This rape case is an exception: The victim is more than willing to testify. And there's abundant evidence to put the suspect behind bars. Just one thing bothers Detective Larry Millsaps. Young and beautiful Melissa Nelson seems to know almost too much about the evidence needed to convict her attacker. The unfolding investigation unearths a brutal track record on the part of the suspect...and a stunning revelation of Melissa's own haunting past that...

Beth Wright, a newspaper reporter, is hot on the trail of a story that could expose something very ugly at the St. Clair Children's Home. Someone else is on Beth Wright's trail, hoping to make sure her story never sees the press. Between them stands Nick Hutchins, a social worker who finds his own gut hunches about the children's home increasingly confirmed, first by Beth's investigation, then by a high speed attempt on her life, and finally by an...