Frank and Emma investigate a murder in a small town where Emma spent part of her youth.

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FRANK AND EMMA INVESTIGATE THE MURDERS OF SEVERAL YOUNG WOMEN WHO DISAPPEARED IN A SMALL COMMUNITY WHERE EMMA LIVED AS A GIRL.

As twenty-year-old Jan McCall drives her decrepit car along a two-lane rural road in South Mills, Pennsylvania, she notices a flashing red light in her rear view mirror. Jan accidentally drops her marijuana cigarette onto the floor and is unable to retrieve it as she pulls over to the side of the road. A man, his face unseen, steps up to the car and shines a flashlight in Jan’s face. Later, a dog digs up a severed foot that had been buried beneath a shrub. A series of toe rings identifies the body part as Jan’s.

Emma and Frank travel to South Mills, where Emma lived for a few years as a little girl. Her childhood friend, Tommy Briggs, is now the town sheriff. It turns out that Tommy had sent the severed foot to the FBI hoping for an identification. Emma tells him that an alligator tattoo on the foot may be the mascot of Everglades University. Sand and sunscreen found on the skin and under the fingernails suggest the victim was killed on a sunny day. Briggs believes the location must be Allehela State Park, a few miles away. Emma, Frank and Briggs meet with park ranger Jerry Neilson. Frank moves towards a lifeguard stand, where he experiences internal visions about the girl’s attack. He orders the area cordoned off. Later, Frank happens upon a new missing persons listing for Jan McCall. A list of distinguishing marks includes an alligator tattoo. Her automobile is listed as an old Datsun. Briggs remembers a similar car found abandoned ten days earlier. The threesome visit a salvage yard. It is determined that the license plate on the car does not match the vehicle identification number. Frank discovers a bloody face print on a window. A partial fingerprint is also recovered. A computer search identifies the print as Jerry Neilson’s.

Police search Neilson’s house for evidence, but come up empty handed. Neilson denies any involvement in the girl’s death. Frank, however, suspects otherwise. Meanwhile, police match four cars found as the wrecking yard to other missing women. Frank notices Neilson’s defensive attitude towards the park. He suspects Neilson may have committed his first murder just outside its borders, something that may have passed for an accident. Upon viewing photos of the missing girls, Frank is drawn to one in particular: Liddy Hooper. Briggs explains that Liddy’s death had been ruled an accidental drowning.

Frank and Emma have Liddy Hooper’s coffin exhumed. It turns out to be empty. Later, Liddy’s daybook “turns up” in the police station. Briggs alerts Emma to the fact that his name, as well as Neilson’s, can be found within. He admits having a sexual encounter with the trashy Liddy. He also warns that many other men from the small community, some of them married, are mentioned in the book. Frank takes a special interest in an entry made on the day Liddy vanished, which mentions a local bar. He questions Lana, a woman who works at the establishment. Frank experiences several internal visions when he enters the bar’s back room. Lana remembers Liddy has “having a thing” for men in uniform, such as police officers and firemen. But she cannot recall Liddy hanging out with Jerry Neilson.

Using an abandoned vehicle report, Frank makes his way to the location where Liddy’s car was discovered. He walks along the wooded edge of a reservoir near a hydroelectric dam. He eventually comes upon a bridge, under which is a cement casting. Frank takes particular interest in a metal ring, which is attached to the casing by a hinge-like pin. He experiences an internal vision of a human foot being shoved through the ring.

Neilson meets Frank at the bar. He proceeds to tell him what really transpired on the night Liddy disappeared. In flashback, Neilson, Sheriff Briggs, paramedic Lee Smith and Deputy Wayne Johnson play cards as Liddy Hooper observes. Wayne “bids” Liddy in lieu of money. He tells the…