At this time a serial killer with odd and bloody ways hits the scene. It soon becomes apparent that the killer is a psychopath with some personal issue involving the wasting of time. At every murder he requires the victim to pay him for his lost time.

Since Jesse is the rookie of the team, she has no problems taking a back seat in this investigation. She is a bit of an overachiever with a penchant for analysis and who is eager to please. Yet the dynamics between them tends to flare up once in a while. For the most part, they work well together and begin to gather clues on the case, which has shocked the small town of Rockton. The sum total of the clues seem to suggest that the killer is a salesman who earns pretty good money and hates people who he believes are wasting his time. The killer is revealed halfway through the story and then the task becomes catching him.

The story comes to a head when Hogan murders his ex-wife for things he perceives that she has done to him, but now the team is hot on his trail. When they catch him there is still a problem with solid evidence and as a result he is released since Max has a conflict of interest because he learns that Hogan is the murderer of his own father back twenty five years ago. This is a chilling, fast-moving thriller that keeps the reader turning pages.