Chapters (51)
- Cover
- Dedication
- 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
- Acknowledgments
- P.S. Insights, Interviews & More . . .*
- About the Author
- About the Book
- Also by Alison Gaylin
- About the Publisher
On the drive to San Bernardino, she thought of the name he’d mentioned. Linda. From her months-long immersion in all things Cooper/LeRoy, Summer knew that Linda had been the name of Gabriel LeRoy’s mother. Following her son’s death, she’d declined a number of interviews—one with Barbara Walters—before subsequently disappearing off the face of the earth. Two years ago, she’d died a recluse, her body found in a shack in the desert—a place she’d bought years earlier, just a half mile away from the Gideon compound, where her son had burned to death.
It was probably just a coincidence, though, Reg saying the name. There were a lot of people called Linda, after all.
Thirty-Four
June 20, 1976
2:00 A.M.
Dear Aurora Grace,
I dreamed I shot Officer Nelligan again. I watched him fall and bleed and die, just like before, and I felt awful. Sick to my stomach. Only when I got closer to the body and looked at his face, I saw that it hadn’t been Officer Nelligan at all. I’d shot Gabriel.
7:30 A.M.
Dear Aurora Grace,
Gabriel is angry. All morning, he has been pacing around our room, back and forth, back and forth, a gun in each hand, Officer Nelligan’s and his own—which, as it turns out, he stole from his mother.
I think he expects me to ask him why he is so mad, or at least to talk to him. But I can’t do that. I can’t speak at all. Oh my God. He just asked me if I’m still writing the song about us. Can you believe that? Doesn’t he even remember what he said to me last night?
Aurora Grace, I’ve been awake ever since that dream, and I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. I believe it was a prophecy.
I am going to kill Gabriel LeRoy. I don’t know when or how. But the moment will present itself to me, and when it does, I will not be afraid. And as he takes his last breath, I will say Jenny’s name to him. I will show him her picture. I will make sure that my sister is the last thought he ever has.
Love,
April
11:00 A.M.
Dear Aurora Grace,