When a child’s skeleton is discovered during the excavation of the site for a new charter school being built in the Bronx, former teacher Sylvia Jensen is certain of only two things. She is sure that the remains are those of eight-year-old Markus LeMeur, her third-grade student who disappeared in the violent and tumultuous fall of 1968. And she is sure that his death was no accident.
Determined to find out who killed Markus and why, Sylvia again joins forces with investigative reporter J. B. Harrell and together they delve into the strikes and political protests of the late 1960s and corporate greed of the present. As Sylvia fights to make peace with her own past, she realizes that she missed her chance to save Markus, and she becomes driven to find his killer, before he can kill again.
When seven-year-old Anthony Little Eagle is found dead on the concrete patio beneath the balcony of a foster home, police and child welfare officials determine that it was a tragic accident. Sylvia Jensen, the foster care supervisor, comes to suspect that the boy's death may have involved foul play and she is launched on a journey to find the truth no matter what the cost. She forms an unlikely alliance with J.B. Harrell, an investigative reporter, to search for the killer, defying her superiors and risking her career-even her own life-to ensure that justice is done. In the process both Sylvia and J.B. are forced to face their own pasts and learn to live with them. At The Center is about the danger of secrets, the power of belonging and how much bravery it takes to finally close the distance between who we pretend to be and who we really are.