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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

He turned back, and she was leaned against the hood of the Blazer, looking out at the beach and the channel beyond. Somewhere in the distance was Canada, but the Great White North wasn’t showing itself today, and those ships he’d seen earlier had disappeared too.

“The dog will be fine,” Jess told him, catching the way his eyes wandered after Lucy. “She’ll come back when she’s done. But what about us, Burke? You have any kind of plan whatsoever?”

He’d been thinking about this. As far as he could tell, there was really only one loose thread to start pulling.

He leaned on the Blazer beside her. “Your husband cooked meth,” he said, and glanced over to see how she took it. She didn’t react one way or the other, just looked out over the water with her mouth set in a hard line.

“I did some poking around yesterday, in between getting my ass kicked,” he continued. “Met the lawless contingent of that town, of which your husband was apparently a member.”

“You going to get to it or what, Burke? I asked you what are we going to do.” Jess’s voice was soft, and she still wasn’t looking at him, and the way she said it made him feel like a shit-heel.

“Yeah, all right.” He shoved his hands in his pockets, studied the ground. “A guy named Yancy said Ty had a spot where he used to do his cooking, up the forestry main line a ways. We go on up there and see if we can’t find what those deputies are after. Assuming they haven’t been up there already.”

Jess didn’t say anything. Didn’t move. He wondered if she’d even heard him, was about to ask when she straightened and pushed herself off the hood of the Blazer. Wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt and gave a low whistle for Lucy.

“Well, come on, then,” she said, circling around to the passenger door of the truck. “Are we going to do this, or what?”

Twenty-Six

Twenty-Six

The old woman at the Land’s End knew exactly whom Kirby was asking after. And she sold them out with a smile.

“Unit four,” she told the deputy. “Came in late last night, looked like absolute hell. He did, anyway; she was a little better. Still smelled like trouble—stank of it, the two of them.”

The motel’s lot was empty. Dale Whitmer stood outside by the truck, staring down the row of doors with his hand on his holster. Harwood decided it was a good thing there weren’t any other guests here; Whitmer was liable to put a hole in anything that came out of a door at this point. It had been a long and fruitless search.

“They have a dog with them?” Harwood asked the woman.