Chapters (57)
- Cover
- Dedication
- Foreword
- Prologue
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Praise for Linwood Barclay
- Also by Linwood Barclay
- About the Publisher
“One of your media types is missing. They say he didn’t get off the boat. I told them to check the head. Lot of people who don’t expect to get seasick do. He’s probably losing his breakfast in the ferry bathroom, or maybe he never got on the boat in the first place. Could be that’s what happened to that Carver lady. Delayed seasickness.”
“Okay,” she said, and tilted her chin up to allow him to give her one more kiss. He did, but made it a quick one.
He opened the door. “You go out first. I’ll wait fifteen seconds.”
Sandra caught her reflection in the glass door of a fire extinguisher housing. She pursed her lips, muttered, “This’ll have to do,” and slipped out of the room.
She headed straight for the registration desk, where representatives from the various media outlets were picking up their IDs.
Moments before things were ready to go, she saw that one badge had not been picked up. clyde travers—consumer safety.
Well, it wasn’t as if Clyde was from one of the biggies, Sandra thought. If he missed the event, she’d courier a media packet to him tomorrow.
Seven
“Just drive around, Pamela,” said Archie’s friend Nick, who was sitting in one of the two front seats of the lime-green Arrival.
Archie, sitting in the back seat next to his friend Rory, said, “Nick, why’s the car called Pamela?”
Nick turned around completely, putting his knees on the seat and wrapping his arms around the headrest for support.
“So, my mom thinks my dad named it Pamela after his aunt Pamela who, like, died years ago, but he actually named it Pamela after Pamela Anderson.”
“Who?” said Rory.
“Oh my God, there’s a video you have to see from about a hundred years ago. Anyway, she used to be this sex symbol that my dad always had the hots for. I heard him telling one of his friends that he never got to take a ride on that Pamela, so this one will have to do.”
Archie, not quite sure whether that was a dirty joke or not, glanced at Rory to see if he was laughing. Rory snickered, so Archie did the same.
“Good one,” he said. “So how come Pamela’s responding to your voice? I thought the car would only work for your dad.”
“We were at the mall parking lot, right?” Nick said. “Just me and my dad? And I asked if I could try driving, or at least telling the car what to do, so he set it up to respond to my commands.”
Rory’s eyes went wide. “So your dad’s okay with you taking it out without him?” he asked disbelievingly.