Shadow Line

Drugs baron Harvey Wratten and his unstable nephew Jay are released from prison on a Royal pardon - Jay going for associate Bob Harris for suggesting that they earned their freedom by naming names. Harvey is murdered and dishonest cop Sergeant Foley tips off the Wrattens' seemingly placid and gentle henchman Joseph Bede, a man whose wife Julie appears to be suffering from early Alzheimer',to the fact before the investigation gets under way. The case is given to Inspector Gabriel,returning to work after a bungled undercover job in which his partner died and he got a bullet in the brain. No sooner has the investigation got under way when Gabriel finds a case containing thousands of pounds in his house.

Bede is told that Harvey Wratten owed a million pounds to Turkish drugs importer for a lost delivery and proposes a new deal to the Turk,smuggling drugs into the country in Arum lilies,after which he plans to quit. Gabriel believes Harvey knew his killer as he had wound his car window down to speak to him. He and his colleague Honey look for the car driver,petty crook Andy Dixon,who has gone on the run,but Jay Wratten is also on his trail,threatening his family,as is a mysterious man called Gatehouse. After the police track Andy's phone when he calls his mother up Gabriel and Wratten locate him to a park but somehow Gatehouse gets to him first and they drive away together.

Bede begins his business with Babur the Turk to provide financial care for his wife,whose condition is worsening. Gatehouse persuades Andy to meet Wratten,telling him he 'messed up'. After Andy has told Wratten he heard his uncle's killer say "Bob Harris says Hello" he is shot dead,along with his family,by Gatehouse,making it look as if the young chauffeur pulled the trigger himself though Gabriel is not convinced and Patterson,his superior,gives him two weeks to solve the case. Dogged by annoying reporter Ross McGovern Gabriel and Honey stake out Harvey's sparsely-attended funeral,where a heavy named Beatty expresses his hatred of the deceased. Having heard that Gabriel never registered the operation where his partner was killed Honey has her doubts about his reliability and follows him to a house where he is welcomed by a woman who is not his wife and a little girl who calls him 'Daddy'.

After refusing to accede to his ex-mistress's request that he tell his pregnant wife about her Gabriel gets a visit from Beatty, who turns out to be a customs officer. He tells Gabriel that Harvey Wratten got his pardon for saving his life and also giving a tip-off about a drug deal, though the drugs turned out to be already in Harvey's possession, hence the rift with Babur, to whom he did not deliver. Beatty also arrests one of Harris' pushers, Harris's rent boy lover naming Jay Wratten as the informant, though Wratten denies this. Through studying CCTV, Gabriel links Dixon to Gatehouse, who is now in pursuit of Peter Glickman, an elusive associate of the Wrattens.

Bede starts an affair with Petra, Peter Glickman's girlfriend; whilst Glickman himself, now posing as Paul Donnelly, a watch-maker in Dublin, lures Gatehouse to a showdown which both survive and, oddly back off. Glickman rings Gabriel, who learns that his dead partner Delaney was corrupt, but Patterson defends the amnesiac Gabriel's integrity. Glickman meets up with Bede. It transpires that Gatehouse had the money for the drugs in the transaction with Babur but Glickman failed to pay up. Meanwhile, Harris is killed and his young boyfriend Ratallack proposes to take over his deal with Bede.

Glickman meets Gabriel, telling him that Gatehouse will give him the answers he needs but to beware that Gatehouse will use his 'secrets' to hurt him. Gabriel assumes that this means his ex-mistress Alison and her son and, after visiting retired commander Penney, he mentions 'Counterpoint' as instructed by Glickman. Gabriel attempts and fails to get Allison to move to a hotel. After a scare, at Laura's ultrasound visit, the baby is confirmed to be healthy. On checking police evidence, Gabriel and Leah find the the heroin is being recycled by corrupt police into additional drug deals. Joseph moves forward with smuggling heroin in the alum lilies and even finds a new partner, Ratallack, to whom to sell. Meanwhile, the police are tipped off for a price to the alum lilies by an inside source trying to finance his own retirement. On Gabriel's last scan, the doctor tells him he believes his memory is returning. Commander Kokar gets a directive from his boss to frame Gabriel in murder/suicide in Gabriel's ex-mistress' apartment.

Khokar is forced to retire after Gabriel rumbles that he had Petra try and kill Gatehouse. Gabriel is summoned by the retired Commander Penney who tells him that Counterpoint was a scheme set up to get dirty money from crooks via supposed laundering in order to finance police pensions. Wratten's discovery of this sealed his fate,thanks to the always trigger-happy ex-Secret Service man Gatehouse who was employed by Counterpoint. Beatty alerts Gabriel to Bede's deal with Babur and Ratallack but is not prepared for a change of plan. As villains fall out Gabriel goes to meet Gatehouse in a deserted rural location for a final showdown.