Santa Fe detective Denise Aragon must outsmart and outrun corrupt lawyers and judges to stop a celebrity artist who kills for his supplies. The latest victim is the wife of a man she hates: the cold-hearted criminal lawyer, Walter Fager. For the first time in his life he wants the police to succeed. But his twisted protege, Marcy Thornton, gleefully defends the killer using maneuvers Fager never imagined. Aragon pits lawyer against lawyer to keep her case on life support and enlists the FBI to bypass a state judge trading rulings for Thornton's sexual favors. The lead FBI agent reminds Aragon too much of the dead boyfriend who haunts her dreams. He wants romance. She can't handle it.
Aragon badly misjudges Fager's grief and Thornton's power. The killing ends. But not the way she planned.
