In San Juan, Puerto Rico, after two gristly murders, the murderer has used the victims' blood to paint the walls by the bodies. An agnostic Jesuit priest, whose brother was the first victim, visits the crime scene: look for a talented abstract-expressionist painter who's going through a spiritual crisis and is angry at God, the priest says. The police ask Father Michael to continue to assist them, and he visits Bohemian haunts an artist might frequent. Father Michael's own history unfolds, too: he's a painter, he has an ex-girlfriend in San Juan, and he's attracted to Mary, a life-drawing model. Soon all fingers point to an aging local artist, Lewis Garou. Case closed?—<[email protected]>