It was a mystery what she was doing in that courtyard. A wicked winter storm raging with fierce winds made it highly improbable. She hated the cold. Yet, that's where her slain body was found dressed only in nightclothes.Was she forced into it? Coerced? Lured? Pursued?The blunt force trauma was clear. Not so, the motive. The victim had no enemies. She wasn't violated. Nothing was stolen. She was just murdered.Detective Cynthia "Syd" Brogan has to wonder how a quiet woman living a quiet life meets a violent death in a peaceful community of senior citizens.Was it a mistake, or was it a meticulous crime fashioned by a disturbed mind? Perhaps it was jealousy or greed? Could it have been revenge? It's hard to tell when the circumstances are distorted by a tangled history of disconnected motives stretching forty years into the past.