Chapter 18

At the hospital, Georgia receives a strained call from Jess and rushes to the station. In his office, Jess, devastated, tells her that Wes was found murdered in a creek by Silas, with multiple stab wounds. A teen witness had come to the station, recounting that an older man, angry over a $400 drug debt, forced a woman to arrange a meeting with Wes; the teen hid and saw the man stab Wes, then hiked out after the killer drove off in Wes’s truck.

Georgia comforts Jess as he processes both the gruesome details and the fact that he and Wes had once been childhood best friends with Silas. Jess reflects that Wes likely bled to death alone. Georgia leaves so Jess can notify Wes’s parents, Jack and Annie Drummond, while deputies Sam and Bryant work leads and issue an APB.

Two days later, the killer remains at large. Reporters and townspeople press Jess for answers as local papers run Wes’s story with scarce facts. Georgia and Rowen stay home to avoid questions, waiting each night for Jess to return from long days.

One late night, Jess carries a dozing Georgia to bed and, overwhelmed by the past days, tells her he loves her; Georgia says she loves him too. The next day, they declare a pajama day so Jess can regroup.

While watching football, Georgia asks about Jess and Wes’s past. Jess explains they were close through high school; when Jess left for the academy, Wes changed. Jess’s sister Felicity had dated Wes for years but left after graduation; neither she nor Silas will say what happened. Jess recalls pressing Silas until Silas punched him, breaking his nose.

The day ends with a light but pointed parenting moment when Rowen repeats a curse she heard with Jess in the garage. Georgia reminds Jess that Rowen absorbs everything, cools off with a bath, and they settle back into their fragile peace.