Thrown out of two high schools, the police department and law school, Stephanie Romano, former bad girl, sophisticated, educated, but blue collar to the core is moderately bisexual and in love with suede and leather. Then one dark evening she walks into a nightmare, finding her long time best friend and party girl, NYPD detective Gwen Galligan hanging from her belt, an apparent suicide. Not believing it for a second she cleans up the scene and arranges it to look like the homicide she knows it is.With the evidence she's purloined, Stephanie, daughter, sister and niece of cops, explores Gwen's shocking double life and the private investigations she was running on the Russian mafia and an Internal Affairs detective.Not only is her life threatened but the official police investigation soon focuses on her as the prime suspect and allegedly spurned lover. On the run from the mob and the police, she finds herself taking refuge with an expensive Manhattan madam while working with the aid of her relatives to discover Gwen's real killer.95,000 words