<I>I'm not who I used to be....</I>The remark, whispered by a stranger on the street to Irene Kelly, becomes all the more unnerving when the newswoman realizes she knows the man. He's Lucas Monroe, her former college instructor who had looked forward to a brilliant future. Now he's a derelict in hiding, an unlikely suspect in blackmail and murder. What happened to Monroe's life strikes Irene as bizarre. But it's what happens to him in death that fills her with dread. Her long-lost mentor is found murdered, and whatever the picturesque town of Las Piernas is hiding has made some people very rich, very guilty, and very dangerous.