Contents
The airboat was nearing the edges of the Glades, wending…
Jenner watched the old man push the shopping cart across…
Out in the Everglades, Jenner ran along the old canal…
Jenner climbed the concrete barrier and scrambled down the embankment.
The tow truck pulled the car over the lip of…
Jenner straightened. “You guys got a camera?”
Adam Weiss was thinking: This is bullshit. This guy is…
It was well after dark when Nash drove the patrol…
The deputy sat inside the car, watching them move the…
Jenner asked all staff other than Flanagan, and Bunny Rutledge…
Cause of death wasn’t an issue—anyone could see someone had…
Jenner walked out into the steel-gray morning, blinking in the…
Adam Weiss leaned back against the tree, his ear still…
The manager served Jenner his Fontaine Shack Special Burger.
Jenner’s route home took him back through the heart of…
Jenner was woken by a loud bang from the lot…
The phone was a grinding dentist’s drill jammed into the…
After pushing the dog out of his cabin, Jenner walked…
At first, he made pretty good time. The sedge was…
Jenner stood in the mud, peering into the hammock as…
It was after eleven a.m. The rain had settled to…
The swamp buggy lumbered toward them, ripping a broad V…
Adam Weiss pumped the pedals hard, then coasted, lifting up…
They brought the bodies by airboat to the Coast Guard…
Things were worse at the office. Driving down the scrub…
Just after three p.m., they heard the sirens.
In the makeup chair, Amanda Tucker had finally had enough…
In the shadow of the gatehouse eaves, Adam Weiss waited…
Alone in the quiet of the morgue, Jenner sat on…
Jenner dropped the paperwork in the office, then sat at…
Their conversation was brief—there wasn’t much to say, and she…
Jenner flicked on the lights in the garage. Marty’s car,…
The Palmetto Court again. Jenner left his muddy waders in…
Jenner lay in bed, talking to Annie Carr on the…
As soon as Jenner’s seat belt clicked shut, the dog…
Jenner glanced up at the autopsy room clock. Three p.m.
The shadows of the western poplars were longer now, crawling…
The truck seemed larger; Adam dismissed it as a trick…
It was just after quarter to seven when Jenner pulled…
They took Adam out to the fields south of Bel…
The clubhouse at the Port Fontaine Polo Grounds Country Club…
Adam was flying now, pedal to the metal, pedal to…
The black Mercedes SUV sheared into a howling skid, the…
The maître d’ escorted Chip Craine through the lobby and…
Jenner walked out beyond the barrier of the box privet…
Jenner drove the Bentley back to Stella Maris, taking it…
The sound of movement.
Jenner woke at seven a.m. Maggie was wearing her white…
Clay Martin tapped the desk in front of Arlene Soto…
As Cooper and Martin left the office, a small mob…
Jenner shook his head. Something was definitely not right here.
Bunny was suturing the body closed when Highway Patrol showed…
Jenner watched the two troopers walk back down the hall…
With the entire mortuary staff standing in the sheriff’s office…
Three hours: enough time to get up to Bel Arbre…
Rudge found Jenner in the loading dock, standing over a…
They drove north on I-55 into a darkening sky. Rudge…
Rudge was calling Jenner from the roadside, his jacket held…
Maggie looked at the dog Jenner had brought in.
Rudge and Jenner ate in the parking lot next to…
The UFL visit could’ve gone better. The farm manager mistook…
It was past seven p.m. when Rudge dropped Jenner at…
Deb Putnam sat on Jenner’s porch, stomach growling.
Daylight. Jenner had left the curtains open, and the cabin…
Brodie stood at the top of the gentle slope, looking…
At ten thirty a.m., Jenner was dictating his report on…
Leila, the head of Craine’s household staff, was waiting for…
In the embalming room, Smith watched Reggie Jones open Mrs.…
When he was safely out of Port Fontaine and onto…
At lunchtime, her mom still wasn’t back from the memorial…
A steady stream of mourners filed in and out of…
The medical examiner’s office was still deserted. Bucky and Calvin…
When the staff began to drift back into the office…
Smith was edgy. It was a cash month—every fourth month…
Jenner decided to try Maggie Craine one last time. The…
After the memorial service, the news cameras around the medical…
The office was deserted; the staff had knocked off early…
Hold still just a sec, Amanda. I’m going to tape…
Jenner didn’t see Maggie’s text at first. It wasn’t until…
Rudge checked the clock on his kitchen wall: he’d made…
Amanda Tucker was waiting for Jenner at his cabin, standing…
Onscreen, Dooley Wilson was at the piano in Rick’s bar…
Amanda Tucker stood at the sink, holding up the hem…
Jenner parked the Accent in front of the Super Target.
Still no answer from Rudge.
Dr. Ade was in the waiting room, talking with Maggie. Maggie…
Jenner needed to see Rudge, talk it out, figure out…
It was past eleven p.m. when they reached Rudge’s place…
Jenner had been fired, for all intents and purposes, but…
They were all watching Jenner—the uniformed officers, Bartley, Halvorsen, the…
It was late, but he knew her mother was out.
Jenner stood in front of the charred husk of his…
Jenner woke to the sound of gulls. He was in…
Jenner was sitting at the wicker desk, wearing a fresh…
Chip Craine looked well-rested, tanned, and healthy in sunglasses, open-necked…
A faint, coppery smell of sweat and paper and coin…
Twenty minutes later, Jenner returned to his room carrying two…
Jenner drove slowly through the municipal lot, past cop cars…
The interrogation room smelled of stale sweat. As the video…
When Jenner had finished his good-byes at the morgue, Flanagan…
Jenner called Deb Putnam; she was in the field, on…
Jenner was relieved the Mercedes wasn’t in the shelter parking…
The Polo Course was a luxury development, seven or eight…
Deb Putnam steadied the clipboard on the hood of her…
Jenner was a few miles south of Bel Arbre when…
As she got out of the car, Nash murmured, “Doc…
Brodie stood on the farmhouse porch, looking at the bunkhouses.
Doctor! Get her gun! Get her pistol. Now!
Nash motioned down the highway ahead, tapped his gun against…
Smith and Bentas watched the Taurus approach up the main…
Nash was jittery and pale, talking a mile a minute.
Brodie watched Craine drive up. He climbed onto the porch…
“Jenner? I think the bleeding has stopped.”
Nash felt his rain-soaked shirt cling to the gun wedged…
“Hey, officer. Brodie wants to know have you taken care…
Jenner needed to get rid of the body, get it…
In the dull light in the shed, Deb was sitting…
They had to get moving. Now.
Brodie watched Chip Craine, shirt untucked, face ruddy and glistening…
From the shadows along the shed, Jenner watched Craine take…
The hierarchy at the farm was preserved at dinnertime as…
Bartley finished strapping on his body armor standing inside the…
Brodie was relaxed. He’d been planning for this moment for…
Deb draped her arm over Jenner’s shoulder, and together they…
Bartley was in the Explorer with two of the team…
Craine stood on the dock, staring up over the fields…
Jenner lay by the road toward the north end of…
The bunkhouses exploded into a single curtain of orange flame…
Jenner ran the length of the dock and dove, swimming…
Fifteen minutes later, Jenner still hadn’t found her. He was…
Deb held still as the bright light cut through the…
Brodie, up on the bench behind the airboat’s stick, peered…
Above the engine, Brodie yelled, “Where’s the girl?”
The light from the airboat had gone, and Deb couldn’t…
Brodie’s eyes scanned the banks of the river. Nothing. It…
Brodie turned the airboat back toward the farm, then let…
They came out of nowhere, two boats, big searchlights flooding…
In Port Fontaine, the heavy rain had started late enough…
Maggie? It’s over.” Jenner stood. “Put the gun down, now.”
At the farm, it was pandemonium. Jenner parked on the…
It was two days before they let Jenner leave Douglas…
At sunset, they flocked to the edges of the farms…