Chicago Sun-Times Reporter Paul Crawford is asked to investigate a series of recent murders he eventually calls the 'Houdini Victims'. He begins with the investigation of a corporate executive who vanishes from a parking garage in the Chicago Loop, without a trace. The most unusual fact about this crime is that there is no body, no DNA evidence, no surveillance cameras, and no fingerprints.
Mark Stelter, CEO of Eradication, Inc., has found a niche and a marketable demand for those who wish to eliminate their worst enemies. For the price of $99,900, he has a stable of professional killers who can abduct any victim and make them disappear. With the help of his affiliate company, Eco-Green Environmental Consultants, he has the chemicals, the facilities, and the personnel to make any murder victim vanish without a trace. He conducts his covert corporation like any other corporate entity, with a board of directors meeting each month and dividend declarations to his shareholders. But when one of the directors attempts to resign, things start to get complicated. Stelter sends his killers to track down and assassinate the former shareholder. With a section in the director's contracts barring them from resigning and signing their own death warrants, the shareholders of Eradication Inc. are now getting nervous.
As the victims continue to vanish, Paul Crawford continues to investigate the environmental company and how they are connected to the recent Chicago murders. With the shareholders of Eradication Inc. wishing to resign and make a deal with the Chicago P.D., Mark Stelter struggles to keep his Board of Directors unified with an iron fist.
It is now only a question of time, before either the reporters or the shareholders become the next vanishing victims of Eradication, Inc.
