A woman pauses in a the hallway of a darkened San Diego beach house—listening for moment when she can flee before her companion notices she’s gone. A man outside watches the same mansion through binoculars, waiting for the sign that he can evade the alarm system and break-in the back door with his arms and equipment. So begins this riveting new tale involving Paul Madriani and his latest case—that of a woman accused of a very bloody murder and a million-dollar heist—a trial that will unravel a careful conspiracy involving rare coins, an ex-CIA agent, a disaffected former Soviet scientist, and a missing nuclear device only now being prepared for transport to the United States.