A state senator lies dead in an alley behind his own fundraiser. A single wound. A missing knife from nowhere. And the faint scent of expensive cologne hanging in the air like an accusation.

Detective Sarah Grimes has worked scenes like this before. But not like this. Not with two hundred suspects in evening wear. Not with the victim's wife arriving in pearls and composure. Not with a governor's aide who shouldn't have been there... and has now vanished.

Everyone at the Grand Hotel that night had something to protect. Grimes just has to figure out which one of them decided murder was the price of protection.