"Take care of yourself," I say.
I pull back. There are tears in her eyes. I start back toward the path.
"I didn't have to come back to Angola," she says.
I stop and turn toward her.
"I could have gotten to Myanmar or Laos or someplace where you would have never found me."
"So why did you choose here?"
"Because I wanted you to find me."
Now the tears are in my eyes too.
"Please don't leave," she says.
I am so very tired. I don't sleep anymore. The faces of the dead are there when I close my eyes. The ice blue eyes stare at me. Nightmares haunt my dreams, and when I wake up, I am alone.
Terese walks toward me. "Please stay with me. Just for tonight, okay?"
I want to say something, but I can't. The tears come faster now. She pulls me to her, and I try so very hard not to break down. My head falls onto her shoulder. She strokes my hair and shushes me.
"It's okay," Terese whispers. "It's over now."
And as long as she holds me in her arms, I believe it.
BUT on this same day, somewhere in the United States, a chartered bus pulls up to a crowded national monument. The bus is carrying a group of sixteen-year-olds on a cross-country teen tour. Today is day three of their journey. The sun is shining. The skies are clear.
The bus door swings open. The giggling, gum-chewing teens spill out.
The last teen to get off the bus is a boy with blond hair.
He has blue eyes with a gold ring around each pupil.
And though he wears a heavy backpack, he walks into the crowd with his head held high, his shoulders back, and his posture perfect.
Acknowledgments
Okay, let's start the thanks with the officials from 36 quai des Orfévres because they are in law enforcement and I don't want any of them angry with me: Monsieur le Directeur de la Police Judiciaire, Christian Flaesch; Monsieur Jean-Jacques Herlem, Directeur-Adjoint chargé des Brigades Centrales; Madame Nicole Tricart, Inspectrice Générale, conseiller auprés du Directeur General de la Police Nationale; Monsieur Lonc Garnier, Commissaire Divisionnaire, Chef de la Brigade Criminelle; Mademoiselle Frédérique Conri, Commmissaire Principal, Chef-Adjoint de la Brigade Criminelle.
In no particular order but with tons of gratitude: Marie-Anne Cantin, Eliane Benisti, Lisa Erbach Vance, Ben Sevier, Melissa Miller, Franзoise Triffaux, Jon Wood, Malcolm Edwards, Susan Lamb, Angela McMahon, Ali Nasseri, David Gold, Bob Hadden, Aaron Priest, Craig Coben, Charlotte Coben, Anne Armstrong-Coben, Brian Tart, Mona Zaki, and Dany Cheij.
Certain characters in this book came out of something akin to various prisms. Years ago I created them, others cast them in a different light, then still others interpreted them-and then I recreated them as entirely different beings here. That's why I also need to thank Guillaume Canet, Philippe Lefebvre (twice), and Francois Berleand.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Winner of the Edgar Award, the Shamus Award, and the Anthony Award, Harlan Coben is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of fourteen previous novels, including Hold Tight, The Woods, Promise Me, The Innocent, Just One Look, No Second Chance, Gone for Good, and Tell No One, as well as the popular Myron Bolitar novels. His books are published around the world in more than thirty-seven languages. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and four children.
