Wrecked

PI Regan Reilly and her husband, Jack, head of the NYPD Major Case Squad, arrive at his parents' beachfront home on Cape Cod late on an April night, just in time to experience the beginning of a major storm. The weather doesn't matter—they're at the Cape to celebrate their first anniversary and are thrilled to have the house to themselves. Wouldn't you know, the best laid plans...!

The next morning Jack returns from the market, two nosey neighbors in tow. The storm damaged their living room window and they need a place to stay. Then the Reillys' young caretaker bursts into the den, distraught. He's just discovered Adele Hopkins, the woman renting the house next door, in a heap at the bottom of her staircase to the beach. Regan and Jack race back down with him, but huge waves have covered the sand. Hopkins is gone—presumably swept out to sea.

Who was Adele Hopkins? The sixtyish loner shunned her neighbors. Even her landlords, friends of the Reillys, have no idea how to locate her next of kin. A search of her house reveals clues that Adele was riddled with guilt, and the owners of a local store where Adele shopped receive an anonymous e-mail spewing venom about a woman with the same name. Regan and Jack's search for this mysterious woman's identity makes for a weekend they'll never forget.