The Woods (33 page)

Authors: Harlan Coben

Tags: #thriller, #Fiction, #General, #Thrillers, #Mystery & Detective, #Suspense, #Suspense fiction, #Dead, #Teenagers, #Missing children, #Public prosecutors, #Family secrets, #Widower, #Public prosecutors - New Jersey, #Single fathers

BOOK: The Woods

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The trees seem to close in on us. I look up at them and then I look at Lucy’s face. I see the beauty. I see the damage. I want to go to her. But I can't. I don't know why. I want to-I know it is the right thing to do. But I cant.

I turn instead and walk away from the woman I love. I expect her to call out for me to stop. But she doesn't. She lets me go. I hear her sobs. I walk some more. I walk until I am out of the woods and back by the car. I sit on the curb and close my eyes. Eventually she will have to come back here. So I sit and wait for her. I wonder where we will go after she comes out. I wonder if we will drive off together or if these woods, after all these years, will have claimed one last victim.

Acknowledgments

I'm not an expert in much, so it's a good thing I know generous geniuses who are. This might sound like name-dropping, but I was helped by my friends and/or colleagues Dr. Michael Baden, Linda Fairstein, Dr. David Gold, Dr. AnneArmstrong-Coben, Christopher J. Christie, and the real Jeff Bedford.

Thanks to Mitch Hoffman, Lisa Johnson, Brian Tart, Erika Imranyi, and everyone at Dutton. Thanks to Jon Wood at Orion and Franoise Triffaux at Belfond. Thanks to Aaron Priest and everyone at the creatively dubbed Aaron Priest Literary Agency.

Lastly, I would like to give a special thanks to the brilliant Lisa Erbach Vance, who has learned over the past decade to deal splendidly with my moods and insecurities. You rock, Lisa.

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