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Back Parting Shot Save as PDF
Chapters (68)
  1. Dedication
  2. Title Page
  3. Contents
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Three
  7. Four
  8. Five
  9. Six
  10. Seven
  11. Eight
  12. Nine
  13. Ten
  14. Eleven
  15. Thirteen
  16. Fourteen
  17. Fifteen
  18. Sixteen
  19. Seventeen
  20. Eighteen
  21. Nineteen
  22. Twenty
  23. Twenty-One
  24. Twenty-Two
  25. Twenty-Three
  26. Twenty-Four
  27. Twenty-Five
  28. Twenty-Six
  29. Twenty-Seven
  30. Twenty-Eight
  31. Twenty-Nine
  32. Thirty
  33. Thirty-One
  34. Thirty-Two
  35. Thirty-Three
  36. Thirty-Four
  37. Thirty-Five
  38. Thirty-Six
  39. Thirty-Seven
  40. Thirty-Eight
  41. Thirty-Nine
  42. Forty
  43. Forty-One
  44. Forty-Two
  45. Forty-Three
  46. Forty-Four
  47. Forty-Five
  48. Forty-Six
  49. Forty-Seven
  50. Forty-Eight
  51. Forty-Nine
  52. Fifty
  53. Fifty-One
  54. Fifty-Two
  55. Fifty-Three
  56. Fifty-Four
  57. Fifty-Five
  58. Fifty-Six
  59. Fifty-Seven
  60. Fifty-Eight
  61. Fifty-Nine
  62. Sixty
  63. Sixty-One
  64. Sixty-Two
  65. Sixty-Three
  66. Sixty-Four
  67. Sixty-Five
  68. Copyright

Duckworth looked at Madeline. “Should we go someplace and talk?”

“No, it’s fine. They’re at my place.”

“Your place?” Duckworth said.

“Oh for God’s sake, they’re in the Cape,” Gloria said. “Why didn’t I think of that? I’d forgotten you even had that house. It’s not like we’ve been invited there in years.”

“Cape Cod?” Duckworth asked.

Madeline nodded. “A beach house. I haven’t been there in a long time. A property management company looks after it for me.”

Duckworth got out his notepad. “Address?”

Madeline gave it to him.

“Is there a phone there?”

“No, but I have a cell phone number for Mr. Weaver.”

“Okay, good.” Duckworth looked at Gloria. “I trust you’ll have no problem with my speaking to your son?”

“No, of course not,” Gloria said. “Just don’t upset him.”

Duckworth smiled. “If he’s with Cal Weaver, I don’t imagine there’s all that much to worry about. And as you say, no one knows they’re there.”

Forty-Eight

FORTY-EIGHT

CAL

“GIVE me some names,” I said to Jeremy.

“What names?”

We were sitting in the upstairs living room, gazing out over the bay as the sun started going down. The clouds were streaked with orange and yellow. Another tanker ship could be seen near the horizon.

“People at the party,” I said. “The night it happened.”

“I don’t know. Lots of people.”

“Think.”

“Why do you want to know?”

“I might want to talk to some of them.”

“What for?” he asked.

I sighed. “I have some questions.”

“You’re going to stir things up,” he said.

“What do you mean?”

Jeremy frowned. “I don’t know. You’re going to cause all kinds of trouble if you start asking people things.”

“Don’t you want to know what happened?”

“I know what happened. I ran over Sian McFadden and killed her. I don’t know how I did it. But I did. You’re making me crazy.”

“Sorry,” I said.

He shook his head. “We should watch some TV or something. Or go somewhere. Go to a movie maybe. This place is pretty and all but it gets boring real fast. There’s sand, and there’s water, and that’s about it.”

I pointed to the remote on the coffee table. “See what’s on.”

He snatched it up and pointed it at the TV. I hadn’t seen a non-flat screen in some time. This one was about a thirty-six-incher, which made it nearly two feet deep.

“That thing must weigh five thousand pounds,” Jeremy said. “It’s not HD or anything.” He paused. “Do you think they’d have had TV in prison?”

“In your own cell?”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t know. Was that the thing that scared you most about going to jail?”

“God, no,” he said. “I figured I’d get killed there. Or worse.”

“Something worse than being killed?”