She soon finds evidence that there has been fraudulent Medicare/Medicaid activity at Pacific Meadows, the care home at which Purcell worked as medical director following his retirement from general practice.

Opinions vary amongst his former colleagues and associates as to whether Purcell could have been responsible, whether deliberately or through administrative incompetence; but since he is missing, he is certainly a convenient scapegoat for any blame that might be assigned by the ongoing official investigation.

By coincidence, Kinsey's landlord Henry adds to the evidence of fraud when sorting through the finances of Rosie's recently deceased sister, Klotilde, who had stayed at Pacific Meadows.

Kinsey struggles to work out whether Dow did a runner with some illegal gains, killed himself having realized he was going to be implicated, or was entirely innocent but murdered by the real perpetrator of the fraud.

After snapping it up with a big advance rent payment, and starting to date the attractive Tommy, Kinsey receives a shocking visit from one Mariah Talbot, who explains that the Heveners are suspects in the murder of their parents in Texas some years before.