Harlan Coben - Gone for Good

I was stunned silent. I thought about our meeting up at the Little League field. My father's crippling fear, his icy silence when we got back, his telling Asselta, "You want someone, you take me." Once again it all made terrible sense.

"I only told one person the truth," he said. "Any guesses?"

Something else fell into place. "Julie," I said.

He nodded. The bond. It explained a lot about their strange bond.

"So why are you here?" I asked. "To take vengeance on Ken's daughter?"

"No," the Ghost said with a small laugh. "There is no easy way to tell you this, Will, but maybe science can help."

He handed me a folder. I looked down at it. "Open it," he said.

I did as he asked.

"It's the autopsy of the recently departed Sheila Rogers," he said.

I frowned. I didn't wonder how he got it. I was sure he had his sources. "What does this have to do with anything?"

"Look here." The Ghost pointed with a thin finger to an entry midway down. "You see down at the bottom? No scars on the pubic bone from the tears of the periosteum. No comments about pale striations over the breast and abdominal wall. Not unusual, of course. It wouldn't mean anything, unless you were looking for it."

"Looking for what?"

He closed the file. "Signs that the victim had given birth." He saw the look of confusion on my face and added, "Put simply, Sheila Rogers could not have been Carly's mother."

I was about to say something but the Ghost handed me another file. I looked at the name on it.

Julie Miller.

The cold spread inside me. He flipped it open and pointed to an entry and started reading, "Pubic scars, pale striations, changes in the microscopic architecture of the breast and uterine tissues," he said. "And the trauma was recent. See here? The scar from the episiotomy was still pronounced."

I stared at the words.

"Julie did not come home just to meet up with Ken. She was getting her act together after a very bad spell. She was finding herself again, Will. She wanted to tell you the truth."

"What truth?"

But he shook his head and continued. "She would have told you earlier, but she wasn't sure how you'd react. The way you so easily let her break up with you… that was what I meant when I said you were supposed to fight for her. You just let her go."

Our eyes locked.

"Julie had a baby six months before she died," the Ghost said. "She and the child, a girl, lived with Sheila Rogers in that apartment. I think Julie would have finally told you that night, but your brother took care of that. Sheila loved the child too. When Julie was murdered and your brother needed to escape, Sheila wanted to keep it as her own. And Ken, well, he saw how useful a baby could be to hide an international fugitive. He had no children. Neither did Sheila. It would be better than the best disguise."

Ken's whispered words came back to me……

"Do you understand what I'm telling you, Will?"

You I've hurt and betrayed more than anyone.

The Ghost's voice cut through the haze. "You're not a substitute here. You're Carly's real father."

I don't think I was breathing anymore. I stared out at nothing. Hurt and betrayed. My brother. My brother had taken my child.

The Ghost stood. "I didn't come back for revenge or even justice," he continued. "But the truth is, Julie died protecting me. I failed her. I made a vow that I would save her child. It took me eleven years."

I stumbled to my feet. We stood side by side. Passengers were pouring off the plane. The Ghost jammed something in my pocket. A piece of paper. I ignored it.

"I sent that surveillance tape to Pistillo, so McGuane won't bother you. I found the evidence in the house that night and kept it all these years. You and Nora are safe now. I took care of everything."

More passengers disembarked. I stood and waited and listened.

"Remember that Katy is Carly's aunt, that the Millers are her grandparents. Let them be a part of her life. Do you hear me?"

I nodded, and that was when Carly came through the gate. Everything inside of me shut down. The girl walked out with such poise. Like… like her mother. Carly looked around and when she spotted Nora, her face broke into the most amazing smile. My heart broke. Right then and there, it shattered. The smile. That smile, you see, belonged to my mother. It was Sunny's smile, like an echo from the past, a sign that not all of my mother nor all of Julie had been extinguished.

I choked back a sob and felt a hand on my back.

"Go now," the Ghost whispered, gently pushing me toward my daughter.

I glanced back, but John Asselta was already gone. So I did the only thing I could. I made my way toward the woman I loved and my child.

Later that night, after I kissed Carly and helped her to bed, I found the piece of paper he'd jammed into my pocket. It was just the first few lines of a newspaper clipping:

KANSAS CITY HERALD

Man Found Dead in Car

Cramden, Mo. Cray Spring, an off-duty police officer with the Cramden force, was found strangled in his car, apparently the victim of a robbery. His wallet was reportedly missing. Local police said his car was found in the parking lot behind a local bar. Police chief Evan Kraft said that there were no suspects at this time, and that the investigation was ongoing.

The author wishes to thank the following for their technical expertise: Jim White, Executive Director, Covenant House Newark; Anne Armstrong-Coben, M.D." Medical Director, Covenant House Newark; Frank Gilliam, Outreach Manager, Covenant House Atlantic City; Mary Ann Daly, Director of Community Programs, Covenant House Atlantic City; Kim Sutton, Resident Manager, Covenant House Atlantic City; Steven Miller, M.D." Director of Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Children's Hospital of New York-Presbyterian, Columbia University; Douglas P. Lyle, M.D.; Richard Donner (for the final push); Linda Fairstein, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney; Gene Riehl, FBI (retired); Jeffrey Bedford, FBI, Special Agent all of whom provided the author with wonderful insights and now get to see him distort and dismiss them to suit his own purposes.

Covenant House is a real organization, though I took great liberties here. I made up a lot of stuff that's why it's called fiction but I tried to get the caring heart and soul of this important charity right. Those interested in helping or learning more should check out www.covenanthouse.org.

The author also wishes to thank his great team: Irwyn Applebaum, Nita Taublib, Danielle Perez, Barb Burg, Susan Corcoran, Cynthia Lasky, Betsy Hulsebosch, Jon Wood, Joel Gotler, Maggie Griffin, Lisa Erbach Vance, and Aaron Priest. You all mean a great deal to me.

To repeat: this is a work of fiction. That means I make stuff up.

Harlan Coben's latest novel HOLD TIGHT debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list – and simultaneously debuted at #1 in the London Times.

Winner of the Edgar Award, Shamus Award and Anthony Award – the first author to win all three – international bestselling author Harlan Coben’s critically-acclaimed novels have been called “ingenious” (New York Times), “poignant and insightful” (Los Angeles Times), “consistently entertaining” (Houston Chronicle), “superb” (Chicago Tribune) and “must reading” (Philadelphia Inquirer). His most recent novels, THE WOODS, PROMISE ME, THE INNOCENT, JUST ONE LOOK, NO SECOND CHANCE, TELL NO ONE and GONE FOR GOOD have appeared on the top of all the major bestseller lists including the New York Times, London Times, Le Monde, Publishers Weekly, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal and USA TODAY - and many others throughout the world. His books are published in thirty-seven languages around the globe and have been number one bestsellers in in nearly a dozen countries.