Saturday, 10:00 a.m., seventeen hours after drop-off Whitney had been up for hours, and still hadn’t heard from Amelia. Last night was restful. Quiet. Peaceful. All the things Whitney had wanted it to be. Much needed. But this morning she was suffering from a serious case of mom guilt. She missed her daughter. Was anxious…
Chapter 2 DENVER, COLORADO July 2 Special Agent James Mason emerged from the elevator onto the fortieth floor of a building that resembled a giant obsidian stake driven into the heart of downtown Denver. He’d thrown on a plain white T-shirt, jeans, and a baseball cap, covering his sandy blond hair and shielding his…
Chapter 1 I looked at the faces of the people around the large oval table in the dining room of the Asheboro Bed & Breakfast—the place I was calling home, at least temporarily. I knew I should begin the meeting soon, but I was relishing the sight of my ragtag gang, assembled all in one…
Prologue GRACE NOTES Journal Entry #441 DO YOU REMEMBER THE MOMENT YOU REALIZED YOU WERE GOING TO DIE? I was five years old, lying in my princess bed with its canopy and pink dust ruffles. My mother had sent me there after I put her expensive brassiere on Louie, our beagle. I might’ve gotten away…
Chapter 1 “I promised fifty times already,” I said, looking down over the whole green world. “As soon as we get on the highway, I’ll tell you the longest, weirdest story.” “With a mad doggy who rips off a kid’s face, okay, Saski? A naughty kid. A bad kid like a bad guy.” The…
PROLOGUE It was a routine Sunday afternoon for Thomas Gilbert Sr., the founder of a multimillion-dollar hedge fund and a longtime fixture on Wall Street. After playing two strenuous rounds of tennis at the River Club, he was relaxing in his bedroom watching a football game. Three days earlier, on New Year’s Day 2015, the…
Chapter 1 If you looked up “New England” you’d probably find a picture of my hometown, Penniman, Connecticut. Miles of gray stone walls bordering narrow country lanes? Check. A covered bridge? A town green with a war memorial in the center of the emerald swath of grass? Check and check. My rented car’s engine…
PROLOGUE KYUSHU, JAPAN MARCH 1945 It was pleasantly cold at a makeshift airstrip ten miles out of the port city of Kagoshima on the island of Kyushu, Japan. There was a high overcast and the nearby mountains had a dusting of Spring snow on their flanks. Six Yokosuka D4Y carrier dive bombers were lined up…
Claudia The details of whatever happened were gone from her mind, but present all over her body. Claudia dropped her hand below the stiff dorm bed and felt for a water bottle. It was nearly empty, but she sucked the liquid down and it was enough to get her sitting. Upright, there was pain. Her…
Chapter One A perfect Los Angeles morning: a cloudless sky so devastatingly blue, you’d swear God had Photoshopped it; a hint of sea in the air that embraced you in a balmy hug; palm fronds waving laconically in a gentle breeze. Beautiful people strolled Santa Monica sidewalks and disappeared into polished storefronts that enticed capacious…
