After moving to the Cold Case unit, Detective Nikki Liska misses the rush of pulling an all-nighter and the sense of urgency when hunting a murderer on the loose - her current homicide case dates back twenty-five years, and there is little hope of finding the killer. Most of all, she misses her old partner, Detective Sam Kovac...Sam is having an even harder time adjusting to Nikki's absence, saddled with a green new partner younger than pieces of his own wardrobe. But he is distracted from his troubles by an especially brutal double homicide: a middle-aged husband and wife hacked to death in their home with a samurai sword. One woman might link these mysteries - but she is being watched. Can Liska and Kovac find her before it is too late?