Cast out of academia due to an amorous indiscretion， Fritz Tullis retreats to his familys estate in southern Maryland. While photographing a rare whooping crane whos flown off course， he notices a plane land on his neighbors airstrip. Three men get off the plane， and Fritz sees one man shoot another. The victim is loaded onto the plane， erasing all evidence of a murder. Shocked by his sightings， Fritz searches for answers and finds that the owner of the airstrip is a highly placed official at the State Department with a long history of connections to the CIA， and that the missing dead man was a foreign diplomat. Now， Fritz is more determined than ever to uncover what may be a deadly government conspiracy. Teaming up with a Washington attorney， a local police detective， his own mother， and a sexy ornithologist， Fritz launches into a harrowing investigation of one murder that leads to many moreperhaps his own. J.F. Freedmans previous thriller， Above the Law (Dutton， 2/00)， was a Main Selection of The Literary Guild.