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

I reach for his hand. “I’m damaged and broken and have a lot to work through, Steve. But you’re not responsible for my baggage.”


I think about how I’m going to tell him about my past without scaring or losing him or sending him off into another man’s arms. “My father was a violent alcoholic. He used to beat me with a belt and humiliate me by calling me names. I was worthless to him.”


“Nobody should have to go through that.”


“I’ve struggled with low self-esteem for many years,” I say. “I’m still surprised that I’m in this profession, and that I’ve made it this far.”


“I drank a lot to get through most of my adult life, to escape my father, and his hatred for me. I wasn’t even sure I’d survive being a police officer. I had so many fears that other officers would torment me for being gay like my father did growing up.”


Chapter 16