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Back Deception Cove Save as PDF
Chapters (78)
  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Epigraph
  6. Prologue
  7. One
  8. Two
  9. Three
  10. Four
  11. Five
  12. Six
  13. Seven
  14. Eight
  15. Nine
  16. Ten
  17. Eleven
  18. Twelve
  19. Thirteen
  20. Fourteen
  21. Fifteen
  22. Sixteen
  23. Seventeen
  24. Eighteen
  25. Nineteen
  26. Twenty
  27. Twenty-One
  28. Twenty-Two
  29. Twenty-Three
  30. Twenty-Four
  31. Twenty-Five
  32. Twenty-Six
  33. Twenty-Seven
  34. Twenty-Eight
  35. Twenty-Nine
  36. Thirty
  37. Thirty-One
  38. Thirty-Two
  39. Thirty-Three
  40. Thirty-Four
  41. Thirty-Five
  42. Thirty-Six
  43. Thirty-Seven
  44. Thirty-Eight
  45. Thirty-Nine
  46. Forty
  47. Forty-One
  48. Forty-Two
  49. Forty-Three
  50. Forty-Four
  51. Forty-Five
  52. Forty-Six
  53. Forty-Seven
  54. Forty-Eight
  55. Forty-Nine
  56. Fifty
  57. Fifty-One
  58. Fifty-Two
  59. Fifty-Three
  60. Fifty-Four
  61. Fifty-Five
  62. Fifty-Six
  63. Fifty-Seven
  64. Fifty-Eight
  65. Fifty-Nine
  66. Sixty
  67. Sixty-One
  68. Sixty-Two
  69. Sixty-Three
  70. Sixty-Four
  71. Sixty-Five
  72. Sixty-Six
  73. Sixty-Seven
  74. Sixty-Eight
  75. Acknowledgments
  76. Discover More
  77. About the Author
  78. Also by Owen Laukkanen

Shelby studied her across the table. Spent a long time doing it, chewing on her bottom lip like she was thinking hard. Then Lucy flopped down onto the linoleum beneath her chair, clearly bored, rolled onto her back, and pawed at Shelby to scratch her, her tongue lolling.

Shelby stifled a smile. Leaned down and rubbed Lucy’s belly, as powerless as Rengo to resist the dog’s charms. With her free hand, she reached for her glass, took another long draw. Tossed it back with a grimace she couldn’t quite hide, set the glass down.

“Damn it,” she said. “All right.”

Thirty-Two

Thirty-Two

It was dumb luck that did it. Dumb luck and desperation. Shelby was hitching home from Port Angeles one Friday night, her night off from the detachment, her usual routine. Anyway, it was late, more like Saturday morning, and cars headed west were few and far between, the highway so dead that Shelby half thought she’d have to walk the whole way to Deception before she found someone to give her a lift.

And then there were headlights behind her, and she heard the engine slowing before she’d even turned around with her thumb out, squinted in the bright and saw the pickup ease past her, that ugly puke green; she recognized it as Ty Winslow’s ride. Ty leaned over and unlatched the passenger door as she walked up the shoulder, pushed it open, and she climbed inside, just like that, no words exchanged.

They drove for a while, and they didn’t speak much besides Ty saying “Hey” and Shelby saying “Thanks.” Ty had the radio on, some old outlaw country, and he played it at low volume as the headlights cut a swath through the mist on the highway, and for a while Shelby figured that this was how it was going to be.

And then when they were a couple of miles out of Clallam Bay, Ty broke the silence, looked over at her and sparked the conversation that would end up killing him. “Awfully late to be hitching alone,” he said. “Aren’t you scared?”

She looked at him, hard. “Scared of what, Ty? You?”

Ty glanced across the truck at her, frowning like he wasn’t sure how to take that one. Then he chuckled. “Yeah, but what about your parents? What do they think about you running around after dark like this?”

“My parents?” she scoffed. “I guess you didn’t hear, but my mama can’t hardly get out of bed anymore, much less worry after me.”

He didn’t bother to ask about her dad. Shelby figured he probably already knew, even if he didn’t. Most of the dads in Deception Cove had a tendency toward fucking off, and hers wasn’t any exception.