Cold Chain: A Small Town Conspiracy Thriller

The deputy’s cruiser sits on the shoulder with its flashers off-and Aaron Holt is begging Cal Rourke to find his missing son.

Fifteen-year-old Tyler vanished after a ＂transport＂ run, and Holt can’t go to the sheriff. In Carver County, Sheriff Warren Griggs and his brother Dale own the roads, the deputies, and the pipeline that uses kids as disposable drivers. Cal follows Holt’s map to a limestone quarry and finds a rust-red shipping container-stained mattress, a cuff bolted to the wall, and a purple hair tie that shouldn’t exist.

As Cal pulls the thread, the operation widens from back roads and pump houses to refrigerated containers on the Mississippi and a medical-supply warehouse hiding drums that scratch from the inside. The FBI wants warrants. The traffickers move faster. And a man called the Accountant keeps the money-and the bodies-off the books.

Cal has one rule left: reach them before they become cargo. But how do you arrest a ghost who’s already planned the cleanup?