“Always.” He squeezes her shoulders, which are heartbreakingly thin. During Hodges’s final two months, she lost ten pounds she couldn’t afford to lose. He knows his mother and Barbara are just waiting to feed her up. “Always, Holly.”

“I know,” she says.

“Then why did you ask?”

“Because it’s so good to hear you say it.”

End of Watch, Jerome thinks. He hates the sound of that, but it’s right. It’s right. And this is better than the funeral. Being here with Holly on this sunny late summer morning is much better.

“Jerome? I’m not smoking.”

“That’s good.”

They sit quiet for a little while, looking at the chrysanthemum burning its colors at the base of the headstone.

“Jerome?”

“What, Holly?”

“Would you like to go to a movie with me?”

“Yes,” he says, then corrects himself. “Yeah.”

“We’ll leave a seat empty between us. Just to put our popcorn in.”

“Okay.”

“Because I hate putting it on the floor where there are probably roaches and maybe even rats.”

“I hate it, too. What do you want to see?”

“Something that will make us laugh and laugh.”

“Works for me.”

He smiles at her. Holly smiles back. They leave Fairlawn and walk back out into the world together.

August 30, 2015

Author’s Note

AUTHOR’S NOTE

Thanks to Nan Graham, who edited this book, and to all my other friends at Scribner, including—but not limited to—­Carolyn Reidy, Susan Moldow, Roz Lippel, and Katie Monaghan. Thanks to Chuck Verrill, my longtime agent (important) and longtime friend (more important). Thanks to Chris Lotts, who sells the foreign rights to my books. Thanks to Mark Levenfus, who oversees such business affairs as I have, and keeps an eye on the Haven Foundation, which helps freelance artists down on their luck, and the King Foundation, which helps schools, libraries, and small-town fire departments. Thanks to ­Marsha DeFilippo, my able personal assistant, and to Julie Eugley, who does everything Marsha doesn’t. I’d be lost without them. Thanks to my son Owen King, who read the manuscript and made valuable suggestions. Thanks to my wife, Tabitha, who also made valuable suggestions . . . including what turned out to be the right title.

Special thanks to Russ Dorr, who has traded in his career as a physician’s assistant to become my research guru. He went the extra mile on this book, patiently tutoring me on how computer programs are written, how they can be rewritten, and how they can be disseminated. Without Russ, End of Watch would have been a lesser book. I should add that in some cases I deliberately changed various computer protocols to serve my fiction. Tech-savvy individuals will see that, which is fine. Just don’t blame Russ.