After being duped into taking part in a kidnapping in Germany, Jackson returns to Edinburgh feeling dejected, though he does acquire a dog. He is approached by Hope McMaster, an adoptee anxious to locate her birth mother, which leads Jackson to see retired cop Ray and his wife Maggie,who knew the adoptive parents. Soon afterwards an anonymous caller warns him not to investigate Carol Braithwaite whom, Jackson learns, was a prostitute killed in 1979. He visits the case officer, Tracy Waterhouse (played by Victoria Wood), now a security guard who has illegally taken in Courtney, the silent child of another prostitute, the latest victim of a serial killer. After corrupt ex-police chief Lomax threatens Jackson to back off, Tracy and her former colleague Barry explain that after Carol's murder, Lomax appears to have spirited away her son Michael, and Jackson meets another private eye engaged by Michael to learn what happened. Barry tells Jackson exactly what happened when Carol was murdered leading Jackson to work out who killed her. To assuage his guilt over the kidnapping, he gives his fee to Tracy to start a new life with Courtney.