The case: A parent's nightmare. The moment his mother turns her back, three-year-old Michael Panesivic vanishes. The cop: She grew up on the streets of L.A., so Detective Jackie Kaminsky understands the troubled kids and broken families she deals with every day. And she knows when people are lying. Like now. Despite eyewitness accounts and lie-detector tests, something about little Michael's disappearance doesn't ring true. The witness: His story is chilling, but is he a credible witness? He claims he's never met the Panesivic family; he's simply a carpenter who dreams of returning to his Montana ranch. Hell, he's not even sure what he knows or what he's seen. Jackie has three choices. She can dismiss the man as a handsome nutcase. She can arrest him as the only suspect. Or she can believe him. With a little boy's life at risk, she can't afford to make the wrong choice.

In Detective Jackie Kaminsky's newest case, a "perfect family man" vanishes without a trace. Now considering marriage herself, this case is causing Jackie to have serious doubts. After all, if a husband as dependable as John Stevenson can't be trusted, who can? Missing person? Murder victim? Or murderer? That's what Spokane detective Jackie Kaminsky must uncover. And all she has to go on is what the distraught young wife can tell her about John Stevenson. He loves his wife, he's crazy about their four kids and he's got a good job working for an up-and-coming Spokane politician. But one night he went out to get baby formula—and he didn't come back. Has the "perfect husband and father" simply abandoned his family? Is he somehow connected to the hit-and-run death of his boss' young daughter? Or as Jackie is beginning to suspect, is John's disappearance the perfect decoy for something more sinister?