An eighteen-year-old boy lies dying of leukemia. Kyle's only hope is a bone marrow transplant, but no one in his wealthy Virginia family can safely supply it. His last chance lies in finding his father, a man who disappeared before he was born. Police and private investigators can find nothing on a trail eighteen years cold. Kyle's family has nowhere to turn until they learn of a certain troubleshooter, a self-styled knight errant in dark glasses named Hannibal Jones. He has two weeks to find the missing man, but his search turns up much more: A woman who might be Kyle's illegitimate sister, the woman who could be her mother, and the man who may have killed Kyle's father. Hannibal follows a twisting, winding path of deception, conspiracy and greed, from Washington to Mexico, pursuing the truth. But with each step closer to it he gets, the danger grows.   

The stranger drew Floyd’s attention the second he walked into the club. Something marked him as a dangerous man, but it took Floyd a minute to figure out what. Like everyone else at The Tip Top that night, he was black—actually, light skinned for a black man, kind of a golden color, with wavy brown hair cut short. He wasn’t particularly big, barely six feet and a little on the thin side. His clothes didn’t stand out. He wore a basic black suit and tie.

A man’s eyes would sometimes draw Floyd’s attention, but that couldn’t be it this time. The stranger wore very dark wraparound shades. As the man moved around the crowded tables toward him, Floyd realized it was the stranger’s attitude that had drawn his eye. This man carried a calm confidence seldom seen in a place like this in Northeast Washington D.C.

“You need something?” Floyd asked as the stranger stopped in front of him. He certainly wouldn’t rise from his chair for a nobody, and Joey and Lawrence would take care of any trouble, if anybody was stupid enough to start some. The stranger crossed his hands in front of himself, hands covered by black leather gloves. The man looked bored.

“Just to deliver a message,” the stranger said. “It’s from Jewel. She says she quits.”

The music in the Tip Top was throbbing so loud Floyd could not make out the lyrics, although he could feel the beat. It made conversation almost impossible. But he heard this man clearly.

“And you are?”