With jobs in hand but unable to find a hotel or motel in Punta Gorda, Florida due to it being tourist season, Tod and Linc have instead found a house rental from a now absent Mrs. Lindstrom, who has only requested her tenants be responsible, most specifically for tending to her garden and taking care of her dachshund, Billy Joe, while she is away. Almost four weeks into their rental, Linc is arrested for causing bodily harm to Billy Joe, the eyewitness account by Mrs. Lindstrom's elderly neighbor, Leona Bowers, who comes from one of the town's founding families. Her account is that Linc was in the garden with pruning shears in hand, and slashed Billy Joe's belly with it. Although he has no idea how Billy Joe's belly was slashed, Linc was indeed in the garden at the time, and was working with pruning shears which ended up having Billy Joe's blood on it, but he cleaned and bandaged Billy Joe's wound when he saw her condition as she hobbled into the garden. Mrs. Bowers, who has not said more than two words to either Tod or Linc in those four weeks, is adamant about what she claims she saw. Judith Kane, Tod's friend, suggests they hire her boss, lawyer Parker Smith. Tod and Linc eventually find they have to overcome the large chip on Parker's shoulders for him to be able to represent Linc effectively. That effectiveness may entail finding out how Billy Joe sustained her injury, and why Mrs. Bowers seems so convinced that her account is the truth.
—Huggo