Chapters 1 - 10 Summary

Chapter 1: Dr. Kay Scarpetta slows her rental SUV to watch the demolition of her old office building in Richmond, Virginia. Caught by surprise, she had been unaware that the building where she worked for many happy years is being torn down. Former police captain Frank Marino listens from the passenger seat as she complains. Scarpetta has flown in from her home in Florida at the request of her successor, Dr. Joel Marcus, the current chief medical examiner of Virginia. Dr. Marcus has asked her to consult on a difficult case: a fourteen-year-old girl, found dead in her own bed, with no apparent cause for her death. This is Scarpetta's first trip back since she was fired for political reasons by the former governor. It is a homecoming for Marino as well, who had once been a homicide detective working closely with...