Trace

Now working as a freelancer out of South Florida, Dr. Kay Scarpetta goes back to the city that rejected her five years before. The chief medical examiner of Richmond, Virginia, who was newly appointed, says he needs Scarpetta's assistance to solve a puzzle of a crime. But Scarpetta discovers upon her arrival that nothing is as she had anticipated: Her previous lab is about to be demolished; her old assistant chief has personal issues that he won't discuss; the attractive FBI agent, whom Scarpetta detests from once, tinkers with the investigation; and the incompetent chief wasn't the one who originally asked for her.

Without support from coworkers Benton and Lucy, who are entangled in what seems to be a stalker's unrelated attempt at rape, Scarpetta is forced to investigate the death of a fourteen-year-old girl using the tiniest traces of evidence, which only the most diligent investigators can find. In order to make the dead talk and disclose the depressing reality, which could be more than even she can handle, she must follow the winding paths and investigate the peculiar details.