Officer Jack Ballinger receives a phone call from the chief of police in the early morning hours regarding a dead body at an apartment building in a quiet neighborhood in the small upstate New York town of Black Falls. A female student lies in a pentagram outlined in her own blood, clutching a rosary. Ballinger and his former partner Officer Cory Ryan interview tenants in the building about the girl’s death, but are met with more questions than answers.<br><br>When another body is found in the same apartment building a few hours later, Jack knows something is wrong. As he ciphers through a patchwork of unexplainable clues, the investigation detours when Ryan disappears from the case and cannot be found.<br><br>With his future as an officer in question, will Ballinger be able to deal with the truth of these crimes once he dscovers everything he thought he knew was a lie?

Past Sins

“How do you handle harassment?” Steve asks, signaling Lou for a refill.


“There’s always somebody cracking jokes. Nothing personal, but it’s difficult not to feel that way sometimes.”


Lou comes over with a pitcher of lemonade. He fills Steve’s glass half way, ice chips clinking against the edge of the glass.


I slide the empty plate to the end of the table.


“That good?” he says. “Get anything else for you?”


He takes my plate back to the kitchen, and I pull out a ten-dollar bill.


“I can pay for my own lemonade,” Steve says.


Steve sits back and stares at me. “Why the sudden interest in meeting right now?”


I fold my wallet into my back pocket and reach for my coffee cup to empty it. I take a drink, biding time, and slide the mug to the edge for Lou to pick up.


Chapter 17