Detective Bill Corde looks down at the beautiful face of the murdered girl in the mud, and cannot know that his own life is about to turn into a terrifyingly real nightmare.For the girl's killer is now on the trail of Corde and his unsuspecting family. His wife. His teenage son. His imaginative but vulnerable daughter, Sarah.Sarah - who alone knows the identity of the man who took the life of the girl . . . the man who may be responsible for further deaths.And the lesson Bill Corde is about to learn - the lesson of her death - is an education that no one will ever forget.