When Detective Sergeant Duncan Hatcher is summoned to the home of Judge Cato Laird in the middle of the night to investigate a fatal shooting, he knows that discretion and kid-glove treatment are the keys to staying in the judge's good graces and keeping his job. At first glance, the case appears open-and-shut: Elise, the judge's trophy wife, interrupted a burglary in progress and killed the intruder in self-defense. But Duncan is immediately suspicious of Elise's innocent act. His gut feeling is that her account of the shooting is only partially true--and it's the parts she's leaving out that bother him. Duncan investigates further and quickly finds his career, as well as his integrity, in jeopardy--because he can't deny his increasing attraction to Elise Laird, even if she is a married woman, a proven liar, and a murder suspect.--From publisher description