Dyan Strother has an unusual proposition: Let her participate in solving the eight-year-old murder of her friend—a murder no one knows has been committed—and she will be a cooperative protectee. Deputy U.S. Marshal Robert Mackie has little choice but to accept. As the only member of The Janus Project available to be her protector, he would have his hands full if she remained true to her nature of misbehaving. Besides, looking into a cold case that had never been hot, especially one in a small Nebraska town, was just the kind of innocuous task he needed. He was wrong.