Tamarack County

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by William Kent Krueger


  On the morning of her departure, Skye let Cork walk her to the rented Escalade parked in the drive. A gentle snow was falling, flakes that caught in her hair like cloud shavings, that kissed the bare skin of her face and melted into drops and hung like tears on her cheeks. She was in every respect, Cork thought, a lovely person. If Anne’s decision had been to be with her, he would have approved and been happy for them both.

  “Would you say good-bye to Stephen for me?” she asked. “And please let me know how his recovery goes and when he walks again.”

  He appreciated her hopefulness.

  “You’re always welcome here,” he told her.

  “Thank you.” She looked up toward a sky invisible behind snow clouds. “But I don’t think there’s any reason for me to come back.”

  Cork said, “If you’ll accept the advice of an old fart, it’s my experience that when you leave the door open to it, love just keeps coming.”

  “Maybe,” Skye said. “But Annie was special.”

  “Isn’t everybody?”

  “No,” she said. “Not like Annie.” And what ran down her cheeks now was not from the melting snow. “I feel like my heart’s been carved out of me. Not her fault, I know. But I don’t want to hurt like this again.” She hadn’t put on her gloves yet, and with a cold, bare knuckle, she wiped at her eyes. “I swear that I will never knowingly hurt someone else this way. Why would anyone?” She looked at him as if she expected an answer. But he knew that, whatever he offered, it would not be good enough.

  “Good-bye, Cork,” she said.

  She got into her Escalade, started the engine, backed out of the drive, and headed away down Gooseberry Lane. He watched until she turned the corner and was gone. Gone forever from their lives, he suspected, and it saddened him.

  He stood alone in the falling snow. The street he’d lived on most of his life was quiet and lovely in the way of winter in the North Country. He hoped that Skye was returning to a place she loved as much as he loved Tamarack County, because he knew that there were places that could heal, and home was one of them. Looking down the empty street, he thought about her final comment to him and understood that his heart already knew the answer to a question that his head had been puzzling endlessly.

  He pulled his cell phone from the holster on his belt, and he called Rainy Bisonette. A small wind rose up around him and sighed past as he listened to the ring of the phone on the other end. At last Rainy answered.

  Cork felt himself smile, and he said to her, “Hello, love.”

  WILLIAM KENT KRUEGER is the New York Times bestselling author of twelve previous Cork O’Connor novels, including Northwest Angle and Trickster’s Point, as well as the novel Ordinary Grace. He lives in the Twin Cities with his family. Visit his website at WilliamKentKrueger.com.

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  ALSO BY WILLIAM KENT KRUEGER

  Ordinary Grace

  Trickster’s Point

  Northwest Angle

  Vermilion Drift

  Heaven’s Keep

  Red Knife

  Thunder Bay

  Copper River

  Mercy Falls

  Blood Hollow

  The Devil’s Bed

  Purgatory Ridge

  Boundary Waters

  Iron Lake

  We hope you enjoyed reading this Atria Books eBook.

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  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2013 by William Kent Krueger

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Atria Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

  First Atria Books hardcover edition August 2013

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  Designed by Davina Mock-Maniscalco

  Jacket design by John Vairo Jr.

  Landscape © Sverrir Thorolfsson/Flickr/Getty Images

  SUV truck © Matthew Wakem/Aurora/Getty Images

  Author photograph by Diane Krueger

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Krueger, William Kent.

  Tamarack county : a novel / by William Kent Krueger.—First Atria Books hardcover edition.

  pages cm

  1. O’Connor, Cork (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Private investigators—Minnesota—Fiction. 3. Murder—Investigation—Fiction. 4. Minnesota—Fiction.

  I. Title.

  PS3561.R766T36 2013

  813'.54—dc23

  2013004349

  ISBN 978-1-4516-4575-0

  ISBN 978-1-4516-4578-1 (ebook)

  CONTENT

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  About William Kent Krueger

 

 

 


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