The Keeper — Meg O'Brien

Brooke Hayes is slowly piecing her life back together after eight months on the wagon: rebuilding the acting career she'd exchanged for a stifling marriage, putting her bitter divorce behind her, and trying to regain custody of her nine-year-old daughter, Charly. Then a phone call shatters her fragile new life. "Mommy..." comes the frightened whisper. "The man... Say no, mommy, say no, say NO!

Brooke's ex-husband claims Charly is safe with him--then promptly disappears. The Westwood police, all too familiar with the old drunken Brooke, discredit her mounting panic. Only one man can help her: John Creed, an ex-cop known as the Keeper, whose commitment to finding missing children borders on obsession. As Creed and Brooke follow a slim lead that plunges them into an underworld of shocking depravity, Creed's own past catches up with him -- putting the two of them in mortal danger. With time running out and the police one step behind, Brooke and the Keeper search desperately for Charly, whose young life hangs on the whim of a madman.