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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

But his hand found nothing. It went all the way down to the surface of the bed. Frantically, he patted the bed from head to foot.

“Where are you?” he shouted, turning sharply to look into the dark room.

His first thought was that if she’d managed to get loose, she wouldn’t have stayed around to await his return. She must be gone.

But then he thought he heard breathing.

Someone else was in the room.

“Where are you?” he said again, rising off the bed and whirling around, just in time to see a shadowy figure swinging something his way.

The steel poker from the wood-burning stove caught him across the side of the head and he staggered across the room. Feebly he raised his arm to ward off a second blow, but the poker hit him so hard he was sure he felt the bone in his forearm snap.

He dropped to his knees as the poker came around for a third time, this time catching him across the neck.

He hit the floor, writhing and gagging. He rolled onto his back, and as he looked up, a sliver of moonlight coming through one of the windows briefly lit up the face of his attacker.

What Cory saw was so unimaginably horrible he managed to utter a gasp between choking noises.

“Nice to see you again,” said Craig Pierce.

Fifty-Nine

FIFTY-NINE

CAL

BARRY Duckworth called me back more quickly than I had expected.

“Nothing on that phone,” he said. “It’s a burner. I can’t connect a name to it.”

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll get back to you.”

I had been talking with an officer named Higgins from the Town of Sandwich Police Department, filling him in on what Gregor Kiln had tried to accomplish. I wouldn’t let Kiln out of my sight, even as the paramedics examined him. I wouldn’t do that until someone had cuffed his wrists and shoved him into the back of a cruiser. If he left here in an ambulance, I was going to insist that a cop go with him.

“So this kid,” Higgins said, nodding his head toward Jeremy Pilford, who was standing a few feet away watching the fire department douse the flames that had engulfed Madeline Plimpton’s place, “is the one that was all over the news?”

“Yes,” I said.

Higgins pointed at Kiln. “So you shot that guy?”

“I did.”

“And broke his knee?”

“Possibly.”

“Maybe I should be arresting you.”

“I explained to you what he was trying to do.”

“Yeah, but you might be givin’ me a story.”

“See if he wants to file charges,” I said. “My guess is he’s got bigger things to worry about.”