Let It Bleed

A man walks into an investment bank and shoots himself in front of the owner. But it is the kind of death that should be a closed file: the wallet holds a photograph of a young child and the words Alto Chicampa, and Rebus cannot let it lie. The owner watches it happen, which is the sort of detail that stays with you. At the funeral he learns the dead man worked for a chemical company that was about to open a new plant on a local estate, turning out a pesticide for third-world markets.

The trail leads to Amanda Morrison, a former employee of the bank who was preparing to sue the firm over sexual discrimination. She has the kind of knowledge that makes people nervous. Before anyone can act on it, she is dead too, and the case becomes a test of whether the two deaths share a cause. The bank's lawyers move quicker than the police, and every question comes back with a smile attached.

Pip Torrens is Andrew Hammill, the face of the establishment, and the cast around him includes Alan Tall as Sammy McNally, Annie Louise Ross as Annie McNally, Noreen Leighton as the Secretary, Molly Innes as Elaine, Emma D'Inverno as the police doctor and Fergus McCann as the chemist. Jennifer Black's Gill Templer hovers on the edges. Ken Stott and Claire Price carry the inquiry, and Ian Rankin and David Kane wrote the script, with Roger Gartland directing.

The pesticide detail is the sort of small, ugly fact this show does well: a product aimed at third-world markets, made on a Scottish estate with money that does not want to be traced. Powerful vested interests push back at every step, and the investigation is frustrated by the very people who should want it solved.

It is a quietly furious episode, and the fury is justified. The rich protect their investments, and the bodies just become paperwork.