Originally published: London: Constable, 2008.

When a gunman breaks into South Oxford Nursery School and takes a group of hostages, teacher Louise Kennedy fears the worst. But Jaime Segura isnt there on a homicidal mission, and hes just as scared as those whose lives he holds as collateral. As an armed police presence builds outside the schools gates, the only person Jaime will talk to is Ben Whistler, an MI6 accountant who worked with Jaimes lover, Miro. Miros gone missing, along with a quarter of a billion pounds allotted for reconstruction work in Iraq. Jaime refuses to believe that Miro is a thief-though hes always had his secrets. But then, so does Louise, so do the other hostages-and so do some people on the outside, whod much rather Jaime was silenced.