Detective Mason has spent nearly twenty years learning how to read killers, liars, and frightened witnesses. What he has never learned is how to silence the twelve drowned victims who visit him every night. The case that haunts him began with twelve people chained inside a shipping container and sent to the bottom of the sea. Officially, Mason has moved on, transferring from homicide to a cold-case unit. In reality, he is still investigating in the shadows, following a trail that reaches across the border, into cartel territory, and toward people who would prefer the dead to stay forgotten. Then his own body delivers another threat. A long-delayed medical appointment produces news he cannot joke away, forcing Mason to measure every lead against time he may no longer have. At the same time, an older unsolved attack brings Elise back into his life, a survivor carrying scars of her own and memories that may help expose a killer who escaped justice years ago. As the investigations begin to overlap with corruption, ghost guns, old evidence, and dangerous loyalties, Mason must decide how much of himself he is willing to sacrifice for answers. Whether the drowned are trauma, memory, or something Mason cannot explain, their presence has become his private jury. Until he understands who condemned them and why, they will not let him rest. Neither, increasingly, will his conscience.
Detective Mason has spent nearly twenty years learning how to read killers, liars, and frightened witnesses. What he has never learned is how to silence the twelve drowned victims who visit him every night. The case that haunts him began with twelve people chained inside a shipping container and ...