Artist's Proof — Gordon Cotler

Ex-cop Sid Shale took early retirement from the NYPD and now relishes the peace and quiet of home -- a beach front bungalow in a small Long Island village where the latest "crime spree" is a rash of bicycle thefts. Sid now has two responsibilities: to follow his dream of being a full-time artist and, with the help of his agent/ex-wife, to sell enough of his paintings to pay his daughter's college tuition bills. Then a sixteen-year-old girl is murdered a few houses down the shore from Sid. In just a few short hours everyone, from the inexperienced village cops to the girl's mother, knows that she'd once modeled for Sid -- in the nude. Whether he likes it or not, he's back in the crime-solving business, this time to save his own skin.