The menacing phone calls from a maniacally laughing stranger haunt Seattle private eye Thomas Black as he lies partially paralyzed in the hospital - plagued with memory loss and a monstrous sense of doom. Black must piece together the shards of an investigation that nearly killed him. And through the haze of nightmarish recollection, he starts to remember.... A curious couple offers Black a strange proposal: play guardian angel to an unlikely stalking victim - Billy Battle, a brooding ex-con with a psychotic history of unproven murder and mayhem. Hot on Billy's crooked trail is the straight-arrow ex-neighbor who helped send him up the river, and who just may want Billy dead for his own peace of mind. Then the mysterious, diabolical laughter on the phone extends his campaign of terror to Thomas Black, convincing the wily P.I. that he's getting close to something. But exactly what, he doesn't know. As Black wades deeper into a secret world of sadistic murder and pure evil, he finds himself up against an adversary far deadlier than he had ever imagined. And Black can't help but wonder if the last, wicked laugh will be on him....Playing guardian angel to a psycho ex-con and alleged murderer is no laughing matter for Seattle P.I. Thomas Black. It gets him battered, hospitalized, and stalked by a laughing madman playing a deadly game.