Chapters (68)
- Dedication
- Title Page
- Contents
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- 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
- Fifty-One
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Fifty-Four
- Fifty-Five
- Fifty-Six
- Fifty-Seven
- Fifty-Eight
- Fifty-Nine
- Sixty
- Sixty-One
- Sixty-Two
- Sixty-Three
- Sixty-Four
- Sixty-Five
- Copyright
“Oh Gloria,” Ms. Plimpton said. “How could you?”
From the front door, Duckworth shouted my name again.
I approached Jeremy. “I’ll be back in a minute, okay? We’re going to work this out. You can stay with me. We’ll get you out of this house.”
He seemed close to catatonic.
“Just give me a minute,” I repeated.
I walked briskly out of the kitchen. Ms. Plimpton followed me.
“Tell me this isn’t true,” she said.
Duckworth was standing just outside the door, pointing a finger at me as the officer put Bob into the back seat of what looked like the same cruiser that had taken Galen Broadhurst away.
“You screwed this up,” he said. “You should have waited.”
“Things happened quickly,” I said. It was a weak defense, I knew. “But we’ve got them. We’ve got the lot of them.”
“Someone please tell me exactly what’s going on,” Ms. Plimpton said.
Duckworth was shaking his head angrily.
That was when I remembered something Jeremy had told me the day before. About what was in one of the kitchen drawers.
I said to Duckworth, “I don’t want to leave Jeremy. He needs to see somebody. The kid’s falling—”
And then we heard the shot.
Ms. Plimpton screamed.
Duckworth bolted into the house. We both started heading for the kitchen, but stopped short of it. We didn’t know what we would be running into.
“Ms. Pilford!” Duckworth shouted. “Are you okay?”
“Jeremy!” I said. “What’s happened?”
There was nothing for several seconds. Then Jeremy’s voice.
“I’m going to come out,” he said. “I’ve put the gun down.”
Duckworth and I exchanged fearful looks.
Jeremy walked calmly out of the kitchen, stopped, looked at me, and managed to make his quivering lips smile ever so slightly.
“I did it,” he said. “I take full responsibility.” He paused. “I own this.”
I took him into my arms, while Duckworth ran into the kitchen to see how bad it was.
PICK UP YOUR NEXT GRIPPING THRILLER FROM A MASTER OF SUSPENSE
‘No one can thrill you and chill you better than Linwood Barclay’ Tess Gerritsen
CAN YOU EVER FORGET YOUR PAST?
On the morning she will never forget, suburban teenager Cynthia Archer awakes with a nasty hangover and a feeling she is going to have an even nastier confrontation with her mom and dad. But when she leaves her bedroom, she discovers the house is empty, with no sign of her parents or younger brother Todd. In the blink of an eye, without any explanation, her family has simply disappeared.