BooksBarbecue
Back Illuminated
Chapters (34)
  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. Prologue
  7. One
  8. Two
  9. Three
  10. Four
  11. Five
  12. Six
  13. Seven
  14. Eight
  15. Nine
  16. Ten
  17. Eleven
  18. Twelve
  19. Thirteen
  20. Fourteen
  21. Fifteen
  22. Sixteen
  23. Seventeen
  24. Eighteen
  25. Nineteen
  26. Twenty
  27. Twenty-one
  28. Twenty-two
  29. Twenty-three
  30. Twenty-four
  31. Twenty-five
  32. Epilogue
  33. Further Mysteries
  34. Acknowledgments

April pulled out her cell phone. “I should call home to make sure everything’s okay,” she said. She saw that there was a voice mail waiting for her. She decided to listen to it in the event it was from Grandma Rose.

Norman revved the engine as they bounced through a red light. Horns blared. Norman waved back at the scowling motorists in a mock gesture of politeness. They rounded a corner and saw the Library of Congress looming only a few blocks away.

“Oh, great,” April said, listening to the voice mail. “It’s from August.” Her irritation morphed to disbelief in the space of ten seconds. Someone has Charlie. Don’t call police. Call this number. She hung up and frantically dialed, tears rolling down her cheeks.

“Hello?” It was a voice April didn’t recognize, a woman’s voice. Did August have a girlfriend? “I must have the wrong number,” she said. “I’m looking for August Adams.”

“You have the right number, April.”

April got the sense that her name had been added to the end of the sentence purposefully, almost playfully. “I’m sorry? Do I know you?” she asked.

“Hang on,” the voice said. “Here he is.”

Norman put a hand on April’s shoulder. “What’s going on?” They rolled into a parking space a block away from the library.

“April?” The voice belonged to August. “I’m so sorry about this.”

April erupted. “You’re sorry? Tell that to our little boy!”

“Please . . . I . . .”

“Shut up. Just shut up,” April said. “It’s one thing when you put your own life on the line. It’s another when you involve the rest of us.”

April spied a black FBI van parked about twenty yards in front of them.

“We don’t have time to fight about it right now,” August said. “I need your help. Charlie needs your help.”

April had never heard him ask for help. Especially from her. When they were first married, it had been wonderful to depend on his confidence and self-reliance. But over the years, April had begun to feel like there was no place in his life for her. “What am I supposed to do about this?” she asked.

The reply didn’t come quickly, as if he was contemplating any other possibility before delivering the inevitable conclusion. “You have to steal the Gutenberg Bible.”

Six

six

Joe Radford stared at the drop-down ladder leading up to the attic. He knew the boy was up there somewhere. It wouldn’t be long before he spoke with Xandria again, and there was no chance she’d believe his lies twice. If the boy wasn’t in his hands, he might be relieved of his duty. Permanently.