Back Black Rock Bay Save as PDF
Chapters (42)
  1. TITLE PAGE
  2. COPYRIGHT
  3. DEDICATION
  4. CONTENTS
  5. PROLOGUE
  6. CHAPTER ONE
  7. CHAPTER TWO
  8. CHAPTER THREE
  9. CHAPTER FOUR
  10. CHAPTER FIVE
  11. CHAPTER SIX
  12. CHAPTER SEVEN
  13. CHAPTER EIGHT
  14. CHAPTER NINE
  15. CHAPTER TEN
  16. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  17. CHAPTER TWELVE
  18. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  19. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  20. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  21. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  22. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  23. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  24. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  41. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  42. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The spaces between the truths always hid the lies. Cash had punched Asher. Cash had punched Asher over Monroe. Cash had punched Asher over Monroe and been grounded for it.

But none of that meant Cash had been in the wrong. He’d just been acting like that kid she’d known back then, trying to right the world’s injustices.

“No,” she said quietly, because she was a person sometimes just as much as she was a cop, and she didn’t want to let go of her best friend, the one who’d died fifteen years ago. Whatever Cash was about to say, though, she knew just from the way he hesitated that it would be bad, knew it would be a shadow that slid over the Asher she remembered.

Izzy’s eyes snapped between them when Cash didn’t say anything, but his fingers clenched and unclenched against the sides of his legs.

“What am I missing?”

Cash licked his lips, looked once at Mia, and then turned back to Izzy.

“Monroe was pregnant.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

IZZY

Mia and Izzy didn’t return to Edie’s house until midafternoon. They’d helped Sammy deal with the body, then walked through all the rooms, checking each as thoroughly as possible without a tech team.

“So that’s convenient,” Izzy said, settling into what she was beginning to think of as her chair. “Wraps everything up nicely.”

While filling the kettle, Mia glanced back at her over her shoulder. “What do you mean?”

“Monroe was having an affair with an older guy on the island.” Izzy pushed her chair onto two legs. She held on to the counter behind her with her uninjured arm. “He finds out about the pregnancy, kills her, makes it look like suicide so there’s no autopsy. No one knows about the baby. Boom, problem solved.”

“Cash knew,” Mia said, leaning against the counter, her arms crossed, not giving anything away about how she felt about that particular revelation.

Cash had sworn that he hadn’t been sleeping with Monroe, had said he’d simply been trying to get Asher to step up and do the right thing. The fight had just been a man-up talk that had escalated because teenage boys were teenage boys.

Izzy doubted it had really been that simple, but, for now, she was going to let it go.

“Right.”

Mia rolled her shoulders. “And that scenario doesn’t account for why they’d be okay with Asher and me as collateral damage.”

Izzy deflated further but tipped her head in agreement.

“Actually,” Mia continued, the word drawn out, thoughtful, “I was thinking about it a different way. Still convenient.”

Izzy waved her free hand. “Do tell.”

“The case looks like it’s wrapped up,” Mia said.

“Isn’t that what I just said?”

“No. I mean this case. The reporter’s death. With Earl . . .”