Joe has good reason to dislike Dallas Cates, his eighteen-year-old foster daughter, April, has run off with him. And then comes worse news: the body of a girl has been found in a ditch along the highway – barely alive, the victim of blunt force trauma. It is April, and the doctors don't know if she'll recover. Cates denies having anything to do with it - but Joe knows in his gut who's responsible.
