Touching Evil

A serial killer is on the loose, murdering young women and then scalping them though before he claims each victim he sends an email to newspaper reporter David Laney. The OSC enlist Laney's help - Susan having an affair with him - and as a result they are able to catch a man called Emerson, about to pounce on his latest victim. They arrest him and he is taken into custody.

Emerson is captured and remanded in custody but Creegan is haunted by the fact that he was unable to arrive in time to save the last victim, Emily Hawkins. Even more disturbing is the fact that, though Emerson is now behind bars, another slaying and scalping takes place, a copy-cat killing, leading Creegan to believe that Emerson has either an accomplice or a warped admirer. Creegan is forced to make a deal with Emerson to catch this new murderer whilst Susan is in danger of becoming the latest victim.

Three men are found dead, each corpse has a hole in the head but has been carefully washed, perfumed and wrapped in a white shroud as if in a ritual burial. The common link is that they all served in the Bosnian war, working for a relief agency. CCTV cameras capture the identity of the possible murderer, Jim Keller, a man who was also in Bosnia but believed to be dead.

Jim Keller goes on the run but when the team speak to his wife Ann, it transpires that he was so haunted by his experiences in Bosnia that he wanted to forget them and in his own perverted way is doing the same for the colleagues he knew there whom he is now killing and ritually 'burying'. They eventually trace him to a deserted warehouse where he has brought his next victim and DS rivers is particularly heroic in attempting to safely apprehend him.

Annie Jordan is arrested when it appears that she has abducted a little boy from his whom but she convinces Creegan that it is her son from whom she was coerced into parting by a child-brokering scheme, a paedophile group who buy and sell children. Acting on Annie's evidence Susan and DC Rivers pose as a childless couple desperate for an offspring at any price. Meanwhile Michael Hawkins, whose daughter was killed by Emerson, holds Creegan responsible for not saving her and comes after him.

The investigation into the paedophile ring leads the undercover police to an orphanage in Albania, where Susan procures a child and flees with her back to England. However she is thwarted and her plan is sadly ended. Meanwhile Michael Hawkins holds Creegan's ex-wife and daughters at his mercy, setting fire to their house. This leads to a showdown in which an innocent victim is claimed.