An attorney and single mother, Nina Reilly runs her one-woman law practice in South Lake Tahoe, balancing compassion and cunning with a passion for justice. But Nina is wholly unprepared for her latest client - sixteen-year-old Nicole Zack, a rebel, a thief, and the best friend of Nina's teenage son, Bob. Did Nikki steal something from her uncle, a prominent plastic surgeon, and then kill him with an ancient samurai sword? The district attorney is trying Nikki as an adult and the charge is first degree murder.With the stakes this high, Nina calls in private investigator Paul Van Wagoner, her ex-lover and constant ally, whose bravado conceals a troubling personal secret. As Paul investigates the eerily coincidental death of the surgeon's son - killed in a plane crash the same night his father was murdered - Nina sorts through the twisting lies surrounding Nikki, uncovering a bitter struggle over a mining claim, enraged former patients, and two old crimes. Finally, Nina must confront the central question she needs to answer in order to save her client: What did Nikki really see the night of her uncle's murder? Read Less