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To uncover the truth about how Tom Miles' died during his annual hike in the Texas desert, Jarod "Cochrane" jumps into a pretend as skydiving instructor at the Miles-Bates Blue Desert Skydiving School.

When Tom Miles refuses to sell the skydiving school to a sports adventure group, his partner (and former girlfriend), Carol Bates, takes advantage of Miles' annual survival hike to switch his canteen of water with one she poisons by adding a mind-altering extract from the root of the belladonna plant. The tainted water causes Miles to hallucinate and eventually die of dehydration in the desert.

Afterwards, Carol Bates talks Angela into using Tom's insurance money to "rebuild" the jump school, using the guise of keeping Tom's dream alive. Carol doesn't tell Angela that she's really making the improvements in order to make the school a viable purchase for TASCO, the sports adventure group.

Using information offered by Ernie Two Feathers, Jarod discovers the link between belladonna and Tom Miles death, then exacts revenge for the Miles' death by putting Carole Bates in a situation similar to that in which she put Tom. As Bates hallucinates, she tells all - while Sheriff Dwight Kunkle takes it all in.

Jarod sends Miss Parker a red notebook that leads her to Lake Catherine, Vermont, and a man named Benjamin Thomas Miller. Miss Parker learns that every spring, when her mother was supposedly visiting her sister, she was really at with Ben Miller at his Bed and Breakfast Inn. Going through the items that her mother left there, Miss Parker discovers an envelope with the word, "Rescued" written on it. Inside are pictures and the birth certificates of the children that Catherine Parker was able to spirit out of The Centre's grasp.

Jarod discovers that he likes meatloaf and meets a crafty Native American whose name is Ernie. Ernie teaches Jarod to listen to his instincts.