Silent Witness begins in 1967, in a small Midwestern town. Seventeen-year-old Tony Lord, Lake City's star athlete, seems destined for great things. His driving ambition is precisely what attracts Alison Taylor, the daughter of the town's leading family, and it is what sets Tony apart from his 2 closest friends: Sam Robb and Sam's girl, Sue Cash. Suddenly everything changes. Alison Taylor is brutally murdered, and Tony is the number one suspect. The town turns against him. His friendship with Sam is destroyed. And Tony leaves Lake City, vowing never to return. Twenty-seven years later, an urgent phone call from Sue changes Tony's life once more. For Tony Lord is now a San Francisco lawyer - a relentless advocate dedicated to the defense of his clients. Sue's plea for help is one he cannot ignore: her husband, Sam Robb, now the vice principal of Lake City High School, is suspected of the murder of a female student. In seeking to save him, Tony must confront not only the fear that Sam is a murderer, but the concealed passions and buried truths that underlie Alison's death so long ago.