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
He hadn’t seen any of this when he got to Lucknow. After he had hopped into the van with Nabler, and not long after he’d managed to guess which railroads were represented by many of the patches on his vest, he had fallen asleep, and it wasn’t until the van was parked in the alley behind the shop that Nabler had said, “We’re here!” They had entered through the rear of the store, so the first thing Charlie saw was Nabler’s bizarre model railroad, and at first, he had to admit, he thought it was pretty cool. Totally weird, but cool.
And then he saw the watch.
That was when Charlie knew he’d been tricked.
So as he came out the front door of Choo-Choo’s Trains and stood on the sidewalk, he stared openmouthed at what must have been, at one time, a vibrant street. It didn’t take him long to notice that the various businesses were just as he had arranged them, albeit rather crudely, on the floor of his mother’s temporary studio. In his mind, he’d already been here, but when he imagined Lucknow, it wasn’t deserted like this. The stores weren’t boarded up, didn’t have their windows smashed in. There certainly wasn’t a moose walking down the middle of the street.
He took a moment to get his bearings, then looked left, saw the downed tree, and beyond it his mother’s car. He started running toward the car, slipping quickly under the downed tree like he was sliding into home plate, then back on his feet.
He went around to the back of the car, intending to open the hatch, but the bumper was all smashed in, the glass shattered, and the liftgate damaged to the point that when Charlie hit the button to activate it, it would not budge.
No problem.
He went to the back door on the passenger side, opened it, and crawled in. His booster seat was there, and he got onto it on his knees and leaned over the top of the backseat so he could reach into the cargo area.
Supposedly he was out here to get some fresh clothes, although he also suspected his mother didn’t want him to see something bad that was about to happen between her and Nabler. He didn’t think it was the sex thing, which he knew plenty about, and what kid didn’t in this day and age, but it was definitely something not nice and maybe even a little scary.
And, again, he wondered if she had been trying to get some message across to him without sounding like she was.