The Chief Constable hears of Rebus being locked up overnight and essentially tells the SB man to piss off. But like Rebus, the SB man also has a long memory, and in a twist, the SB man wins, or in this particular case, he defeats justice through treachery and guile. The way the episode ends gives notice that this story is not yet over.

"Resurrection Men"
Writer David Kane

An art gallery, a party, a drunk and coked-up gallery owner, a pissed off artist: just the recipe for some skullduggery. We don’t have to wait long – the very next scene shows the gallery owner lying dead on a hill. Rebus shows up hung over and hides in his car to nap while waiting for forensics. It doesn’t take Rebus long to get in everybody’s good graces.

At the strategy meeting where the people involved are getting briefed and organized on the murder case, Rebus comes off his usual obstreperous, sarcastic self, ending up throwing a cup of coffee at the situation board and storming out, and getting assigned to correctional training.

There are only two ways to leave the course: behavior modified or at least controlling it and working with the team, or out with no pension. One of the delinquents says he has an alternative pension scheme, and Rebus and two delinquents go off for a night of drinking after their class time, then to a sauna, aka a brothel.

Siobhan, meanwhile, is working the murder case alone, and a connection to a sauna has turned up. Guess which sauna! Rebus is spotted by Siobhan, but manages to just miss Templar. The three truants repair to Rebus’s apartment where the other delinquents are listening to music and doing lines, while Rebus is pretending to. He’s offered a job as a “tax collector,” collecting from the hookers and dealers in the area to look the other way.

Soon, the other two put Rebus on the spot, driving them to first break the hands of a dealer who’s slow in paying, then burning the apartment where another problem guy, undefined, lives with his wife and two children. Rebus calls the fire brigade, but it’s too late; the intended victim’s wife and two children die in the blaze.