- When five bodies turn up in the waters of Burman City, its illusion of safety is shattered, and Mayer Hackett will stop at nothing to see the peace returned.
- Burman City is in flux. Always cosmopolitan, this small city is seeing itself reborn as young families with money trade sunshine for safety and urbanity. Located in the Northwest, Burman City almost never has a sunny day. Skies are consistently gray, and it rains nine months out of the year. Mayor Hackett, a sophisticated, albeit tough talking woman in her fifties, is the leader of this burgeoning city. As her bid for reelection draws near, she is currently floating a bond to erect a huge sports stadium to draw revenues and potentially a top football franchise. But Burman City has a problem. There's a serial killer out there, and the Mayor wants that kind of press like she wants an outbreak of the plague. For the city, as well as for her own personal interest, she calls an all-out war on crime, led by the ever political Captain Franklin.
- Burman City is in flux. Always cosmopolitan, this small city is seeing itself reborn as young families with money trade sunshine for safety and urbanity. Located in the Northwest, Burman City almost never has a sunny day. Skies are consistently gray, and it rains nine months out of the year.
Mayor Hackett, a sophisticated, albeit tough talking woman in her fifties, is the leader of this burgeoning city. As her bid for reelection draws near, she is currently floating a bond to erect a huge sports stadium to draw revenues and potentially a top football franchise.
But Burman City has a problem. There's a serial killer out there, and the Mayor wants that kind of press like she wants an outbreak of the plague. For the city, as well as for her own personal interest, she calls an all-out war on crime, led by the ever political Captain Franklin.
But getting prostitutes off the street and nailing petty criminals only takes manpower away from detective Ed DeLongpre's quest for the killer. DeLongpre is a long-time police veteran with a history of honors, but that hasn't kept him from losing a sense of self, almost to the point of burning out and losing his reason to keep doing this impossible job. His men, particularly his partner, Mike McGivern, know he's a great cop, but worry he's lost the ability to " play the game " and stay on Franklin's good side.
And far from uninvolved in this quest for the killer is a small cadre of old time crime bosses, four Irish immigrants who worked their way up from graft to the leadership of the main crime families in Burman City. These men see the Mayor's war on crime as nothing but a detriment to all their businesses, legit and otherwise. They see families staying home, so their restaurant supply business falters. No one's out looking for the company of hookers, and drugs barely make it past the city limits. And these men are far too old to start over. Even temporary loss of revenue will financially impact their plans for comfortable retirement.
So while the force has DeLongpre, the crime lords call in a specialist of their own - Johnnie Gault, the one man they can trust to find the killer and eliminate him. Johnnie is in his prime and a candidate to take over for the bosses. He's also the perfect man for the job, since he is the only man in all their network who has never been caught. If this killer can evade the police, then Johnnie can find him, knowing exactly how that's done.
But Johnnie has an equivalent to Franklin in three other middle management crime bosses, who see Johnnie as a threat to their rise. Johnnie has to prove who's boss in this operation before he can go after the killer.
The main story follows DeLongpre and Johnnie in their parallel search for the killer. Neither becoming friends nor working together, they operate independently, gathering clues and investigating both inside and outside the law.
The fact that Johnnie has a young daughter and wife only adds to his desire to see this man caught. Meanwhile, DeLongpre's estranged daughter is the
Mayor's right hand whom, he believes has been set up to take the fall when she's made liaison to the task force.
In odd and disturbing flash backs, we see that this man killed his sister when he was a boy because she was suffering abuse at the hands of her father, a violent man whose actions are ignored by his drunken wife, the killer's mother. We learn that the boy was institutionalized, but once grown and let out, he had not lost his desire to "save" victims.
This man's trigger to his memories and to his violent tendencies is, sadly for Burman City, storms. Ironically, he works as an engineer for the Water Reclamation and Treatment Works, a city agency that regulates the storm pressure in the lakes, sewers, drains and nearby spill-over area.
The climax occurs as Johnnie and DeLongpre both find leads directly to this man, MILO. As the Mayor is breaking ground for the stadium and while families are enjoying free hot dogs and re-election speeches, a storm is brewing and Milo is on the ground to choose another victim to be "saved".
As the storm breaks, Milo is leading another victim into his domain - the underground tunnel system. But the victim runs free as Johnnie distracts Milo and chases him into the tunnels....DeLongpre is not far behind.
Now the chase takes place in the underground tunnels where Milo has the knowledge and the edge. Johnnie and DeLongpre must work together, to save themselves, and each other, as the water pressure is rising. Soon the engineers at the Water and Power station must let the pressure off the main water system and send thousands of tons of rushing water into the tunnel system-where Johnnie and DeLongpre have trapped the killer.
Underground, Milo meets his death as the wall of water hurtles towards them with the power of a locomotive. Johnnie and DeLongpre help save each other's lives and reach safety. Before DeLongpre can realize he's above ground and safe-Johnnie has disappeared, back into his world.
By story's end, Johnnie is a new leader of the crime world in Burman City. DeLongpre is taking a leave of absence to get his head together and, hopefully, get his relationship back on track with his daughter - a daughter who has been fired by the Mayor, and used as a scapegoat in her quest for re-election.
Maybe there's room for new trust between her and DeLongpre. Maybe the world of crime will be better run, and hence, Burman City as safe as before, with Johnnie in charge. But the last image we have is the smooth, shimmering evening waters, as if they were just waiting...
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