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Spoilers Ahead!
September 1940
Note: No reference is made to Sam having found new lodgings, but it is obvious that she is no longer staying with DCS Foyle. Andrew is spending more time at the house.
Sam waits to collect Foyle after a meeting during which he has been bored stiff. As he walks to the car, she asks, "Ready to go, then?" He replies, "I was ready shortly after we got here, you know?" As they speak, Andrew is one of two pilots flying Spitfires out from the Dover Coast. In the car, Sam comments, "I had an instructor at the MTC. We called him 'Chloroform' because when he'd finished talking, there'd be nobody left awake." Foyle asks what the man taught and when Sam replies "Road safety" he turns his eyes from the road ahead to look at her thoughtfully. Returning his attention to the windscreen, he says, "Now you tell me!"
The car is stopped by a Home Guard road block and Foyle steps out to show his identification. As he is about to get back into the car, a truck loaded with barrels comes up behind it. The driver spots Foyle, swerves around the Wolseley, crashes through the road block and speeds off down the road. Foyle gets into his car and Sam drives after the truck. Foyle: "You up for this?" Sam: "You bet I am!"
Sam attempts to draw alongside the truck, but the truck driver begins firing a pistol from his window. His attention diverted from the road, he is unprepared to take an approaching bend and his vehicle careers into a ditch, spilling its load which then bursts into flame. Sam is instructed to wait in the car and for once she does what she is told, contenting herself with telling her boss to be careful. Foyle finds the truck driver dead in his seat.
Milner attends the crash site and reports that the truck was owned by a man called Fred Pierce. Foyle knows he was the driver, having recognised him at the road block - he had once arrested him for burglary and assault. Pierce had obviously presumed him to be involved with the road block. Foyle assumes that he was nervous because he was carrying petrol in the barrels, but from where had the petrol come? Why were barrels used instead of a metal tank? When the load exploded, petrol coupons for private cars and goods vehicles showered down upon the road - were they stolen or forged?
Foyle and Milner visit the Petroleum Board responsible for the regulation of petrol supplies. The department head tells them that in June, the entire south coast had been designated a "pink area". In France the invaders had been able to collect supplies of fuel easily, so in England the number of pump sites had been cut and stocks reduced. Bexhill was now the only fuel depot in the area. Its stock had gone down last month, but it was said to have been due to a leaking underground tank. However, an immediate investigation into procedures at Bexhill should be held. Foyle believes an investigation would frighten off the culprits and suggests instead that someone be planted in the depot to report on activities.
The two Spitfires return to base. Andrew and Rex Talbot had been out on a reconnaissance flight, but had a scrap with "a stray 109". The two have an argument: Andrew claims that he saved Rex's bacon, while Rex claims that he would have downed the 109 if Andrew hadn't intervened unnecessarily. A petrol tanker turns onto the airfield and Rex goes over to it, welcoming the driver, Connie Dewar, with a kiss. They confirm their date at The Flamingo club the following evening and she tells him that she loves him.
Sam enters Foyle's office with a cup of tea for her boss. Milner joins them and reports that Pierce was working for Frank Gannon, a man known to the police as the owner of The Flamingo. Sam asks if he is a racketeer and Milner replies that he calls himself a businessman. Foyle begins to mull over some papers and Milner asks, "Who's it going to be, sir?" When Foyle says it is a problem, Sam has to ask, "What is?" Foyle explains that he can't decide whom to put into the Bexhill fuel depot as they are "seriously short of men". Sam immediately volunteers for the assignment. Foyle attempts to reject her offer. "Well… thank you, but I don't…" But Sam interrupts with her reasons as to why she would be a good choice. Before Foyle can respond, Milner agrees that she has a point. Foyle opens his mouth to reply, but Sam doesn't give him the chance to speak, enthusiastically insisting "I would be completely invisible, a sort of secret agent." Realising that argument will get him nowhere, Foyle says with a weak little smile, "I… em… I'll think about it."
In the evening, in his home, Foyle is having a conversation with his son while nursing a glass of whisky. At first, Andrew seems quiet and when Foyle comments on it, he tells of the "set-to" with his Rex. "We were at school together. Do you remember?" His father remembers. "Dark-haired lad. Had freckles. Played conkers?" Andrew tells his father that new recruits of different nationalities have increased the number of pilots. "They're good chaps, most of them. But not many flying hours.""Whereas you're, er, you're an old hand."
"You don't see it. I'm an experienced pilot now."
Foyle is saddened, not impressed. "You're twenty-two."
"You sit there as if nothing's happened. It's not conkers any more. It's a different world. There's Rex, Douglas and myself, and we're the three oldest."
Sombrely, his father replies, "Well of course you are... you're the only ones left." He takes a drink of his whisky.
In the morning Foyle sends Sam, in brown dungarees and beret, off on her spying assignment at the fuel depot. Sam says that she is grateful to him for giving her this chance and he, fearful for her safety, replies, "And I just want to say, em… please don't let me regret it... And if you feel yourself at any time to be in any danger whatsoever, you just get out of there."
Sam arrives at the depot on her bicycle. The manager, Michael Bennett, checks her credentials and takes her to meet Connie Dewar with whom she is to work to get her used to the job.
Foyle and Milner, driven by a uniformed sergeant, visit The Flamingo to interview the owner. Gannon reacts with surprise to news of Pierce's death and again with surprise, though somewhat muted, when told that he was ferrying petrol. Milner asks if he has ever been offered petrol from illegal sources and he replies "Who hasn't? But I'm not going to pay six shillings a gallon." He says that he wouldn't touch it anyway because he is a patriot. Leaving the club, Foyle and Milner are in no doubt as to Gannon's involvement.
Shaun O'Halloran, who maintains the storage tanks at the petrol depot, receives a visitor (a man called Carter) at home who tells him that "We just want to be sure you're ready." O'Halloran replies that he is and shows his visitor a suitcase containing a home-made bomb.
As Sam bends to her task of washing the wheels of a tanker, Bennett stands near, watching and talking to her. She straightens up quickly when a man's voice calls her name. Andrew has arrived on a motorbike! He asks her if she remembers him, but before she can answer, Bennett says with surprise, "You two know each other?" With a big smile Andrew replies, "Yes!" Sam hurriedly interjects, "Yes, we stepped out together." Andrew's smile vanishes. "What?" Looking at him pointedly and giving a little nod of her head, willing him to pick up the signal, Sam continues, "When I was working at my uncle's removals firm." Bennett does not notice the moment of awkwardness, too intent on challenging Andrew's unauthorised presence at the depot. Andrew presents a requisition slip that he has brought and Bennett, disgruntled, takes it to the office. Sam explains to Foyle's son why she is there. A pretty blonde approaches Andrew with familiarity and he greets her with a kiss. He asks her if she wants to come dancing as he has a twelve-hour pass.
In the depot office, Bennett's wife, who works there, queries the requisition slip, saying that it is a big order and why was it brought by a pilot officer? Bennett tells her that it is nothing to do with her.
Sam reports back to Foyle. She says the procedures for meeting the requisition orders seem to be above board. Mrs B handles the paperwork and Mr B supervises the transfer of fuel, checking the figures against the petrol gauges on storage tanks and tankers. The drivers sign the ledger and the papers are kept in the office safe. On a lighter note, she says that the other women are taking her to a club that night - The Flamingo. Foyle and Milner note the name with surprise, but make no comment. As she is leaving, Sam gives Foyle another surprise by telling him about Andrew. Foyle asks what he was doing at the depot. Sam replies, "He didn't say." Foyle: "Oh. I'll ask him!"
Foyle takes Andrew and his colleague, Rex, out for a meal. During the conversation Rex says he is taking his girl out that night and asks Andrew if he and Violet are coming. Andrew lightly replies, "Yeah," hoping that the remark will be passed over, but his father picks up on it. "Violet?" When Andrew explains that she is just a friend, Foyle asks if she works at the fuel depot by any chance. The look he gives his son is almost accusing, as though he believes that Andrew has deliberately been keeping the information from him. Andrew is discomforted, but before he can reply, Rex apologises for apparently speaking out of turn. Foyle looks down at his plate as he says, "No, no, no. No, not at all. There are no secrets between Andrew and me… are there, son?" The remark is pointed and Andrew feels the jab.
Sam is in the flat that Connie shares with Violet and talks with the two women as they get ready for the dance. Connie says that Vi and Andrew are going to be married as soon as the war is over, a double wedding with Rex and herself. As she stands, she becomes dizzy; she says it is only tiredness, but Vi is concerned because she has been like this all week. Connie recovers quickly and hurries the others so as not to be late.
A group of pilots arrive at The Flamingo. Rex greets Connie with a kiss and tells her she looks ravishing and delightful. Vi asks Andrew why he never says things like that to her. He has no answer. During the evening, Gannon walks in to check his club and he is not happy to see Rex and Connie dancing together. Shaun O'Halloran is in the club and introduces himself to Sam. As she talks with him, she takes the opportunity to ask about the fuel loss at the depot. He wonders how she knows about it and is obviously not convinced by her explanation… "Mr Bennett, I suppose." Sam asks him where he is from, but her questions bother him. "You seem to be interested in a lot of things."
Connie attempts to smooch with Rex and is puzzled when he looks uncomfortable and goes to get more drinks. As Vi dances with Andrew she tells him that she has promised Connie the run of the flat that evening and asks if they can go back to his house in Hastings. When he explains that he does not live alone, she suggests a hotel.
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