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On the morning Miss Parker decides to leave behind the life that has made her so unhappy and start a new life in Oregon with the man she loves, she finds that Thomas Gates has been murdered on the front porch of her home. Devastated and fragile, she finds no comfort from her family. On the day of Thomas' death, Lyle chastises her for allowing the local police to become involved. Later that night, Brigitte cruelly tells Miss Parker that she couldn't even keep someone that she loved safe from harm.

Jarod is the only port in the storm that has overwhelmed Miss Parker, and he helps her to see that Thomas' death was not simply a case of someone being in the wrong place at the wrong time. As Jarod supplies Miss Parker with leads, she tracks each one, trying to find out who killed the man she loved. When the local police detective who was handling the case of Thomas' murder is himself murdered, Miss Parker realizes that the only people who are capable of leaving so few loose ends -- and who have no compunction about doing it -- are those who work for The Centre.

When Miss Parker makes the same mistake she has been making her entire life and trusts her father to aid her in exacting justice for Thomas' death, the last viable means of learning who it was that murdered Gates ends up dead in the trunk of a car. The only help Mr. Parker offers is a cleaner team to cover it up so they can all "get on with the business of living."

Miss Parker vows to wait until "they" think that it's all forgotten, and then she's going to find out who killed Thomas Gates and make them pay. Jarod gives Miss Parker a stained glass portrait of herself, but there is a hole where her heart should be.