Two Miles of Darkness — Earl Emerson

Tasked with the embarrassing job of finding a lost dog at the behest of an elderly family friend, PI Thomas Black's quest for the dog quickly shifts into something dark and deadly when he learns the dog fled the scene of a double-murder/suicide. There's something disquieting about the crime, as well as the hasty police dismissal of it. What's worse, several weeks earlier, Black met two of the deceased, who told him they thought they were being followed. He assured them their paranoia was unjustified. Now he's wondering how he could have been so wrong. As Black and his companion, Elmer (Snake) Slezak, work to unravel the crime, they uncover a convoluted trail leading back to the household of the wealthy centenarian who hired them to find the dog. Black soon uncovers a bizarre gambling ring in which wealthy young sociopaths wager huge sums on their ability to destroy ordinary lives for kicks. Complicating matters, a substantial reward for the dog has brought a gang of ne'er-do-wells out of the woodwork, one of whom is linked to gunmen from California as well as to the household of Black's client. The case comes to a boil when the gunmen try to throw Snake off a cliff in Seattle's Discovery Park . . . and the bodies begin to pile up.