"Mother Teresa with a bankroll" is P.I. Thomas Black's first impression of Lainie Smith. Her rise from rags to riches and her  bottomless generosity on behalf of Seattle's children are something out of a Frank Capra movie. But that sentimental assessment is obliterated as Black investigates Lainie's hidden past--and a purportively tranquil spot called Deception Pass. As a rebellious teen, Lainie hooked up with a drifter named Charlie--and she may have been an eyewitness to murder in the shadow of cliff-walled Deception Pass, where the water runs river-swift and turbulent. When justice, and the executioner, finally caught up with Charlie, Lainie was long gone. But somebody who knows the truth--the whole  truth--about Lainie's dark history is blackmailing her. Lainie won't tell Thomas Black why she's being blackmailed, only that her tormentor "knows things he couldn't possibly know." Just how far will Black's  saint-like client go to bury her past forever? For a one-way passage to nonstop suspense, travel no farther than Deception Pass.