Headmistress Abigail Kirby is dead. A potential witness has been murdered. And for DI Geraldine Steel, the stakes have been raised yet higher. Abigail's teenage daughter, Lucy, is missing, believed to have run away with a girl she met online. Time is quickly running out for Geraldine before her naivety costs Lucy her life.

But with a serial killer on the loose, Geraldine's own life is in danger, and though her Sergeant Ian Peterson makes a shocking discovery, could it be too late to save her from a dreadful fate?