Simon Kefas’s Fall and Final Repair

This flow follows Simon from a compromised past and a fragile domestic hope through the return of his old crimes, his decision to protect Sonny, and the sacrifice that brings both truth and loss.

increasingBearing stren­gth in each eventdecreasing

A Veteran with a Private Fear

A Veteran with a Private Fear The life he protects Simon Kefas is an experienced investigator nearing retirement, devoted to Else and attentive to the small rituals of their life together. Her worsening sight makes him fear a future in which he cannot protect her, even as he tries to conceal how much that fear governs him. A career already diminished Simon has been moved from the Serious Fraud Office to the Homicide Squad after his gambling disorder and an internal conflict damaged his standing. He still believes in the rule of law, but his professional authority and private confidence are less secure than his manner suggests.

The Old Friend and the New Partner

The Old Friend and the New Partner A case that refuses to stay closed Simon investigates Per Vollan’s suspicious death despite institutional pressure to downgrade the case. His instincts lead him from the river to the people around the Ila Centre and back toward the old corruption associated with Ab Lofthus. Teaching through observation Kari Adel joins him as a junior colleague, and Simon tests her with questions rather than offering easy explanations. Their working relationship begins with impatience and guardedness, but her intelligence earns his respect while his field experience teaches her to look beyond the first plausible account.

A Bargain He Cannot Make

A Bargain He Cannot Make Love under pressure When Simon learns that Else may lose her sight without prompt surgery, he searches for money and approaches people he would normally keep at a distance. The Twin offers to pay, but attaches the price of handing over Sonny and abandoning the pursuit of the truth. Refusing the offer, accepting its shadow Simon refuses to deliver Sonny, yet his need for Else’s treatment continues to shape his choices. He cannot entirely escape the methods of his past: his desire to protect someone he loves again brings him into negotiation with the criminal power he once served.

The Mole’s Confession

The Mole’s Confession A concealed history Simon admits that he and Ab Lofthus were the two moles who secretly supplied information to the Twin. He had recruited Ab after his own corruption began, drawing his friend into a bargain that eventually made both men vulnerable to exposure. The cost of self-preservation Simon confesses that he killed Ab before Ab could kill him, then repented and spent years pursuing corrupt officers and criminals. His confession turns the investigation into a reckoning with the man Simon has been: a protector of the law who once helped subvert it.

The Diver’s Last Choice

The Diver’s Last Choice A final intervention When the wounded Twin raises a concealed weapon toward Sonny, Simon sees that there is no time to draw his own gun or warn him. He dives between them, taking the shot and giving Sonny the opening to fire back. A life judged by its last act Dying in the church, Simon tells Sonny that he was the mole and asks for no absolution for himself. He directs Sonny toward a better future, then dies with a photograph of the friends he betrayed and loved. His sacrifice does not erase his crimes, but it gives his final choice a meaning his earlier choices lacked.

At the opening, as Simon is assigned the river death investigation

Early in the story, during the Per Vollan inquiry

After Else receives news that her eye surgery is urgent

Late in the story, when Simon meets Sonny at the Bismarck Hotel

At the climax, inside St Paul’s Church