A fugitive financier has looted eight million dollars from his company's shareholders and fled the country-or so the world believes. When a sharp-eyed investigator spots the man living in conspicuous seclusion in Rio de Janeiro, something doesn't add up. The fingerprints don't match. The money has vanished without a trace. And somewhere between New York, Kansas City, and a lonely stretch of Arkansas highway, the real trail begins.

Now two investigators-one chasing a dead man's footsteps, the other tracking a second-rate actor playing a very dangerous role-are closing in on a small Louisiana town with a deceptively ordinary bank at its center. The stolen millions are close. So is a killer's secret. And somewhere in the mud of an Arkansas farm, a strongbox waits to be found-by whoever gets there first.