"Phoebe Siegler first meets Charles Heist in a strip mall office on the eastern edge of Los Angeles. She's looking for her friend's missing daughter, Arabella, and hires Heist as a guide. A laconic loner who keeps a rescued opossum in a desk drawer, Heist intrigues the sarcastic and garrulous Phoebe. Reluctantly, he agrees to help. The unlikely pair navigate the enclaves of desert-dwelling vagabonds and find that Arabella is in serious trouble--caught in the middle of a violent standoff that only Heist, mysteriously, can end. Phoebe's trip to the desert was always going to be strange, but it was never supposed to be dangerous ..."--Jacket flap.