Intent to Harm

He stalks his prey with playful cruelty, taunting intended victims with subtle violations of their homes--possessions just slightly out of place, closed doors left ajar, locked windows mysteriously opened.  Striking and vanishing with uncanny stealth and skill, he leaves behind no conclusive traces--except the awful degradations that he inflicts on a growing string of carefully selected women.  As ripples of panic and anger spread across the college town, the police department is up against the greatest single challenge to its informal credo: "protect the weak, nail jerks." It had never crossed Toby Parkman's mind to be a cop.  After college, he joined a tiny publishing house; he and his lawyer wife, Sara, had a good liberal distrust for uniforms.  Then Toby's job disappeared, right around the same time his friend Walt's bookstore went belly-up.  Full of noble intentions--and not unmindful of the healthy starting salary--they signed up together. Now, seasoned but still idealistic, Toby