The Space He Filled

Mike Cotter's son, Keith, hasn't just moved out -- he's vanished. Fatherly concern quickly becomes genuine alarm: this isn't like the Keith Mike knows and loves. He could never be so cruel. Soon Mike looks up an old friend, former cop Stan Backus, to help him in his desperate search to find his boy and hold on to his family. Stan, a wise and seasoned pro, has a gut feeling that Keith just wants peace of mind and independence, like most kids who disconnect in such a radical way. Stan's search leads him into the shadowy, gritty realm of Hollywood, a new noir reality where tweakers, grifters, and sidewalk denizens scheme to cash in or simply survive. But the truth is that there's a deeper, darker pain Stan isn't being told about and cannot see. It's the pain living at the heart of the man who sought his help; the kind of pain that rips holes in otherwise normal, happy families. That creates a space perhaps impossible to fill.