Chapter 2

From Griffin’s perspective, he fixates on Winn—the woman he met at Willie’s—realizing she is actually Winslow Covington, Quincy’s newly hired police chief his father had praised. The revelation clashes with Griffin’s preference for no-strings tourist flings, and he vows to avoid repeating their night together.

Visiting his parents’ ranch headquarters, Griffin reflects on his father’s retirement and intense involvement in the chief’s hiring committee. At the kitchen island, they read a Quincy Gazette article by Emily Nelsen that downplays Winslow’s experience, highlights her youth, and implies favoritism, further souring the town’s reception.

Griffin declines lingering at the shop, craving hard labor to clear his head. He directs ranch hand Conor to repair fences along the road to Indigo Ridge in preparation for turning cattle out. Shortly after, Conor calls, distraught and nearly incoherent.

Griffin speeds across rough two-track roads to reach Conor. Finding him uninjured but shaken, Conor stammers out a name: Lily Green. Griffin climbs beyond the fence toward the base of Indigo Ridge—where he had once found another body—and discovers Lily in a white dress, bloodied and broken among the black rocks.

Confronted with a new death that mirrors a prior discovery, Griffin understands the gravity for the town and for Winslow’s early tenure as chief, foreshadowing entangled professional and personal complications.