In suburban Georgetown a killer s Reeboks whisper on the front floor of a posh home... In a seedy D.C. porno house a patron is swiftly garroted to death... The next day America learns that two of its Supreme Court justices have been assassinated. And in New Orleans， a young law student prepares a legal brief... 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 somone has read Darby s brief. Someone who will stop at nothing to destroy the evidence of an unthinkable crime.