Fred Davidson has spent decades defending the accused in Boulder’s courtrooms, his solace found waist-deepin the cool rush of a mountain stream, fly rod in hand. But when a corpse surfaces in his quiet fishing spot, that sanctuary shatters—and with it, the illusion that he could ever keep work and life separate. What begins as a shocking discovery spirals into a journey through memory and consequence. As Fred is pulled into the investigation, he finds himself revisiting the cases that shaped him, the compromises that haunted him, and the justice he thought he understood. A novel that blurs the line between fiction and lived experience, this is a story of a man forced to confront not only a crime—but the cost of a career spent in the umbra of the law.