If a city is to grow, it is sometimes necessary to go downward first, into the layers of earth and the mounds of detritus left behind like a snake`s skin from earlier periods. Usually, there`s nothing much to be discovered in the holes that will become the foundation of new buildings: some stones, old wood, broken bottles. Fifty feet from Wall Street, where New York City began, some urban archaeologists have sifted through the layered years and uncovered the usual and then they found the unusual: the burned bones of a man murdered three hundred years ago. For magazine columnist Kay Engels, the body, discovered by her friend Vera, might make an interesting story ... if anything can be learned about what happened in the tavern where the murder probably was committed. For the moment, though, the site is just a news item . . . until another very contemporary murder takes place and the story turns deadly. From Little Moscow in Brooklyn`s Brighton Beach to the top of the skyscrapers lifting Manhattan ever higher, Kay digs into the world of real estate development and finance, unearthing a blueprint for murder that now has her name right at its foundation.