Herman Jackson has chosen St. Paul as his place of permanent exile from Detroit, where his former life as a bookie got too hot to hold. Now he leads a respectable, low-profile life as a bail bondsman, selling second chances to losers and looking over his shoulder. When a young woman named Amy Cox leaves Jackson a priceless antique violin as security for her brother’s bail bond, it’s really the beginning of an elaborate con game. But the game is barely underway when she is brutally murdered in front of Jackson’s office. And for reasons that make no sense, the police are calling him the prime suspect. That is, unless he gives them the violin “as evidence.” With his criminal past, Jackson can’t afford to be a prime suspect for jaywalking.
