Alaska's first female detective hunts down Israel Keyes, known by the FBI as the “most meticulous serial killer of all time."

SYNOPSIS:

BASED ON TRUE-CRIME BESTSELLER DEVIL IN THE DARKNESS, by JT Hunter

An 18-year-old barista, working the late shift. A tall stranger at the walk up window. A lonely coffeeshop on the edge of town.

She delivers him his Americano.

Then out comes a gun.

The tall, athletic stranger LEAPS through the walk-up window, zip ties the frightened teenager, then walks her arm in arm to his truck, a gun sticking in her ribs.

Where this stranger takes MIRANDA KOONING (18), only God knows.

DETECTIVE KAT BROOKS (35) presses pause on the CCTV security video. She furrows her brow. Her first day as a detective, and a possible killer on the loose.

She pursues the case, doggedly pursuing leads under intense media scrutiny.

That is, until the abductor sends a ransom note to Miranda’s father. A kidnapping. Now it’s a federal matter, and Anchorage PD has to share the case with the FBI, led by Frank Carlyle, 52, a compassionate but demanding agent.

But is Miranda even still alive?

Working together, Brooks and Carlyle follow the trail of this ghost-like abductor. What they don’t know is that his double life is splitting him in two. Like a drug addict, Israel Keyes’ murderous impulses are spiraling out of control.

With his 10-year-old daughter in tow, Keyes attends his oldest sister’s wedding in Texas. To his nine younger brothers and sisters, he is the prince of the family. But to his uber-religious mother, he is a wayward soul. He doesn’t know it, but he’s there not just for a wedding, but an intervention.

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“YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT I’VE BEEN THROUGH!” a sweating Keyes screams at the pastor. He eyes his mother as he storms out of the wedding, stunning his sister and her husband-to-be. With tears in his eyes, he leaves his young daughter behind with his family. He jumps in his rental car. With the pastor’s words about salvation ringing in his ears, he speeds off. Mementoes from recent victims slide off the passenger seat to the floor.

That night, 3,000 miles from Anchorage, Israel Keyes uses Miranda’s debit card to withdraw some ransom money. He wears a Scream mask, taunting the cops on the other end of the ATM camera.

But this recklessness gives Brooks and Carlyle the electronic clues they need to bring him in. With the help of Texas law enforcement, Keyes is brought home to Anchorage Correctional Facilities in chains.

But even locked up, Keyes is dangerous. He wants the death penalty, doling out information about Miranda’s whereabouts to cut a deal with Anchorage PD and the FBI.

To the heartbreak of Miranda’s father, they learn that Miranda met the fate of everyone who comes across Israel Keyes when his impulses take control. Miranda was raped, beaten, murdered.

In a shed, next to Keyes’ suburban home.

Now Miranda’s body lies at the bottom of Lake Matanuska—in pieces. But he has more to tell, if Brooks will cooperate. He’ll tell her the locations of more bodies spread out across the United States, in exchange for keeping his identity a secret.

He wants to spare his young daughter and religious family the shame of his crimes.

Brooks fends off the press as best she can. But when Keyes attempts a dramatic courtroom escape, word leaks that Miranda’s killer is in custody, and the families of his victims want answers.

And justice.

With a rabid press now on the hunt, Keyes clams up. In an emotional interrogation, Brooks confronts him with evidence of his other murders based on his cell phone records, credit cards, and flight history. Despite his obsessive efforts, the most meticulous serial killer of all time has been found out.

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Later that night in his prison cell, Keyes kills himself with the same meticulousness he used on his victims. A makeshift noose, a homemade dagger. He takes with him the knowledge of 11 other victims. A wry smile crosses his post-mortem face.

Brooks comforts the families of Keyes’ victims as best she can. Outwardly, she knows she helped capture a killer. That the world is a safer place, that justice was done. But in her heart she knows…this devil in the darkness got away.