Cathy Salem is desperate for Lieutenant Alex Delillo's help. Her husband, Jack, an ex-LAPD officer now working for a private security firm, has officially been listed as missing after he failed to return home from an eleven-month placement in Iraq. Cathy knows that he is in hiding in the States but it is all too apparent that he is too scared to come home. Her only clue to his whereabouts is a package sent by him to her, posted in Trona in Death Valley, with a letter inside it addressed to Alex. Alex barely remembers Jack Salem. They met once years ago and have never spoken since. Aware of Cathy's distress but unable to see how she can help, Alex nevertheless agrees to look into Jack's disappearance. It is only when Cathy herself vanishes and Alex is nearly run off the road whilst following a lead as to Jack's whereabouts, that she realises that this goes far beyond a simple missing persons case...