A Trauring

The Strawberry Birthmark A Trauring

Amy Clear has left the New Orleans Police Department to set up shop as a Private Investigator. Her next job seems simple enough-Find Lucas Doublet, who ran away two years ago at age 18. The boy's father, handsome Ryan, hires Amy to trace Lucas and bring him back to New Orleans to fulfill Grandpa Doublet's will, which will make young Lucas a rich man. An added bonus is Amy's romantic interest in the dad, which seems to be reciprocated. But once Amy and Paul drag the son away from his cover-girl model and bring him back home, disturbing facts come out: Lucas' baby sister murdered years ago by his mother, still a prisoner at the Louisiana Psychiatric Prison; and a suicide just a year ago by Ryan's twin brother. When Lucas confides to Amy that his father seems really to be his uncle Jeffrey, Amy and Paul feel driven to explore the truth. A visit to Amy's old confederate, the Orleans Parish Medical Examiner, seems to clinch the news, which pits Paul against Amy as he tries to dissuade her from continuing her liaison with the client of uncertain name and possible murderous past. And then Lucas gets sick. Very sick. Horribly sick, until Amy kidnaps him to bring to her doctor father. Is Ryan really Jeffrey? Why does he seem so indifferent about Lucas' illness? Will Lucas need a kidney transplant? And why won't Amy's lover let her spend any time in his kitchen?