Harry has evidently gone up in the world since he sold Woodcote Park because he now drives a Jaguar XJ6. He is planning to start a security business from offices at a canal basin by the Trent but his bank manager, Mr Statter, refuses him a loan. Ken, Rocky and Laura have moved from Royal Hill and are temporarily working out of a very tacky caravan.

Ken is on horseback, investigating water pollution and dead fish at a quarry near Dornford Hall for his clients, the peremptory and patronising Dr Sinclair Lewis, and Simon, a member of an ecological pressure group. They believe that the pollution is due to the dumping of toxic waste, possibly solvents used in the production of ceramics. Suddenly an air-rifle pellet is fired at Ken's horse, throwing him off. A beautiful Polish woman, Irena Tadeusz, who lives at Dornford Hall, rescues him. She tells him about a friend, Brigadier Charles, who was beaten up in a robbery. She is very frightened, so Ken offers to do a free survey with a view to f

Ken is asked to investigate the fiancée of Lawrence Varlish. He suspects that she might be having an affair with her hypnotherapist, Geoffrey Phillips. Harry goes to see Phillips, posing as an anxious patient, and soon discovers that Varlish is worrying over nothing.

Two suspicious-looking South African men are waiting in the car park of the newly-opened CBS offices. They are anxious to collect something from a boat on the river. Nearby a narrow-boat belonging to a certain Mrs Walters is commandeered at gunpoint by Hobson, a suave man with a painfully cultured accent, accompanied by a Scotsman called Dilkes. They urgently need transport because their own boat has broken down. That night, when Ken is asleep on his yacht, he is woken up by the sound of heavy objects being thrown in to the water. Still half asleep, he peers out of the window but can't see anything and soon goes back to sleep.

After advertising in the local paper, Ken and Harry are inundated with enquiries for missing pers

Justina Bradleigh is a beautiful but spoilt 18-year-old pupil at St Godwald's, a girls' public school. She is secretly going out with Perry, a cocky young man who is constructing the school's new swimming pool. She is very bitchy to Deborah, her father's new girlfriend.

Ken and Harry are employed to guard a fashion show and charity gala that the school will shortly be starting. The school receives a bomb threat, which the headmistress, Hester McCullock, says is just the latest in a long line of pranks which are starting to affect the reputation of the school. Hsster asks Ken to investigate before parents start threatening to take their girls away.

Harry is keen to join the local branch of the Conservative party, of which Simon Bradleigh is the chairman. Simon tells Harry that ""the party takes a dim view of confirmed bachelors"", so Harry is under pressure to find himself a wife! Simon tells him that he knows of ""an exclusive introduction bureau"" run by Davina Barclay. Harry is very scep

Harry has just moved to the peaceful village of Upper Ridley and Rocky is lodging with him. They help Sylvia Clayborough, a young widow, who has taken over her husband's fishmongering business but is plagued by vandalism: the fish-van's tyres are let down and graffiti is sprayed over it. When Sylvia and another widow, Vivienne Blake, start to compete with each other to welcome Harry to the village, Harry begins to realise that he has uncovered a hotbed of rivalry, jealousy and frustrated passion. Harry and Rocky eventually track down the vandal: Vivienne's wayward nephew who is staying with her.

Thomas O'Rourke, an Irish builder, asks Ken to investigate a break-in and theft of cash at his office. He suspects Brian Jonson, another builder. He thinks it is a dispute between Catholic (himself) and Protestant (Jonson). O'Rourke tries to settle his score with Brian by demolishing his office with a JCB. However O'Rourke's daughter, Caitlin, thinks the real culprit is her elder sister, Bernad

Lorraine Simpson is a red-headed young teenager who has just been released from borstal after serving a sentence for arson. Why has she kept a newspaper cutting which announces Ken's transition from fireman to private detective?

Fiona Harper, a guest at a nearby hotel, wants Ken to get evidence that her husband, Dennis, is having an affair. She tells him a sob-story about how he has moved his girlfriend into their house after kicking her out in to the street with only the clothes she is wearing. Ken, who can never resist a pretty damsel in distress, falls for this story hook, line and sinker. In fact ""Fiona"" is none other than Lorraine Simpson, who works at the hotel as a chambermaid. But it is a long time before Ken discovers this!

Ken watches the Harpers' house and sees Harper with his ""girlfriend"" (who is really his wife, Sue). He agrees to help ""Fiona"" break into the house while the Harpers are out so she can reclaim her possessions. While there, she fakes evidence of a burglary an

Laura is looking after Greg Willis, the ten-year-old son of Harry's friends who are away on holiday. Greg is very withdrawn and doesn't want to got to school. While waiting to collect him, Laura sees Greg's games teacher, Nick Fuller, bullying him. Laura and Rocky decide to give Nick a taste of his own medicine. Rocky arranges a rugby match, with his friends acting as players in both teams. Taking advantage of the fact that Nick fancies her, Laura invites him to the match, saying that a friend (Rocky) will be playing. Rocky claims he has just twisted his ankle and cannot play. A substitute is needed and Nick is the only person they have got. With Greg surreptitiously watching from the touch-line, Rocky's mates in the opposing team take great delight in tackling Nick as violently as possible and roughing him up at every opportunity, just to let him know what it feels like to be on the receiving end of bullying.

Ken and Harry are involved in a more serious case of bullying. Beth Benson,

CBS are looking after security at the Theatre Royal for a charity gala. One of the ballet dancers, Jan Melzer, is quite obviously scared stiff of her agent, Eckford, and Kelp, a thug who is working for him. At the party after the performance, Jan tells Laura that she and her fellow dancer Peter Sorreno desperately need help to escape from Eckford and Kelp.

Harry is captivated by Enrica Montanini, an opera singer at the gala. He persuades her to give an impromptu performance at the party to distract Eckford's attention. Acting as decoys, Rocky and Laura dress up as Peter and Jan, and Eckford chases them through the empty auditorium. Meanwhile Peter and Jan escape to Ken's boat.

Jan tells Ken that Eckford is threatening to reveal that Peter was arrested for drugs offences when he was younger - unless she co-operates with him. She says that the only person who might be able to help is her uncle, Tony Margiotta, who fled from America to Britain after a family argument. Ken traces him to a

Laura and Rocky have been given the task of tailing Victor Howells, a young man who has just been released from prison. He is described by Ken's client, Mr Pollock, as ""a vindictive and disturbed man"" and is expected to try to attack Mr Pollock's client who wants to remain anonymous. Pollock won't even reveal his client's exact address but wants 24-hour surveillance so he will know if Howells goes anywhere in the same district. Howells sees Laura and Rocky, so, with their cover blown, they try the direct approach and talk to him, telling him that they have no idea why they have been asked to follow him. Howells tells them that he was imprisoned for stealing watches from a jeweller, Mr Sinton, although he claims that Sinton framed him for the theft. The three of them plan to flush Sinton into the open by warning Pollock that Howells has given them the slip. They soon discover that Pollock and Sinton are one and the same! They lure him to a deserted boathouse where Howells confronts Sint

Ken and Harry are guarding Upper Ridley Hall, near where Harry lives, and where a big Society wedding will be taking place between Sir Alan and Lady Tessa Bolton's daughter, Kate, and Rupert de Borchgrave, a Belgian Count.

Sir Alan asks Ken to keep a discrete watch on one of his houseguests, Johnny Hunter, a suave gentleman who drives an Austin Healey sports car. Ken senses a tension in the house: why is Hunter nosing around the house and taking such an interest in Kate, and why is Lady Tessa so evasive about him. Why is Kate secretly making furtive phone calls and who is the man who she meets late at night?

While patrolling the grounds, Harry spots two men behaving very suspiciously and stalking one of Sir Alan's stags. He reports this to Philip Braithwaite, Sir Alan's Estate Manager, who doesn't seem to take the matter seriously. Harry suspects that Braithwaite himself might be involved in the stag poaching. He follows one of the estate vans to a ruined chapel which he discovers the

CBS has been given the contract to guard a building site - a derelict church which is due to be demolished and replaced with luxury flats by a local builder, Donald Bannerman. During a violent thunderstorm, there is an earth movement and some ancient statues are uncovered. Dr Freda Butler, an archeologist at the university, insists on being given access, saying that the statues date back to the time when there was a Cistercian monastery on the site. Bannerman refuses, but Ken decides to let her have a quick look at the statues while Bannerman isn't there.

During the night, one of Bannerman's JCBs is sabotaged when sand is poured in the fuel tank. Freda and her students are blamed. Bannerman threatens to hand over the security contract for guarding all his sites to Jack Fentiman, one of Harry's rivals. Harry wants to sack Frank, the security guard who was on duty at the site. However Ken feels sorry for Frank, who is the rather simple brother of another CBS guard, Bertie, and insists on

Margery Keeverton is looking after the estate of her uncle, Geoffrey Keeverton, who has just died. He had made a considerable amount of money from a fairground amusement arcade and has now left it all to her. While staying at her late uncle's house, she starts to receive nuisance phone calls which make it clear that she is being followed and which referred to an unpaid debt. Ken and Harry are asked to help. Because Harry rather fancies Margery, he is keen to help and even takes a week off work. Margery's solicitor, Peter Haymon, has very little confidence in Ken's abilities as an investigator. Harry takes Margery to the races but they happen to meet Haymon, spoiling Harry's plans for a romantic day out. A friend tells Harry that Haymon is ""one of the shiftiest lawyers in the Midlands"".

Ken and Harry keep watch on the house each night and their patience is eventually rewarded when they see a shady figure prowling round in the garden. They give chase but the man escapes, after giving Har

In the weeks leading up to Christmas, Lawrence Drake, a rich ex-racing driver, asks Ken to watch his wife, Pamela, whom he suspects is having an affair. Lawrence feels that he has nothing to offer Pamela because he is now crippled after an accident on the racetrack.

Pamela and her boyfriend, Alex Cavendish, are robbed at gunpoint while driving home from a restaurant late at night. Pamela's jewellery is stolen and she receives a blackmail request: ""pay up and you'll get the jewels back"". She starts to gamble heavily and tries to borrow money from loan sharks in order to raise the blackmail money.

Ken follows Pamela and sees her with her lover. He then gets Laura to visit Alex, posing as ""Briony Carling"", a magazine researcher, and soon learns his name and that he is a wine importer. Later, Pamela sees Ken while he is following her again. She pleads with him not to tell Lawrence about Alex or the jewellery because she doesn't want to hurt him.

Alex is in league with the thieves. At a win