This is a two-part novel, although based on two criminal cases, the strength of the novel is the developing relationship between the two major characters, a 52-year old retired police detective, Jack Clayton, and a 25-year old police detective named Yolanda Tilden. In Part One, Officer Tilden breaks department SOP during a stakeout of a drug gang and, in the resulting exchange of gunfire, her partner, Stan Thornburg gets nicked in the buttocks, earning him the nickname "Buttshot." Tilden is punished with 30 days desk duty as a result. Chief Varner tricks Jack into coming out of retirement and coaching Detective Tilden, whose brash attitude has made her the department pariah. Jack reluctantly accepts, because he wants, of all things, a snow blower. He soon realizes why no one wants to work with her, because even he is put off by her attitude. This climaxes with a drunken confrontation at his house. He can't understand why he can't get along with her and they make a truce. This time he deceives Chief Varner and the two detectives attempt to find the drug gang instead of doing the remedial training. They manage to successfully bring the issue to a conclusion a la a Wild West shootout with the help of a Mexican informant, Guillermo. As a result of their growing friendship, in Part Two, Yolanda discovers the one unsolved case that had troubled Jack during the last 20 years of his career. A 13-year old middle school student named Annie Perkins disappeared on a cold spring day in 1993. Despite the efforts of the police and the FBI, no trace of her was ever found. Yolanda reviews the cold case file and discovers a clue that leads from the James Whitcomb Riley Museum, to Annie's school, and finally a deserted farmhouse on the outskirts of Greenfield, Indiana where they discover Annie's fate.
