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.

Mary Olivant turns out to have been the Van Buren's nanny at the time of Jacob's disappearance and a body unearthed near to where her corpse was found is identified as that of the little boy. Diederick Van Buren had been paying her thousands for years but she had recently seen Klara and told her the true fate of her brother. The so-called bodyguard was actually Diederick,allegedly working for MI6,and the pathologist who pronounced him dead three years earlier was Sabiston,working with Superintendant Mansfield in a cover-up on behalf of the embassy. Harry finds Jack,who has gone into hiding and who saw all that happened on the night of the shooting,for which reason he is protecting the killer.

Kevin McDowd, a boy with behavioural problems, is restrained from escaping Kingscote Bows, his residential care home whilst, a few miles away, his mother Jackie dies in a car crash, having ingested an excess of anti-depressant pills. Nikki believes she was unlawfully killed and evidence points to Kevin being the culprit. Kevin goes on the run with fellow resident Serena, who, to the horror of care assistant Tilly Maddox, is being sexually abused by deputy manager Conor Flannery, but they are cornered by the police with unfortunate results.

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.