The team is called in to identify the corpse of a woman whose face was surgically removed after death. Janet Mander, a Home Office anthropologist, cannot link it to similar murders but, after Nikki has reconstructed the face, Holly, a medical student on work experience with Harry,recognizes the woman as Fran Price, an investigative journalist. Pargeter, her agent, is evasive and Supt. Barker, the investigating police officer, does not help as he is obsessed with the idea that Leonid Polyak, a Russian criminal Fran helped to put behind bars, has ordered a hit on her from his prison cell. Whilst Leo gets closer to Janet, Harry is concerned when he sees Barker entering Holly's flat and later she is found murdered in her bed.

Stephen Harrington, a friend of Leo, is concerned that his daughter Rachel, an aid worker, has gone missing in Zambia. Leo and his colleagues fly to Africa where Rachel's corpse is discovered. It seems that she was investigating the deaths of local villagers and may have been silenced. In the absence of the local coroner, the team get involved but find that uncooperative police officers are not exclusive to Britain.