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697851e
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that police captain, Jacob Mayhew, dropped
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Karin Slaughter |
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7e28313
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The warden's office was all cheap paneling and institutional green furnishings. As Ben would've said, "Think Cool Hand Luke." Every surface was either metal or fake wood. The warden was fat with a buzz cut and rolls of flesh almost obscuring his collar. His white shirt was short-sleeved and outfitted with a red and black clip-on tie. He smoked a cigarette as he studied me across his desk. I sat in front of him holding a worn copy of Dr. Seu..
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Karin Slaughter |
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61b512e
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Dr. Carroll," the warden said, his voice sounding like Foghorn Leghorn, "Ben Carver is a psychopath. He's incapable of empathy or remorse. If you see something human in him, that's only because he's playing the part."
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Karin Slaughter |
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2943621
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That was what he was like. He always changed the subject with flattery. He was usually more artful. It's hard to describe how someone has manipulated you because you're generally not aware of it when it's happening. You don't exactly take notes, is what I am saying.
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Karin Slaughter |
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222e13b
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Lydia shook her head. There was no way to tell what had been in Paul's mind. "He knew from me what Anna Kilpatrick's family was going through, and he watched those horrible movies despite that. Maybe because of it, because I think that he got off on knowing that Anna wasn't the only one in pain. There were all these other layers of pain rippling through the family, through the community, and even to us--you, me, Mom, Grandma Ginny. He was c..
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Karin Slaughter |
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8237537
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Maybe that's why Claire had perfected the art of invisibility. It was a form of self-preservation. You couldn't resent what you could not see. She was so quiet, but she noticed everything. Her eyes tracked the world like it was a book written in a language she could not understand. There was nothing timorous about her, but you got the feeling that she always had one foot out the door. If the situation got too hard, or too intense, she would..
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Karin Slaughter |
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c5d3c41
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Claire asked, "Do you think I should call Captain Mayhew?" "For what?" Lydia couldn't keep the alarm out of her voice. The abrupt change in subject slapped her like a cold wind. "He lied to you about the movies. He said they were fake."
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Karin Slaughter |
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97a039f
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Nolan slapped his palms down on the table. "Ya know, Claire, you should really start answering my questions." "Why?" "Because I'm with the FBI. My side always wins." "You keep saying that, but I do not think those words mean what you think they mean." He nodded appreciatively. "Rockin' a little Inigo Montoya. I like it."
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Karin Slaughter |
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c8dadd0
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We think they're real." Lydia tried to play devil's advocate again. "We think that girl looked like Anna Kilpatrick. We think that she was mutilated in the same way, based on what her mother said and did during a press conference. But are we one hundred percent certain? Or are we just talking ourselves into it?" "Confirmation bias." Claire scowled at her own words. "What's the downside of calling Mayhew?"
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Karin Slaughter |
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25aa9b5
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I said he was a shitty agent, not a shitty politician." Claire still couldn't read the man's expression. "You don't sound like a fan." Nolan clasped his hands together on the table. "On the surface, it seems like we're making progress, but when I think back on the last few minutes of our conversation, I get the feeling that you're questioning me instead of the other way around." "You'll make a great detective one day." "Fingers crossed." He..
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Karin Slaughter |
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956ccfb
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That's a fantastic idea, Sweetpea." Lydia layered on the sarcasm. "You believe that a high-ranking police officer might possibly be covering up a murder, or maybe is somehow involved in it, or filming it, or distributing images of it, or maybe all of the above, and you're just going to call him up and say, 'Hey, man, what's the what up?' " "I hadn't planned on sounding like J.J. from Good Times, but that's the gist." "Claire." She held out ..
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Karin Slaughter |
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0e0796d
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Julia." Lydia looked back at the woman with the broom. She was scraping chairs across the sidewalk as she put together the tables. Claire said, "That skeevy jackass who got Dad arrested still runs the place." Lydia could vividly recall Helen talking about Sam's arrest in her librarian voice, a furious whisper that could freeze an open flame."
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Karin Slaughter |
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7cda18a
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Claire took a stuttered breath. She couldn't stand the soft, reassuring tone of his voice. There was still an infinitesimal part of her that wanted her husband to somehow make it all better.
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Karin Slaughter |
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55fb2e9
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Helen didn't hold back. "I told your father that Paul was like a hermit crab. They're scavengers. They don't have the ability to make their own shells, so they cast around until they find abandoned shells, and then they move in."
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Karin Slaughter |
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99cce1a
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Paul must have watched the tapes on the same VCR that Lydia and Claire had seen in the Fuller house. Claire imagined her young, awkward husband sitting in front of the television watching his dead father's movies for the first time. Was Paul surprised by what he saw? Was he disgusted? She wanted to think that he'd been outraged, and repulsed, and that habituation and necessity had compelled him not only to sell the tapes, but also to try ou..
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Karin Slaughter |
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266e794
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There was something about the way this man touched my youngest child that set my teeth on edge. His arm linked through hers as they walked up to the house. His hand stayed at her back as they climbed the stairs. His fingers laced through hers as they walked through the door. Reading back that last paragraph, it all sounds so innocuous, the typical gestures of a man who is making love to a woman, but I must tell you, sweetheart, that there w..
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Karin Slaughter |
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b1b41d7
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Claire slumped down into the overstuffed chair in her office as she watched her sister go through Paul's collection of files. Lydia seemed energized by the prospect of uncovering more lurid details, but Claire felt as though she was suffocating under the weight of every new revelation. She couldn't believe that only two days ago, she had watched Paul's coffin as it was lowered into the ground. Her body might as well have been buried along w..
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Karin Slaughter |
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dbf32cb
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just shared a burden? Claire closed her eyes. Her breathing got deeper. She was awake--she could still hear Lydia greedily thumbing through pages--but she was also asleep, and in that sleep, she felt herself dipping into a dream. There was no narrative, just fragments of a typical day. She was at her desk paying bills. She was practicing the piano. She was in the kitchen trying to come up with a grocery list. She was making phone calls to r..
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Karin Slaughter |
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2a2b46c
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Claire closed her eyes. Her breathing got deeper. She was awake--she could still hear Lydia greedily thumbing through pages--but she was also asleep, and in that sleep, she felt herself dipping into a dream. There was no narrative, just fragments of a typical day. She was at her desk paying bills. She was practicing the piano. She was in the kitchen trying to come up with a grocery list. She was making phone calls to raise money for the Chr..
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Karin Slaughter |
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9de2912
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Claire lunged toward her desk. She opened the drawer. Lydia's file was still hidden inside. Claire's relief was so pronounced that she wanted to cry. She touched her fingers to her cheek. She was crying. Her tear ducts were on constant standby for anything that would send them over. Instead of giving in to it, Claire shut the drawer. She wiped her eyes. She stood up. She straightened her shirt as she made her way to the kitchen.
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Karin Slaughter |
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0aca4b9
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Because I want you to stay at Rick's tonight." Lydia paused. "Because I said so." She paused again. "Sweetheart, I know you're an adult, but adults are like vampires. The older ones are much more powerful."
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Karin Slaughter |
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418fb15
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This is the inscription Ben wrote inside the book: "First you must have the images. Then come the words." --Robert James Waller."
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Karin Slaughter |
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2b85342
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Claire?" Claire blinked open her eyes. She looked up at her mother, wondering why their faces were so close. "You fainted." "I didn't," Claire argued, though evidence pointed to the contrary. She was lying on her back in her own driveway. The policewoman was standing over her. Claire tried in vain to think of an insect the woman resembled, but honestly, she just looked overworked and tired."
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Karin Slaughter |
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2152e0c
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She took a deep breath and asked, "I'm sorry, Captain. I'm feeling a bit discombobulated. Can you please start from the beginning and tell me what happened?"
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Karin Slaughter |
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3db51a3
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Yeah, I can imagine with the funeral and all, this is the last thing you want to be dealing with right now. Like I said, my condolences." Mayhew took his own deep breath, his far more raspy. "We've got a nutshell, but we're still filling in some blanks. You're not the first person in the county to have this kind of thing happen. We suspect it's a gang of young males who read the obituaries, find out when the funerals are, then Google Earth ..
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Karin Slaughter |
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4797f24
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Mrs. Scott, do you mind my asking why the alarm wasn't on?" This was from Mayhew. He had taken out a notebook and pen. His shoulders were hunched, as if someone had asked him to mimic a character from a Raymond Chandler novel."
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Karin Slaughter |
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8a881c6
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Holy shit." Nolan's tone was reverential. Claire had seen men get harder over Paul's garage than they ever got over a woman."
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Karin Slaughter |
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97e32a9
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Claire joined her, absently watching a lone squirrel hop across the decking and drink saline water from the pool. Asking what to do next was a loaded question, because what it all boiled down to was whether or not Claire wanted to know more. This was past red pill/blue pill. This was skinning the proverbial onion.
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Karin Slaughter |
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42a16dd
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Claire didn't argue because Lydia was older and she always got to drive. She opened the mudroom door and left it unlocked. At this point, Claire welcomed the burglars to return. She would've left cookies out for them if she'd had the time.
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Karin Slaughter |
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5b60c61
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Claire picked up the picture. They were at a football game. Paul's jacket was wrapped around her shoulders. She could recall thinking how warm it felt, how reassuring. The camera had captured her laughing, mouth open, head tilted back. Ecstatically, irrevocably happy.
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Karin Slaughter |
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792e2fe
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the luxury vacations had come as a personal affront to a woman who had survived the Great Depression, a world war, the death of a husband, the loss of two children, and countless other hardships. Claire
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Karin Slaughter |
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6278e59
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This is electric, right?" Lydia sounded annoyed. She'd always been angry around new things. "Athens is an hour away." "Really? I've never noticed that the eleventy billion times I've driven this very same car to Mom's house and back." At least she had before the ankle monitor limited her movements. "Can we just go?" Lydia still looked annoyed. "Where does the key go?" "Tap the brake to turn it on." Lydia tapped the brake. "Is it on? I can't..
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Karin Slaughter |
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4871b99
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tutor in the computer lab. Claire was an art history major. She had never been good at math. Or at least she'd never tried to be, which was the same thing. She could vividly remember the first time she'd sat down with Paul and gone over one of her assignments.
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Karin Slaughter |
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e472a6e
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Or maybe Lexie already knew about Claire. Maybe the young little bitch was completely fine with sharing another woman's husband, with raising the man's bastard child--or children--while he kept another wife. Claire closed her eyes. What an awful thing to say about the other woman. She was turning Lexie into a monster when Paul had likely fooled them both. Even if Lexie was complicit in polygamy, there was no way she knew about the dreadful ..
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Karin Slaughter |
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c675f33
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Everyone knows you're beautiful," he'd told her, "but no one knows that you're clever." Clever. Anybody could be smart. It took a special somebody to be clever."
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Karin Slaughter |
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e5b5968
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older and she always got to drive. She opened
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Karin Slaughter |
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86f0c52
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My wife is for making babies. You're for fucking." The sting was unexpected. "That's an awful thing to say." "Trust me, one is a lot more fun than the other."
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Karin Slaughter |
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a1cd012
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Claire hung up the phone. She thought about the hours she had spent with Adam Quinn. Hours she should've spent with her husband. Hours she would kill to have back now. There
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Karin Slaughter |
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865babd
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dashboard. She didn't know the opening lyrics, but she belted out the chorus. " 'Poor, poor pitiful me!' " She nudged Maggie. " 'Poor, poor pitiful me!' " Maggie smiled despite herself. Gail bellowed, " 'Poor, poor pitiful me!' "
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Karin Slaughter |
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82e48d9
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small woman, maybe five-three on a good day. Her attitude filled the room, and she walked with a swagger that rivaled a bullfighter's.
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Karin Slaughter |
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93e918f
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Kate's knees felt shaky as she walked across the parking garage under the Barbizon Hotel. Every atom in her body was vibrating at a different frequency. Her lips felt swollen from Philip's kisses. Her breasts were tender from his mouth. If she closed her eyes, she could summon up the sensations of his tongue roaming up and down her body.
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Karin Slaughter |
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bdc63dc
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seemed to match the erratic
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Karin Slaughter |
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9759bd1
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As if they could understand what she had been through. As if they knew what it was like to be strong and invincible one day and completely powerless the next.
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Karin Slaughter |
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1541539
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Her capacity for detail was astounding, if not highly annoying during arguments.
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Karin Slaughter |