Brash, determined 13-year-old Katie Bradshaw stumbles into the middle of a life-threatening adventure when she, with false bravado, tries to show her classmates that she doesn't care whether or not they accept her. As she tackles an unsolved local robbery, she discovers some hard truths about courage, stereotypes, and her own need for friends. Set in the fictional town of Watauga on the Oregon coast, this contemporary mystery-adventure novel traces the always intriguing question of "What if....?" What if Ray Collins was innocent of the crime people were SURE he had committed 20 years ago? What if pushing away her old friend Laura only makes Katie's problems worse? What if Katie discovers that Laura might actually become an ally in finding the stolen jewelry? And what if Katie learns all these things when the tide is rising and it just might be too late for both of them?