In the beginning of the novel there are two teenage guys named Dennis Monroe and Jason Rourke. They are at a birthday party and get bored so they decide to leave and go for a drive in the city (Washington D.C.). While driving through a run down neighborhood they see a man holding a gun, the man tells them to pull over and they do. Then he forces Jason and Dennis to get out of the car and the man with the gun searches them for money and finds only $20. Jason quickly grabs the kidnappers hand and soon after Dennis helps. In a struggle for the gun a shot is fired which hits the gunman in the foot, then another shot is fired which goes through the floor of the car. As the wounded gunman is on the ground, Jason and Dennis quickly get in the car and drive away hearing a thud on the bumper of the car as the gunman hits the ground. They speed away nearly crashing into a green sport utility vehicle in their hurry to get out of there. While driving away they search for the slug from the shot that was fired, they find it, and throw it in a river. .
In the morning, they hear the news about an undercover cop being killed at the spot they were at last night. Only he was burned beyond recognition and they could only identify him by the cloths that were on him. It couldn't have been Jason and Dennis that killed him, if the guy was burned beyond recognition, but the only car that was spotted that night was Dennis's. On the walk to school Dennis thought he saw the green SUV that he saw the night before. During the day at school Dennis and Jason buy a kit to fix the holes in the carpet of a car from the bullet. On the walk back to Dennis" house where the car is, they find a police officer there that asks them questions about where they were last night. They tell him about the birthday party and then about going to the river and the police officer leaves assuming that everything is all right. Over the next day all Jason and Dennis keep hearing about is the undercover cop murder.
