Sergeant Wallace also discovers that the count i