Late August, Key West, the off-season, the dog days. Alex Rutledge, freelance and part-time crime-scene photographer, awakes to his first vacation day in months. Suddenly he gets an odd call from his old Navy friend, Zack Cahill, now a successful Chicago banker. Zack's drunk at Sloppy Joe's, demanding that Rutledge join him. Alex shows up eight minutes later. Cahill is gone.. "The day continues downhill. A high-noon murder in the tourist district, the ransacked apartment of a local bartender, and a chance encounter with Abby Womack, Cahill's ex-mistress, combine to convince Alex that Zack Cahill's disappearance may be linked to all of these events. An overnight fire and a drive-by shooting the next morning amplify the strangeness and danger.