BooksBarbecue
Back Whistle
Chapters (73)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Prologue
  4. Part I Annie
  5. One
  6. Two
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Seven
  12. Part II Harry
  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 III Annie
  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 IV Harry
  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 V Annie
  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

But now it was here, and his foot had caught the edge of the track, knocked the red boxcar off, and now he was falling headlong. He reached for the railing but missed, and down he went, step after step, rolling and rolling until he reached the foot of the stairs, not moving, his neck snapped like a stick of celery.

Twenty-Nine

Annie was sitting in the kitchen with the same police officer who had come the night Charlie had disappeared. Standish, her name was. Annie had sent Charlie to ride his bike around in the backyard. She couldn’t send him to his room without having him step over Finnegan Sproule’s body, which remained at the foot of the stairs as the police continued their investigation.

Standish asked for a glass of water. Annie ran the tap, filled a glass, and then Standish suggested they both take a seat. Standish asked, “Where did you and Charlie go today?”

“Just . . . driving. We’d talked about heading back to the city, but Charlie didn’t want to, so we settled on an outing.”

“Why were you thinking about going back to New York?”

Annie took a moment. “Just . . . Charlie misses his friends.”

“So tell me about this outing.”

“We went into Fenelon and had lunch and then kind of explored. We did that the other day, found an airport and a pick-your-own strawberries place, and today we went in another direction.”

“When did you get home?”

“Just after four.” She bit her lip, her eyes looking up toward the ceiling. “I saw the car in the driveway and recognized it, I said to Charlie, oh, look who’s here. He didn’t know, because he’d never seen Fin’s car, but I explained. And since Fin wasn’t sitting on the porch or hanging around outside, I figured he must have been inside.”

“He had a key? Or had you left the house unlocked when you went out?”

“It was locked. I’m only guessing, but you should call this Candace person? The leasing agent? Fin arranged all this—setting me and Charlie up with this place for the summer—so he might have called ahead, asked her to let him in or to leave a key somewhere. So he could . . . surprise us.”

Annie thinking, He sure did that.

“And so, since the house was probably open, once Charlie was out of the car he ran in fast as he could, and . . .” Annie stopped, struggling to regain her composure. She took a couple of deep breaths, and continued. “He was inside and he starting shouting and I ran in and there he was.”

“At the bottom of the stairs. You didn’t touch him or move him.”

Annie said, “I didn’t move him. But I got down and put my hands on him and I guess I was shouting his name, but . . .”

“Okay, I understand.” Standish took a sip of water.