“Ashton?”
“The very same. Guess he got to know Saul pretty well—decided he had enough potential to make an exception to the Skard family-only rule. When you think about it, the man was a damn good judge of character. Could spot a useful psychopathic scumbag a mile away.”
“You find out who Saul’s ‘daughters’ were?”
“Maybe new Mapleshade grads doing an internship? Who knows? They were gone when we got there, and I’d be damn surprised if they reappeared.”
This sounded to Gurney like some form of reassurance, but even in his gentle Dilaudid haze it didn’t entirely reassure him. The feeling created an awkward silence. Finally Gurney asked, “You find anything of interest on the premises?”
“Of interest? Oh, yeah, definitely. Lots of interesting videos. Young ladies describing their favorite activities in detail. Some sick shit. Very sick shit.”
Gurney nodded. “Anything else?”
Hardwick raised his arms in an exaggerated shrug. “Might have been. Who knows? You do your best to keep track of everything. But sometimes stuff just disappears. Never gets inventoried. Gets accidentally destroyed. You know how it is.”
Neither of them said anything for a few seconds.
Hardwick looked thoughtful, then amused. “You know, Gurney, you’re a more fucked-up guy than most people realize.”
“Aren’t we all?”
“Hell no! Take me, for example. I appear totally fucked up. But inside I’m a rock. A finely tuned, well-balanced machine.”
“If you’re well balanced …” Normally Gurney could have ended the sentence with a smart rebuttal, but the Dilaudid was getting in the way, and his voice just trailed off.
The two men held each other’s gaze for a moment longer, and then Hardwick took a step toward the door. “Well, I’ll be seeing you around, okay?”
“Sure.”
He started to leave, then turned back for a moment. “Relax, Sherlock. Everything’s cool.”
“Thanks, Jack.”
• • •
Sometime after Hardwick left, Madeleine returned to the room, carrying a small container of coffee. Wrinkling her nose at it, she laid it on a metal table in the corner.
Gurney smiled. “Not very good?”
She didn’t answer. Instead she came to the side of the bed and took both of his hands in hers and held them tightly.
She stood there next to him, just like that, holding his hands, for a long while.
It could have been a minute or an hour. He couldn’t tell.
All he was truly aware of was her steady, perceptive, loving smile—the smile that was hers alone.
It enveloped him, warmed him, delighted him like nothing else on earth.
He was amazed that anyone who saw everything so clearly, who had all the light of the world in her eyes, saw in him something worthy of such a smile.
It was a smile that could make a man believe that life was good.
Acknowledgments
When I finished my first novel, Think of a Number, I had the extraordinary good fortune to be represented by a remarkable agent, Molly Friedrich—along with her wonderful associates, Paul Cirone and Lucy Carson.
My good fortune was confirmed when the book was acquired by Crown’s Rick Horgan, a marvelous editor.
Today I continue to be blessed by the guidance and support of these honest, smart, and talented people. Their ideal combination of perceptive criticism and heartening enthusiasm made my new novel, Shut Your Eyes Tight, better in every way.
Rick, Molly, Paul, Lucy—thank you!
About the Author
After a successful career in the advertising industry, John Verdon retired with his wife, Naomi, to the rural mountains of upstate New York—an ironically tranquil environment for creating the Dave Gurney series of thrillers.
Table of Contents
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Prologue: The Perfect Solution
Part One: The Mexican Gardener
Chapter 1: Life in the Country
Chapter 2: The Butchered Bride
Chapter 3: Elliptical Orbits
Chapter 4: The Art of Deception
Chapter 5: The Eureka Fallacy
Chapter 6: Home
Chapter 7: Val Perry
Chapter 8: The Murder Movie
Chapter 9: The View from the Doorway
Chapter 10: The Only Way It Could Have Been Done
Chapter 11: The Evidence on the Table
Chapter 12: Peculiar Facts
Chapter 13: Weirder and Twistier
Chapter 14: The Lay of the Land
Chapter 15: Black and White
Chapter 16: A Sense of Order and Purpose
Chapter 17: In the Shadow of the Bitch
Chapter 18: Ashton’s Neighbors
Chapter 19: Frankenstein
Chapter 20: Ashton’s Manor
Chapter 21: A Word to the Wise
Chapter 22: Spider Man
Chapter 23: Leverage
Chapter 25: Enter Salome, Dancing
Part Two: Salome’s Executioner
Chapter 26: The Verisimilitude of Incongruity
Chapter 27: A Lot to Think About
Chapter 28: A Different Perspective
Chapter 29: Among the Missing
Chapter 30: Alessandro’s Models
Chapter 31: Scottie Dogs
Chapter 32: An Intractable Madness
Chapter 33: A Simple Reversal
Chapter 34: Ashton Uneasy
Chapter 35: A Hell of a Lot More
Chapter 36: Into the Heart of Darkness
Chapter 37: The Deer
Chapter 38: The Eyes of Peter Piggert
Chapter 39: Real, Unreal, Crazy, Not Crazy
Chapter 40: A Faint Yipping
Chapter 41: The Big Day
Chapter 42: The Magic Mr. Jykynstyl
Part Three: Fatal Oversight
Chapter 43: Waking Up
Chapter 44: Déjà Vu
Chapter 45: A Curious Dog
Chapter 46: Nothing on Paper
Chapter 47: An Impossible Situation
Chapter 48: Perfect Memories
Chapter 49: Little Boys
Chapter 50: Loose Cannon
Chapter 51: Total Confusion
Chapter 52: The Flores Factor
Chapter 53: Game Changer
Chapter 54: Unpleasant Stories
Chapter 55: Tirana Magdalena Skard
Chapter 56: A Matter of Control
Chapter 57: The Plan
Chapter 58: Into Action
Chapter 59: Undercover
Chapter 60: Dancing with the Devil
Chapter 61: Homeward Bound
Chapter 62: Tremors
Chapter 63: Just Like Ashton’s Cottage
Chapter 64: A Very Strange Day
Chapter 65: Message from the Monster
Chapter 66: The Monstrous Truth, According to Ballston
Chapter 67: A Mother’s Love
Chapter 68: Buena Vista Trail
Chapter 69: Blind Alleys
Chapter 70: In Plain Sight
Chapter 71: For All the Reasons I Have Written
Chapter 72: One More Layer
Chapter 73: Gate of Heaven
Chapter 74: Beyond All Reason
Chapter 75: Shut Your Eyes Tight
Chapter 76: Another Layer
Chapter 77: The Final Episode
Chapter 78: All He Had Left
Chapter 79: The Last Bullet
Chapter 80: The Light of the World
Acknowledgments
About the Author
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