RALPH LOFTEN ESQUIRE narrates his story of love for his wife, JULIE, whom he lost to cancer two years early. His life changes when he is seduced by a woman, TINA LAWRENCE, much younger then him. Their love affair becomes more serious as more encounters and time together increase. Tina is willing to marry Ralph but there is a major roadblock which would be a minor inconvenience for an attorney.
Ralph’s world is turned upside down when his son-in-law is murdered along with his extra-marital girlfriend. AMY ZACOUS, Ralph’s Daughter, and her lover, TATUM WILSTON, are implicated in the double murder. Ralph commits to defending Tatum but in doing so, loses support for his campaign for a seat on the county bench.
There are a couple of other persons of interest but Tatum and Amy are the prime suspects. That is until Ralph’s friend and investigative reporter PHIL BRESSLER, discovers information about Tina’s ex-husband. When Tina becomes missing, the focus of the investigation turns to Tina’s ex.
Ralph is distraught and decides to go to a cabin that Tatum claimed he was at when the double murders occurred to think and meditate. There he encounters Tina’s ex who vows to murder both Tina and Ralph.
An unexpected rescuer free the couple from deaths door and the two lovers move on to marry with the support of their family.
The ending brings all of threads together for a satisfying conclusion with each of the main characters playing a roll.
Phil Bressler, a semi-retired investigative reporter and his wife, Susan Taylor, are celebrating their wedding anniversary with their friends, Judge Ralph, and Tina Loften. The couples were married in a double ceremony the previous December. The celebration is interrupted when mysterious woman from the judge's past, enters the dining room. Nadine pleads with Judge Loften to help prove her husbands innocence. The wives are not happy with the intrusion and urge their husbands to not get involved. From the beginning Phil is uneasy about investigating a murder, but the prospect of winning a Pulitzer Prize piques his interest in the case. Susan is fearful that Phil might be killed in the process, but he agrees to help. The danger mounts when each of the suspects emerge. Phil narrates the mystery as well as showing us his passion for his wife.
Our narrator, Mike Jorgenson, tells us how murders committed by the beautiful Emma Schulz, in Portage, Wisconsin, affected the lives of many of the people living there. Capital crimes are rare in Wisconsin’s small communities. Still, Mike knows the stories behind each crime affecting his close friends and associates. Mike explains how the murders affected himself and especially his wife, Shauna Williams.
We learn about his unlikely romance with Shauna, the Columbia County Assistant District Attorney, and how their unlikely romance blossomed despite Mike’s insecurity with women.
Although he and Shauna are concerned when they learn that Amy, the office manager at Mike’s firm, was carjacked, they are shocked when they receive the news that Chaquan Simon, a local young black musician, was kidnapped after a hip-hop gig in Chicago. They knew Chaquan and his family very well. No one could imagine the two crimes were related.
A police detective is murdered, and Shauna has a motive. Mike manages to avoid a dalliance with another attorney representing the wife of one of his clients in a divorce proceeding. Roy Starsky called to report that he and his lover found a body in an abandoned car in northern Wisconsin. The vehicle was Amy’s, and the body was that of our hip-hop artist, Chaquan Simon.
Phil Bressler and his wife investigated the murder. They discovered that an unlawful militia was behind the murders, the kidnapping, and the carjacking. Phil takes a stray bullet to his thigh when the leaders of the militia are taken down in a raid by the FBI. Mike speculates that the woman killed in the shootout is Emma.
Nothing is what it seems, and Phil lies to Mike to get the background information for his investigation. He is nearly murdered, but were it not for his wife Susan, who is ultimately responsible for Emma’s demise.