On September 11, the attack on the World Trade Center turned her life upside down, but what happened the next day almost destroyed it.
Kristina Haines, the young woman who lived upstairs from her, was brutally murdered by Jerry Thompson, the building’s handyman.
Allison was the sole witness who could place him at the scene of the crime. By the time he was apprehended, he had killed two more people—and Allison had narrowly escaped becoming another of his victims.
Whenever she remembers that incident, how a figure lurched at her from the shadows of her own bedroom . . .
You don’t just put something like that behind you.
And so, on this night of bitter memories, Jerry Thompson is part of the reason she’s having trouble sleeping.
It was ten years ago tonight that he crept into Kristina’s open bedroom window.
Ten years ago that he stabbed her to death in her own bed, callously robbing the burning, devastated city of one more innocent life.
He’s been in prison ever since.
Allison’s testimony at his trial was the final nail in the coffin—that was how the prosecuting attorney put it, a phrase that was oft-quoted in the press.
“I just hope it wasn’t my own,” she recalls telling Mack afterward.
“Your own what?” he asked, and she knew he was feigning confusion.
“Coffin.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
But it wasn’t ridiculous.
She remembers feeling Jerry’s eyes on her as she told the court that he had been at the murder scene that night. Describing how she’d seen him coming out of a stairwell and slipping into the alleyway, she wondered what would happen if the defense won the case and Jerry somehow wound up back out on the street.
Would he come after her?
Would he do to her what he had done to the others?
Sometimes—like tonight—Allison still thinks about that.
It isn’t likely. He’s serving a life sentence. But still . . .
Things happen. Parole hearings. Prison breaks.
What if . . . ?
No. Stop thinking that way. Close your eyes and go to sleep. The kids will be up early, as usual.
She closes her eyes, but she can’t stop imagining what it would be like to open them and find Jerry Thompson standing over her with a knife, like her friend Kristina did.
About the Author
USA Today and New York Times bestseller WENDY CORSI STAUB is the award-winning author of more than seventy novels. She lives in the New York City suburbs with her husband of twenty years and their two children. Learn more about Wendy at www.wendycorsistaub.com.
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Praise for the work of
WENDY CORSI STAUB
Finalist for the Mary Higgins Clark Award
“Solid gold suspense!”
Lee Child
“Wendy Corsi Staub is a master storyteller!”
New York Times bestselling author Brenda Novak
“Each twist and turn is methodical, meant to build anxiety as she cleverly yanks the rug out from underneath.”
Suspense Magazine
“Once Staub’s brilliant characterizations and top-notch narrative skills grab hold, they don’t let go.”
Publishers Weekly (★Starred Review★)
“I couldn’t put it down!”
Lisa Jackson (on Live to Tell)
“Wendy Corsi Staub is an author not to be missed.”
Bookreporter.com
“If you’ve never read this fantastic author, you’re truly missing out on some of the greatest domestic suspense stories around.”
New Mystery Reader
By Wendy Corsi Staub
Nightwatcher
Hell to Pay
Scared to Death
Live to Tell
Coming Soon
Sleepwalker
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Excerpt from Sleepwalker copyright © 2012 by Wendy Corsi Staub.
K.I.S.S. and Teal is a trademark of the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance.
NIGHTWATCHER. Copyright © 2012 by Wendy Corsi Staub. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition SEPTEMBER 2012 ISBN: 9780062070296
Print Edition ISBN: 9780062070289
FIRST EDITION
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