The story of a womanтАЩs obsession with money...power...prestige; married to a man with a shocking, secret past. ┬аWell-known, wealthy novelist, Paul Laszlo is found dead in his luxurious Hollywood Hills mansion, apparently the victim of a suicide. ┬аUpon further investigation by LAPD detectives, Joe Mallory and Derek Brooks, the suicide theory is ruled out. ┬аA ballistics report indicates Laszlo was murdered; a single gunshot wound to the head. ┬аAn intense investigation follows, with Diane Laszlo, the victimтАЩs wife, as the prime suspect. ┬аThe detectives zero-in on Mrs. Laszlo primarily because her first husband died in a mysterious boating accident, leaving her with an insurance settlement of $500,000. ┬аIn a divorce settlement with her second husband, Diane gained custody of their teen-aged son and a lump sum of $200,000. ┬аFurther probing into her background, reveals that Mrs. Laszlo was manipulative, a gross opportunist, a woman who would stop at nothing to get what she wants. ┬аWith greed as her motive, Mallory suspects Diane may have been involved in LaszloтАЩs death, but the detectives donтАЩt have a shred of evidence to arrest her.The storyтАЩs subplot involves the murder of a black prostitute at a Sunset Boulevard motel. ┬аThis is followed by a raid on an East L.A. apartment where the suspect, Juan Comacho manages to elude the police. ┬аLater, Comacho is arrested in a Spanish Harlem bar and extradited back to California by NYPD Det. Brad Shaner. ┬аIt is here that the two plots intersect. ┬аOffering a fresh look, a new perspective on the Laszlo murder, Shaner joins Mallory in reviewing the case file. ┬аViewing autopsy photos, Shaner recognizes Laszlo from a sexual assault arrest made in New York, almost twenty-eight years before. ┬аAt that time he was known as Paul Barac. ┬аAs the climax approaches, Mark, LaszloтАЩs stepson is interrogated. ┬аIn a tearful confession (told in flashback) the sixteen-year-old boy relates a year of sexual molestation by Laszlo, ending in MarkтАЩs desperate attempt to end it all...by killing his stepfather.
