Against the Tide Read Online Free

something to hold on to.”
    Cassie swallowed. “I don’t . . . don’t understand what happened. Why was Scotty down at the harbor?”
    â€œI thought maybe you’d know the answer to that.”
    Cassie just shook her head. “It was his regular poker night. Scotty went over to the Seaside Motel to play with Ben Friedman and some of the guys.” Ben was the owner of the motel. He lived in an apartment behind the office. Cassie had mentioned that Scotty played with the same group of men every week.
    â€œI knew Scotty wouldn’t be home till late,” she continued, dabbing a Kleenex against her eyes. “But it got later and later and he didn’t show up, and I got worried. Then the police arrived and Chief Rosen said he was . . . said he’d been killed. That Scotty had been murdered.” She started sobbing, and though Olivia wasn’t much of a hugger, it was all she could think of to do.
    â€œI’m so sorry.” She rubbed Cassie’s back and just held her, let her cry out some of her grief.
    Eventually the girl raised her head and blew into the Kleenex. “I have no idea what Scotty was doing at the harbor. Or why someone would try to rob him. Scott never carried much money. A little more tonight, maybe, since he was playing cards. But not enough for someone to kill him. Whoever did it couldn’t have gotten away with very much.”
    Cassie sniffed into the Kleenex. “He had a smartphone, but it was an old one, probably not worth very much.”
    Olivia sifted through the information, which made absolutely no sense. “Maybe it wasn’t about the money,” she heard herself saying. “Maybe it was something else.”
    Cassie looked up. “Maybe it was just some rotten piece of filth who likes to hurt people.”
    It happened. These days it happened way too often. “Or maybe Scotty was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Olivia knew only too well how badly that could turn out. It was the reason she’d wound up in Alaska.
    â€œHe was such a great guy,” Cassie said, grabbing a fresh Kleenex out of the box and wiping at the wetness that kept rolling down her cheeks. “I’ll never find another man like him.”
    Olivia made no reply. Good men were hard to find. As far as she was concerned, they mostly didn’t exist. Scotty Ferris was a rare exception, and it was going to take Cassie a long time to get over him. Liv was going to miss him, too.
    They sat together in silence, Cassie holding on to her hand. The lunch crowd would be arriving at the Pelican soon. She needed to get back to work, but she wasn’t ready to leave the younger woman with her sorrow.
    Liv looked up as Lois walked into the living room carrying a tray with cups and a carafe of coffee. Olivia reached for one of the cups, let Lois fill it with the strong, black brew. Nell would be back at work by now.
    Olivia could stay a while longer.
    Â 
    Â 
    Rafe couldn’t put it off any longer. He headed for Cassie Webster’s small wood-frame house, dread churning in the pit of his stomach. He knew what it was like to lose someone you loved. He and his family had been living in Anchorage when his mother died of breast cancer. Being the oldest, he’d had to step up, help his dad raise Dylan and Nick. Then a few years later, his father died, another tough blow for him and his brothers.
    Little by little, Rafe had learned to steel himself, ignore the pain and get on with his life. After his younger brothers had both turned eighteen, he enrolled in college and met Ashley Richards.
    Ash was sweet and pretty, and he was crazy about her. They dated for a year before he decided to ask her to marry him. The afternoon it happened, he’d gone to look at rings in a jewelry store not far off campus. Two hours later, he got a phone call from Ashley’s brother. Ash and her best friend had been killed in a car accident. Bad weather