Posadas Register reporter Linda Real barely survives her nighttime patrol with one of Undersheriff Bill Gastner's deputies. He is killed by a more accurate shotgun blast than the one that ruins her face. Teamed with his intuitive, observant detective Estelle Reyes-Guzman and her usual sharp eye for physical evidence, Bill implicates Tammy Woodruff, the thrill-seeking daughter of the local Republican County Chairman, in the brutal assault. Before he can interrogate her, though, Tammy hightails it. Soon she is found crushed to death after her truck goes off the road while she's loaded with booze - in fact, far too much alcohol, for anyone to have consumed....