Murder Adjacent #14: High-Water Mark

Quirky Sleuths. Big Murders. Very Bad Alibis.Coastal consultant Maren Teal knows water does not confess. It returns things. After a brutal king tide tears through the shoreline between Moss Harbor and Heron Cove, controversial developer Gavin Seld is found tangled in storm debris near a damaged causeway.The explanation seems obvious. Gavin had been drinking, his car was nearby, the storm surge was dangerous, and he had every reason to be inspecting the development project that had made him rich and half the county furious. Then Maren looks at the debris caught on his body and sees what everyone else missed.The wrack line is wrong. The water that supposedly carried Gavin to the causeway never reached him in the way the scene requires. Someone moved the body and expected the storm to destroy the difference. With residents, developers, activists, planners, and Detective Rook all trying to turn tides into a human timeline, Maren has one advantage: people manipulate records. Water keeps its own.