A young girl is approached by a man in a playground. Burnside thinks that they can't do anything until a crime is committed. tosh is noticing the suspect getting bolder. Ron has also noticed a pattern. A girl goes missing from a playground. A shop keeper is pushing the armed robbery button when he is being spat at by children.

New Area Car driver, PC Des Taviner, makes an instant (but negative) impression on the relief when he starts work on the night shift at Sun Hill, with his overbearing manner and sharp mouth. He clashes with PC Worrell, and demands she be taken off Area Car duty with him, as he says she is ""clueless"". Paired with PC Hollis, Taviner chats up two girls waiting for the night bus and offers them a lift home. DC Glaze makes a breakthrough in a series of brutal rapes on the Jasmine Allen estate, and when residents report a woman screaming on Canley Fields, all Sierra Oscar units race to the scene. Taviner is sympathetic towards the victim, prostitute Lynn Roberts, and vows to ""get the bastard"" responsible.

As he's the one bearing the brunt of Des's temper, Reg Hollis wonders if Taviner's stress leave helped at all. But for a moment Taviner's mood does lift when he spots new PC Gemma Osbourne. Called out to a residents' dispute, Des and Reg discover that a local teenage tearaway, Andy Bennett, is running rings around the police and the local residents. But with Des on his case his luck might change. Acting DI Samantha Nixon is finding it hard to concentrate on her job as her mind is on the serial killer case. MIT receives a letter from the supposed killer saying he has struck again, and Samantha can't hide her frustration at not being part of the team. Will her determination to prove Baxter's guilt lead her too far out on a limb, or will her risky behaviour pay off? Insp. Gold visits Debbie McAllister in hospital to bring her Tom's things, while back at the office, Jack Meadows and Mickey Webb make up, but Debbie is not about to forgive and forget. Luke Ashton is having an uncomfortable d