05/06/00

Jarod is in a pawn shop, to which arrives a young man wanting to sell a digital video camera. He gets $20 for it and then the owner of the shop sells it to Jarod for $100. Jarod watches the tape in his apartment. It shows the vacation of mother and daughter. Everything was going on fine, until they're both attacked. Jarod follows the same places they went through, till he arrives to a gas station. He does something to his car, so that he has an excuse to go there.

Miss Parker gets a cyber postcard from Jarod that amuses Broots. While Jarod says that Edna escaped and that she wants to tell Miss Parker something about "Mirage", pictures of her, Catherine, Raines, Miss Parker with her mother and a building show up on screen. Jarod says that Edna wants to come home, that it would be her redemption to tell the truth to Miss Parker, but she can't and wants Miss Parker to keep digging for the truth, because the secret that Catherine wanted her to find is buried out there.

Jarod stops in the driveway and the sheriff offers to get him to the gas station, where he learns that he will have to stay there until the morning. A man outside the station makes a straw figure. He says that the corn man is coming and that he goes after strangers. While Jarod speaks to the gas station employee about mother and daughter that disappeared, this man's brother arrives. He is the deputy and already knows about Jarod's situation, offering to take him to the only inn there. But Jarod refuses, saying that he'd rather walk. In the inn, Jarod sees another part of the tape, in which mother and daughter are checking in there. He asks the inn keeper if he knows something about them, but he says he doesn't. Then, Jarod asks for the same room they were in. After climbing the stairs, the inn keeper calls someone over the phone and says that he suspects Jarod. When Jarod gets into his room, he watches the part of the tape of when they arrived to that same bedroom. The daughter thinks someone is watching her. Jarod goes to the place where it was supposed to have been someone and finds a cigarette butt and doesn't notice that the sheriff is watching him. Jarod recalls a simulation he did, in which he had to get inside the victim's mind. So, he visits all the places visited by mother and daughter and finds the mother's wallet, as well as a necklace. Jarod goes to the gas station to get the part he needed. There, he is given a straw doll similar to the girl's. The sheriff questions Jarod about his stay, but Jarod doesn't answer him.

Miss Parker wants to know if Broots has found Edna. Listening to the postcard again, Miss Parker remembers a charity place called "Redemption Home" that Catherine used to visit. So, they decide that Edna must be there.

Jarod goes to where the mother, Nancy Wright, lives and talks to her husband, Ted. It amazes him that he says that he spoke to his wife recently. When he leaves, he hears Ted saying that someone was there asking questions. Jarod discovers that he has a high life insurance on his wife and daughter.

Miss Parker, Sydney and Broots arrive to the institution, where there's already been someone looking for Edna. Miss Parker gets into the room and finds Raines covering his wife's body with a sheet: she's dead. Raines says that she took an overdose, but Sydney doesn't believe that Edna would take her own life.

Jarod is decided to tell what he knows about Nancy and Lee Wright's disappearance, but has to think twice when he sees that the sheriff himself is talking with Ted Wright. Later, when Jarod is on the road, one of his tires is shot and he looses control of the car. When he regains conscience, he is tied to a chair and in the presence of the sheriff, the inn keeper and Ted Wright. Jarod accuses Ted of killing his wife and daughter to get the money from the insurance and they accuse Jarod of being the kidnapper. They end up agreeing in joining forces, because they now know that the kidnapper is demanding money.

Sydney tells Miss Parker that, as Edna's therapist, he doesn't believe that she would commit suicide. Broots gets back to Raines' office to see if he can find anything else.

While they are waiting for the kidnapper's call, Jarod tells Ted to try to speak with his wife and he does. Meanwhile, they're waiting for the kidnapper's arrival, but Raymond is shot, what leads them to believe that there are two kidnappers.

Broots tells Miss Parker that he is never going to Raines' office again and then, he tells her that he only found a reference to section G 14-6. Miss Parker realizes that it means section G, row 14, plot 6 and that it is her mother's grave. Because Jarod said to keep digging, and despites Broots' lack of courage to do so, Miss Parker is going to the cemetery.

In the sheriff's office, Jarod realizes that there is a reflex on Lee's sunglasses. He enhances the image and discovers that the kidnapper is the deputy and then he assumes that his brother is the other one. Jarod also finds out that they are in a mill, because of what Nancy said to her husband.

At the cemetery, Broots and Miss Parker start digging, despite the fact that Broots doesn't want to. Miss Parker says that Jarod would never lead her there just to torment her.

In the mill, Lee runs away and the deputy goes after her. Jarod arrives and saves Nancy from Kent, the employee from the gas station, and then goes after Lee. Jarod saves her and beats the deputy.

At the cemetery, Broots and Miss Parker get to Catherine's coffin. Broots opens it, but finds it empty.

While talking over the phone with Jarod, Miss Parker finds out that he didn't know that her mother wasn't in her grave, but that Edna did. Jarod says to Miss Parker that she could have trusted Edna, who knew all the secrets, in opposition to her family. He also tells her that Catherine wanted to protect her from the truth and that life is a "Mirage", that the things that scare you the most, can be the things that save your life. He disconnects the call and stares at the straw doll.