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Detective sergeant Marcus Farrow lives apart from his wife Abi and their sons Finn and Max but has hopes of a reconciliation. Whilst working on the murder of Turkish crime boss Omer Hassan he interviews Topher Lomax, who makes a veiled threat regarding Marcus's family. Marcus rows with Abi over her new boyfriend and soon afterwards he finds her and Max have been slain but rather than report it he runs away in confusion. He is arrested and charged with the murders but when the police van in which he is travelling crashes he escapes and sets out to find Lomax. Acting chief inspector Susan Reinhardt, herself a divorcee, is tasked with catching him.
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Marcus finds his friend Sean Devlin in possession of discs incriminating Lomax which were kept at the Farrows' house. Marcus beats him up before going on the run again with one of the discs, which yields Lomax's number though when Marcus rings him he is expecting Devlin. He also locates Hassan's widow from whom he discovers that Hassan's identity was sold to a man called Malaqi with Lomax the likely agent and a man named Alex Chambers also involved. He has a secret meeting with colleague Andrea, asking her to find Chambers, though they are interrupted by Susan Reinhardt, to whom he also makes known his suspicions before taking off again.
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A drunken Devlin visits Andrea and it is clear that both are involved in a plot to find Chambers before Marcus and that neither are his friends. Marcus breaks into Devlin's flat and gets him to confess that Andrea killed Hassan and is being blackmailed by Lomax, who helped her dispose of the body, and Alex Chambers. The evidence is on the discs which Andrea has now destroyed. Marcus visits Lomax but he has been murdered, after which Marcus discovers the exact identity of Alex Chambers. He effects a meeting with Andrea, learning how his family died, but has contacted Susan, who believes in his innocence, to be a witness to the confession which will exonerate him.
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Susan Reinhardt is investigating the highly suspicious death of Daniel Hope - whose sister Jules is serving a prison term for fraud. Widowed David Murdoch, an officer at the jail where Jules is held, receives a cryptic phone call, saying that his surly daughter Lucy has been abducted and will be harmed unless he delivers Jules to a Manchester address. David escapes with Jules whilst escorting her to hospital and - unaware of Daniel's demise - they go on the run, pursued by Susan and other police officers.
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David and Jules arrive at the meeting place but Lucy is not there and David is forced to explain his actions over the phone to Susan. David's boss Jeff is also killed and his many debts lead Susan to cast him as a suspect in the abduction, along with Lucy's boyfriend Alan, with whom she had recently argued. Hearing that Daniel is dead Jules believes he was killed by Blackpool club owner Eddie Goad and, helped by Alan, the fugitive couple drive to the resort with the police in pursuit. Meanwhile Susan gets two shocks, one personal and one professional.
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David gives himself up to Susan who tells him that Lucy's kidnapper is not the person he thought and has another surprise regarding his dead boss. Jules escapes and has a meeting which also yields a shock, regarding the two dead men. She springs David and asks him to do a deal with her to get Lucy back - which involves returning to the prison to obtain a key to stolen loot, but, having accomplished this, he finds himself up against both the police and Jules and her partner in his race to find his kidnapped daughter.
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