Defense attorney Mike Daley, ex-priest, ex-husband, ex-public defender, never expected to get a phone call from District Attorney Prentice Marshall Gates III, San Francisco's chief law enforcement officer and front-runner candidate for California attorney general. Friends they're not; Skipper Gates had led the charge to get Mike fired from his job as a partner in a prestigious law firm. But Gates needs Daley now, and needs him badly. He's just been arrested. A couple of hours earlier he woke up in an armchair in his hotel room and found the body of a young male prostitute in the bed. There's nothing in the mounting evidence, and certainly not in Gates's unpersuasive denials, to convince Daley and his partner, ex-wife Rosie, of his innocence. But even if he's lying, it's their job to defend him