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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?

“I’m not surprised. I don’t think he had much use for people. How’s Caleb now?”

“He’s okay, I think, considering. I don’t see him often.”

“I would have thought he’d stay away forever. This town holds such pain for him.”

“Us, too, I guess,” he says simply. “But here we are.”

—

After we settle up, I follow Will out of the bar and onto the quiet street, where the streetlamps seem to cast a supernatural glow over Time and the Maiden, as baffling and mesmerizing to me as ever.

Will stops in the middle of the sidewalk, blinking. “It’s good seeing you again, Anna. This hasn’t been the best year. I’m not gonna lie.”

“For me either.” I hug him quickly, surprised by the lump in my throat.

“Drive safe, will you?”

“You can’t get drunk on beer,” I say.

“Oh yeah? Tell yourself that all the way home.”

His car is parked just down from mine. I know he still has work to do, but I feel him lingering anyway. Maybe it’s just the anxiety of his case I feel radiating from him, or maybe it’s pure loneliness. Those details about his perfect family might have been a lie. Or his marriage might have been completely fine, but he’s gotten off track some other way. How quickly your own life can turn on you—that’s something I know.

Unlocking my door, I settle behind the wheel of my Bronco just as Will steps closer, looking sad and unguarded. For a long moment, he holds my eyes, setting off a low buzz of apprehension. Is he going to try to kiss me?

But I’ve read him wrong. “I’m glad you’re back,” he says, “even if it’s just for a while. In times like this, when the world feels so crazy, it’s good to have friends around.”

He’s right, of course. I didn’t come home for this, but he’s absolutely right.

(nine)

Five days after Jenny went missing, two fly fishermen found her body in the Navarro River, so waterlogged and disfigured, the coroner’s office had to confirm her identity through dental records.

Hap took me into the woods to tell me. I’d never seen him lose his composure, but he was obviously struggling as he reached for my hands. “I’m always straight with you, aren’t I, Anna?” he asked with a shaking voice.

My mouth went dry. The ground beneath my sneakers seemed to roll, but Hap kept talking, explaining how the fishermen had stumbled onto Jenny’s remains on a little-used stretch of the river. How she might never have been found otherwise. She hadn’t drowned, either. She’d been strangled.