‘Hailey Dean Mystery: 2 Plus 2 = Murder’ Hallmark Movies Premiere: Cast, Trailer, Synopsis

Kellie Martin, Giancomo Baessato and Viv Leacock are back for the fourth installment of the “Hailey Dean Mystery” franchise, titled “2 + 2 = Murder.” The movie premieres Sunday on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, with two more in the series debuting on the network on the following two Sundays.

This one sees Hailey Dean (Martin) pick up a new case when she attends her niece’s school recital and learns one of the teachers has gone missing. “The teacher, Naomi Sacks (Hannah Pederson), had been working tirelessly to raise money to keep the elementary school open and discovered a disturbing secret before her disappearance,” the synopsis begins. “Though Naomi had sent a resignation email to her principal, Chad Becker (Andrew Airlie), her house looks untouched when Hailey and her boyfriend Jonas (Matthew MacCaull) look in.”

Following her instincts, Hailey looks over security footage with her detective friends Danny Morgan (Baessato), Fincher Garland (Leacock) and Charlene “Monty” Montgomery (Lucia Walters). It’s while reviewing the video that she sees an unidentified man yelling at Naomi.

Hailey and Fincher investigate the lead and head to the school, where they find a bloody crime scene but no body. Danny brings in Naomi’s fellow teachers for questioning while Hailey sits in, and they discover that Naomi’s professional opponent, Janine Hardwick (Ellen Ewusie), and teachers Mary Lewis (Samantha Liana Cole) and Nicholas Shaw (Chad Riley) all attended the concert the same night Naomi went missing.

“Naomi’s dad, Norman Sacks (Keith MacKechnie), identifies the man in the surveillance video as Naomi’s ex-boyfriend, Jeff Adkins (Carey Feehan),” the synopsis continues. “Shortly after, when Fincher and Hailey respond to an alarm set off at Naomi’s house, Jeff emerges from the house, holds Hailey at gunpoint and has her drive him away. Evading the police, Jeff runs away with an envelope he took from the house leaving Hailey unscathed – but unconvinced that he is a killer.”

In the midst of the case, Hailey gets a visit from her late fiancé’s friend Clyde Bennett (Chad Lowe), as he’s in town for a college reunion and for property development meetings. Coincidentally or not, signals from Naomi’s phone lead the police to her dead body at one of Clyde’s construction sites. Jeff’s body is found close by, as well, with a piece of paper left in his hand.

“Skeptical of the murder/suicide theory the police are pursuing, Hailey investigates the teachers at the school and finds that Mary and Nicholas were lying, but that they were hiding a romantic relationship – not a murder,” the synopsis reveals. “Janine, on the other hand, goes on the run when she is confronted by police, and is later taken in for questioning.”

When Hailey learns that Clyde has bought the school, she realizes that he benefited from Naomi’s murder. But after recovering information from Naomi’s stolen laptop, Hailey sees that there’s more than one person who had motive to murder the teacher. With time running out, Hailey must use “her acute observation skills” to uncover which suspect is the murderer.

Find out who the real killer is when “Hailey Dean Mystery: 2 + 2 = Murder” debuts on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries on Sunday at 7 p.m. EDT.