Tracy attacks Rebus and escapes

Tracy’s attack on John Rebus is the violent break in an interrogation that has cornered her with a photograph and a disputed account of how Ronnie McGrath’s pictures reached Mr Hutton. Rebus wants her to face what he believes she did; Tracy first breaks down, then uses the moment when his attention shifts to escape. The scene ends not with an answer about the photograph or the camera, but with Rebus incapacitated behind the steering wheel and Tracy running away.

The Photograph and the Confrontation

Rebus brings Tracy to a tenement building whose cleaned red stone has taken on a pinky-ochre, almost malleable appearance. When she recognizes the address, she tries not to show it. The photograph is on her lap; she flicks it away with a squeal, as though it were an insect. Rebus retrieves it from the floor and presents it as hers. Her immediate question—where he got it—registers alarm, but does not establish the photograph’s history.

With Tracy still in the car, Rebus blocks her attempt to get out by holding the seatbelt catch. She thumps his hand and pushes at the door, but the road’s camber pulls it shut, and the belt keeps her securely in place. The physical restraint gives Rebus time to turn the photograph into an accusation. He says he will visit Mr Hutton and ask about paying Tracy to model, and about her bringing him Ronnie’s photographs. He suggests she may have wanted extra money or wanted to spite Ronnie, and proposes that Ronnie was angry when he saw Hutton had taken his ideas. These are Rebus’s reconstruction and suspicions, not facts confirmed by Tracy in this exchange.

Rebus’s accusation also supplies a possible explanation for the strained relationship between Tracy and Charlie: he suspects she blamed Charlie for the transfer of the pictures. He calls her a poor friend to Ronnie. The charge makes the confrontation personal as well as investigative, binding the image on the floor to money, loyalty, and the question of who betrayed Ronnie’s trust.

Breakdown and Unresolved Questions

Tracy’s resistance gives way to prolonged, loud weeping. Rebus catches his breath and admits to himself that he is not proud of the way he has pressed her. He thinks the pressure was necessary to make her stop hiding from the truth, but also recognizes that his account remains conjecture. He believes Mr Hutton could confirm the details if questioned. In Rebus’s version, Tracy may have modelled for money, mentioned that her boyfriend was a photographer, and taken Ronnie’s pictures to Hutton, costing Ronnie a chance to benefit from his own creativity. The scene makes the force of Rebus’s accusation clear without making its claims proven.

Rebus has already left Tracy overnight in the cells to see whether she would crack; she did not. He takes that failure to extract a confession as a reason to suppose she is clean, while still suspecting she may have a habit and need money. His uncertainty matters: the interrogation moves between suspicion and doubt rather than arriving at a settled account. He asks whether she planted the camera in Charlie’s squat, but the evidence here does not resolve that question.

Tracy says that Charlie always thought Ronnie and Charlie had some kind of sexual relationship, though she never asked Ronnie and does not think he would have told her. She then asks whether they have to stay there. Rebus feels a sudden chill as he hears her say that nobody cares what happened to Ronnie except Neil and him, and questions inwardly why he is bothering. The exchange leaves the emotional stakes exposed: Tracy’s words suggest that Rebus’s investigation rests partly on his own sense of responsibility, while the possible history among Ronnie, Charlie, and Tracy remains uncertain.

The Blow and the Escape

As Rebus begins to answer that they do not have to stay, Tracy’s hands, which had been rising toward her head, come down as small fists. She strikes him full in the groin. The blow produces a flash of pain and leaves him doubled over with his head against the steering wheel, sounding the horn. While he cannot move, Tracy unfastens her seatbelt, opens the door, and swivels out. She leaves the door wide open and runs; Rebus can only watch through tear-filled eyes as she moves away along the roadside.

The reversal is sharply physical: the seatbelt that had prevented Tracy from leaving becomes something she can undo once Rebus is disabled, while the car that kept her close now traps him at the wheel. He remains hunched over for a considerable time, unable to pursue her. His recollection of his father’s advice about protecting himself in a fight arrives only after the injury; his bitter thanks to his father is followed by the reaction turning his stomach. The escape therefore closes the immediate confrontation without resolving Rebus’s allegations. Tracy has escaped his control, but the photograph, the suspected transfer of Ronnie’s work, and the camera question remain open.