In hot legal water and court-ordered therapy for having assaulted a potential child molester, Tess Monaghan is more than ready for a distraction So she agrees to look into a series of unsolved homicides that date back over the past six years despite the fact that the assignment originates in part from a most troubling source wealthy Baltimore benefactor Luisa O'Neal, who was both instrumental in launching Tess's present career and intimately connected with the murder of Tess's former boyfriend