BooksBarbecue
Back When the Stars Go Dark
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?

“A good one. I only had her for a month, but she stood out right away. The sensitive readers, they have a certain look. You can almost smell it on them, that they need books to feel okay.”

“Emily Hague says you praised Cameron’s writing.”

“She wrote some poems and showed them to me. They weren’t part of an assignment.”

“Can I see them?”

“I gave them back to her, but I wish I’d made copies first. Maybe they’d be useful somehow.”

“What were they like?”

“Really good, actually, but dark. It was a tricky moment for me. I’m supposed to talk about the craft of the poem, the imagery or a particularly good line, but in this case, the subject matter was disturbing, and I didn’t know if I should say something about that. Young writers, they’re almost always autobiographical, even when they don’t mean to be.”

“It says a lot that she would show you something so personal. She must have known she could trust you. What happened next? Did you get the feeling that Cameron wanted you to do something about it? That she was asking for help?”

Steve’s dark brown eyes cloud over. “God, I hope not. I edit the school magazine. I asked her if she wanted me to publish the poems, and she said she’d think about it. Then she folded them up a bunch of times. It made me think she was embarrassed she’d shown me. I felt bad after she left, but then in class the next day she seemed fine.”

“You love your job, Mr. Gonzales.”

“I do, yeah. Though right now, I’m struggling.” He looks down at his soft meaty hands. “The other students are still really scared. They can’t focus, I’ve noticed. My colleagues say the same.” I know exactly what he’s talking about. When terror like this hits so close to home, it’s common to see numbness, inability to focus, depression, and anxiety. Most grown-ups don’t have the tools to deal with this kind of fear, let alone kids. It makes me feel for Steve, for all of them.

“The news about Polly Klaas has to have made things a lot worse,” I say. “They must be feeling like it could happen again, to any of them.”

He nods. “What can I do?”

“Be patient. Listen. Reassure them with your presence. Let them feel their feelings. Kids are resilient. They can heal with time, but first they need some kind of resolution. I hope we can provide that for them soon.”

He gives me a long look. “Do you love your job, Detective Hart?”