Figured you lot were a better sort to throw in with.
I don’t know a whole lot, tell it true. Wasn’t even on the level that Albany was who I was answering to. But I’ve got a contact and some information. I’m looking to sell the blighters out. Who knows. Maybe you can get a whole lot more out of me.
I await the probing.
Margaret
“Hm.” Olivia lowered the crumpled note. “Well. It’s a start, isn’t it?”
He nodded.
“It’s a start,” he agreed.
She stroked one hand across the yellowed grass. She opened her mouth to speak, and then closed it again.
Finally, she shrugged and turned to him. “If I’m doing this, I think I’ll have need of an assistant. Are you perhaps interested, Mister Buckley?”
hen Christopher returned home, he got on the mirror and chimed for the operator. When she appeared, he asked for the Daily Herald. They patched him through. A receptionist answered, and he requested that he might speak to a Mister Trent Carter. When she asked for his name, he gave it without reservation.
It barely took twenty seconds before a red-faced reporter was on the mirror. “Mister Buckley!” he exploded. “I didn’t—I never—that is—with how you avoided me before you left the city, I never expected—”
“I don’t suppose you did,” Chris said. “But… well. Things have changed.”
“Yes! Yes, they certainly have. Would you like to meet for an interview? I would—love a statement! About Rachel Albany, and Garrett Albany, and your sister, of course, and—”
“I would love to,” Chris said. And then, after pushing up his specs, he added. “Would you mind bringing along Avery Combs? It’s my understanding that you’re acquainted, and I’d very much like to speak to him, as well.”
Thanks to the usual suspects: Mum and Dad, Erin and Danny, Dots and Meg and Willfor and Mike and Frozen. You continue to be forces of good positive energy in my life and there’s something about having relationship you can always fall back into whenever you need them, even as you grow up and away from their foundations.
More specific thanks for Dots, whose graphic design skills have promoted many an event, and who helped alpha read, beta read, and then fully redline this manuscript, and also, for Zap who has helped enormously with Facebook advertisement. It’s deeply appreciated.
Willfor has become my backbone for figuring out all manner of logistical nightmares. My brain is all art and no science, and he’s is always there in a flash to help me figure out how hydraulics work or how to stab someone so they can be in immediate risk of death but still survive with care or how many km/hr a carriage with giant goose wings could travel. He also patiently sat with me for hours helping to design the technology behind the spiritcell down to the most base levels so I can sound like I know what I’m talking about! I am too dumb to write Emilia’s brilliance, but luckily I’ve got a buddy who can help me fake it.
In my hometown, Cover to Cover Books in Riverview has helped me distribute to all my local readers, while Madelaine Keenlyside at the Moncton Times and Transcript has been a huge help in getting word out to make those readers. I’m also grateful to everyone at Curiosity Quills past and present who’s helped me make and oil those connections so close to home.
Caitlin McDonald, my agent, is and will probably always be my absolute rock. I have never felt a negative emotion or hit a writing snag or met a publishing problem that she hasn’t always been right there at my shoulder to fix for me in whatever way she can. When you start to become successful, the people who were there from moment one, believing in you at the start, become all the more valued and cherished.
Oh, yeah, speaking of valued and cherished – sometime between the last book and this one, I got married to the greatest woman ever to walk this earth. Elzie and I may have taken forever to understand just how in love we were, but we’ve sure as hell got it sorted out now and she remains the most important person in my life both personal and professional. Every good thing in my writing comes at least half from her, either explicitly, because she read this thing the day I finished it and told me how incoherent and bad it was and then helped me fix it, or implicitly, because being around someone so talented makes you constantly strive to be better. I will keep publishing books until we both die just because it’s the only avenue I have to just vent my love for this woman without her turning red and plugging her ears and telling me to stop.
I would also like to thank this book, for being about apple cider, which allowed me to purchase absolutely disgusting amounts of the stuff as research and then claim it as a business expense on my taxes. Thanks, book. Many drunken board games were played thanks to your generosity, and shockingly, I actually did learn a lot about cider from it. For real, guys. Ask me anything. I’m the goddamn cider expert, now.
And the fans. God, I have fans. You guys have waited way longer than I wanted you to for this one, but I hope it was worth it. The fourth and final Faraday Files book is in the wings and I’m so glad to have had you here with me for the journey. Every time I have the privilege to speak to any of you and hear your thoughts and feelings about my work, I feel absolutely amazing and walk on air for the rest of the day. I need you more than you need me, and so you have my eternal gratitude for your love and support.
Kate McIntyre was born and raised in the frigid white north, having spent her entire life in Moncton, New Brunswick. She learned to appreciate the quintessential Canadian things: endless winters, self-deprecating jokes, the untamed wilderness, and excessive politeness. Somehow it was the latter that she chose to write about.
She has been writing since she was five years old and nothing has ever stopped her for long. Her first novel was about a lady mouse detective saving her turtle janitor boyfriend from kidnappers, so it’s nice to know she always loved lady detectives. She is the proud author of sixteen embarrassing hidden novels and one publishable one.
Kate loves crochet, video games, board games, reading, and listening to bad pop music very loudly. She spends several months of the year in Illinois, and the rest of the time lives in a big country home with two cats who refuse to stay on diets and the world’s friendliest dog.
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Appetizer:
Book Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Main Course:
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Epilogue
Dessert:
Acknowledgments
Closing
About the Author
Copyright & Publisher
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