“That,” Susan said, “is the midnight Beauty Killer Body Tour. Thirty-five bucks. Twenty crime-scene stops.No-host bar.” Her mouth turned up wryly. “They got their money’s worth tonight.”
The bus hopped the curb across the street and people started to file out and spill into the street. Regular people, people who’d read The Last Victim and saw an article in Vanity Fair, and wanted a piece of the fun. They hollered and pumped their fists in the air.
“Free Gretchen,” they yelled.
Archie stepped back into the shadows.
“Are you hungry?” Susan asked. “I have some potato chips in my car.”
Archie suddenly couldn’t remember the last time he had eaten. He extended his arm and Susan took it.
“Let’s get out of here,” he said.
A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S
Special thanks to Karissa Cain, for her invaluable assistance and for putting up with me. My editor, Kelley Ragland, is the super smartest. I am so lucky to be with St. Martin’s Press, and everyone there deserves fancy presents and excellent wine, especially Andrew Martin, George Witte, Sally Richardson, Matthew Shear, Hector DeJean, Tara Cibelli, Nancy Trypuc, Matthew Baldacci, and Matt Martz.
Several friends have wasted time reading this book-in-progress. They include LidiaYuknavitch, Andy Mingo, Chuck Palahniuk, Monica Drake, Mary Wysong, Diana Jordan, Erin Leonard, Jim Frost, Suzy Vitello, Cheryl Strayed, and my husband, Marc Mohan. They have each made this book better.
I would not be anywhere without Joy Harris and Adam Reed at the Joy Harris Literary Agency. I also want to thank the Men and Women of the Multnomah Corrections Department because I told them I would and because those people don’t get thanked enough. Thanks to my book group—or rather Tracey Massey’s book group—for letting me come only when my own books are on
the docket. Caroline Schiller and Claus-Martin Carlsberg, you two still have the very best story. I used many fun death facts that I found in Final Exits: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of How We Die by Michael Largo, and recommend it highly for the paranoid or merely curious.
And last, I want to thank Nancy Eris Hebert, a reader and flight attendant who made sure my name reached the sky, and who died before I could thank her.