Synopsis:

Police detective Noland Blaine is heading home after a long day of searching for a serial killer when he hears the dispatcher request assistance for a disturbance with shots fired at his brother's apartment complex. He's the first on the scene and finds out that the serial killer's next victims were his brother's family. Only this time there are survivors, his brother, John, who was left for dead, and his twelve-year-old niece, Grace, who is missing. Both can identify the killer, but John is in a coma and Grace is nowhere to be found. As Noland searches for his niece, he has to stay one step ahead of the killer, especially after discovering that he is also on the hit list.

Okay, so this has already changed. Noland's last name is now Gray, he's an English professor who used to be a cop before his ex-wife accused him of being emotionally lacking. John is the cop and the wacky killer is knocking off the members of John's wife's college volleyball team. He's still left for dead and in a coma. Police Captain Jansen has enlisted Noland to help locate the other potential victims and figure out what connection the killer might have to the volleyball team.

Yikes! Noland's niece is back, but still in danger. The drug dealer kid who was "helping" her and keeping her safe is in jail, but his drug supplier partner wants him dead. The partner is a friend of the killer, so now they've teamed up. Now if Noland can help the police find those two while courting a nurse and keeping an eye his brother and niece at the hospital, he'll be setting himself up as a target. Oops! But he doesn't know that yet.

Okay, back up. Throw out most of the plot, well, sort of. I restarted the story three weeks early than where I originally began. As I lead up to my original opening chapter, Noland and John investigate the murder of a student teacher whom Noland is mentoring. The teacher is also a friend of John's oldest daughter, Janet, who will turn out to be the next victim. John will still get wounded, thereby, leaving Noland in charge of the investigation, but this should extend my plot, which was getting wrapped up way too early.

It's amazing how fast things change. I wrote a new beginning that starts the action three weeks earlier. John and Edie are at the hospital having a baby when their daughter Janet is attacked by the killer and left for dead. Noland will now try to find Gracie while John keeps watch over his wife, oldest daughter, and new born sons in the hospital. Now to just mesh everything together and write the climax where Noland finds the killer.