Parting Shot

by Linwood Barclay

  “I heard them talking,” she said. “Bob and Galen. Soon after the accident. I . . . I confronted them. I . . . I was going to do something, but . . . everything was too far along.”

  Jeremy whispered, “How . . . how could . . .”

  “I think I know how,” I said. “What did they tell you, Gloria? That if you came forward at that point, they’d go to jail. Galen and Bob. That deal worth millions would die. You’d be worthless. They told you they had a strategy to get Jeremy off, or at least make it so he served very little time in prison. Was it something like that?”

  Tears were running down her cheeks. There was a nod. “If it hadn’t worked,” she said weakly, “I told them, that if they sent Jeremy to jail, then I’d have to say . . . I’d have to say something . . .”

  “You let them do this to me,” Jeremy said.

  “But I let them humiliate me,” she told him. “I let them make a laughing stock of me, because I love you. I was willing to do anything to save you. I didn’t care. I did it for you. ”

  “You were willing to do anything but tell the truth,” he said, his voice weak, crumbling.

  “Jeremy,” I said. “We should get you out of here.”

  “Bob was your ticket,” Jeremy whispered. “A ticket to a better life. More money, all the things you wanted.”

  “I . . . I just need to explain it to you better,” Gloria said. “I told you, things were so far along. It was . . . it was a case of the lesser evil.”

  We seemed to have an abundant supply of that at the moment.

  A shout from the front of the house. “Weaver!”

  It was Duckworth.

  “Back here!” I called.

  He was in the kitchen in three seconds, one uniformed officer trailing him. He saw Bob on the floor and looked angrily at me. “You were supposed to wait.”

  I didn’t know what to say.

  Duckworth pushed me aside, straddled Bob and told him to lie face down and put his hands behind his back. “I’m placing you under arrest, Mr. Butler,” he said. He cinched some plastic cuffs onto the man’s wrists and told him to get up. Awkwardly, Bob got to his knees first, then stood.

  He allowed himself to be walked out of the kitchen. He kept his head bowed, avoiding eye contact with any of us on the way out.

  The kitchen was very silent again.

  “You have to understand,” Gloria said pleadingly. She reached out to touch Jeremy’s arm, and he recoiled as though she were a poisonous snake.

  “I don’t believe it,” he said, more to himself than any of us.

  “Oh Gloria,” Ms. Plimpton said. “How could you?”

  From the front door, Duckworth shouted my name again.

  I approached Jeremy. “I’ll be back in a minute, okay? We’re going to work this out. You can stay with me. We’ll get you out of this house.”

  He seemed close to catatonic.

  “Just give me a minute,” I repeated.

  I walked briskly out of the kitchen. Ms. Plimpton followed me.

  “Tell me this isn’t true,” she said.

  Duckworth was standing just outside the door, pointing a finger at me as the officer put Bob into the back seat of what looked like the same cruiser that had taken Galen Broadhurst away.

  “You screwed this up,” he said. “You should have waited.”

  “Things happened quickly,” I said. It was a weak defense, I knew. “But we’ve got them. We’ve got the lot of them.”

  “Someone please tell me exactly what’s going on,” Ms. Plimpton said.

  Duckworth was shaking his head angrily.

  That was when I remembered something Jeremy had told me the day before. About what was in one of the kitchen drawers.

  I said to Duckworth, “I don’t want to leave Jeremy. He needs to see somebody. The kid’s falling—”

  And then we heard the shot.

  Ms. Plimpton screamed.

  Duckworth bolted into the house. We both started heading for the kitchen, but stopped short of it. We didn’t know what we would be running into.

  “Ms. Pilford!” Duckworth shouted. “Are you okay?”

  “Jeremy!” I said. “What’s happened?”

  There was nothing for several seconds. Then Jeremy’s voice.

  “I’m going to come out,” he said. “I’ve put the gun down.”

  Duckworth and I exchanged fearful looks.

  Jeremy walked calmly out of the kitchen, stopped, looked at me, and managed to make his quivering lips smile ever so slightly.

  “I did it,” he said. “I take full responsibility.” He paused. “I own this.”

  I took him into my arms, while Duckworth ran into the kitchen to see how bad it was.

  PICK UP YOUR NEXT GRIPPING THRILLER FROM A MASTER OF SUSPENSE

  ‘No one can thrill you and chill you better than Linwood Barclay’ Tess Gerritsen

  CAN YOU EVER FORGET YOUR PAST?

  On the morning she will never forget, suburban teenager Cynthia Archer awakes with a nasty hangover and a feeling she is going to have an even nastier confrontation with her mom and dad. But when she leaves her bedroom, she discovers the house is empty, with no sign of her parents or younger brother Todd. In the blink of an eye, without any explanation, her family has simply disappeared.

  Twenty-five years later Cynthia is still haunted by unanswered questions. Were her family murdered? And if they’re alive, why did they abandon her in such a cruel way? Now married with a daughter of her own, Cynthia fears that her new family will be taken from her just as her first one was. Then a letter arrives which makes no sense and yet chills Cynthia to the core. And soon she begins to realise that stirring up the past could be the worst mistake she has ever made . . .

  EVERYONE HAS SECRETS BUT NOT ALL THEM CAN STAY HIDDEN

  When the Cutter family’s next-door neighbours, the Langleys, are gunned down in their house one hot August night, the Cutters’ world is turned upside down. That violent death should have come so close to them is shocking enough in suburban Promise Falls, but at least the Cutters can console themselves with the thought that lightning is unlikely to strike twice in the same place. Unless, of course, the killers went to the wrong house . . .

  At first the idea seems crazy – but each of the Cutter family has a secret they’d rather keep buried. To find out who killed the Langleys and why, everybody’s secrets are going to have to come out. But the final secret – the secret that could save them or destroy them – is in the one place nobody would ever think of looking . . .

  HOW WELL CAN A FATHER REALLY KNOW HIS DAUGHTER?

  The worst day of Tim Blake’s life started out with him making breakfast for his seventeen-year-old daughter Sydney. When she didn’t arrive home at her usual time, he thought she’d probably gone to the mall to hang with her friends. When she didn’t answer her phone he began to worry. When she didn’t come home at all, he began to panic. And when the people at the motel said they had no Sydney Blake working there, and never had, he began to see his life going into freefall.

  If she hadn’t been working at the motel every day, what had she been doing? To find his daughter, Tim doesn’t need to simply track her down – he needs to know who she really was, and what could have made her step out of her own life without leaving a trace.

  A WIFE’S DISAPPEARANCE, A WEB OF LIES, A GRIPPING THRILLER

  It starts with a trip to a local amusement park. David Harwood is hoping a carefree day will help dispel his wife Jan’s recent depression that has led to frightening thoughts of suicide. Instead, a day of fun with their son Ethan turns into a nightmare.

  When Jan disappears from the park, David’s worst fears seem to have come true. But when he goes to the police to report her missing, the facts start to indicate something very different. The park’s records show that only two tickets were purchased, and CCTV shows no evidence that Jan ever entered the park at all. Suddenly David’s story starts to look suspicious – and the police to wonder if Jan’s already dead, mu
rdered by her husband.

  To prove his innocence and keep his son from being taken away from him, David is going to have to dig deep into the past and come face to face with a terrible childhood tragedy – but by doing that, he could risk destroying everything precious to him . . .

  A DRUNK-DRIVING ACCIDENT HIDES MORE THAN ONE DARK SECRET

  Glen Garber’s life has just spiralled out of control. His wife’s car is found at the scene of a drunk-driving accident that took three lives. Not only is she dead, but it appears she was the cause of the accident.

  Suddenly Glen has to deal with a potent mixture of emotions: grief at the loss of his wife, along with anger at her reckless behaviour that leaves their young daughter motherless. If only he could convince himself that Sheila wasn’t responsible for the tragedy.

  But as more and more secrets begin to surface, Glen may have to face something much, much worse . . .

  A CHILLING STORY OF DOUBLE DEALING, FRAUD AND MURDER

  Keisha Ceylon is a psychic. So she says. The truth is, she watches the news for stories of missing family members, gives it a few days, then tells these families she’s had a vision. She may be able to help. And by the way, she charges for this service, and likes to see the money up front.

  Keisha’s latest mark is a man whose wife disappeared a week ago. She’s seen him on TV, pleading for his wife to come home, or for whoever took her to let her go. So she pays him a visit.

  The trouble is, her vision just happens to be close enough to the truth that it leaves the man rattled. And it may very well leave Keisha dead . . .

  WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WITNESSED A MURDER – BUT NO ONE BELIEVED YOU?

  Map-obsessed Thomas spends his days and nights on a virtual tour of the world through his computer screen, believing he must store the details of every town and city in his head. Then one day, while surfing a street view program, he sees something that shouldn’t be there: a woman being murdered behind a window on a New York street.

  When Thomas tells his brother Ray what he has witnessed, Ray humours him with a half-hearted investigation – until he realises Thomas may have stumbled onto a deadly conspiracy, which puts them both in danger . . .

  With enough suspense to rival a Hitchcock film, this is a thriller with edge.

  ON A RAINY NIGHT, A MAN GIVES A TEENAGE GIRL A LIFT HOME, BUT THE GIRL HE PICKS UP ISN’T THE SAME ONE HE DROPS OFF . . .

  When Cal Weaver stops at a red light on a rainy night while driving home, he ignores the bedraggled-looking teenage girl trying to hitch a ride – even when she starts tapping on his window. But when he realises she’s one of his son’s classmates, he knows he can’t really leave her, alone, on the street.

  But nothing prepares him for the consequences of trying to help her out. The next morning he’s gone from Good Samaritan to Murder Suspect, and with one girl dead and another missing, he’s suddenly at the centre of a deadly puzzle that reaches right to the heart of the town – from its bullying police force to its strangely furtive mayor – and finally to one family’s shocking secret.

  WHAT WOULD YOU DO TO PROTECT YOUR DAUGHTER?

  Seven years ago, Terry Archer and his family experienced a horrific ordeal which nearly cost them their lives. Today, the echoes of that fateful night are still audible. Terry’s wife, Cynthia, is living separate from her husband and daughter after her own personal demons threatened to ruin her relationship with them permanently. Their daughter, Grace, is rebelling against her parents’ seemingly needless overprotection. Terry is just trying to keep his family together. And the entire town is reeling from the senseless murder of two elderly locals.

  But when Grace foolishly follows her delinquent boyfriend into a strange house, the Archers must do more than stay together. They must stay alive.

  Caught in a labyrinth between family loyalty and ultimate betrayal, Terry must find a way to extricate his family from a lethal situation he still doesn’t fully comprehend. All he knows is that to live, he may have to do the unthinkable . . .

  PROMISE FALLS TRILOGY

  A pulse-pounding series set in a very troubled town

  #1 BROKEN PROMISE

  When David Harwood is asked to look in on his cousin Marla, who is still traumatised after losing her baby, he thinks it will be some temporary relief from his dead-end life. But when he arrives, he’s disturbed to find blood on Marla’s front door. He’s even more disturbed to find Marla looking after a baby – a baby she claims was delivered to her ‘by an angel’.

  Soon after, a woman’s body is discovered, stabbed to death, with her own baby missing. It looks as if Marla has done something truly terrible. It’s up to David to find out what really happened, but he soon discovers that the truth could be worse than he ever imagined . . .

  #2 FAR FROM TRUE

  A freak accident has killed Lucy Brighton’s father. And when she goes to his house, she’s convinced that someone has broken in. She asks private investigator Cal Weaver to look into it – but isn’t prepared for what he’ll find.

  Cal discovers a secret ‘playroom’ in the basement, complete with video equipment, and it looks as though there’s a missing recording. As Cal investigates further, and more people start dying in suspicious circumstances, it’s clear that someone is targeting Promise Falls. But who – and how far will they go?

  #3 THE TWENTY-THREE

  The day begins like any other Saturday – a shower, coffee, breakfast. But suddenly, all hell breaks loose in the town of Promise Falls. People are dying in the street – the hospital and emergency services are overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Is it mass food poisoning, a virus, or something more sinister? Has someone, rather than something, caused this?

  Detective Barry Duckworth is already investigating two murders and an explosion at the town’s drive-in. He starts to wonder if these crimes and the new attacks are connected to the mysterious incidents in Promise Falls. But who is sending these deadly messages, and how can they be stopped?

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  COPYRIGHT

  AN ORION EBOOK

  First published in Great Britain in 2017 by Orion Books

  Ebook first published in 2017 by Orion Books

  Copyright © NJSB Entertainment Inc. 2017

  The right of Linwood Barclay to be identified as the author

  of this work has been asserted in accordance with the

  Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a

  retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior

  permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of

  binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition,

  including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  All the characters in this book are fictitious,

  and any resemblance to actual persons, living

  or dead, is purely coincidental.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book

  is available from the British Library.

  ISBN: 978 1 4091 6397 8

  The Orion Publishing Group Ltd

  Carmelite House

  50 Victoria Embankment

  London, EC4Y 0DZ

  An Hachette UK company

  www.orionbooks.co.uk

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Title Page

  Contents

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourt
een

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty-One

  Twenty-Two

  Twenty-Three

  Twenty-Four

  Twenty-Five

  Twenty-Six

  Twenty-Seven

  Twenty-Eight

  Twenty-Nine

  Thirty

  Thirty-One

  Thirty-Two

  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

  Forty-Nine

  Fifty

  Fifty-One

  Fifty-Two

  Fifty-Three

  Fifty-Four

  Fifty-Five

  Fifty-Six

  Fifty-Seven

  Fifty-Eight

  Fifty-Nine

  Sixty

  Sixty-One

  Sixty-Two

  Sixty-Three

  Sixty-Four

  Sixty-Five

  Copyright