Death Trap

Johnny Innes walks into one of his father's council meetings and gets shot dead for the trouble. Council meetings are rarely fatal, but Johnny picked the wrong one. His father Malcolm is a local politician, the kind of man used to being listened to, and he doesn't take the loss of his son quietly. He takes it out on Jardine.

The case puts Jardine in direct conflict with Malcolm Innes, and the result is that he's pulled off the investigation. That doesn't stop him. He keeps his own line of enquiry running while the formal inquiry proceeds without him, a situation that makes his colleagues nervous and his superiors furious. His private work doesn't stay private for long, and the further it gets, the harder it is for the people around him to pretend it isn't happening. The prime suspect emerges early: Liam Kennedy, an embittered man who happens to be a qualified sniper, with a grudge against Johnny Innes and against Jardine himself. Two names on his list, and the days are numbered for at least one of them.

Glenn Chandler and Stuart Hepburn wrote it, Ian Madden directed. James MacPherson is DCI Mike Jardine, with Blythe Duff, John Michie and Colin McCredie as Reid, Ross and Fraser. Alex Norton appears as DCI Matt Burke, and Anne Marie Timoney is DSI Valerie Patterson. Lewis Howden plays Malcolm Innes, John Kielty is Johnny Innes, Paul Blair is Finlay Maclean and Emma Currie plays Penny Langham.

It's a story about a man investigating a murder with one hand tied behind his back while the department watches the clock. And when the tragedy lands, it lands on everyone, which is exactly the way the best Taggart endings work. No tidy win, just a bill coming due. A sniper on the loose with a score to settle is about as tense as the show gets, and the episode makes the most of every locked window.