AN OPEN-AND-SHUT CASE … OR WAS IT? It took the jury only 45 minutes to convict Gary Baxter of killing his wife, Connie, in an alcoholic blackout, and not even the defense attorney was surprised. The couple was widely known around town as "the Battling Baxters," and the case seemed as straightforward as they come. But a volunteer for Not Guilty Northern California, an advocacy group that challenges wrongful convictions, thinks Baxter might be innocent and asks Quill Gordon to do a little snooping around during his next fishing trip. In the Gold Rush village of Dutchtown, renowned for its lynchings back in the day, Gordon and his friend Peter Delaney find evidence that the Baxter case was not as simple as it seemed. That could mean the real killer is still walking the streets of Dutchtown — free, unsuspected, and ready to kill again to keep the truth from coming out.