[close] Everything has come out in the wash for artist Mandy Dyer since she inherited Dyer's Cleaners. Her divorce is behind her, her future is secure, her heart is healed. Mandy's friendship with Kate Bosworth, proprietor of an antique clothing store, dates from their halcyon days of working at street fairs and dreaming great dreams. And the dress Kate wants Mandy to clean hails from another era too, a genuine 1920's Fortuny. Kate calls the creation in blue the find of her career: a ten -dollar purchase worth thousands. Its real cost is her life.

Within days Mandy finds Kate murdered in her ransacked apartment, and the memory haunts her. Worse, so does the killer, evidently looking for the Fortuny. Now Mandy is searching flea markets and garage sales to unravel the mystery of where Kate found the dress. But the clues to Kate's death are as slippery as silk--until Mandy realizes that like Kate, the threads of past and present are weaving her destiny. And it's time to face a hard truth, a chilling betrayal...and a murderer's rage. [close]