I had been back in Fog Harbor for forty-seven hours when I found a dead mayor in the library wall.
Technically, he was a former mayor. Technically, the wall was a sealed archive room hidden behind a shelf of water-damaged ship logs. Neither detail made the corpse less inconvenient.
My flashlight passed over a gold watch, a cracked pair of glasses, and the half photograph clutched in Mayor Bell's stiff hand.
I leaned closer.
The photo showed three teenagers on the old pier. One face had been burned away. One was my mother's. The last belonged to Julian Cross, my childhood rival and the only man in town who could make a police warning sound personal.
A floorboard groaned behind me.
"Don't move, Chloe." Julian's voice came out of the dark. "Some secrets charge interest when you look at them too long."
I turned slowly.
Julian stood in the doorway with a badge on his belt, rain on his coat, and his hand already near his gun.