Section 1

An early morning riding lesson turns to terror as small-town cub reporter Ed Riley discovers his friend Mark Torrence dead of a stab wound in his own riding stable. The police seemingly indifferent, Ed conducts his own investigation and is confronted with an intriguing cast of suspects: Marlena, Mark's unstable, alcoholic wife; Ben, the business partner who knows all his secrets; and the lovely but tight-lipped Annie. Complications arise when Joey Lorenzo, the local drug dealer, is also found stabbed with the same knife used to kill Mark. What is the connection?

As Ed is swept deeper into the case, he will risk his life to discover that things aren't always what they seem—neither his friends' mysterious past, nor the dark secret that lies beneath the sleepy exterior of a typical small town.