Goodbye China

Gently learns that his old informant China Mates has died, after an apparently accidental fall in the nearby town of Wellaby. He suspects foul play when a nurse contradicts the coroner's report and it transpires that her husband, Sergeant Tommy Molloy, took China to hospital and not an ambulance. Gently visits his colleague, Superintendant Alan Shepherd, whose autistic son Danny was robbed by the thieving teenage Blackburn brothers, one of whom has recently disappeared and the other is discovered a gibbering wreck. Gently initially believes that Molloy killed China and blamed the young thugs though ultimately a different cover-up is exposed, which tests Gently's loyalty and earns him the derision of Bacchus. Written by don @ minifie-1