In L.A.'s underground drainage system, the battered corpse is found of Heather Lawson, who had recently given birth. A bloody blanket beside her matches one in which the newborn was wrapped. Her finances track her to a wealthy childless couple for whom she was ostensibly carrying the child, Ronald and Sarah Glover. However, Lawson was also stringing along two other couples seeking a child, Anthony and Gina Hunt and gay couple Matthew Ducrest and Daniel Maguire. The cash is missing, but tracked to her ex-con boyfriend, a gambler named Tom Barnes. Meanwhile, Rusty finishes the formal and mental preparation for his own legal adoption by newly-divorced Sharon Raydor.
—KGF Vissers (updated by R.M. Sieger)