Jessica visits Comstock, Idaho to comfort Linda whose husband, Mayor Jim Stevens, just died in a car accident. Or did he? His hot-headed father, Harry Stevens, is dead-set to prove his death was the work of the corrupt Sheriff Orville Yates and his hard-handed Deputy Wayne Beeler, who are in cahoots with Kate Gunnerson's illegal gambling. Shortly after they go trough Jim's effects, Harry storms out after seeing a ciphered reference, but is killed and left by the road, plundered even to his boots. State police Captain Ernest Lenko confirms his raids and corruption investigations always failed because legal procedure forces him to inform the sheriff's office. Jessica thinks through everything, especially relating to Jim's effects, and, after being run off the road while accepting a ride from Councilman David Carroll, Yates's respectable opponent in the spring mayoral election, sets a trap.
—KGF Vissers