Jackie's uncle and boss Henry Tomkinson has been in Aidensfield to take care of the testament of a client. On his way home he runs down a boy on a bicycle in the pouring rain, but instead of helping him he chooses to drive off and denies any knowledge of the accident and even makes his wife lie for him. David Stockwell saw the accident, but caught only part of the registration, and Tomkinson brings discredit to David and his testimony because he is somewhat backward. PC Bradley gets help with his investigations by an old friend from the Met, Rodney Marshall. Greengrass is commissioned with sorting out the ground for a new graveyard. He finds some lead pipe and decides to make an extra quid or two by selling it.

The artist Joe Vaughan has rented a cottage from Lord Ashfordly to do some painting. He has had a bit of a clash with members of the local rugby club and they do what they can to annoy him. A Liverpool gangster, Boyd, is also interested in him and he has sent two goons to do the dirty job. His benefactor Rod Dundas organizes an exhibition at the cottage, but the night after the opening the cottage burns and all Vaughan's paintings are destroyed. Well not all of them, since one of them is missing. Greengrass gets a grant from the council for his new "romantic boarding house" and can soon greet his first guests. His old friend Betty persuades him to buy a share of the race horse Alnwick Flyer, which must be sold for tax reasons. There is something about Gina's boyfriend Andy that Oscar Blaketon does not like and he starts to follow Andy around like a shadow.