A Very Private High School

Santa Monica, California, is home to the homeless, a city of haves and have nots, ripe for dirty politicians, psychopathic homeowners, car thieves, and celebrity troublemakers. A vicious carjacking maims a firefighter that Homicide Detective Dave Mason of the Santa Monica Police Department used to tomcat around with. Carjackers up the stakes when a hit-and-run linked to them leads Mason to an elite private high school where a boiling controversy is already erupting over financial shenanigans. A hit-and-run fatality of the school’s administrator leads Mason to take a very close look at student activities and fundraising practices at the very private school. What he finds ties together some seeming coincidences that make this story much bigger than the puzzling violent deaths. The investigation suggests the school’s director likes bad boys and dark, hidden places. On sketchy evidence, Mason needs to convince the brass that funds from the embezzlement are filtering into an international theft operation. Everything changes when Ginger, the love of Mason’s life–and the school’s fundraiser– disappears. Fourth in the Detective Dave Mason of the Santa Monica Police Department series