San Diego's Chief of Police, Ellen Wasserman, is so busy fighting a new drug war, she calls on her old friend and private investigator, Bishop Bone, to help solve the murder of an arrogant and hot-headed local celebrity, Charlie "Snapper" Cornwall. Movie star handsome and wealthy, Snapper is rumored to leech off elderly women and known as the figurehead for a very prosperous Taco Wagons Investment Company. The company franchises "Taco Wagons" to sell tacos and other Mexican food on sidewalks in small towns, and sells bonds for working capital. For a fee he can't turn down, Bone agrees to help Ellen, and accepts a temporary position with the San Diego police to investigate Snapper's murder. He starts his investigation with the Taco Wagons Company, but finds only apparently happy franchisees and satisfied bond holders. Profitable for franchisee "waggoneers" and investors alike, Bone can't find anyone associated with the company who'd want Snapper - and the capital he was raising - dead. He interrogates the one man with a motive, Snapper's tennis partner, Vince Valley, a depressed, retired lawyer, who gives politically charged and opinionated "people talks" at the La Jolla Rec Center every Saturday morning about the problems everyone faces. Vince and Snapper's last tennis match ended abruptly with a fight that caused Vince to storm off the court and default the match to Bishop and his partner, Ellen. Before Bone can finish investigating him though, Vince is also killed. Now, Bone has two murders to solve. He turns his attentions back to investigating the business activities of The Taco Wagons Company, headed by Walter McNally, and eventually broadens his investigation to include anyone with whom Snapper and Vince had contact. The cases end up much more difficult than he expected, and every lead he gets is a dead end. Everybody hated Snapper but he couldn't find his killer. And nobody hated Vince enough to kill him it seemed. With many suspects, but no one he can point to as the killer, or killers, the Mayor threatens to take him off the case unless he can make some progress. Bishop is about ready to give up and fly back to his Mississippi home on Indian Creek, when his last hunch pays off. But when Bone gets close to discovering who did what and why, he's almost killed as well.
