Spenser: For Hire

Susan enlists Spenser's help in determining the past of a young amnesiac woman who had been sexually abused as a child. The inquiry brings Spenser back to the case of a young girl who was kidnapped from her wealthy family, the case that he resigned from the police force over. When someone puts out a contract on Spenser, and the shady acquaintance she's been living with is killed, he must determine if it has anything to do with the true identity of the young woman.

Lt Quirk confronts his own mortality following being outrun by a murder suspect and receiving death threats. While Quirk recovers from a heart attack and contemplates retiring, Spenser and Hawk track down who is making the death threats and shooting at the Lt.

Spenser breaks up a domestic dispute, and gets charged with assault. Meanwhile, Susan is sexually harassed by her thesis adviser and turns to Hawk. Shortly thereafter an attempt is made on Susan's life. As Spenser deals with the assault charge, he and Hawk also track down Susan's assailant, while Susan must defend her program of study before the same board looking into the harassment charges she filed against her adviser.