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

“You look like you’re having fun,” he says.


“Don’t come near me again. Do I make myself clear?”


“Crystal. By the way, you can do much better.”


“You mean I can do better than you?”


“To tell you to leave me alone! Stop stalking me.”


“Stalking you? Is that what I’m doing?”


Anger feels like hammering spikes behind my eyes as I dig out the piece of paper from my pocket and show him the note. “Did you write this?”


He backs up and squints to read it. “What the hell is it?”


He laughs. “I didn’t write anything.”


The tone in his voice is serious. “You need help, Jack.”


“Why are you doing this to me?” My voice is rising and getting louder.


“You’re cute when you’re angry.”


“What the fuck do you want, Sheridan?”


“You never could control your temper.”


Chapter 18