A World the Color of Salt

"Friends call me Smokey. I'm female, five five, bland blond, the right weight..."

Jerry Dwyer was a good kid--friendly, helpful, a bit goofy, perhaps. And he deserved better than to be gunned down in his parents' convenience store--snuffed by a pair of "stop-and-rob" killers who enjoyed watching him die.

"I was pretty untouchable before this. I could do babies and not cry. But this case got to me."

Time served as a stripper and a cop helped to harden Samantha "Smokey" Brandon--which helps her perform her present duties as a forensic specialist with cool detachment. But the senseless slaying of Jerry Dwyer has rocked Smokey's world. And now she will do whatever it takes to root out the sadists responsible. Because this corpse was a kid Smokey knew and liked. Because this time it's personal.