Through Calvin Mason, the young attorney who befriends her, she finds a new "hopeless case." A real hopeless case. Kevin Shea is a teenage drug addict convicted of holding up a pharmacy and killing the druggist's wife. Kevin is such a low-life even his mother is convinced he's guilty -- and glad he's behind bars.

Now it appears there was a witness to the murders, a young woman whose prescription was being filled at the time. The witness might be able to prove that Kevin is innocent of the murder. Jane learns that four women with the same name all live in remote areas of Vancouver Island, one of them the missing witness. There's someone else who wants to find the missing witness, too, someone who isn't afraid to turn to murder when Jane gets too close for comfort.