Its Christmas season, a holiday Cadence adores. Her relationship with Patrick has been progressing nicely, and they are beginning to wonder if it might be time to bring their relationship to the next level...unprecedented in Cadence's life.As if the high drama of the Secret Santa drawing wasn't enough, there is a new BOFFO employee, Emma Jan Thyme, whose reputation precedes her. She has a doctorate from Harvard, speaks seven languages, and is a remarkable actress...she's never been made while undercover. But she's harboring a secret of her own.In addition to adjusting to a new co-worker's foibles, shopping for her Secret Santa, receiving strange things from her Secret Santa, and trying to find the perfect Christmas gift for Patrick, a new serial killer appears to have blown into town. Perfectly ordinary fourteen year olds have disappeared each June, now four Junes in a row. The only thing the victims have in common are their ordinariness...and it's up to Cadence to figure out the case before another innocent fourteen-year-old dies.