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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?

“She spent part of her childhood in Petaluma. She and Polly even had the same drama teacher. Apparently she’s been watching the news and decided it was time to act. She just called today. Talk about a media circus.”

“So we go back to Emily. She’s got two million dollars, easy.”

“Money isn’t the issue, Anna, and you know it. The problem is we have no evidence. The FBI thinks Cameron’s a runaway. You don’t get America’s Most Wanted coverage for that. I’m not sure we have a prayer of getting even local media right now, despite Emily’s help. Everyone will be covering Ryder’s visit.”

“I think we have to try anyway. We can’t control media interest, but we can fucking show up, right?”

“Maybe,” he offers. “Anyway, there’s something more.”

“Did Polly phone again?”

“No. Fraser’s pretty sure now that call was a prank. But Silicon Valley is jumping in. Some computer systems hotshot has been watching the news and had the bright idea to scan Polly’s missing poster into a computer. A bunch of network companies have donated equipment. They’re faxing thousands of posters all over the world and using the Internet, too. Someone told me that ten million people in half a dozen countries have seen the poster.”

“Holy shit. That number.”

“I know. It’s a brave new world, right? Can you imagine where we’d be if we had something like this ten years ago, or twenty?” His eyes flash with meaning. Jenny.

Just like that, her face shimmers up. Her laugh. Her walk. Her voice out on the headlands, flickering through the dark and then gone. Since her disappearance and long before, missing children and teens were seen on blurrily reproduced posters taped to telephone poles or tacked up in post offices. What would be different if the Internet had existed in 1973? Crisply faxed likenesses of Jenny generated and shared everywhere in a blink? Maybe nothing, or maybe everything. Maybe the entire thrust of our lives.

“Can we do something like this for Cameron?” I ask. “Shannan, too?”

“I’ve already made some calls.”

“What do you think of me going to talk to Shannan Russo’s mother?”

“To learn what?”

“If there’s something that links the two girls.”

“Personally they seem like night and day to me. If you didn’t see a connection with Polly, why would you look here?”

“Promise you won’t laugh?”

His look is noncommittal.

“I saw Tally Hollander.”

“The psychic? Oh brother, now I really am worried about you, kid.”