Predator

Benton Wesley is working on a secret project involving convicted killers, one of whom appears to confess to an even higher number of murders than the authorities had known about. It is a project that gives Scarpetta deep disquiet, as does the behaviour of her niece Lucy, who is spending too much time drinking and indulging in casual pick-ups in cheap bars.

The Academy is called in to assist in the discovery of a young woman's remains in Massachusetts. She has been tortured, sexually abused, her body tattooed with handprints. The same sort of handprints Lucy saw on her latest pick-up. Meanwhile, Scarpetta and Marino are investigating the disappearance of a family in Florida. A neighbour has appealed to them directly, insisting that the local police are not taking the case seriously. But as they search and find the tell-tale signs of abduction rather than disappearance, they also discover than somebody had assumed the caller's identity, and she is now dead. They've been set up. And it becomes terrifyingly clear that someone is tracking their every move.