When a terrified three-year-old girl is kidnapped from Milbrooks FunTime Day-Care Center by a man in a clown mask the little girls frantic mother is certain that her ex-husband is to blame. But when a mysterious prowler begins stalking another child at the Center Raven Countys special investigator Whit Pynchon becomes convinced that the snatched toddler is facing a much uglier -- and possibly deadly -- fate. With the help of his lover newspaper editor Anna Tyree Whit must double his efforts to unmask and capture a kidnapper who may be desperate enough to turn killer . . .