Chapters (73)
- Cover
- Dedication
- Prologue
- Part IAnnie
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Part IIHarry
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Part IIIAnnie
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Part IVHarry
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Part VAnnie
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Fifty-Four
- Fifty-Five
- Fifty-Six
- Fifty-Seven
- Fifty-Eight
- Fifty-Nine
- Sixty
- Sixty-One
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Also by Linwood Barclay
- About the Publisher
Charlie said, “I kept thinking, if there was a chance, if maybe Daddy was really alive, I had to come here and get him. And when I found him I’d bring him back and you’d be so happy.”
He tightened his arms around his mother’s neck, and she could feel the tears running down into her collar.
Charlie put his lips to his mother’s ear and whispered, “He killed Daddy.”
“I know.”
“And he wants you. Everything was a trick to get you here.”
“I know that, too, Charlie.”
“One time when I looked at him, he was different. Just for a second. Like the thing you were making.”
“I saw that, too. We’re in a tough spot here, but I want you to know I love you more than anything in the whole world.”
“I love you, too, Mommy.”
Nabler tapped his wrist. “Tick-tock,” he said.
Annie turned and looked at him. “You said he could get some fresh clothes?”
“Yes, but you should say your goodbyes now.”
Annie said to Charlie, “The car’s just down the street, past the tree that fell down. It’s unlocked. All our stuff’s packed in the back. You’ll find some of your clothes there. I packed real fast, so I might have missed some things. And I brought back my stuff, even some of the things I’d been working on.”
“Okay.”
She put hand on each shoulder and looked at him very directly. “Mr. Nabler here wants me to help him with what he does. I don’t want to do it, but we’ve kind of made a deal. I help him, and you’ll be okay.”
“We get to go home?”
“You get to go home. It looks like I’ll be staying here.”
He started to tear up again. “I don’t want to go home without you.”
“Mr. Nabler’s giving me a real once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I’ll be able to use my talents to do some amazing things. He’s been explaining it all to me. When you were in the train, circling around us, did you hear him talking about it?”
“A little, yeah,” he said, and sniffed.
She spoke slowly and deliberately. “About how when something happens with the trains, it makes something like that happen in the real world? Did you hear him talking about that?”
Charlie nodded.
“Don’t you think that’s interesting? And the way I understand it, it doesn’t always have to be with trains. Like, you know that saying when you’re walking on the sidewalk, step on a crack, break your mother’s back?”
“I would never do that.”
“I know, but you know the saying?”
Charlie nodded.
“It’s kind of like that. When you hurt something that’s pretend, it makes the real thing feel the pain. I just wanted to be sure you understood.”
“I guess I do.”