The five R&P Labs staff members travel south for a three-day scientific conference in San Diego, expecting nothing more exciting than sunshine, salsa and swimming pools. At least, they certainly aren't expecting one staff member to disappear and another to become a murder suspect when a controversial and unpopular scientist is found dead in his hotel room. Although they have traded the rainy Northwest for sunny California, the staff haven't lost their ability to stumble over homicides, and now they're caught up in a mystery whose solution is closer to home than they realize.