Haulage contractor John Shearwood's body is dragged from a river and the bruises on his knuckles suggest that his death was not suicide. Estranged wife Stella and brother Luke thought that he was in Dublin on business but customs investigator Owen Preece tells Vera that John was working on his behalf to expose a smuggling racket by John's manager Mark Donovan. Donovan however was not at the murder scene at the time of death though both Stella and Billy, John's teen-age son, a recovering drug addict were both in the vicinity.