035: 'Ricochet'

Part 1 of 2

Sergeant Jo Masters and the team are called to a road traffic accident where motorist Helen Parr has hit a youth who has since fled the scene. A passing cyclist has discovered a teenage boy lying badly injured i

n a nearby park. Jo rushes to the scene where she tries to resuscitate the boy along with the ambulance service. They are unable to save him and they discover that the boy has been shot and not hit by a car. There is further confusion as the boy found injured in the park is a white male, motorist Helen Parr claims the teenager she hit was black.

The dead boy is Paul Sorrel. P.C Mel and P.C Leon Taylor are given the difficult task of informing his mother Emma Sorrel who refuses to believe that the boy they have found is her son Paul. Back at the scene of the traffic collision P.C Kristy Knight discovers a bag of cannabis under the car that hit the teenager.

Leon speaks to Paul's mother Emma about the possibility of Paul being involved in drugs. In the meantime a teenager Devon Marshall. who has been hit by a car turns up at St Hughes.

D.C Mickey Webb finds Jasmine Harris wandering the streets and persuades her to speak to him about the shooting. After some convincing (and a small fee) Jasmine tells Mickey that just before the shooting she saw Paul Sorrel with Devon Marshall leaving a local off licence and heading towards the park where Paul was found critically injured.

D.S Max Carter is not happy with how the investigation is being carried out and is highly critical of Sergeant Jo Masters and her team. Jo quickly reminds Max that if it weren't for her team there would be no evidence. Commander Lisa Kennedy is overseeing the case and puts her trust in Jo to not only solve the case but to pull the team together following Sergeants Stone's recent suspension.

After being interviewed by Inspector Smith and Sergeant Masters, Devon Marshall is released due to a lack of evidence. D.C Mickey Webb speaks to Jasmine Harris again who insists Devon Marshall was definitely in the park at the time of the shooting. She claims he said that he "had business to do" just before meeting Paul Sorrel, but she claims there was also someone else in the park with Paul and Devon. Jasmine claims the third person in the park was Jedda Atkins and tells Mickey where he can find him.

When a gun is found (matching the one that killed Paul) under a mattress in the house where Jedda is staying he is immediately taken in for questioning. He denies all knowledge of the gun and claims he is just staying at the house. He says he was indoors the whole evening on the night of the shooting.

Jedda's alibi is confirmed and when the team receive the news that the gun found under the mattress is not the same weapon that killed Paul Sorrel, Jedda is released. The team continue the search for the gunman....