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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

“I assume your professional duties will require you to remain here until this fire burns down,” Joy continued. “In the meantime, I’ll do what I can to see that this trail doesn’t get any colder. Pray, don’t keep me waiting too long.”

With that, he was gone, walking to his big black truck. Harwood watched him climb inside, watched the headlights come on, watched Joy slowly navigate the mess of volunteer firemen and neighborhood looky-loos, and disappear down the block.

Beside him, Sweeney and Whitmer did the same.

“So what on earth happened?” Whitmer said when Joy’s truck was gone. “I was betting for sure we could smoke the girl out.”

Harwood stared into the house, at the spray from the fire hoses. “Guess you didn’t know Shelby,” he said at last. “I guess none of us did.”

Thirty-Seven

Thirty-Seven

Lucy was gone.

The Blazer sat where they’d left it, tucked into the shadows in that stand of thin trees. But Lucy wasn’t there; she’d spooked out at the first sound of gunshots, and wherever she’d run to, it wasn’t here.

Burke lay flat on the gravel and peered under the truck, and Jess watched him, feeling some kind of empty start to grow in her stomach, the sick sense that she and Burke had fucked up, and now the night was slipping away from them.

One street over, Shelby Walker’s place was a zoo, and the night sky and low clouds were lit up with the reflection of spotlights and flashers from Harwood’s cruiser and the volunteer fire department. The chaos had Harwood distracted for the moment, but Jess knew the deputy wouldn’t stop chasing them for long.

We have to get out of here.

Burke pushed himself up from the gravel. Stood and brushed his palms clean on the front of his jeans and squinted off into the dark. “You see her anywhere?”

“I’m still standing here, aren’t I, Burke?” she said, feeling her anger flare up, frustration. “You don’t think if I’d seen her, I’d have taken action?”

Burke didn’t reply. He glanced over at her, and his mouth twitched, and then he walked to the front of the Blazer and surveyed the trees some more. She heard him give a low whistle and call out Lucy’s name about as loud as he dared, which wasn’t very loud at all, not with Harwood and his men so close at hand.

“Black dog on a dark night,” he said, walking back over to where Jess stood. “What do you think we should do?”

Jess didn’t have an answer for him, just that gnawing void inside her, getting ever larger with every minute that passed. Black dog on a dark night. Best-case scenario, she digs a hole somewhere and stays hidden until dawn.

And the worst case?