[Joe Logan 02] • Atonement

Parked up off a lonely stretch of highway, a heated argument with her boyfriend prompts Tanya Foster to get out of the vehicle and head for town on foot in the darkness. A car stops, and the driver offers her a lift. Recognizing the man, Tanya accepts.

After a search the following day, Tanya’s body is found close to where her boyfriend, Ray Marshall, had been parked. She has been strangled, and all the evidence points to Ray being the perpetrator.

Logan has been staying at the Pinetop Motel for several days. It is the motel owner’s son that is being held by the Carson Creek Sheriff’s Department.

Logan carries out his own investigation, and discovers a clue which proves to him that Tanya had been attacked on the highway, and that her body had then been moved.

The killer is local, and realizes that Logan’s interference could ultimately lead to him, so calls in a favor from a gangster in Denver to have Logan eliminated.

Logan unearths the identity of the girl’s murderer, but has no proof that he can divulge to the local sheriff without it being known that he coerced his information from a hitman who is now dead.

With the assistance of Kate Donner, a lawyer representing Ray Marshall, Logan sets out to track the now decamped killer down; but he has upset a powerful man in Denver, who will not rest until Logan and Kate are dead.