Inspector Rebus he is called upon to solve a school shooting that has left three dead and one wounded. At the same time he becomes the prime suspect in the grizzly death of a lowlife criminal named Martin Fairstone, who was harassing his partner, Siobhan Clark.
One night, Rebus goes pub-crawling to find Fairstone with the intention of setting him straight about staying away from Siobhan. But, as does happen in life, the two get smashingly drunk and Fairstone invites Rebus home for a nightcap. They are going to bury the hatchet, and as far as the DI is concerned, that was all there was to the meeting. He leaves, hails a cab and falls asleep until he reaches home when he realizes that … "he'd done it again. Ended up drinking too much … [the]
driver had to wake him up. Rebus [remembered] running a bath … world tilting in the darkness, shifting on its axis, pitching him forwards so his head thumped against the rim of the [tub] … waking on his knees, hands hanging over the side of the bath" having turned on only the hot water tap. "His hands were scalded by the rising water … Scalded."
At that moment he has no idea that Martin Fairstone burned to death in a grease fire a short time after Rebus left. When word gets out that Rebus is in the hospital with burns on his hands (he insists he is scalded), his superiors start to ask uncomfortable questions. He is called on the carpet and put on suspension, despite his vehement denials of any involvement in the fire. But Rebus has a fine reputation as an investigator and is requested by the DI who is working on the school shootings.
Thus, he is also allowed to be an unofficial, ad-hoc member of the team with Siobhan as his driver/assistant/partner. Once he is on the scene he is devastated to learn that one of the dead boys is the son of his cousin, a man he hasn't seen in decades. Rebus "had been thinking about families: not just his own …" but of so many people he knew --- how we lose touch, how "life" interferes, how Rebus himself replaced his family with co-workers who became close friends "producing ties that oftentimes seemed stronger than blood."
One night, Rebus goes pub-crawling to find Fairstone with the intention of setting him straight about staying away from Siobhan. But, as does happen in life, the two get smashingly drunk and Fairstone invites Rebus home for a nightcap. They are going to bury the hatchet, and as far as the DI is concerned, that was all there was to the meeting. He leaves, hails a cab and falls asleep until he reaches home when he realizes that … "he'd done it again. Ended up drinking too much … [the]
driver had to wake him up. Rebus [remembered] running a bath … world tilting in the darkness, shifting on its axis, pitching him forwards so his head thumped against the rim of the [tub] … waking on his knees, hands hanging over the side of the bath" having turned on only the hot water tap. "His hands were scalded by the rising water … Scalded."
At that moment he has no idea that Martin Fairstone burned to death in a grease fire a short time after Rebus left. When word gets out that Rebus is in the hospital with burns on his hands (he insists he is scalded), his superiors start to ask uncomfortable questions. He is called on the carpet and put on suspension, despite his vehement denials of any involvement in the fire. But Rebus has a fine reputation as an investigator and is requested by the DI who is working on the school shootings.
Thus, he is also allowed to be an unofficial, ad-hoc member of the team with Siobhan as his driver/assistant/partner. Once he is on the scene he is devastated to learn that one of the dead boys is the son of his cousin, a man he hasn't seen in decades. Rebus "had been thinking about families: not just his own …" but of so many people he knew --- how we lose touch, how "life" interferes, how Rebus himself replaced his family with co-workers who became close friends "producing ties that oftentimes seemed stronger than blood."
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