What is the ultimate horror for an eight-year-old girl? What happens to a family when a daughter disappears? With a monster. Mississippi investigator Arlan Trahan faces the unthinkable when he takes on the cold case that almost ends his career. The April Giles story is the stuff of nightmares, spawning a legacy of tragedy, and one that might be clipped from today's news. Snatched from a Gulf Coast beach two decades ago, all hope that she is alive is gone. But out of the twilight of lost time a ransom note arrives, and soon she will be the stuff of Detective Trahan's dreams, both asleep and awake. His most disturbing clue arrives unbidden on frosty lips-but how could a kiss so cold belong to a live girl?