Ahmad, the bright star of the University’s Bio Chem department, was also an observant Muslim, and his violent murder has all the makings of a hate crime. But when Jess discovers Ahmad was secretly gay, the case becomes more complicated. To make matters worse, the murderer seems to delight in misleading the police, leaving Jess to wonder: is this a hate crime at all, or an elaborate cover up? Jess navigates the ambitious and cutthroat world of academia, squaring off with a brilliant sociopath who just might have committed the perfect murder.

When a video of Danny's partner, Jim Perry, beating his Confidential Informant is caught on tape and televised, Danny and Perry are suspended. Graci has Jess take over their ongoing investigation: the shooting of Scott Flanigan, an innocent bystander caught in gang crossfire at a skating rink. But when Jess discovers that Flanigan was actually the target of the shooting, the case blows open. Digging deeper to find a motive, Jess suspects the killer used the gang's notorious rivalry as a decoy for a crime of passion.