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Back When the Stars Go Dark
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?

My face has grown hot. “Why are you giving me such a hard time? If you don’t trust my judgment, what am I doing here?”

“Hang on. Can we deescalate for a minute? I’m just doing my job, Anna. Trying, anyway. You’re a great resource, and I’m really grateful you’re here. But the questions I’m asking you, I have a right to ask you. Okay?”

I look at my hands. “I should have called you from Sacramento. I can own that. But I’d bet my legs Hector Gilbert didn’t take Cameron Curtis.”

“I’m sure you’re right. Let’s just follow protocol and run a background check—see what we’re dealing with. And we should bring him in for a polygraph, just standard procedure. Same with the uncle, and same with Steve Gonzales. We have to cover our bases.”

“Cover your ass, you mean,” I say without thinking.

“Anna.” His warning chimes.

“Sorry.” I roll my shoulders up and back, trying to release the knots there. “It’s been a challenging day.”

“Yeah, here too….Now I need you to watch something with me. You’ve missed a lot.”

(forty-four)

In one corner of the conference room, a TV and VCR sit stacked on a wheeled metal AV cart. Will crosses over and clicks on the set, pushing the play button. It’s tonight’s taped episode of America’s Most Wanted. A pretty blond journalist I don’t recognize is interviewing Kate McLean and Gillian Pelham. Maybe she’s not even a journalist. The show isn’t exactly hard news.

As the interview begins, the camera zooms in on the two girls sitting side by side on a narrow studio couch. They look brave and poised and very, very young to me. Which they are.

“We thought it was a prank at first,” Kate McLean says. She has shoulder-length brown hair with a straight center part, a button nose, and wide-set brown eyes. “Polly could do stuff like that sometimes. She was a good actress.”

I can’t help but notice she’s using the past tense, and feel it like a needle prick. “We’d already been goofing around a lot,” Gillian Pelham adds, tucking a dark blond strand of hair behind her ear. “Talking about Halloween and trying to scare each other. We put white makeup on Polly and she did her eyes like a ghost and painted her lips black.”

“Then what happened?” the interviewer urges.

“She went out to get sleeping bags for us,” Gillian continues. “When she came back there was a guy with a knife and a duffel bag standing behind her in the door. He was older. He didn’t look scary or anything, not at first. That’s why I thought Polly might be kidding.”