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Back The Short Drop Save as PDF
Chapters (61)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Dedication
  4. CONTENTS
  5. START READING
  6. PART ONE
  7. CHAPTER ONE
  8. CHAPTER TWO
  9. CHAPTER THREE
  10. CHAPTER FOUR
  11. CHAPTER FIVE
  12. CHAPTER SIX
  13. CHAPTER SEVEN
  14. CHAPTER EIGHT
  15. CHAPTER NINE
  16. CHAPTER TEN
  17. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  18. CHAPTER TWELVE
  19. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  20. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  21. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  22. PART TWO
  23. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  24. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  25. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  26. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  35. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  36. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  45. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  46. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  47. CHAPTER FORTY
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  49. PART THREE
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  53. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  54. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  55. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  56. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  57. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  58. CHAPTER FIFTY
  59. EPILOGUE
  60. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  61. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Suzanne was a wreck until I got her out of the park. I kept my distance or she’d start to freak again. It was a scene. Offered to buy her a cap, and that seemed to calm her down some. Found a merchandise stand on the walk back to the car. She didn’t want an Orioles cap. No Orioles. No, no, of course not. It was an O’s game for Christ’s sake. What else are they going to have? She started to cry again. The guy dug around in the boxes and found two Phillies caps. Wasn’t sure why he had it. Bought them both—thought we could bond over it. Cap was too big for her, but it was a snapback so I cinched it all the way and it just about stayed on her head. That made her happy, and thank God she passed out in the backseat on the way home.

O’s lost.

Gibson remembered that cap now. The second cap had been left in the backseat on the drive home. He’d asked Duke about it but gotten no real answer, and his father had thrown it in the trash when they got back to Charlottesville. He’d never connected it to Bear before now.

And it felt wrong. It was all so wrong. He’d found nothing definitive, but there was enough to feed his festering doubt. Gibson took the Phillies cap off and looked at it again. Billy was right. It was a message, and he had a sickening feeling it had been intended for him. Billy said she’d kept thinking up ways to make contact with him in jail.

What were you trying to tell me?

Gibson put the cap into his bag rather than back on his head. The Blue Moon was filling up. In one corner, the evening’s entertainment tuned a guitar. Gibson needed to get somewhere quiet where he could comb through the rest of the diary. There had to be more.

He packed up, paid the bill, and went out the side door to the parking lot. It was a risk, but he needed to reach out to Jenn. Of course, his phone was lying shattered in a gas station parking lot in Pennsylvania. Older motels often still had pay phones. He needed a place where he could hole up for the night and kill two birds.

He was at the SUV, keys in the door, when the hand, strong as cold iron, went over his mouth, deftly turning and exposing his neck. The icy silver of a hypodermic needle kissed his skin like a wasp’s sting.

“Quiet, now,” a voice of rotting fruit whispered. “I’ll take you to see your father.”

CHAPTER FORTY

CHAPTER FORTY