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Back Whistle

Whistle

Linwood Barclay
Chapters (73)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Prologue
  4. Part IAnnie
  5. One
  6. Two
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Seven
  12. Part IIHarry
  13. Eight
  14. Nine
  15. Ten
  16. Eleven
  17. Twelve
  18. Thirteen
  19. Fourteen
  20. Fifteen
  21. Sixteen
  22. Seventeen
  23. Eighteen
  24. Nineteen
  25. Twenty
  26. Twenty-One
  27. Part IIIAnnie
  28. Twenty-Two
  29. Twenty-Three
  30. Twenty-Four
  31. Twenty-Five
  32. Twenty-Six
  33. Twenty-Seven
  34. Twenty-Eight
  35. Twenty-Nine
  36. Thirty
  37. Thirty-One
  38. Thirty-Two
  39. Part IVHarry
  40. Thirty-Three
  41. Thirty-Four
  42. Thirty-Five
  43. Thirty-Six
  44. Thirty-Seven
  45. Thirty-Eight
  46. Thirty-Nine
  47. Forty
  48. Forty-One
  49. Forty-Two
  50. Forty-Three
  51. Forty-Four
  52. Forty-Five
  53. Forty-Six
  54. Forty-Seven
  55. Forty-Eight
  56. Part VAnnie
  57. Forty-Nine
  58. Fifty
  59. Fifty-One
  60. Fifty-Two
  61. Fifty-Three
  62. Fifty-Four
  63. Fifty-Five
  64. Fifty-Six
  65. Fifty-Seven
  66. Fifty-Eight
  67. Fifty-Nine
  68. Sixty
  69. Sixty-One
  70. Acknowledgments
  71. About the Author
  72. Also by Linwood Barclay
  73. About the Publisher

Cover

cover image

Dedication

For Neetha

Prologue

Christmas 2001

It was starting to look like Santa hadn’t come through for Jeremy. All the presents that had been placed under the tree had been unwrapped and there was no PlayStation.

Goddamn, he thought.

Jeremy was only seven and shouldn’t have been using words like that, even when it was only in his head and not out loud, but his older sister, Glynis, who was nine, had brought him up to speed on forbidden vocabulary. Not that he didn’t already know most of the words. He’d heard kids using them on the school grounds. He could have thought something much worse than goddamn.

He also knew it wasn’t Santa Claus who’d failed him; it was Mom and Dad. Glynis had set him straight on this score, too. “There is no Santa,” she’d told him while he was sitting in the basement watching an episode of Bob the Builder. “There’s no guy at the North Pole who’s going around on a magic sleigh to every house in the world, in one night, delivering presents. What kind of baby believes in stuff like that? And while we’re on the subject, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny are bullshit, too.”

Glynis not only knew all the swear words, she knew how to use them effectively. And she knew other stuff, mostly from watching Sex and the City at her friend Sally’s house because they had it on VHS. Sally’s aunt lived in Boston and had HBO and taped the episodes for Sally’s mom. If Jeremy’s parents knew Glynis was up to speed on the sexual antics of Carrie Bradshaw and her friends, they’d have a double stroke.

Jeremy knew his sister was less interested in his knowing the truth than she was delighted to shatter his most treasured illusions. If there was something she relished more than tormenting her little brother, he couldn’t think what it was.

This particular Christmas morning, in a year when it was hard to imagine that anything good could happen, Glynis had done quite well. New clothes, new shoes, and one of those Bratz dolls, kind of like if Barbie went full Goth. And, sure, Jeremy got a Lego set based on Harry Potter stuff, and he supposed that was okay, but it sure was no PlayStation.

But then Jeremy’s father said, “Wait right there. There’s one more thing. Didn’t have a chance to wrap it.”

Oh yes! This had to be it. Dad was saving the PlayStation for last. Well played, Father. Just when Jeremy thought it was game over, no pun intended, Dad was coming through.