Good news doesn't come at 4 A.M. The call that comes in the predawn stillness of a warm Los Angeles night shocks Ariel Gold awake. A friend has been blinded. The assualt on Laya is brutal, the result tragic, the method insidious. The LAPD thinks it's a case of product tampering, with the "unlucky" Laya a random victim. Ariel's not so sure. As a correspondent for the TV newsmagazine Open File, she is in a unique position to satisfy her doubts. As a friend, she won't quit until she has. But the claims of friendship, Ariel soon finds out, can prove complicated -- and dangerous.