Claire was safe. She'd gone for help. My relief lasted only until my next thought... She's left me behind the steering wheel. In the marsh. With the water rising.

Claire did not answer the man's voice. She had begun to sob. I tried to call for her again but could not direct any sound from my throat. My mouth moved in silence, my head tilted back as if I were a fish gasping in air.

"You sit pretty," the voice continued to her. I knew this man and his voice. Police Chief Edgar Layton. We had first met when I was ten, shortly after my mother had abandoned me. He'd interviewed me, unkindly, standing tall above me, asking terrible questions about my mother...

Nick Barret has returned to Charleston to have another look into the heart of the mystery surrounding his mother.