Scorpion's Tale — Milly Reynolds

Former Inspector Liv Harris, after a series of humiliating demotions, has now moved to a small Midlands town to seek not only a new start in life as a Private Investigator, but also a love life.
Unsure of what she wants, Liv meets a potential partner through a dating website, but while this is wholly unfulfilling from the beginning, quite unexpectedly she finds herself emotionally drawn to Karen, her friendly and very athletic neighbour. Very soon the two women become virtually inseparable, causing Liv to question her own needs and her own sexuality, especially as she then falls into a physical relationship with a male police colleague from the local force, an old friend of the man she never landed, Jack Sallt.
Confused, she throws herself into the work given to her by her new lover, the perplexing cases of several missing persons who all worked for a local council. Alarmingly her investigations propel her into the warped, violent world of an ex-warrior with several bitter scores to settle.