THE
SILENT
HOUR
__________
ALSO BY MICHAEL KORYTA
THE
SILENT
HOUR
_____________
Michael Koryta
THE SILENT HOUR. Copyright © 2009 by Michael Koryta. All rights reserved.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
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This book and its predecessors wouldn’t have existed without the faith, hard work, and keen eye of Peter Wolverton, who has been both an editor and a friend, and I’m deeply indebted. Thank you, Pete, and thanks to everyone else at St. Martin’s, Minotaur Books, and Thomas Dunne—Andy Martin, Thomas Dunne, Matthew Shear, Katie Gilligan, Elizabeth Byrne, Hector DeJean, and all the rest.
Much gratitude is also due to:
David Hale Smith, agent extraordinaire.
George Lichman of the Rocky River Police Department, a friend and helpful resource.
Laura Lane not only offered a critical eye to the early pages but guided me to the genesis of the story several years ago. She had no idea of this, of course, but deserves credit nevertheless.
A pair of deeply valued early readers: Bob Hammel and Christine Caya.
Michael Connelly, for countless kindnesses.
Dennis Lehane, with a standard but important additional note of thanks to his Writers in Paradise conference at Eckerd College, www.writersinparadise.com.
Tom Bunger, who answered a lot of truly strange legal questions involving the missing, the dead, and their homes. If you’re missing or dead and you have a home, I’d suggest you call Tom.
The many booksellers and friends who have been gracious hosts over the years, including but certainly not limited to Jim Haung, Robin and Jamie Agnew, Richard Katz, Jon and Ruth Jordan, Steve Stilwell, Barbara Peters, Otto Penzler, John and Toni Cross, Mike Bursaw, and so many others.
A motley band of assorted generous folks: Dr. J. D. Headdy, Ridley Pearson, George Pelecanos, Laura Lippman, Gena Asher, Lawrence Rose, Brad Petrigala, Tony Mitchell, George Juergens, Louise Thurtell, Robert Pepin, Roger Levesque, and my family.
PART ONE
WHISPER
RIDGE
1
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He’d sharpened his knife just an hour before the killing. The police, prosecutor, and media would all later make great use of this fact. Premeditation, they said. Proof of intent, they said. Cold-blooded murder, they said.
All Parker Harrison had to say was that he often sharpened his knife in the evening.
It wasn’t much of a defense.
Harrison, an unemployed groundskeeper at the time of his arrest for murder, took a guilty plea that gave him a term of life in prison but allowed the possibility of parole, the sort of sentence that seems absurd to normal people but apparently makes sense to lawyers.
The guilty plea prevented a trial, and that meant Harrison’s tenure as the media’s villain of the moment was
