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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?

It’s hard for me to imagine the hook coming out of nowhere, someone stopping Cameron on the street, after school maybe, and asking her if she’d ever wanted to be a model. Even if her boundaries were bad, and her desperation was high, wouldn’t she have told Gray what she was thinking of doing? And anyway, even if this was the method her predator had used to draw her in and then dangle large promises, could the kind of guy we’ve been looking for lately—a ranger or parks employee with access to and knowledge of reserve land—also have encouraged Cameron to think she had this kind of shot at being successful, or even famous? How do those two elements connect, if at all? Are we wrong about the ranger angle, and am I on some ludicrous tangent right now? Following a false lead to a place that signifies nothing?

Talk to me, Cameron, I think. Please. But only Cricket stirs, her coat flecked with sunlight while fine pollen motes float all around us, never settling.

(fifty-six)

When Eden died in September of 1975, we buried her in Evergreen Cemetery in the Strater family plot, next to Hap’s mother and father, grandmother and grandfather, aunts and uncles, the dates on stones going all the way back to the 1850s.

Hap didn’t deliver her eulogy or speak more than a few words at her service. He didn’t want people gathering at the house, passing along words of comfort, and didn’t want to wear his suit a moment longer than necessary. He just wanted to be in the woods.

Afterward, we went to Van Damme State Park, just the two of us, into the fern forest, walking without talking much. What was there to say? We hiked for an hour or more, not resting until we reached a shaded area along the river. There, we sat on a large flat rock, side by side, just looking at the water.

“Did I ever tell you the story about the boy I found once who had accidentally shot his brother?” he asked after a while.

I shook my head. He hadn’t, but I would have told him no anyway. I would have done anything to keep him talking. Any story would do. Any lesson at all. I needed all of them.

The boys had been sixteen, he told me, Jake and Sam Douglas. Twins. At first, he only knew they’d been reported missing after a day hike. Their mother had dropped them here, at Van Damme State Park, and then panicked when they didn’t return to the parking lot three hours later.