When Nick Bertetto, stay-at-home dad and former investigative reporter, almost hits a homeless man wandering down a highway in his hometown of Franklin, Indiana, he stops to help.  While unconscious, the man mumbles, “Cahill wore red.”  It seems nearly impossible to Nick that the man could know anything about the recent disappearance of State Representative Calvin Cahill, but with Cahill’s name prominently in the news, Nick takes a special interest the homeless man, Elijah Smith.  He begins to investigate what Smith says ‘angels’ whisper to him about Cahill.

Soon Nick has an assignment from his former employers at the Indianapolis Standard to work with his longtime friend, reporter Ryan Lockridge, on the Cahill story.   But someone clearly doesn’t like the progress Nick and Ryan make, as Nick is beaten up and threatened.

By the time they figure out the disappearance is related to lobbying tied to proposed gambling legislation, dead bodies are turning up.  Nick and Ryan must get to the bottom of the mystery before Smith’s angels prove to be correct when whisper, “Someone you know will die.”   

As Nick struggles to keep the uglier details from his wife Joan, who is dealing with post traumatic stress disorder, and Joan’s Aunt Hildy, who he suspects is spying on him, the story takes a new twist.  Someone he knows—intimately—disappears, giving Nick very little time to find out who wanted Calvin Cahill dead and whether Eli’s angels can be trusted.