Over the next several days, I started the slow and steady process of talking to the kids, together and separately. I wanted them to know that while what happened was very real, it was also the end of something.

I think each got that in his or her own way. By the time my two weeks’ vacation was up, everyone was doing pretty well.

But I’d also come to a decision. I needed to be around more than I’d been, at least for a while. I put in for an unpaid leave from work through the end of the summer and just hoped they’d accept it. If not, then not. I’d find something else to do.

In fact, I was thinking seriously about writing another book, this one focusing on Kyle Craig and the Mastermind case. Not only had Kyle been the toughest challenge of my career, he’d also been a friend of mine — once. I felt as if I had a story to tell, and it would be a powerful one.

Meanwhile, there were sunflowers to plant and movies to see. Boxing lessons to catch up on in the basement, baseball games, trips to the Smithsonian. Long dinners to linger over until after dark, with good conversations or games of Go Fish. There was my new wife to lavish with all the love I could give.

And, of course, a new life to start together.

Chapter 117

IF ONLY THINGS could have stayed that way — the endless summer.

It was just after Fourth of July weekend when I got that call from MPD, the call that everyone over there swore they wouldn’t make, no matter what the circumstances.

A detective in Austin, Texas, had been calling around looking for me. He was dealing with a multiple down there, a baffling and grisly one. But it wasn’t just the murders. The case was starting to show a striking similarity to one of my own — something I thought I’d put to bed years ago.

Even so, I made the appropriate referral to a detective I’d worked with in Dallas and stood my ground. I wasn’t a cop right now. Not until September.

But then the next call came about two weeks later. This one was from a detective in San Francisco by the name of Boxer. She had a strange one on her hands, and her case sounded familiar, too, a lot like the murders committed by a madman known as “Mr. Smith.” I had caught Smith and watched him die. At least, I thought I had.

But that’s a story for another day.

IN A WORLD WHERE FREEDOM HAS ALL BUT DISAPPEARED…

WHERE MUSIC, READING, AND CREATIVITY OF ANY KIND ARE STRICTLY PROHIBITED…

WHERE EVEN CHILDREN ARE KIDNAPPED AND IMPRISONED BY THE GOVERNMENT…

THERE IS ONLY ONE HOPE LEFT.

WITCH & WIZARD

Whit

HERE’S WHAT HAPPENED, to the best of my shattered ability to recall it.