Val Moody
A therapist with a small private practice who lives in a pool cabana in trendy Santa Monica Canyon. He’s an obese, 36-year-old former Special Agent, who ate his way through years of grief when his girlfriend committed suicide. He lives with his cat, No name.
The Watcher
We’re inside this person’s seething mind as (he or she) watches then attacks a woman in the vestibule of her small house in Venice, California. The watcher is offended by dirty hair and repeatedly bathes victims before returning them, violated, disoriented, with their hair parted on the wrong sides of their heads—and programmed to kill.
Emily Stabler
A plus-sized Missing Persons Detective who wears a baby Browning .25 auto in a thigh holster. She takes an immediate disliking to Moody, but has experienced enough sexism in the department’s male culture to identify with his outsider status.
Percy Cantrell
A shrewd Homicide Detective who is wiry, fair-haired and in his late 30’s. A Southerner transplanted to California, he has red complexion and is usually irritated. Has worked all over the LAPD. He’s Moody’s friend.
Finn Reilly
Val’s dead girlfriend. A troubled but soulful red-head that haunts his waking moments like a tormenting angel.
Milo Roach
A Chinese-food loving Pathologist with a dark sense of humor who befriends Moody.
Catherine St. Cloud
An ex-nun and NYPD Homicide Detective. A tall, somber woman with wheat-colored hair who once presided over similar kidnappings in New York.
Hussein
Moody’s landlord. A large businessman from London with a power pony-tail and an aversion to police who threatens to evict Moody. His house, the size of a Masonic temple, sits a few blocks up the canyon from the ocean and is often the scene of wild parties.
Thomas Kohler
A lieutenant in Special Assault Section. Brought in to oversee the investigation. Radiates Robbery/Homicide flash, but has a ruinous secret that he will do anything to keep hidden.
As well as Patients, Doctors, Nurses, Social Workers, Cops, Secretaries, Pedestrians, Bikers, Bladers, and the City of Los Angeles, a character in itself.