Fair Game

"No cause for alarm", says Detective Jessie Drake on the evening news. "Be alert and wary of unfamiliar faces, lock your doors. We have several leads..". But as the newly appointed departmental spokesperson, Jessie knows full well that there are no leads. At least no sane leads. Just insane clues, left by a serial killer who is as playfully clever as he is cunningly dangerous. Five victims have been murdered thus far. Five different neighborhoods. The only link between them is the cause of death: each died by a lethal injection of curare. The police are stymied. Not since Spider Woman has anybody used curare, blow dart poison, as a murder weapon of choice. As the odd and mystifyingly obscure clues mount, something begins to click in Jessie's mind. Why do some of the bodies have bank deposit slips and money attached to them while one bears a parking ticket, of all things? Jessie can't quite put her finger on the connection. It's something from her childhood, something so familiar....Suddenly, Jessie figures it out, and she is stunned by the killer's twisted brilliance: the game he is playing is all too real. The gameboard is the city of Los Angeles and the winner claims his prize in blood.