"Two months ago, Lauren Carmichael's husband and son were murdered in a home invasion. She was conveniently working late that night. Sheldon Kaufman's sister died two weeks later, casualty of a convenience store robbery. Just a day after that, Meadow Brand's father was stabbed to death in what's being reported as a mugging gone wrong." Why don't you just kill your wife? Sheldon had asked Tony back at the golf course. Because I don't love my wife. "Christ," I breathed. "It's not just any souls they need. Family members. Blood relations, maybe. Someone they have a personal bond with." "An intimate sacrifice," Bentley said."