"In one hand, small-time crook Stokes holds a backpack stuffed with someone else's money--three hundred and fifty thousand dollars of it. In the other hand, Stokes has a cell phone, which he found with the money. On the line, a little girl he doesn't know asks, "Daddy? Are you coming to get me? They say if you give them money they'll let you take me home." From bestselling author James Hankins comes a wrenching story of an unscrupulous man torn between his survival instincts and the plight of a true innocent. Faced with the choice, Stokes discovers his conscience might not be as corroded as he thought"--Page [4] of cover.When second-rate crook Stokes ransacks a wrecked car off a country road near Shady Cross, Indiana, he discovers that the dead driver had a knapsack stuffed with $350,000. The bad news is that Stokes also finds a ringing cell phone that announces the money was ransom for the dead man's little daughter. His first impulse is to ditch the phone and run with the cash.

Instead, Stokes plays along with the kidnappers over the phone, trying to figure out their plan and save the child.