Billy Lucas confesses to a shocking crime. He′s only fourteen years old but he′s a sadistic killer and proud of it. He′s in the secure wing of the state hospital but ... he seems too wise for his age, not crazy, too knowing. About the nature of evil, and whether it lives on beyond death. Too knowing about other crimes that took place before he was born ...

Other murders from twenty years ago surface in the mind of Detective John Calvino as he interviews young Billy Lucas. Calvino carries away a signed confession ... and a sense of great danger. That night he feels that somehow Billy has come home with him, to his family.

Over the next weeks, this haunted feeling does not go away. It only gets worse. Then another killing spree happens, just as and when John Calvino dreaded it would. Billy is safely locked away, but not the ghost, if the ghost exists, that links these murders with past crimes, and with John Calvino.

Anything could happen, and surely will ... again.