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Chapters (78)
  1. Cover Page
  2. TITLE PAGE
  3. DEDICATION
  4. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  5. Mary
  6. CHAPTER ONE
  7. CHAPTER TWO
  8. CHAPTER THREE
  9. CHAPTER FOUR
  10. CHAPTER FIVE
  11. Joyce
  12. CHAPTER SIX
  13. CHAPTER SEVEN
  14. CHAPTER EIGHT
  15. CHAPTER NINE
  16. CHAPTER TEN
  17. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  18. CHAPTER TWELVE
  19. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  20. Russ
  21. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  22. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  23. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  24. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  25. Jaxson
  26. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  27. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY
  29. HSK
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  35. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  36. HSK
  37. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  38. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  39. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY
  41. Lyndsay
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  45. Grace
  46. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  47. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  48. HSK
  49. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  50. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  51. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  52. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  53. Wilkes
  54. CHAPTER FORTY
  55. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  56. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  57. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  58. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  59. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  60. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  61. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  62. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  63. Dubois
  64. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  65. CHAPTER FIFTY
  66. Dubois
  67. Wilkes
  68. CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
  69. CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
  70. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  71. ALSO BY DEAN KOONTZ
  72. PREVIEWS
  73. DIME STORE MAGIC
  74. INDUSTRIAL MAGIC
  75. HAUNTED
  76. BROKEN
  77. NO HUMANS INVOLVED
  78. COPYRIGHT

“I’m not sure. Something…Irish? Maybe English. Probably an older brand, been around awhile. I know what the logo looks like…”

“Then we’ll find it.”

When I climbed into the car, Jack was already back. I put down the bag with the papers and took out a smaller one, then did up my seat belt.

“Candy?” Jack asked with a small smile.

“Uh-uh.” I pulled off the bag with a flourish.

His brows arched. “How’d you figure out—”

“Keen detective work. You seemed a little stressed after that flight, so I figured it might not be unwelcome. We’re not really ‘on the job’ right now so…”

“Appreciate it. Better not smoke in here, though. Bring the papers.”

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We found a picnic table behind the strip mall. Jack shook out a cigarette and had it lit before we were seated, and went through another before we finished our reading.

The killer’s last known victim had been killed at noon the day before. William (Billy) Curtis, a twenty-eight-year-old Nebraska construction worker, pushed off the high-rise he’d been working on. At first, police thought it had been an accident…until the coroner found the lone dollar bill in his pocket. While the papers spent little time dwelling on the victim, they were speculating over one thing: had the Feds been tipped off about the killing?

I slapped down the paper. “Just because he forewarned the Feds of the opera house plan doesn’t mean he’s going to keep doing that. He can’t. It’d be stupid.”

Jack took out his third cigarette and lit it.

“My guess is that the opera house was tougher than he expected, and that’s the last time he’s going to pull something like that.”

Jack nodded, head tilted, holding the lit cigarette a hairsbreadth from his lips.

“And the problem with that theory is…?” I said.

He took his time tapping off the ash on the picnic table before responding. “Wasn’t a warning for Nebraska. Couldn’t have been. An occupied building? Sure. Just a construction crew. Nah. They’d have caught him.”

“Which proves my point. There was no warning.”

Jack stared out across the trash-strewn strip of grass, smoked half the cigarette, then stood.

“Gotta call Quinn.”

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When Jack returned, he sat down across the table, hand going out for the spot where he’d left his cigarettes, then shaking it off and stuffing the pack into his pocket.

“There was a tip-off, wasn’t there?” I said.

“Train. Last night. Promised to kill a passenger.”

“But he didn’t?”

“Everyone accounted for.”

“So either the tip-off was a fake—”

“Quinn says no.”

“Then he failed. I can see that. It’d be very hard to pull a hit on an enclosed vehicle. He must have realized he’d overshot and backed off.”