Their murders are linked to Eddie's as well. The bullets in Susan are shot from the same gun that was used on Eddie. Somehow this is all related to Waddell. .
While Scarpetta and Marino are trying to figure out who is doing the murders, someone had been trying to destroy Scarpetta. Someone had tried to send a note from Scarpetta's computer terminal to another terminal that belonged to Ben Stevens, the morgue administrator. There was a newspaper article on Susan's death where her husband, Jason, made Scarpetta sound suspicious. The article made it seem like Scarpetta was paying Susan off. There was another article, which said that Scarpetta's fingerprints were on an envelope with three hundred dollars in her house. There also were files missing from her office. Dr. Scarpetta is trying to solve the murder cases and clear her name. She has the help of Marino, her niece Lucy, and FBI agent Benton Wesley.
Dr. Scarpetta solves the case with the help of other forensic investigators. They use evidence that was given to them and logic to solve these murder cases. The same murderer had killed Eddie, Jennifer, and Susan. Dr. Scarpetta figured that the murderer didn't mean to kill Jennifer. He had only wanted to find out what Waddell had told her about Robyn's murder. Jennifer and Waddell had a close relationship when he was on death row. He could've told her things that certain people don't want her to know. The AFIS identified the fingerprint from Jennifer's house as Waddell's, but that is impossible if Waddell was locked up. .
At first, Scarpetta and Marino thought that maybe the convict that was executed wasn't Waddell. They figured that somehow another person may have taken his place. They wanted to compare the executed man's prints with AFIS, but he was never fingerprinted. Susan never took his prints. It may seem irrational if Susan did purposely forget to take his prints however they knew she was a suspicious one.
