She walked down the long dock now, a slow stroll that took her back in time until she stopped at the slip where the Claire-Voyance once rested. In its place was some other boat owned by some other family. Avery closed her eyes as memories ran through her mind of whitecapped waves crashing over the bow. She squeezed her eyelids tight as she thought of the sheets of rain that turned day into night, and of the bow as it slipped under the surface of the ocean. A shiver found her shoulders when she remembered climbing over the railing and jumping into the cold, turbulent waters where the waves crashed over her head. Pressing her fingers into her temples, she tried but failed to dull the image of the sailboat’s stern rising into the air, not unlike the image in Titanic, before it speared to the bottom of the ocean. Her life vest had just barely kept her alive until the Coast Guard found her.

But the memory of the last time she had sailed the Claire-Voyance, and what that final voyage meant for her brother, was not the only thing that continued to bring Avery back to New York. She walked back up the dock and pulled from her purse the postcard that had arrived in her mailbox months earlier. She studied the image of the wooded cabin on the front and then turned the card over to read the message written there.

To the one-and-only Claire-Voyant,

Just hanging out and watching the Events of America. Could use some company.

On the bottom right corner of the card, Avery saw the numbers again.

777

Could she really do it? She had come all the way across the country for a reason, but could she really go through with it? Avery knew that she held his life in her hands, and that the decisions she made while in New York could secure his freedom, or strip it from him.

CHAPTER 23 - Manhattan, NY Tuesday, June 29, 2021

CHAPTER 23

Manhattan, NY Tuesday, June 29, 2021

SHE LEFT THE MARINA AND STARTED HER WAY EAST. WALKING THE streets of her childhood city this afternoon made Avery realize how far she had come since she’d thrown shovelfuls of dirt over her old identity and fled to Los Angeles. The plan had been to never look back, but Avery had failed miserably at that. She checked the rearview mirror of her life so often it was a wonder she hadn’t caused a head-on collision. But her success at American Events had provided stretches during which she forgot about this city and its secrets. This year’s journey, and all she had planned, would perhaps provide the clean slate she was searching for.