Betrayal

There are several examples of betrayal in the novel, and most involve Stone Barrington. The first episode of betrayal occurs when Stone is forced to leave the police department because of his knee injury. Though Stone had seen the doctor and done well on his department physical, his superiors use his injury as a way to force Stone out of the department and away from the Sasha Nijinsky case. Stone is pushed aside because others in the department, including his partner, Dino, are unsure if they can count on Stone to keep quiet regarding their main suspect, Hank Morgan. Stone feels betrayed, not just because of the way he was dismissed after so many years in the job he loves, but because in the end he would have kept quiet and gone along with whatever the department wanted. Stone would have betrayed Morgan's trust simply to keep his...