Late in the afternoon of Sunday, May 22, 2011, a Category Five tornado touches Earth west of Joplin, Missouri, and tears twenty-two miles easterly through the town. It kills 162 people and does two point two billion dollars worth of damage.
Thirty-nine-year-old Brad Carson rides his motorcycle east of town when he sees the funnel cloud coming toward him. He struggles to keep his bike upright as he races toward the safety of a highway overpass.
After the tornado passes, a resident near the highway finds Brad’s Harley-Davidson in his front yard. The headlight is on and the bike is in gear but Brad is nowhere around.
A week later 156 people remain unaccounted for including Brad Carson.
A month after the tornado all missing persons are accounted for except for Brad Carson.
Chad Carson, Brad’s twin brother, files a claim for two million dollars in life insurance, but the company wants proof of death. Rather than risk negative public relations, it negotiates a settlement with Chad and sends private investigator Dan Ballantine to Joplin. Dan learns Chad has a rich and reclusive uncle, Martin Weaver, living on eight forested acres in northeastern Oklahoma. When Dan visits the property, he spots and tests an infrared security system screwed to the fence. Soon somebody in the trees unloads a pump shotgun loaded with nine rounds of double-aught buckshot at him.
Dan obtains Weaver’s vehicle description and license plate number. With Pearl the Girl’s help, Dan heads north to find Weaver.
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