It's springtime in Detroit and Detective Sergeant "Fang" Mulheisen has settled in for a period of repose - he thinks. But when a young kid arrives with an E-mail cartoon message addressed to Mulheisen depicting a murder and an alluring young historian suddenly wants to know all about Grootka, Mulheisen begins a scavenger hunt to uncover the notebooks Grootka left behind. It turns out that Grootka knew a lot more than he ever told Mulheisen, or anyone. Such as what happened to Jimmy Hoffa one lonely weekend in an isolated African-American resort town on the Great Lakes, and the advice Grootka gave him: "When push comes to shove, kick is better." Mulheisen soon discovers that neither the young historian nor modern jazz's rising star is what he seems.