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 he'd like to forget - memories of Bishop Rushman, slashed and dismembered ten years ago by an altar boy, Aaron Stampler. But if Stampler is locked away, he cannot have murdered Linda. With his career - and his life - on the line, Vail needs answers fast before the killer signs someone else's life away.