Orleans Summer

Someone steals twelve mice from a government research lab. They're infected with bubonic plague, the Black Death.
In a remote government research laboratory near Waterbury, Connecticut, a lab manager discovers that twelve mice are missing from their specially constructed containment units. The mice have been infected with bubonic plague, the Black Death. She doesn't know who took them or why they were taken.
John Keene, who owns Keene Investigations and the only contractor for the government laboratory, calls in his daughter, Elizabeth Keene, a hard-boiled female detective. The company has a government contract to protect the facility and he's worried he'll lose all their government contracts if they are proven negligent.
Elizabeth Keene, bright, beautiful and one of the best investigators in the world, is angry because she has to give up her vacation. Even though Elizabeth is well educated, a karate expert and gorgeous, her father is from the old school—a hardboiled detective—and has instilled many of the old skills in his daughter. Elizabeth conceals a deep, dark, horrifying secret that is known only to a few close friends, and the police. Nathan Black, a professor at a local college brutally raped her when she was fourteen years old. She doesn't know his identity and has enhanced and pruned her investigative skills hoping to find the rapist so she can live her life in peace. She suffers from inescapable nightmares about the ordeal and sees the monster frequently in her dreams. Her father expected a son and ended up with a beautiful daughter. Elizabeth struggles to please her father, to fill the void in his life she created for him when she was born. Feeling she has to live up to his expectations, she strives to be the best she can be.
And then the nightmares really begin when she receives a mysterious call from a stranger. Elizabeth Keene knows she has heard the voice before, except she can't connect the voice with a face. The voice haunts her and eradicates any hope of peace until she can figure out who has been calling her. They have to race against the arrival of Hurricane Katrina as they search for the infected mce. Elizabeth knows it is going to be a close race and all the odds are stacked against her.