Ben Dill's sister, homicide detective and landlady, dies in a car bomb explosion. Bill takes some time off from his work for a Senator on a committee of some sort looking into political and intelligence skullduggery, to go and bury her and grieve and since this is a thriller maybe find her killer. Meantime he meets up with a very old friend who is one of the subjects of that investigation back in Washington and discovers that it looks very much like his sister was on the take, something Ben completely refuses to believe. The two plots twist and intertwine, skilfully blended by Thomas the master.