Detective Chris Bailey

Lauren, Drew, and Rob go on a relaxing vacation that turns into a nightmare. As Lauren sunbathes by the lake, she sees the man from next door lugging something heavy into a boat. The night before, Lauren thought she heard a woman screaming. What is their rich and famous neighbor hiding? Women are vanishing in this beautiful corner of Tennessee, full of woods and water. Detective Chris Bailey has his hands full. He’s investigating a drowning from last summer. The woman was never identified. But a pattern is emerging.

It isn’t every day that Detective Chris Bailey is handed a triple homicide. They may have their share of problems in the scenic wooded hills of Tennessee, but news that a young man—a child, really—wiped out his entire family sends a ripple of shock through the whole community. Seventeen-year-old Colin Simon is witnessed fleeing the scene, gun in hand. He’s arrested for murder, but refuses to explain any of it. Not even what he did with the gun. The police have their suspect, so is it case closed?

It’s the middle of the night when Detective Chris Bailey is called to the side of a rural Tennessee highway. A young woman’s body is found sprawled on the shoulder of the winding country road, a glossy dark pool of blood around her head. The victim has been shot five times. She isn’t wearing a coat, though it’s late February. Her empty purse is discarded a few feet away, a single high-heeled pump obscenely alone in a pile of last year’s fallen leaves tinted with frost. Her other foot is bare.

Detective Chris Bailey thought he’d heard it all. But he’s never had a call like this. Bailey is called to Ivy Manor, out in the sticks. An eerie old pile like this—ringed by dark woods and deep lakes on all sides—is sure to conjure rumors. And now the new owner’s found a bloody handprint, smeared across the front porch. Then a body finally surfaces—but Bailey can’t make it match his crime scene. This man’s been dead way too long to have left the fresh red print. So where’s the second victim? The search is on. And the clock is ticking.