Rogue

The suspected arsonist is a businessman who looks like he's had a bad year, and the case opens the usual way: suspicion, an interview, nothing you could take to court. Then the man offers Maggie a bribe, and her face does something worth the episode's running time on its own. She is not impressed.

But the offers don't stop there. The episode's quiet joke is that the further Maggie goes down this road, the stranger the propositions get, until the straightforward insurance job starts to look like the least odd thing about the whole business. Patricia Hooker and Terence Feely's script keeps the escalation dry and funny, and David Askey's direction lets the comedy breathe without winking at it. It's a slow-burn hour in the best sense, all raised eyebrows and careful silences.

Moira Redmond's Jessica Sanderson is the kind of witness who turns up polished and unhelpful, and James Smillie's Harry gives Maggie the runaround with good manners. Robert Fyfe's George and Alec Wallis's Bert are the sort of witnesses who make a small case feel like a community matter. Brian Osborne's DI Jim Souter works the case alongside her, while Shirley Cheriton's Sally and Michael McVey's Peter each drop a piece of the puzzle into place. Peter Spraggon's Station Officer rounds out the edges, and William Marlowe's Russell does his usual trick of being present without being predictable.

The episode is a tidy bit of corruption-in-progress, the sort that builds its tension out of nerve and paperwork rather than car chases. It's a story about money and pride, told entirely in rooms. Nobody gets shot, nobody runs, and the hour is better for it. The title calls it rogue, and for once the label fits the crime rather than the detective. Maggie stays professional right up to the moment the case starts asking her for something else.