BooksBarbecue
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?

“I get that, but this is a manhunt. Caleb could be on his way anywhere right now. Across the border to Canada, or already working on another victim.”

“You think I don’t know that?” I glance toward Cameron’s door, then lower my voice and lead him toward the nurses’ station. “She’s fragile. Think of what she’s been through. The trauma she’s endured. A lot of what’s happened to her will be unsayable, Will.”

He sighs as my meaning lands, and then nods.

“She has to know she’s our priority, not the information. She’s earned that.”

“Yeah, she has.” He rubs his eyes with his fingertips, looking spent. Behind him at the nurses’ station, there’s a whiteboard with Cameron’s name on it, along with scrawled red notes from her caregivers about IV fluids, vital signs, meds administered. At the top is today’s date. October 14.

I stare at the numbers disbelievingly. Between my leaving San Francisco and today, an eternity’s worth of changes have come and gone. Both of us broken open and transformed, linked forever, whether or not there are words for any of it. And yet only three weeks have passed. Not even a single cycle of the moon.

(sixty-six)

All that night and into the next day, the manhunt for Caleb continues. Dogs are brought in and more field teams, more men. Every county in Northern California signs on to help with the search—and it feels as if we have an army, finally, a rising human tide. Rod Fraser sends his helicopter our way again, to sweep the coast. He’s shown Caleb’s picture to Gillian Pelham and Kate McLean, and neither of them thinks this is the man they watched kidnap Polly. Still, the media is going crazy with speculation. More news teams arrive to flood the village, trying to get close to Cameron and her parents, hounding Will for statements and updates.

When the all-points bulletin for Caleb goes out over the Internet, it reaches thousands and thousands more within hours, and the army expands. The next morning, October 15, Caleb’s Toyota pickup turns up near Galloway on a little-used county road, spotted by a woman who recognizes the license-plate number from the news. She calls Will’s office, almost shouting.

We send dozens of men there, combing the area for places Caleb might be hiding. But even with this important find, we have no way of knowing how long his truck has been abandoned where he left it, or how many miles he can walk in a day. Or how carefully and completely he might be able to disappear, or for how long.

—