When birders discover the body of nature photographer Lester Burton on an island rookery, their first thought was that he had drowned in the large pond surrounding the island. But that didn't explain the dead alligator lying next to him or the bullet wound in his thigh. When Val Forster and Sam Pierson of Egret Bay Homicide get the case, it's two days old, and any clues left at the site have been compromised by difficulties in removing the bodies. An autopsy reveals that Burton died of a heart attack that was precipitated by a near-drowning. Did he fall in the water, or was he pushed? No boat could be located in the pond, so how did he get to the island? The estimated time of death meant he died shortly before the rookery had opened that day, so why had he gone there so early in the morning?
All Val and Sam are sure of is that Burton did not go out to the island alone, but they have no idea who was with him. Initially, they have little to go on except the coincidental presence of some of Burton's acquaintances, including a few with strong animus toward him, at a meeting in Egret Bay the weekend before his death. However, all of the attendees have alibis. When the detectives learn that Burton was involved in a project to develop an ecotourism site in Ecuador, their inquiries along that line are stymied when they discover that one of Burton's partners is somehow connected to a federal investigation into a Houston-based drug cartel.They are ordered by higher-ups to back off that line of inquiry and given 48 hours to solve the case or close it.
