When the landlord of "The Cork and the Bottle" ends up dead in a puddle of blood on the floor of his own pub, the case seems clear. The teen burglars who broke into the pub to steal the contents of the till are the culprits.

But there are things about the case that just don't add up. And eventually, Detective Inspector Helen Shepherd begins to suspect that the killers are to be found much closer to home...

This is a crime short of 4400 words or approx. 14 print pages altogether in the Helen Shepherd Mysteries series, but may be read as a standalone.