Laura and Bobby had been best friends since the second grade, sharing secrets in the ripped-up seats of wrecked cars in her father's salvage yard. After high school graduation, Bobby and two friends joined the Army Airborne. When his tour of duty in Viet Nam ended, he came home with recurring nightmares and persistent guilt that he survived a POW camp, and his friends did not.

Wanting to stay near Laura, he lives in a travel trailer in her junkyard, rides a Harley-Davidson, and seems adrift.

When a body and a duffle bag filled with cash are found in the back lot of the junkyard, there...