Vacuum

By Bill James

Published Jul 2011

After the dreadful business when his son and wife were shot dead, Mansel Shale has turned to God – leaving DCS Colin Harpur with a potential problem. Instead of keeping a grip on his profitable drugs empire, Shale has abandoned that sphere of commerce, leaving it in the hands of an inexperienced assistant who is reputed to occasionally hallucinate but the Spanish Civil War. Harpur can see the possibility of protracted, warring viciousness on the horizon as other firms fight to fill the vacuum. He is not heartened by the knowledge that, a rung above him, Desmond Iles, Assistant Chief Constable (Operations), thinks the same.

Iles maintains that possible the greatest police objective after ‘stuff the Home Office’ is ‘no blood on the pavement.’ So, it’s clear that something must be done.