Chapters (83)
- Epigraph
- Maps
- (prologue)
- Part 1: Signs and Vapors
- (one)
- (two)
- (three)
- (four)
- (five)
- (six)
- (seven)
- (eight)
- (nine)
- (ten)
- (eleven)
- (twelve)
- Part 2: Secret Things
- (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)
- Part 3: Time and the Maiden
- (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)
- Part 4: The Bent Grove
- (fifty-four)
- (fifty-five)
- (fifty-six)
- (fifty-seven)
- (fifty-eight)
- (fifty-nine)
- (sixty)
- (sixty-one)
- (sixty-two)
- (sixty-three)
- (sixty-four)
- (sixty-five)
- (sixty-six)
- (sixty-seven)
- (sixty-eight)
- (sixty-nine)
- (seventy)
- Dedication
- (acknowledgments)
- (author’s note)
- BY PAULA MCLAIN
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- What’s next onyour reading list?
“Who are you?” I ask again, a faint roaring in my ears.
“I told you, I’m just the messenger.”
(thirty-six)
“What’s the story?” Will asks when we meet in front of Patterson’s later that day. He eyes Cricket. It wasn’t in English, as Clay had predicted, but with a little help from Tally, she’d managed to tell me her name.
“My new partner.”
That wins me a real smile if a small one. “You get some rest today?”
“A little,” I lie.
As it turns out, Wanda speaks dog and won’t hear of letting Cricket sit outside while we eat, even though the cook releases a string of epithets, shaking his fist. She waves him off and brings us the lunch special, fish sandwiches and coleslaw with a vinegar tang. Then Will fills me in on his morning with the Hagues.
“His polygraph didn’t turn up anything suspicious, and neither did Lydia’s. I had Leon do some more digging for us, too. He interviewed some of the staff at Provisions and a few of the neighbors as well. Apparently Drew’s alibi checks out for that night. He was working with his crew, lots of witnesses. Plus, it turns out the rape charge wasn’t black and white. The girl was seventeen, not sixteen, with a police record no less. A few months before, she solicited an undercover vice agent with an offer of a ‘date.’ After that, Drew seems to have cleaned his shit up. You saw. He’s the emperor of Napa Valley. A model citizen.”
“I saw.” I can’t keep the skepticism out of my voice. “But there was something else, too, when we met them yesterday. I don’t know. I just had a feeling he doesn’t like women. That he’s threatened by them.”
“Based on what?”
“Just a sense I got.”
He waits for me to say more, but I don’t have more. “Well, Troy seems to like women too much.”
“His assistant, you mean? The girlfriend?”
“Former assistant,” he clarifies. “Indiana Silverstein. She’s twenty-two and not talking. I got the details from another woman who used to be his office assistant at Paramount. She requested a transfer two years ago after just six months at Troy’s desk.”
“Let me guess. He made advances.”
“And big promises. As I understand it, most of the administrative team is made up of young hopefuls trying to be discovered.”
“What a pig. But at least this one didn’t give in to him. Did she have anything to say about her replacement?”
“Only that Indiana is keeping the baby.”
“Can we find out if he’s tried to pay her off?”
“Not without a warrant, and we have no reason to seek one. Not yet anyway. Maybe it’s not out of the question that he really has feelings?”