In the beginning, it was all about money. Then things got personal.This is what Ed Gradduk tells private investigator Lincoln Perry when the two men are reunited for the first time in years. They were close once, best friends who roamed the same neighborhood streets and shared the same laughter and pain, until the day Perry made a decision that brought an abrupt, permanent end to the friendship. Now Gradduk is on the run, hiding from the police, who intend to arrest him on charges of arson and murder.When Perry succeeds in catching up with Gradduk in one of their old neighborhood haunts, he finds him full of drunken memories and muddled thoughts. Then Gradduk is killed in a violent confrontation with the police, and Perry can't walk away from the situation until he understands the forces that brought his old friend down. With the grudging assistance of his partner, Joe Pritchard, Perry begins an investigation that takes him from blue-collar bars to the offices of city officials. Perry and Pritchard soon realize that whatever Gradduk became involved with went well beyond a personal grudge. Also clear is that someone wants to see that the secrets Gradduk came close to uncovering stay buried - at any cost. Read Less