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When 16 year old Grace Gilmartin goes missing from her home, Alembic and Stone are put in charge of the case. There is a considerable amount of blood in her room however, so the police may be looking for a body. When psychic Calvin Moran publicly declares that the girl is alive the police, DS Stone in particular, steps over the line and finds himself off the case. When Moran leads the police to a body that has been buried 10 to 15 years, Susan isn't quite ready to write him off. Stone finds himself investigating the murder of Brandon Healy, a commodities trader who was killed at his desk late one evening by someone wielding a crossbow. Working with DC Frank Craven, he finds a unique eye witness and identifies a particularly crafty suspect.
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When a human skull is unearthed at a construction site, DS Luke Stone begins to believe he has found the remains of a serial killer. The only problem is that the case was closed by the veteran copper in charge of that case, when the accused hung himself while in remand. Stone and Alembic continue their investigation but, given the general penchant to not re-open old cases or challenge the work of veteran policeman, focus more narrowly on identifying the skull. What they find is a complex case of stolen identity and revenge that ends in tragedy for many of the parties concerned and leads straight back to the question of just who was the serial killer.
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Alembic and Stone investigate when the lower half of a woman's torso is found in a garbage dump. By tracing her designer lingerie, she is identified as Victoria Symmons, the owner of an English as a second language school that specialized in students from Eastern Europe. What they find is that she had a large sum of cash hidden in her apartment and that she would frequently pay for her student's travel expenses. What they learn is that she was in fact running an unlawful adoption service and the students at her school were unwed mothers providing the babies. What all of this has to do with her murder becomes central to solving the crime.
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Alan Scobie and Karen Hartson are found shot dead in a hotel bedroom and the police have no idea who the principal victim was meant to be. DI Alembic focuses on Scobie, who worked as a driver for a major underworld figure and had agreed to provide evidence against him. DS Stone on the other hand focuses on Karen and her relationships. He is guided by a roman a clef she had written where the various characters were clearly drawn from her office colleagues. Stone becomes infatuated with the dead girl and his quest becomes a personal crusade to save her reputation, raising eyes among his colleagues.
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The squad investigates a drive by shooting in which 2 people were killed and five injured. With DI Adrian Dumfries in charge of the case, the shooting is put down as a Turk-Kurd turf war. One of the dead however was sitting in his car on a side street and DS Stone finds a number of anomalies. While he was definitely shot, it also appears that he was severely beaten. When the toxicology results show he was also being slowly poisoned, Stone and DI Susan Alembic are sure they have a murder on their hands.
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DI Alembic and DS Stone investigate the murder of Jonathan James Kaplan who was severely beaten and drowned when locked in the trunk of his car, found at the bottom of river. Their investigation leads them to a local casino owner and a case of what seems be smuggling an ancient manuscript. There is trouble for Luke Stone however when he becomes particularly attracted to Rosa, a hostess at the casino and someone who was obviously acting as a go-between for Kaplan. Meanwhile, DCI Turner announces to the team that he is introducing a new points system to rate their performance and create a bit of competition among them.
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The police investigate the death of a woman who, on first appearance seems to have jumped off the roof of a building. Unfortunately, she lands on a young man standing at the entrance to the building, killing him instantly. The woman, Jackie Aston, was an executive and, the police learn, a member of the Club Libero where married men and women can meet others who are interested in having a fling. The investigation focuses on Mark Drummond who had left the club with Jackie on the evening of her death. DI Susan Alembic goes undercover but as the case proceeds, the police realize they may be investigating the wrong murder.
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The police are investigating two deaths. DI Alembic and DC Frank Connor looks into the death of Vernon Duffy who was found tied to a tree and shot. Duffy was a sex offender who had recently been freed on a technicality when the courts ruled the main evidence against was obtained unlawfully. When they find that all but one of the shells found at the scene were blanks, she concludes that he was executed by a firing squad. DS Stone and DC Alison Bain investigate the death of 17-year old Bethany Williams who bled to death in the corridors at her school. It has all of the hallmarks of a suicide, but there is sufficient evidence for the police to treat this as a suspicious death. As the investigation continues, Susan and Luke find a connection between their two cases.
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The police investigate two crimes. The first is a hit and run accident instantly killing Greg Osborn, who had just made a purchase at a bakery. The policed soon conclude that Osborn was deliberately targeted. The second is the shooting of Ryan Everitt, who was shot by a sniper. While Alembic and Stone focus on the shooting, DCI Turner puts DC Alison Bain in charge of the hit and run. She and DC Frank Craven find that Osborn's widow isn't very upset at his death. They also locate the car used in the hit and run but suspect the driver is being less than honest. Alembic and Stone learn that Everitt is a gigolo with another business on the side that could provide any number of people wanting him dead. As the investigations continue however, the police realize the two cases are in fact connected.
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The police investigate the murder of Alice Fielding who is found strangled in her flat. As they investigate her friends and acquaintances they find that her old boyfriend is now dating her mother. On the same night, the police have a second murder to investigate, that of Sam Glazer, a property developer who is on the verge of bankruptcy due to a drop in the housing market. They suspect Cassandra Wallis who was in the flat when Glazer was killed but was so drunk that she remembers very little of what happened. When Alembic and Stone learn that both Fielding and Glazer were in the same hotel the night of their deaths, they realize they have a far more complex puzzle to solve.
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