After a dangerous incident, Sergeant Roxanne Calloway has left the RCMP's Major Crimes Unit and is now working as the Team Commander of the Fiskar Bay detachment. Roxanne is adjusting to her new job when the body of retired Sergeant Bill Gilchrist, her predecessor, is discovered in a ditch at the side of the road. Spring in Fiskar Bay often means flooding as the normally peaceful stream--home to ducks and teals and the occasional blue heron during the warmer months--fills to the top of its banks with fast-moving, murky brown water, sweeping chunks of ice and broken tree branches along with it. The locals from the close-knit community show up in droves to help sandbag and Roxanne organizes the local RCMP to help with the effort. But when another RCMP officer is found dead, tensions begin to rise as quickly as the water levels. Roxanne moved to Fiskar Bay to keep herself out of harm's way, but with a cop killer on the loose, she isn't sure who she can trust. Can Roxanne find the killer before it's too late?

Roxanne crawled the car along the quay and parked it beside the harbourmaster’s office. It was in darkness. She pushed her car door open and ran through the downpour to a portico. It didn’t give much shelter. She tried the door. It was locked. The coast guard station sat nearby, beside a slipway down into the water of the harbour. A light shone through sheets of rain from above the doorway. They must have a power source too, but no one answered when she hammered on the door. She scurried back to the car, grateful to get back under cover, rubbed the rainwater from her face and called Izzy’s number again. Still no answer.

Aimee answered her next call. She hadn’t heard from Izzy either. She’d left a message for the harbourmaster, but he hadn’t got back to her.

“Do you know what the Gilchrists’ boat looks like?” Roxanne asked. Aimee did. She’d seen it last summer. The hull was blue and it was called the Julie Ann. Roxanne decided she’d check the boats in the harbour before she raised the alarm. There weren’t many this early in the year. It wouldn’t take long. Maybe the Julie Ann was rocking at its berth, and Hazel and Izzy were somewhere safe but, still, she was worried. Wouldn’t Izzy have had the sense to let people know she was okay?

The rain still poured down. The next lightning flash was straight overhead. The storm would soon move out over the lake. The waves crashed, louder and higher. She jogged past the wharf where the fishing yawls were moored and out onto the next one where some motorboats were docked. Wooden slats clattered under her feet. She concentrated on keeping to the centre of the walkway, maintaining her balance as she read the name on each prow. There was no Julie Ann.

She picked her way back carefully. She was soaked and glad to get back onto firm ground. A wind had picked up. Rain battered her face. A few more boats of varying sizes were moored along the jetty that lined the seawall. She should go check them out.

Roxanne was still on the quay when she saw car lights coming from the town toward her. Someone else had ventured out in this storm. Two roads approached the harbour, one at each end. One led straight to the seawall. The vehicle was driving down it, fast, given the conditions. She expected it to slow. It didn’t. It was coming toward her and it didn’t reduce its speed. She realized it was coming straight for her.

She turned and ran out along the concrete jetty away from the oncoming lights. The car wasn’t slowing. It was accelerating. The seawall formed a solid barricade on her left. The jetty ran ahead in a sweeping curve wide enough to take a vehicle. Roxanne raced on against the wind, feet slapping through puddles, rain blinding her. The driver behind her wasn’t slowing down. The car lights shone through the streaming rain. Her moving shadow elongated as the vehicle closed in on her.

She could almost hear the engine through the raindrops battering the pavement, the waves crashing over the top of the seawall. She turned abruptly to her right. Two steps took her to the side of the jetty. She put one foot onto the low barricade that edged it, pushed off and jumped.