But an innocent housewife is killed during a botched burglary in the London suburbs and its connections to the case render it urgent. Ashton uncovers a baffling chain of intimidation and bribery with a most unusual set of characters: a Cuban national who was once second-in-command in Castro's spy service, a Turkish assassin, and a low-level civil servant in the passport office. Now he must somehow piece together these unlikely characters and the chain of events before more innocents die.