Nikki and Harry are called to the Dutch Embassy in the wake of a gunman killing three people,including police constable Barlow and the brother of ambassador Van Buren,though the latter officially died three years earlier. Van Buren's son Jacob went missing fifteen years earlier and now his grandson Jack is missing, Jack's mother Klara and young policeman Whitehead being among the wounded. Curiously the CCTV cameras were switched off at the time of the shooting but,recovering in hospital,Klara claims the murderer was Jacob. The news coverage has a strange effect on telephonist Mary Olivant,who is found hanged,though Leo finds the death suspicious. He is also wary when another pathologist,Sabiston,whom he once trained,is called in to carry out the post mortems at the ambassador's request.

Examining Kevin's corpse Nikki is puzzled by stun marks on the body and the fact that Jackie had set up a camera in his room. Thomas is also curious regarding two other mysterious deaths, one at Kingscote Bows, the other at the Pleasant Manor care home, where both were regularly visited by Dr Kahari. When Serena goes missing and Tilly is found dead after threatening to expose Flannery Clarissa books herself into Pleasant Manor to investigate herself,. She unmasks the killers but needs to be rescued by Jack when she puts herself I danger.