The Stone Gallows

I guess the end justifies the means. At least that's what I believe. Most of the time.

Authors:
C. David Ingram

Description:
After an accident chasing a suspect, DC Cameron Stone had spent three months in intensive care before he could even recall what happened: the high speed pursuit of a vice baron through the night streets of Glasgow that had not only almost finished him but had taken the life of a teenage mother and her child.

Then there was the message from Audrey on the back of a 'get well soon' card announcing that she had left him and taken their young son, Mark, with her. Booze, anti-depressants and therapy have all failed to enable him to resume his old job. So now Stone lives in a one-room flat in the worst part of town. He pays the rent by running errands for a private detective agency.

His tasks include tracking down a teenage runaway and surveillance for a woman who thinks her husband is sleeping with her sister. He's also paid by his former colleagues, doing the work that's not quite clean enough for them to do themselves - like putting the fear of God into a newly released sex offender who's been seen hanging around the local school.

There's also the knife wielding kids who try to mug him on the stairs of his flat and the daubing on his front door: Burn in Hell Baby Killer.

The only brightness on his horizon is his growing friendship with Liz, the sunny Irish nurse who lives on the next floor.