Billy, a student at a local college, is arrested for possession of cocaine. Unlike the other detectives, Sam believes that he’s not a dealer and wants to use him to get to the supplier.
Billy won’t reveal the name of his supplier and so Gene puts him in a cell with Collins, a violent prisoner, in order to scare him. Gene leaves Ray and Chris in charge while he and Sam go and get something to eat.
Sam takes Gene to an Indian restaurant he used to frequent in 2006. While they’re eating, a radio starts playing Pulp’s Disco 2000, before the radio starts addressing him seeing if he can respond. However, Gene doesn’t hear anything unusual from the radio.
When Gene and Sam get back to the station they find that Billy is dead. The doctor says that he died of coronary failure, possibly brought about by a beating. When questioned, Phyllis admits that Collins did attack Billy, but they separated them as soon as they could.
The post-mortem reveals that the beating didn’t cause Billy’s death. The heart attack came about from ingesting a large amount of cocaine.
Sam is suspicious and he checks with the coroner. His suspicions are confirmed – Billy’s heart attack occurred two hours after the fight with Collins, which is too long for the cocaine to have an effect. Sam insists that Billy’s death be investigated and Gene eventually gives in, handing the case over to Sam.
Sam goes looking for Billy’s charge sheet and finds that there are two of them. Phyllis tells Sam that she rewrote the charge sheet in order to protect Annie.
Sam questions Annie over her note on the charge sheet that Billy was feeling ill. He asks her why she didn’t call a doctor, but she won’t answer him.
Gene storms in, complaining that Sam is preventing the officers from finding Billy’s suppliers. Sam responds by raising questions as to why certain things weren’t mentioned in everyone’s statements – Phyllis falling asleep, Annie not calling a doctor, and Chris visiting Billy in his cell fifty minutes before he was found dead.
Gene is not happy and tells Sam he’s off-duty and that he doesn’t want to see him around the station. Taking solace at the Railway Arms, Sam is advised by Nelson to follow the truth wherever it may lead. Sam remembers that Gene had said that the investigation into Billy’s death could destroy everything, and he wonders if the destruction of Gene Hunt’s world is what is needed to send him home.
Sam corners Chris in the street and asks him about the charge sheet entry saying that Chris was the last person to see Billy alive. Chris is initially evasive, but he eventually tells to Sam that Ray had come up with a way of getting a name out of Billy. He also reveals that he’d taped what had happened in the cell, a tape that is now sitting in Annie’s locker.
Sam sneaks into the station and retrieves the tape from the locker. While he’s there, Ray comes in and the two of them get into a fight, which Sam wins. He then settles down to listen to the tape.
The tape reveals that Ray had forced Billy to ingest the cocaine. He explains that he had heard that cocaine makes people talk, and he was trying to do what Gene asked – get a name from Billy. It also comes out that Ray had told Annie not to call a doctor, and she hadn’t felt that she could disobey her superior officer.
After everyone else has left, Sam and Gene argue about what should happen to Ray. Sam wants Ray charged but Gene is reluctant to do so, saying that Ray is one of his best officers and losing him would have a serious impact on the department’s effectiveness. Gene also takes some of the blame, admitting that the other detectives try to be like him but, unlike him, they don’t know where to draw the line, Billy’s death being a case in point.
To Sam’s surprise, Gene then congratulates him on a well-run investigation. Gene admits that it would have been bad for morale if he had investigated Billy’s death, and Sam was the only one who could have done so.
The next morning, Gene calls everyone together and demotes Ray to Detective Constable, docking his wages for the next twelve months and restricting his duties. Sam is not satisfied, and he takes the tape to the Superintendent, who destroys it, saying the matter had already been dealt with internally.
Sam meets Gene outside the Superintendent’s office where Gene tells him that they can’t change the world, only learn how to survive in it. Sam responds by saying that he doesn’t give up that easily.
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