Poor old Jim Coyne, staggering home from Renner's bar one cold winter night, is struck and killed by a hit-and-run car. Annabelle Leigh, his lady friend, thinks it no accident. Why was his body dragged from the road to the town garage and hidden in the piled road salt? Did his death have anything to do with the murders of Professor Yardley and his wife, a crime Jim was "investigating", along with his young friend, Danny, the pastor's kid? Danny, the boy detective, is determined to find who killed his friend, and police chief Will Sumner must keep the boy safe from a ruthless killer.