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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?

Because Jenny was two years older and hadn’t invited me closer, I didn’t know much about what her home life was like. But even if we’d been best friends, she might not have told me. There were a thousand different ways to be silent, I knew. The song spoke, at least to me, raising goose bumps along my arms and neck, landing dead center. Goodnight, California. Goodnight, blue. The waves can tell my story now. All the words are for you.

—

I was fifteen when Jenny Ford disappeared, in August of 1973. She was almost eighteen and had just graduated from Mendocino High. In the fall, she was supposed to go to UC Santa Barbara, to study nursing. In the meantime she was working forty-five minutes inland from the village, at Husch Vineyards in Boonville, saving for a car and bumming rides home from anyone going her way. One night, she left work in the usual way but never made it home. For days, the whole town panicked, particularly Caleb. It was devastating to watch. There were whispers that she might have run away. Teenagers did that all the time, for all sorts of reasons. But Caleb insisted she wouldn’t have—not without letting him know, or taking him with her.

As we waited to hear news, I felt an old, dormant fear come awake in my body. Those years in Mendocino with Hap and Eden had added up inside me, making me feel safe—saved. But now I knew for sure that what had happened to Jenny could just as easily have happened to me. Deep down, we weren’t that different.

(eight)

Will is sitting at the far end of the bar when I finally come through the door of Patterson’s a little after eight-thirty, a nearly empty cup of coffee in front of him.

“I was starting to feel stood up,” he says, hugging me with warm pressure.

I squeeze back, noticing that he’s showered and changed into a fresh uniform. His hair is damp, combed flat, but I know where all of his cowlicks are, how wild it will look as soon as it dries. Except for the usual ravages of time, Will is eerily unchanged—same strong jaw and long eyelashes. Same energetic grace in his body, as if he’s half man, half golden retriever.

“You surprised the hell out of me today,” I say.

“Me too.” He laughs a little and signals the barmaid over, a middle-aged blond woman with a soft jawline and heavily lined eyes.

I order a Guinness with a shot of Jameson, and then turn to Will. “Aren’t you joining me?”

“Not on the job. I won’t really be off the clock until I find this girl.”