Harlan Coben - The Innocent

You never hear from Sonya or Clark McGrath again.

Their son, Stephen, still visits you sometimes. Not as much as he used to. And sometimes you're even glad to see him.

After you close on the new house, Loren Muse comes over. The two of you sit in the backyard with Corona beers.

"Back in Livingston," she says.

"Yep."

"Happy?"

"Towns don't make you happy, Loren."

She nods.

There is still something hanging over your head. "What's going to happen to Olivia?" you ask.

Loren reaches into her pocket and pulls out an envelope. "Nothing."

"What's that?"

"A letter from Sister Mary Rose née Emma Lemay. Mother Katherine gave it to me."

You sit up. She hands it to you. You start to read it.

"Emma Lemay put it all on herself," Loren tells you. "She and she alone killed Clyde Rangor. She and she alone hid his body. She and she alone lied to the authorities about the identity of the murder victim. She claimed Candace Potter didn't know anything about it. There's more, but that's the gist."

"You think that will wash?"

Loren shrugs. "Who's to say otherwise?"

"Thank you," you say.

Loren nods. She puts down her beer and sits up. "Now, you want to tell me about those phone records, Matt?"

"No."

"You think I don't know who Darrow spoke to in Westport, Connecticut."

"Doesn't matter. You can't prove anything."

"You don't know that. McGrath probably sent him money. There could be a trail."

"Let it go, Loren."

"Wanting revenge is not a defense."

"Let it go."

She picks the beer back up. "I don't need your approval."

"True."

Loren looks off. "If Kyra had just told Olivia the truth in the beginning-"

"They'd probably all be dead."

"What makes you say that?"

"Emma Lemay's phone call. She told Kyra to stay silent. And I think she had a good reason."

"That being?"

"I think Emma- or Sister Mary Rose- knew that they were getting close."

"You saying Lemay took the hit for all of them?"

You shrug. You wonder how they found Lemay and Lemay alone. You wonder why Lemay, if she suspected something, didn't run. You wonder how she stood up to their torture and never gave Olivia away. Maybe Lemay figured one last sacrifice would end it. She wouldn't have known they'd post something about the adoption. She probably figured that she was the only link. And if that link was permanently broken- especially by force- there'd be no way to find Olivia.

But you'll never know for sure.

Loren looks off again. "Back in Livingston," she says.

You both shake your head. You both sip your beers.

Over the course of the year Loren visits every once in a while. If the weather is cooperating, you two sit outside.

The sun is high on that day a year later. You and Loren are sprawled out in lawn chairs. You both have Sol beers. Loren tells you that they're better than Coronas.

You take a sip and agree.

As always, Loren looks around and shakes her head and says her usual refrain: "Back in Livingston."

You are in your backyard. Your wife Olivia is there, planting a flower bed. Your son Benjamin is on a mat next to her. Ben is three months old. He is making a happy cooing noise. You can hear it all the way across the yard. Kyra is in the garden too, helping her mother. She has been living with you for a year now. She plans on staying until she graduates.

So you, Matt Hunter, look at them. All three of them. Olivia feels your eyes on her. She looks up and smiles. So does Kyra. Your son makes another cooing noise.

You feel the lightness in your chest.

"Yeah," you say to Loren with a silly grin on your face. "Back in Livingston."

ONCE AGAIN, a nod of gratitude to Carole Baron, Mitch Hoffman, Lisa Johnson, Kara Welsh, and all at Dutton, NAL, and Penguin Group USA; Jon Wood, Malcolm Edwards, Susan Lamb, Jane Wood, Juliet Ewers, Emma Noble, and the gang at Orion; Aaron Priest and Lisa Erbach Vance for all the usual stuff.

A special thanks to Senator Harry Reid of Nevada. He constantly shows me the beauty of his state and her inhabitants, even if, for the sake of drama, I end up putting my own spin on them.

The author also wishes to thank the following for their technical expertise:

• Christopher J. Christie, United States Attorney for the state of New Jersey;

• Paula T. Dow, Essex County (NJ) Prosecutor;

• Louie F. Allen, Chief of Investigators, Essex County (NJ) Prosecutor's Office;

• Carolyn Murray, First Assistant Essex County (NJ) Prosecutor;

• Elkan Abramowitz, attorney extraordinaire;

• David A. Gold, MD, surgeon extraordinaire;

• Linda Fairstein, lotsa-things extraordinaire;

• Anne Armstrong-Coben, MD, Medical Director of Covenant House Newark and just plain extraordinaire;

• And for the third straight book (and final time), Steven Z. Miller, MD, Director of Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Children's Hospital of New York-Presbyterian. You taught me about much more than medicine, my friend. I will miss you always.

Winner of the Edgar Award, the Shamus Award, and the Anthony Award, Harlan Cobenis the author of eleven previous novels, including the New York Times bestsellers Just One Look, No Second Chance, Gone for Good, and Tell No One, and the popular Myron Bolitar series. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and four children.