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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?

The woman—I think her name was Susan—looked at me sadly. “You’re just a little girl, Anna. You couldn’t have taken care of your brother and sister. If you’re going to be mad at someone, be mad at your mom. She left you alone. That wasn’t right.”

It was obvious that she meant well, but she didn’t know the first thing about our family. My mom wasn’t a very strong person. If she slept too much or cried too much or did drugs it was because our dad hadn’t left her with much money and she couldn’t handle it. “I was doing fine,” I told her. “They’re really good kids.”

She gave me another forlorn look and shook her head. “We’re going to find a nice home for you.”

Suddenly the light in the kitchen shone right into my eyes. The graham cracker crumbs in my mouth had become sweet glue. She hadn’t been listening at all. “I had a good home.”

Silence fell. I think she was afraid to look at me. “I’m so sorry.”

(twenty-one)

Will’s team of twelve has been working nonstop since September 22, just after Cameron vanished, canvassing and interviewing, going door-to-door in town and the surrounding area with her poster. Every day they’ve dug through databases, making phone calls to parole officers, hoping to find a name and a motive, a fit for this. I’m sure they’re all good men and women, but I don’t want to know them, or get any more tangled up in the nuts and bolts of this case than I have to. Will agrees. He tells me I can report to him alone and have as much independence as I want as long as I keep him updated.

“I’d like to interview Steve Gonzales,” I tell him. “I also want to learn more about Cameron’s birth family.”

“Good. I’ll track down Troy Curtis’s girlfriend and get us more on Drew Hague. But first we talk to Gray Benson together?”

“I was thinking that, too.”

—

It’s a little after three o’clock when we head over, Monday, October 4. Gray lives two blocks away from Mendocino High on Cahto Street, a narrow residential stretch that borders Hillcrest Cemetery. There’s no real room to park, but Will manages, steering his cruiser into the thick wall of vines and eucalyptus on the left side of the street, killing the engine while the last of the rain beads on the windshield, filmy on the inside with the humidity of our breath.