Her Final Breath (tracy Crosswhite, #2)

The second installment in the Tracy Crosswhite series follows Seattle homicide detective Tracy Crosswhite as she hunts a serial killer targeting exotic dancers, while a parallel investigation into a decade-old murder threatens to end her career.

One evening at the Seattle Police Combat Range, Tracy discovers a hangman's noose caught in the razor wire atop the gate. The noose resembles the one used to strangle Nicole Hansen, an erotic dancer found dead in a motel room on Aurora Avenue. Tracy had been lead detective on that case until her captain, Johnny Nolasco, reassigned it to the Cold Case Unit while she was in Cedar Grove investigating her sister Sarah's murder.

That same night, an unidentified man in a motel room watches the news coverage while a bound woman lies on the floor. He watches Looney Tunes cartoons, then presses a lit cigarette to the woman's foot.

Unable to sleep, Tracy searches the Homicide Investigation Tracking System (HITS), a regional homicide database, for cases matching Hansen's. She finds the murder of Beth Stinson, a young bookkeeper killed nine years earlier in her North Seattle home. Stinson was found hog-tied and strangled with a noose, her bed made, with no forced entry or robbery. Wayne Gerhardt, a technician who had serviced Stinson's home, was convicted based on a neighbor's identification and his fingerprints, but DNA on Stinson's clothing was never tested. The investigating detectives were Nolasco and his former partner, Floyd Hattie, making any inquiry politically dangerous for Tracy.

Tracy and her partner, Kinsington "Kins" Rowe, are called to another Aurora Avenue motel, where Angela Schreiber, a dancer at the Pink Palace strip club, has been found hog-tied and strangled like Hansen, with cigarette burns on her feet. They investigate the club's owner, Darrell Nash, and its floor manager, Nabil Kotar, while pursuing Walter Gipson, a schoolteacher whose fingerprints place him in the motel room. Gipson admits to a sexual relationship with Schreiber but denies killing her, and the evidence is insufficient to hold him.

A third victim, Veronica Watson, is discovered with identical staging. A motel owner reports Watson had been seen with a tall man in a suit, whom dancers call "Mr. Attorney." Chief Sandy Clarridge forms a task force and names Tracy lead detective. Nolasco supports the appointment, though Tracy later learns he hopes she will fail. Reporter Maria Vanpelt broadcasts a report confirming a serial killer the media nicknames "the Cowboy" for his use of rope, triggering a flood of tips.

Throughout the investigation, interspersed chapters reveal an unnamed man obsessively following Tracy. He watches her West Seattle home from the hillside behind her yard. Tracy notices unsettling signs, such as her toilet seat left up and her cat Roger locked behind a deadbolted door, but cannot confirm an intruder.

Tracy secretly enlists her boyfriend, Dan O'Leary, a Cedar Grove attorney, to investigate the Stinson case. Dan interviews eyewitness JoAnne Anderson, who admits she is nearsighted and was shown only Gerhardt's photograph before the lineup rather than a standard montage. He interviews Gerhardt's former defense attorney, James Tomey, who never tested available DNA. Dan visits Gerhardt at Walla Walla State Penitentiary, where Gerhardt maintains his innocence, explaining he pled guilty on Tomey's advice to avoid the death penalty. Dan locates Stinson's best friend, Celeste Bingham, who reveals both women secretly danced at a club called Dirty Ernie's Nude Review. Bingham says Stinson had a date the night she died with a man both women knew from the club, meaning the killer was not a stranger.

A fourth victim, Gabrielle Lizotte, is found murdered. She had danced at the Dancing Bare, the same club where Hansen worked. Dancer Shereece tells Tracy that "Mr. Attorney" paid unusual attention to Lizotte before her murder and left in a BMW with the vanity plate "DFENCE4U." The plate leads to Tomey, the same attorney Dan had already interviewed about the Stinson case. Tomey admits frequenting the Pink Palace but denies the murders, and searches of his home yield no evidence.

Nolasco discovers Tracy's secret Stinson investigation when Anderson calls him about Dan's visit. He tips off Vanpelt, who broadcasts the story, blindsiding Chief Clarridge. Tracy is removed from the task force and placed on desk duty. The Office of Professional Accountability (OPA) opens an investigation into her conduct. Kins, initially hurt that Tracy kept the inquiry from him, accepts she acted to protect his career.

One night, Tracy sees a hooded figure on her lawn. Investigators find fragments of a torn photograph of Tracy taken in Cedar Grove weeks earlier, confirming a long-term stalker. Meanwhile, analyst Michael Melton processes the Stinson DNA despite Nolasco's orders. The results confirm it does not match Gerhardt, supporting Tracy's wrongful conviction theory, but produce no database hit.

Nolasco, seeking credit for catching the Cowboy, orchestrates an FBI raid on the home of David Bankston, a warehouse worker whose DNA was found on the shooting range noose. Agents find rope, scrapbooks, and photographs of Tracy with her face scratched out. However, Nolasco failed to locate Bankston first. That evening, Bankston ambushes Tracy in her home, slipping a noose over her head. Tracy fights him off, cracking her collarbone, before Kins arrives and shoots Bankston dead. FBI profiler Amanda Santos explains that Bankston was a stalker obsessed with Tracy, not the Cowboy, whose fixation turned to hatred when he saw her with Dan.

While boxing up task force files, Tracy receives a call from Izak Casterline, a patrol officer who pulled over a man driving a Lexus near Watson's motel the night of her murder. The driver handed Casterline a flier about a missing cat, but the address proved false. Tracy reviews parking lot video and identifies the car that followed Gipson and Schreiber as a Lexus. Dan locates Dirty Ernie's employment records, and Tracy finds Kotar's name in the payroll, confirming he worked at the same club where Stinson danced. Casterline goes undercover at the Pink Palace and identifies Kotar as the driver.

Tracy stakes out the Pink Palace alone, telling only her colleague Faz, since official channels risk a leak that could cause Kotar to flee. When Kotar deviates from his route home and heads north on Aurora, Tracy follows him to a motel. Inside room 17, Kotar holds a knife to the throat of a bound dancer named Raina while Looney Tunes cartoons play.

Tracy engages Kotar in conversation, appealing to his ego and his love of acting. Interspersed chapters have revealed his backstory: His mother was a dancer who brought men home and beat him. As a boy, he strangled her with a noose tied to her bedpost, timing the act to Porky Pig's sign-off. When the same sign-off plays on the television during the standoff, Kotar raises his knife. Tracy nearly fires but holds. Kotar slashes the rope binding the hog-tie, freeing Raina, and surrenders.

In the aftermath, Kotar is charged and Gerhardt is freed. OPA opens investigations into Nolasco's handling of both the Stinson case and the botched Bankston raid. Chief Clarridge awards Tracy the Medal of Valor. When a reporter asks if she plans to retire, Tracy looks at Dan, who nods. She tells the crowd: "For now, I'm a cop. This is what I do."