Marc takes one step backward, unwilling to trust his eyes.
“It’s me,” Jane says. “I’m home.”
Marc steps tentatively forward, then jerks her into his arms and hugs her tight enough to break her back.
“My God,” he whispers. “My
“It is,” Jane says, reaching backward with one hand.
I clasp that hand and squeeze it, and then I slip around them and through the kitchen door.
“Where are you going?” Jane asks.
I nod at the door. “I need to talk to someone.”
She reaches out again. When I take her hand, she silently mouths two words.
She lets my hand slip free, and then I’m walking down the long hall alone. For eighteen months Jane has lived in suspended animation, imprisoned by a man who saved her life, a desolate bird in a gilded cage. All that time, I trudged alone through a dark tunnel, burdened by guilt, haunted by loss, feeling hope die. A metaphor for my life, really: a lone woman lost in a tunnel with a camera, bearing witness to what happens in the dark, even as the darkness seeps into her. But today…
Today I emerge into the light.
John is leaning against the passenger door of the FBI sedan, watching me for clues to what happened. I walk down the steps, take both his hands in mine, and kiss him lightly on the lips.
“Are we going in?” he asks.
“No. They need time alone.”
“Where are we going?”
“We need time alone, too.”
He takes me in his arms and squeezes me tight.
“It’s time to start living again, John.”
“That it is,” he says, reaching back to open the door. “That it is.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to Aaron Priest, Phyllis Grann, David Highfill, and Louise Burke.
Special thanks to Special Agent-in-Charge Charles Matthews, FBI, New Orleans District; Special Agent Sheila Thorne; Special Agent Bob Tucker; Ernie Porter, FBI, Washington, D.C.
Medical expertise: Jerry Iles, M.D.; Donald Barraza, M.D., Michael Bourland, M.D.; and Noah Archer, M.D.
Partners in crime: Ed Stackler, Courtney Aldridge, Michael Henry.
Miscellaneous: Geoff Iles, Carrie Iles, Madeline Iles, Mark Iles, Betty Iles, Rich Hasselberger, Caroline Trefler, Jim Easterling, Fraser Smith, Christie Iles, Kim Barker.
Many thanks to all the reps from Penguin Putnam who have worked so hard from the beginning.
To anyone omitted through oversight, my sincere apologies. All mistakes are mine.
