When Ella Flynn's estranged father dies in his hometown of Prosper, Georgia, the Chicago Police Detective arrives to tie up loose ends with Funeral Director, Jackson Lee Armstrong. Ray Flynn has left his daughter a time-worn blue house and a very loud Bassett Hound named Walter. Ella hasn't seen or heard from her father in twenty-five years. She slowly pieces together the puzzle of her father's life, and uncovers the tragedy that changed his life, and explained why he left behind a little seven-year-old girl.
Before Ella leaves for Chicago, an autopsy reveals that Ray Flynn's death was a homicide. She joins the investigation to find her father's killer. With only a two-day bereavement leave, she doesn't have much time. A second body is discovered in the Altamaha River. Police Chief Lovey Jones doesn't think the two deaths are related, but Ella does, and she searches for the one person who knows who killed her father, a childhood friend called Larry-with-the-Limp that Ray confided in before he was killed.
Chicago Police Chief Warner demands Ella's immediate return to Chicago, which jeopardizes her investigation and forces her to choose between her police career and bringing her father's killer to justice. To complicate her decision, Jackson Lee Armstrong has captured Ella's heart with his soft, Southern charm, and he doesn't want to let her go, and neither does Walter, the Bassett Hound.
There is one person very anxious to see her go back to Chicago-the killer-and he's been hiding in plain sight.
