Synopsis

Welcome to the government of the District of Columbia, December, 1988 -- run by people like venal John Murphy, who is prepared to award a multi-million dollar contract to a company which is about to make him its vice-president, at a cool 150 thou – Aloysius Hightower, a cop with an anger management problem – and John Stone, whose appetites could (and perhaps will) bankrupt a city. Over it all, of course, presides the Mayor: Wendell F. Watson Jr. – a crack-smoking, Shakespeare-quoting, lyrically profane politico whose word is law in the Capital City. Watson has the resources to back his edicts, including the slithery P. Traum, a contract killer who also murders for sport when not worrying about the changed role of the electoral college in American politics.

In this infected environment, Evelyn Boone’s crime – sneaking into the Mayor’s office to review the proposal of a rival bidder – seems minor, almost wholesome. But when Evelyn, from her hiding spot, unwillingly witnesses an ugly row between the Mayor and his mistress, Sharon Scott, turn to murder she becomes the target of a gruesome woman-hunt that can only result in her death.

But: Hightower – who is sent, along with his dimwitted partner, Ronald Hawkins, on this mission of destruction – instead falls in love with the beautiful and resourceful Evelyn. And Evelyn, perhaps shrewdly, returns his affection. Together, they seek to turn the tables on the Mayor. But Watson is no soft touch: confronted with Hightower’s treason, he calls in P. Traum to bring all three of them down.

Traum is clever and relentless, but Hightower, Evelyn and Hawkins manage to blunder their way into the clear. Nonetheless, the Mayor seems certain to win, until FBI Agent Mitch Dennis – recruited from the bureaucratic backwaters of the agency by Evelyn’s friend, Yvonne Brown – is able to unravel the web of double-dealing and trace his way back to the murder of Sharon Scott.