Detective Milo Necalli, an energetic veteran investigator with the Phoenix Police Department's Violent Crime Bureau, is secretly delighted when he is assigned to investigate the death of a man who was found asphyxiated, shrink-wrapped inside an empty waterbed mattress. Since the man, Andy Montana, is holding the extension cord to the vacuum cleaner that killed him, it could conceivably be a suicide. But Milo suspects that anyone depressed enough to commit suicide would be too depressed to get that creative about it. And when he autopsy reveals Andy engaged in sex just before he died, Milo starts his hunt for the killer. CAUSAL CONNECTION follows a routine, if somewhat bizarre, death investigation that grows into a case filled with complexities and exposes corruption at the highest levels of local governments. It forces Milo and his team to draw on every bit of experience and talent they possess to bring all those responsible to justice.