When Rebus arrives at the school there was the local MSP outside shouting the odds in front of the school about speaking to the officer in charge who is Rebus’s friend Bobby Hogan, when Rebus’s colleague walks past he asks if he can help but all the MSP can say in a very curt way ‘Then you’re no bloody good to me. It’s Hogan I want to see’ which sparks off a war of words between the MSP and Rebus. Rebus eventually catches up with Hogan and finds out why exactly he is involved with the case, the gunman was a member of the SAS which when Rebus was with the army he had tried to join the SAS but failed the training and Hogan uses as Rebus will know what would be going through the killers mind at the time of the killing.
When hearing the names of the two boys who were killed it left Rebus with a personal conflict as one of them was the son of his cousin. What it also leaves is a choice for Rebus as if he tells Hogan about it being family then he will be brought off the case and be on suspension, while on the other hand if he doesn’t then he will not be suspended and has a personal motive of getting a result. The decision that he made was an obvious one, he wanted to know the motive of why the gunman had done what he done.
While this investigation was just starting, another one was underway and a certain DI John Rebus was the prime suspect. The investigation involves a fire in which a body was found. The body was identified as a Martin Fairstone. This Fairstone was hassling Rebus’s close friend and colleague Siobhan Clarke and Rebus had decided to pay him a visit at his local pub and then went back to his house for a ‘drink’. Rebus is the prime suspect in the case as he was the last one to see him alive because after Rebus had left, the house was on fire a few hours later. This is supposed to be why Rebus had burned his hands even though he claims that he done by falling into a bath of hot water. Rebus has been put onto a final warning with DCS Templar warning him that anymore discoveries in the case that would incriminate him more then he would be placed on suspension. Rebus didn’t seem bothered.
While back at Queensferry, Rebus was having a look at the gunman’s house to look for anything that could lead to reason’s for the motive that lead to the killing. When he went to the gunman’s place of work which was a waterskiing business he came face to face with two army investigators which got Rebus wondering to why they were here as the gunman was ex-army so he went to Hogan who explained that it went over their heads to higher authorities. There were a few motives that were being thought of why he done it. One of the motives is that one of the boys killed was a son of judge who sent his pal to prison for killing his wife, while the other was that the boy who survived was the son of an MSP who wanted guns to be banned from the country completely.
Back at the other investigation there would be more trouble for Rebus as his friend; City Pathologist Dr Curt had asked to see him about the findings in the Fairstone autopsy which was that it looked liked he was tied to a chair when he died, with these it findings being told to him, he will know that when Templar finds out he will be on suspension and when the ACC finds out it could be that he is out of the force. Again Rebus didn’t seem interested.
And that was what happened, he as placed on suspension by Templar and the ACC pending further inquiry, this annoyed Hogan as he needed Rebus to ‘hold his hand’ on the shooting inquiry that he managed to get Rebus off full suspension but he was only to act as an advisor.
While this was going on, there was another twist in the inquiry concerning the shooting. There was girl in the boys’ year by the name of Teri Cotter who had been in a sort of relationship with the gunman mainly because they had an interest in the same kind of music which was rock and also the gunman had bought her a top of the range computer which had a web cam attached. She had set up a website which would let anyone have a look into her room through the web cam. After a lot of investigation on Rebus’s part he found out that the two boys killed were regular visitors on the website. That was when Rebus found out that the boy who survived had a relationship with the girl. When Rebus had visited him, he seemed to notice that the boy was getting nervous which led to a confession that he had shot the boys and the gunman came and shot himself which would get the blame off him. This had been due to the fact that Rebus wouldn’t let things go.
He was then called off suspension when someone who also had a vendetta against Fairstone and went to his house after rebus had left and killed him.
My conclusion to this is that Rebus was first called into the case as an advisor then when he had a personal motive; he had got involved to solve the case as though he was running the show. While he was under investigation he had to worry about the threat of not being able to solve the case, he had to prove his innocence till they eventually got the right person.
