When Linda Balfour a young mother is found butchered in small-town southern Illinois a coded inscription stamped in blood on the back of her head brands her mutilated body. For Chief Prosecutor Martin Vail the Bloody insignia drags up memories hed like to forget
- memories of Bishop Rushman slashed & dismembered ten years ago by an altar boy Aaron Stampler. But if Stampler is locked away he cannot have murdered Linda. With his career
- & his life
- on the line Vail needs answers fast before the killer signs someone elses life away.