To Darby Shaw it was no more than a legal shot in the dark, a brilliant guess. To the Washington establishment it was political dynamite. Suddenly Darby is witness to a murder--a murder intended for her. Going underground, she finds there is only one person she can trust--an ambitious reporter after a newsbreak hotter than Watergate--to help her piece together the deadly puzzle.

Somewhere between the bayous of Louisiana and the White House's inner sanctums, a violent cover-up is being engineered. For someone has read Darby's brief. Someone who will stop at nothing to destroy the evidence of an unthinkable crime.