Ella finds she must use Navajo lore, not FBI cryptography, to decode Jimmy's message. Tantalizing clues link Jimmy's death to his military service--but what could the medic have seen in Iraq that would make him a target for murder back home?
Ella's personal life seems just as complicated as her case. Her mother, Rose Destea, marries her long-time beau, Herman Cloud. Then the father of Ella's daughter, Dawn, asks for a change in custody arrangements that will reduce Ella to a weekend mother--a much easier fit with her workload but something that will take a terrible toll on her heart.