Touching Evil

Creegan returns to duty against official orders as Anthony Matchin, a man he helped convict for killing his wife, is released from prison on appeal, returning to his home town of Ellandon. Shortly afterwards a woman's corpse is found, her heart cut out neatly and left in a nearby garbage bag. The OSC travels to the area as Creegan is convinced that Matchin is not the murderer, only to receive little help from the local force, unhappy at the OSC's intervention.

A second victim is discovered, slain in exactly the same fashion as the first and earning the murderer the tag of the Garbage Bag Killer. Creegan concludes that although the women's husbands were from vastly different walks of life, the killer's motive was not due to hatred of the women but of the men that they left behind - leading him to grief counsellor Michael Lawlor, before another, shocking murder robs the unit of one of their own.

His family having moved following their ordeal at Michael Hawkins' hands Creegan is deemed fit to return to work but both he and Susan are resentful of bright new colleague Martin Simmons, brought in to replace the slaughtered Rivers. A charred corpse is discovered in a disused mental home, bearing the mark Y Me. A second murder occurs committed in the same way and again Y Me is the motive. The victim was last seen in the company of her boyfriend Andy, according to her baby-sitter Lynn Southy and he becomes the prime suspect.

Susan interviews a noted arsonist imprisoned in France, Jacques Dutronc, on the psychology of arson whilst both Andy and another fire-raiser, former asylum inmate Miles Van Der Twemp are cleared as having no links to both murders. A new suspect enters the frame, Susan Etchells, who was in the asylum under her mother's name, Susan Winters - the latest victim being a teacher who sacked a woman by that name. Creegan finds that he has to go back to school, literally, to discover the disturbed woman behind the attacks and risk his life to save another victim.