Michael Prescott: In Dark Places

"I guess I can't save everybody."

"You'll keep trying, I bet."

"Probably." She stood up. "Good-bye, Justin."

She took a step toward the door, where the guards were waiting.

Gray asked, "Is it your brother?"

She turned. "What?"

"You got a con in your family. That's why you're so hot to trot about this rehabilitation shit. When we were night-riding to your daughter's rescue, you almost let spill who it was."

"That's true. I remember."

"I'm betting it's your brother. Right?"

"My father, actually."

"Your dad's in lockup?"

"He died there."

"Huh." She expected a response, but he merely shrugged, absorbing the information without visible feeling. In his world, bad things just happened. That was life. There was no particular way to feel about it. "You say hello to Meg for me."

"She'll never even know I was here."

"Figured that. I'll be thinking of her, though. Look forward to seeing her again."

"You'll never see her."

She reached the door. Gray called after her, "Don't be so sure about that, Doc Robin. Keep looking over your shoulder. Someday I'll be there."

She looked back almost sadly. "I don't think so, Justin."

"Count on it." His head was lifted in adolescent bravado. "You hear me, Doc? These walls can't hold me forever."

Robin stared at him. "Yes, they can."

In his eyes, she saw that he knew it, too.

She turned, and the door shut behind her with a clang of solemn finality that rang in her ears as she walked slowly away.

As always, readers are invited to visit my Web site at http://michaelprescott.freeservers.com, where you'll find information on my previous and upcoming books, as well as interviews, personal essays, and an e-mail address. Many thanks to my agent, Jane Dystel of Dystel amp; Goderich Literary Management, for her help throughout the writing of this book; to Miriam Goderich, also of DGLM, for valuable feedback and encouragement; to Tiffany Yates, for her expert copy editing; and to Doug Grad, senior editor at New American Library, for reading the manuscript with care and sensitivity. Thanks also to the sales and marketing professionals at NAL who manage the difficult job of getting the books into the stores.