Later, a savage attack by a man Denton suspects may have committed the crime injures him. After patching up by a doctor, Denton returns home. Groggy from laudanum taken for his pain, he can't stop the man when he returns, but Denton manages to fire a small parlor pistol alerting the police. They find him and his servant. The man had attacked the servant first and Denton fears he may have killed him.

The police discount Denton's report on the frightened man, R. Mulcahy substantiated by the name in the hat he left behind. Denton can offer no clue as to how or where to find the man or even if he is connected to the murder and the attacks on him and his servant.

Denton recovers from his injuries in a surprisingly short time and takes up the chase. He has no clue to the villain's identify so he looks for information on the frightened man Mulcahy and Stella Minter, the slain prostitute. He pays women to search city directories and school records, no small task with the sketchy information he possesses. The police believe they have arrested the appropriate man and refuse to help.

Janet Striker, a woman reputed to have been responsible for her husband's suicide, now heads a group called the Society for the Improvement of Wayward Women and puts him in touch with prostitutes who tell him the slain woman's name wasn't Stella Minter and might be Ruth. They also say she has a sister called Becca.

Cameron does an excellent job of weaving in Denton's background from enlisting in the Union Army, his failed marriage and farm, his wife's suicide, and his killing of four men while a U.S. Marshal. The British press calls him the "Sheriff" and focuses on the terms demon and ghost used in his titles.

To add to Denton's current woes, he is short of money and his mistress severs their relationship. A noted novelist of horror fiction he regards as psychological studies of failure, he finds his current novel languishes.

At first Denton finds Janet prickly and irritating, but gradually grows to value her help and admire her courage. His pursuit of information on Stella Minter and his acquaintance with Janet force him to re-evaluate the women in his novels and he realizes he failed to understand them.

Cameron has written more than thirty books in such areas as fiction espionage and history as well as several nonfiction ones.