Glaze and Holmes investigate the apparent suicide of local councillor Anthony Snape, and uncover a plot involving two other councillors, Colin Cooper and Steven Trent, to pervert the course of justice by ensuring that massage parlours with links to the local freemasons' lodge are not raided. Glaze treads very close to the edge as he becomes determined to prove Brownlow is bent, as he is a member of the same lodge; even leaking information to a journalist who prints the story on his front page. When Glaze enlists Cooper's daughter as his star witness, it is soon discovered that Snape may not have committed suicide after all, and may be the victim of a very carefully planned and executed murder.