After Anthony (Nicholas Day)’s shocking abuse of his daughter Ruby Fox-Miligan (Beth Cordingly) on Emmerdale was revealed, Caleb (William Ash) acquired a gun and headed off to confront Anthony.
A tense game of Russian roulette ended with Anthony walking away – but not before he’d dropped a bombshell on Caleb that shook him to his foundations.
Anthony told him that Ruby had betrayed him with his own brother, Cain Dingle (Jeff Hordley).
That was to be Anthony’s last evil act, as not long afterwards he was killed by Ruby after she found him seriously injured after a showdown with Aaron Dingle (Danny Miller).
With Aaron initially believing he’d killed Anthony, John Sugden (Oliver Farnworth) helped him by disposing of the body and cleaning up at the depot where the death had taken place. Aaron got to work on dismantling Anthony’s car, using Cain’s garage at night.
Soon Ruby admitted to Aaron that it was her and not him who’d killed Anthony. This meant that she, Caleb and Aaron and John now had to enter into a pact to protect each other and keep their story straight if the police should ask questions.
Cain soon got involved as well, because of complaints made about his garage being used after hours. He pledged to stand by his brother and do whatever was necessary to help Ruby avoid any suspicion.
But with Anthony’s words about Cain and Ruby ringing in his ears, Caleb was secretly nursing a violent grudge against Cain, especially after Steph (Georgia Jay) told him she’d seen an odd interaction between Ruby and Cain.
In clearing up after Anthony’s death, Caleb had found Anthony’s tooth on the floor. In a shocking act of revenge he planted it in Cain’s car, making it look as if Cain had transported Anthony’s body in the car after his death.
This plan was thwarted by Aaron, who realised the police were about to search Cain’s car and found the tooth first. A furious Caleb blackmailed Aaron into saying nothing to Cain about this, by threatening to show CCTV footage of him confronting Anthony before his death.
In upcoming episodes the various people who are conspiring over keeping Anthony’s death quiet are in shock when they discover that Caleb had broken the pledges they’d made to protect each other, by trying to frame Cain for the killing.
With this bond of trust broken, the group threatens to split apart, with one person deciding that it’s time to talk to the police.
The others are terrified that this could blow their entire story sky high, leaving Ruby in the frame for murder and John, Aaron, Caleb and Cain exposed for helping to cover up the crime.
And with Steph continuing to ask questions about her parents’ suspicious behaviour, Ruby dreads that this could lead to her daughter finding out the truth about Anthony being her father – something she’s been desperate to avoid.
