A Place Of Safety

Overview

Smith and Weir are called to a disturbance in a tenement block. An unemployed black man has attacked a bailiff with an axe, then barricaded himself in his flat with his wife and children. Barlow is called and eventually persuades the man to come out, whereupon he is promptly arrested. It looks like an open and shut case of attempted murder, but Barlow is not satisfied. Later that evening Smith and Weir find the man's wife and children sleeping in a bus shelter: they have been evicted without notice.