Detective Eve Dallas and her partner, Peabody, are following up on a senseless crime. This is Peabody's first case as primary detective, but she soon stumbles upon a tricky situation. Alone in the locker room after a workout, she overhears two officers arguing and realizes that both are guilty of corruption and murder and willing to kill to keep their secrets.

The scene in the West Village studio appears to be classic crime-of-passion: two wineglasses by the bed, music playing, and a young sculptor named Ariel Byrd with the back of her head bashed in. But when Dallas tracks down the wealthy Upper East Side woman who called 911, the details don't add up. Gwen Huffman is wealthy, elegant, comforted by her handsome fiancé as she sheds tears over the trauma of finding the body-but why did it take an hour to...