A Lovely Way to Die

In continuing battles with his superiors about what they see as his heavy-handed tactics, womanizing Jameson Schuyler resigns as a Detective with the NYPD rather than be reprimanded or fired. His unemployment is short-lived as his lawyer friend Tennessee Fredericks, having seen the writing on the wall for Jim, hires him for a short-term job as bodyguard for his most recent client: wealthy-by-marriage Rena Westabrook, who is one of two charged in the murder of her older husband, Loren Westabrook, a known skirt-chaser himself. The other charged is Rena's playboy friend Jonathan Fleming, her assumed lover; their motive, according to the DA, being Loren's money. A proverbial trophy wife, seductive Rena admits behind closed doors that she stayed married to Loren for his money and is not too choked-up about his death irrespective of who killed him. Jim is not blind to her trophy-wife status, she who seems impervious to his very forward come-ons in his attraction to her. While Tennessee is concerned solely with getting an acquittal regardless of her guilt or innocence, Jim, in addition to shielding her from reporters in this very high profile case, can't help in his police detective mentality but to also try to find out the truth behind the murder. To do so, he needs to discover exactly what happened on the Westabrooks' quiet yet argument-filled drive home from the racetrack earlier in the day of the murder.