Dr. Kay Scarpetta, now freelancing from south Florida, returns to the city that turned its back on her five years ago. In Trace, Scarpetta t ravels to Richmond, Virginia, at the odd behest of the recently appoin ted Chief Medical Examiner, who claims that he needs her help to solve a perplexing crime. When she arrives, however, Scarpetta finds that n othing is as she expected: her former lab is in the final stages of de molition; the inept chief isnt the one who requested her after all; h er old assistant chief has developed personal problems that he wont r eveal; and a glamorous FBI agent, whom Marino dislikes instantly, medd les with the case. Deprived of assistance from colleagues Benton and L ucy, who are embroiled in what first appears to be an unrelated attemp ted rape by a stalker, Scarpetta is faced with investigating the death of a fourteen-year-old girl, working with the smallest pieces of evid ence-traces that only the most thorough hunters can identify. She must follow the twisting leads and track the strange details in order to m ake the dead speak-and to reveal the sad truth that may be more than e ven she can bear.