Read more
Informationen zum Autor Edward Humes Klappentext Place of publication taken from publisher's website. Leseprobe PART I We'll Be Back Tomorrow Night If ever there was time, I would lie in the sands of Gonzales and wiggle my toes in the sun. So leave me not forever, and keep love in your soul. -Tanya Van Cuylenborg, from the last entry in her notebook We were only eighteen. We were kids. We felt invincible. But you grow up fast when your best friend is kidnapped and murdered. -May Robson 1 If Only . . . November 17, 1987 Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada "Why don't you come with us?" Tanya Van Cuylenborg grinned, picturing the look on her best friend's face. "What, me?" May Robson sputtered. "Jump in the car and drive to Seattle tomorrow, just like that?" "Nope," Tanya said. After a beat, she added, "We're going in Jay's dad's van." This last-minute trip to Seattle was actually her boyfriend's idea, she told May. And, okay, yes, she admitted, she was feeling a little nervous about it, this first extended trip alone with Jay Cook. So Tanya was doing what any eighteen-year-old almost-adult would do in such a situation: she asked her girlfriend to come along. But May had gone quiet. "C'mon, Mary-Anne," Tanya implored, emphasizing each syllable of May's proper first name. "You need a little adventure." "So true," May muttered grumpily. Tanya held her breath. Impulsive last-minute trips abroad were not May's thing. That was Tanya's role in this friendship. But once persuaded to jump in, Tanya knew, no one had her back better than May. "Please come," Tanya pressed. "We're going to be sleeping in his dad's van and I'll be uncomfortable alone with Jay. It'll be so much easier with you there. It'll be fun." Normally, Tanya could expect May to agree then, no further discussion needed. The two had done everything together, after all, ever since they bonded at a Brownie troop meeting when they were eight. They'd become a constant presence at each other's homes and tables ever since. May considered Tanya's dad, Bill, a second, funnier father. The best friends graduated from high school together, ate and drank their way through London and Paris on a school trip that spring together, bluffed their underage selves into bars together. Tanya relished making it her personal mission to coax her more conventional friend into impetuous day trips and expeditions. She couldn't remember May ever expressing regret at going along for the ride, not even when they got hopelessly lost in France late one evening. Tanya kept a cool head that night for May's sake, and they finally found their way back to their hotel, arm in arm. This time, though, May said she'd have to disappoint her friend: she was sick. The pressure of the hard plastic telephone was making her relentless earache worse, she told Tanya. She had a pounding headache, fever, and chills. She wanted to say yes, but as much as she loved to be spontaneous with her best friend, and as much as she hated to say no when Tanya played the girlfriend-in-need card, May said she wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. Certainly not the next day. "I'm sorry, sweetie. I'd be miserable, and I'd make the both of you miserable. I need to stay home in bed." Tanya grumbled a bit, then mastered her disappointment, straining to sound both sincere and sympathetic when she said that, of course, she understood. Everything would be fine in Seattle, she assured May. They both knew Jay was a great guy, that she'd be fine without May playing third wheel. She was just being silly. In truth, she said, the impetus for the trip hadn't been fun and adventure but a request from Jay's dad, Gordon Cook. He needed a replacement furnace for a customer of his heating service and repair business. His regular supplier...
