Odd's friend, the Chief of Police Wyatt Porter, shares some details of the case, and informs him that the boy's babysitter is the one that discovered the body.

The babysitter turns out to be Sherry Sheldon, a childhood friend of Odd's girlfriend and soulmate, Stormy Llewellyn.

Odd asks the ghost of the little boy to help him find his killer, and Joey leads him to a street corner, where he sees a suspicious man.

The policeman on stakeout at the house finds an empty car containing a mutilated mannequin, and from this Odd deduces that the killer is nearby, taunting them.

Chief Porter traces the van's license plates to a man named Kyle Bernshaw, and gives Odd the resulting address.

Odd turns to find himself cornered by a vicious dog, from which he is saved at the last minute by Joey's ghost.

The two borrow a car and, using Odd's psychic magnetism (an ability that draws him to a person if he concentrates on them while traveling), they locate Bernshaw in an abandoned slaughterhouse.

Traumatic childhood experiences left him extremely uncomfortable with guns, so he relies on his resourcefulness to escape the sometimes hostile situations in which he finds himself.

Wyatt Porter is the Chief of Police in Pico Mundo, and serves as a father figure to Odd.