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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?

He sighs heavily and stretches his neck to one side, trying to unknot some of the tension there. “Maybe you’re right about the keeping quiet part. I should have trusted my gut on that. But you have got to back off Emily a little, okay? She’s not perfect, but she’s also not the enemy, Anna. She’s just a mom.”

“I know.”

“Shit. Her life just got smacked sideways.”

I know. Deep in my chest, my breath catches on a familiar jagged hook. But Cameron is what matters now.

“Maybe we don’t have witnesses or a crime scene,” I finally say, “but you and I both know Cameron’s life is just as much at risk as Polly’s.”

“Not every kid lands on the milk carton,” Will replies flatly, his voice seeming to come from very far away. “Some just vanish.”

I can hear him hanging on to his anger about Rod and my disloyalty, but I don’t care suddenly. I’m angry, too. “That’s right, Will. But I’m not ready to be okay with that. Are you?”

—

It’s taking us forever to get through the center of town. Traffic is standing still for no reason that I can see. It’s the middle of the day, too early for rush hour, as if there’s such a thing in a small borough like Petaluma. We’re all but creeping.

Then I see why. “Will, stop the car.”

Strung between two streetlights in the middle of Petaluma Boulevard, a banner has just been erected. Large work ladders still straddle the sidewalk. A dozen or more kids and their parents spill into the street looking up. A block ahead of us, the central traffic light changes to red, and we watch a woman in jeans and an open trench coat climb out of her VW Beetle. Then others follow, killing their engines to stand in the street, staring up at the bulging, colorful bubble letters: PLEASE SEND POLLY HOME! LOVE P.J.H.S.

“Oh Jesus,” Will says. He puts his cruiser in park and we get out, now part of whatever this is, a spontaneous gathering, a voiceless prayer.

These are Polly’s classmates from the junior high school. They’ve painted hearts and flowers, birds and clouds, six feet high and forty-five feet long, sweeping over the street. No matter what happens next, it’s amazing what they’ve done. Even if the sign gets forgotten one day soon, faded and abandoned in Polly’s shuttered rescue center. Right now, past the puffy hearts and flowers and balloons, past cheerful hope and sweetness, innocence is a demand. Her seventh- and eighth-grade classmates have written a letter—sky-high and bright and loud—to Polly’s abductor.

(thirty)