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Back When the Stars Go Dark Save as PDF
Chapters (83)
  1. Epigraph
  2. Maps
  3. (prologue)
  4. Part 1: Signs and Vapors
  5. (one)
  6. (two)
  7. (three)
  8. (four)
  9. (five)
  10. (six)
  11. (seven)
  12. (eight)
  13. (nine)
  14. (ten)
  15. (eleven)
  16. (twelve)
  17. Part 2: Secret Things
  18. (thirteen)
  19. (fourteen)
  20. (fifteen)
  21. (sixteen)
  22. (seventeen)
  23. (eighteen)
  24. (nineteen)
  25. (twenty)
  26. (twenty-one)
  27. (twenty-two)
  28. (twenty-three)
  29. (twenty-four)
  30. (twenty-five)
  31. (twenty-six)
  32. (twenty-seven)
  33. (twenty-eight)
  34. (twenty-nine)
  35. (thirty)
  36. (thirty-one)
  37. (thirty-two)
  38. (thirty-three)
  39. (thirty-four)
  40. (thirty-five)
  41. (thirty-six)
  42. (thirty-seven)
  43. (thirty-eight)
  44. (thirty-nine)
  45. Part 3: Time and the Maiden
  46. (forty)
  47. (forty-one)
  48. (forty-two)
  49. (forty-three)
  50. (forty-four)
  51. (forty-five)
  52. (forty-six)
  53. (forty-seven)
  54. (forty-eight)
  55. (forty-nine)
  56. (fifty)
  57. (fifty-one)
  58. (fifty-two)
  59. (fifty-three)
  60. Part 4: The Bent Grove
  61. (fifty-four)
  62. (fifty-five)
  63. (fifty-six)
  64. (fifty-seven)
  65. (fifty-eight)
  66. (fifty-nine)
  67. (sixty)
  68. (sixty-one)
  69. (sixty-two)
  70. (sixty-three)
  71. (sixty-four)
  72. (sixty-five)
  73. (sixty-six)
  74. (sixty-seven)
  75. (sixty-eight)
  76. (sixty-nine)
  77. (seventy)
  78. Dedication
  79. (acknowledgments)
  80. (author’s note)
  81. BY PAULA MCLAIN
  82. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  83. What’s next onyour reading list?

He studies the page for a long moment. “Those are her eyes. Lisa’s eyes. But she looks so sad here. Right?”

“I think so too, and I want to figure out why. Life is hard, Hector. You and I both know that, but I can’t see this girl sitting under a mailbox singing at rocks.”

I can feel him trying to process what I mean. He grips the paper more tightly, his thumbs whitening around the nail beds, as if he wishes he could climb inside of it somehow and touch her. Help her.

“My Lisa was a fighter,” he finally says. “Man, that girl was stubborn. You try to take a toy from her or get her off the swings before she was ready and you had a tiger to mess with. She’d ball up her fists like this.” He holds one hand up, makes a face that tells me he sees her right now, close enough to touch. “Fierce.”

“So what happened? That’s what I want to know. That’s why I came here, to see if I could figure it out. Do you have pictures around from when you were kids?”

He shakes his head. “Nothing like that, sorry.” Looking at the poster again, he says, “Can I keep this?”

“Of course. I’m going to give you my number, too.” Flipping the poster over, I write the digits for Will’s office and my name beside it. “You think of anything useful, let me know. And if you want me to keep you in the loop, I can do that.”

“Yeah.” He digs in his pocket for a wadded receipt and scrawls his phone number for me, passing it over. “If there’s any way I can help, let me know, okay? You got people looking for her, right?”

“We do.”

“Good.”

He walks me to the door as Cricket trails us. At eye level on the nicked jamb, there’s a tarry black smudge the size of a handprint. The doorknob looks plastic. This place feels so cramped and dingy and hopeless I have a crazy urge to take Hector with me, to throw him in the back of the car with Cricket and run for the hills. But he stopped being a child a long time ago. And anyway, he’s not asking to be rescued.

(forty-three)

It’s late when I finally reach the village. I drive past the sheriff’s office, hoping to find Will still at work, and catch him getting into his car to head home. He rolls down his window as I pull alongside him. Before I can even squeeze in a hello, he says, “Where in the world have you been? I’ve been looking for you for hours.”

“I told you I was going to Sacramento.”

“Even with red tape, I thought I’d hear from you by two. What gives?”

“Do you want to grab a drink?” I backpedal. “I can explain.”