In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner

Cast
Nathaniel Parker .... Inspector Thomas Lynley
Sharon Small .... Detective Constable Barbara Havers
Lesley Vickerage .... Helen Lynley
Timothy West .... Andy Maiden
Sorcha Cusack .... Nan Maiden
Simon Williams .... Jeremy Britton
Tim Dantay .... Martin Reeve
Jack Deam .... DS Hanken
David Burke .... DSI Webberley
Tom Burke .... Julian Britton
Kari Corbett .... Vi Nevin
Simon Delaney .... Young Officer
Phillippa Downes .... Interviewer
Steven Elder .... Dr. Gavin Webster
Fiona Gillies .... Joanne Webster
Caroline Hayes .... Samantha Blair
Tom Lawrence .... Gerry Cole
Suzanne Procter .... Clerical Worker
Marlene Sidaway .... Mrs. Baden
Al Weaver .... Billy Slavin
Emma Willis .... Nicola Maiden
Barbara Wilshere .... Dr. Kennedy

Directed by Sebastian Graham Jones
Written by Ann-Marie di Mambro, based on a novel by Elizabeth George
First Broadcast on BBC One March 4, 2004

Plot

This episode opens with Havers receiving disciplinary action after the incident of shooting DI Barlow with a flare gun. Instead of the warning she was expecting Havers is demoted to the rank of Constable and, even more humiliating for her, is made to wear a uniform. It is Lynley who recommends such action as he is saving Havers from complete dismissal from the force.

In Derbyshire a young woman, Nicola Maiden, and a young man, Gerard Cole, are murdered whilst on a camping trip. Nicola is the daughter of retired Vice Squad policeman Andy Maiden who with his wife Nan runs Maiden Hall Hotel. It is assumed that Nicola led a blameless life studying hard at University, and naturally her distraught father believes that her death is a vengeance killing from his career in Vice.

Initially Lynley is inclined to agree with him, which causes him to pull Havers out of uniform and to give her the tedious task of wading through all of Andy Maiden's case notes. Lynley is assisted on this investigation by DS Hankin and DC Billy Slaven.

It is quickly established that the other victim, Gerard Cole, was not Nicola's boyfriend, and that he was in fact a young aristocrat named Julian Britten. Nicola's clean image begins to erode when forensics reveal that she has recently aborted Julian's child. Further investigations reveal that she had dropped out of University and had been working as a prostitute for a Manchester based brother keeper (Martin Reeve) whom Andy Maiden had once put away.

Havers, not content with wading through the archives, is intrigued by Nicola's University tutor and successful novelist Gavin Webster, and begins to dig around in his life. She also raises the possibility that perhaps the other victim - Gerard Cole - was the real target. Conducting her own successful investigations causes inevitable friction between Havers and Lynley.