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Martin County Sheriff Detective Marcus Brubaker, worn down by fatigue and personal grief, is jolted awake by his ringing phone. Outside his condo, blue-white lightning flashes across the midnight sky, followed by thunder that shakes Fairmont, Minnesota, to its core. Brubaker drives into the atmospheric hell to investigate a brutal hit-and-run murder that leaves the victim’s face unrecognizable. Local obstetrician Bradley Ferguson was hit and dragged while changing a flat tire on his Jeep Wrangler in a deluge of rain. His lifeless body lies in the muddy water covering a rural Martin County highway. Brubaker recognized the Jeep’s vanity license plate, DRSTORK. A streak of green paint on a lug wrench leads to the murder weapon, a 1955 Studebaker truck found nearby. Evidence points toward Trevor Jacobi as the culprit behind the steering wheel of the death mobile. He is missing with a four-hour head start. A second victim, Jacobi’s elderly father, Earl Jacobi, is found dead in the truck registered in his name. Brubaker now has two murder inquiries. His probes uncover layered family dynamics, revealing abuse and estrangement. Leadership conflicts within the Sheriff’s Department hinder progress. The chase for Jacobi extends from Minnesota to Florida, revealing his aggressive tendencies and criminal schemes, including money laundering, illegal immigrant shakedowns, and offshore drug trafficking, plus a missing million dollars linked to Jacobi’s Cuban-American boss. Brubaker and Tampa police clash over jurisdictional authority once Jacobi is captured. The case deepens with the suspected double murder-for-hire of a Tampa Civil Rights advocate and the Cuban-American’s wife. All evidence points to Jacobi and his former boss, who has fled to Cuba. A vulnerable, unreliable witness to Jacobi’s crime spree is murdered along with two officers escorting him to protective custody. Brubaker relies heavily on Corporal Linda Michaels, whose friendship, training, and instincts support him. Their bond is both professional and emotional. She is in love with Brubaker. He wavers, nostalgically unable to let go of old memories. The investigation climaxes with violent clashes against hired thugs from Florida attempting to recover stolen cash. Michaels’s marksmanship saves Brubaker’s life at one point. Ultimately, it comes down to Brubaker and Jacobi in a fight to the death, leaving the detective injured and needing hospital care. Jacobi is worse for wear, requiring multiple surgeries, lying in pain and agony behind steel bars, wearing Brubaker’s handcuffs.
