Jessica arrives at Crenshaw College to give the commencement speech and receive an honorary degree at the local college The preceding faculty party is animated by host Dr. Jocelyn Laird's daughter, Daphne Clover, who jumps into the pool naked and her beefy, drunk New York lover Nick Fulton who knocks down Professor Ron Mercer with one punch. Next morning, Jessica finds Nick's corpse under a construction site as if he fell to his death, but that must be staged as he has no dust on his shoes. Local Police Chief E. Griffin, who knows Jessica from reading her books, arrests Daphne after an anonymous phone call leads to finding a typed blackmail note from Nick and a bloody candle stick in her room, but Jessica convinces him it may have been planted. She checks on other party-goers' links with Nick and each other, leading to two contradictory confessions, neither of which she believes.
—KGF Vissers