Beaten-up but not yet beaten.
The truth – that elusive quality Gerry Conway espouses – is out there in Belfast but when he finds it, it is too late. Witnesses to brutality and violence are dead or departed or disbelieved, except Gerry believes what he is told and pays the price. ‘Take a telling’ are the final words he hears when he thinks his own time is up but it’s only a warning. Someone else who didn’t heed such warnings is the one who is killed. No chance now for the front-page story he has promised his editor.
Once back in Scotland the story does unfold – he knew all along that there was some connection to be made to Peter Lyons. The presses roll, the damaging story in the Tribune on Sunday hits the streets of Glasgow and the fall-out gathers in all the players.