Fallen

Informationen zum Autor Kathleen George, a director and theater professor at the University of Pittsburgh, is also the author of Taken (currently a Dell paperback) and The Man in the Buick , a collection of stories. She lives with her husband in Pittsburgh, PA. Klappentext It happened in the night, when no one was around to see it. A Pittsburgh doctor, who dedicated himself to helping others, was shot through the heart. Now days have passed, and Dan Ross's wife, Elizabeth, has entered a twilight zone of grief, flooded with memories, voices, and regrets. And while a determined police investigator is feverishly following a trail of mystery back into her husband's squeaky-clean past, a new neighbor suddenly moves in to the house next door and begins watching every move Elizabeth makes...watching her children come to visit...watching her acts of private grief and public dignity. This man, this stranger to the city, is fascinated by Elizabeth's sorrow. And he knows exactly who killed her husband and why. But he isn't in the business of telling truths. He simply wants to know her. He wants to take her in his arms. He wants to know she has fallen just for him.1 To say it was all grief, all along, was stretching it maybe, but not by much, Richard Christie thought. Evil, mistakes of the heart, cold-bloodedness were only the disguises, the inky shapes and cloaks. Sketching itself at the back of his mind, when the case drew to a close, were snatches of "Nowhere Man," the sweet young voices of the Beatles conjuring his own boyhood. The song would have been playing on the radio as he raced into the house and out, hopped into his mother's car and dashed out moments later, eager for the next game or distraction. He tried to remember who he was then, what he felt, what sadnesses tugged at him. He supposed, in retrospect, he was lucky to be so ordinary. Inside the house on beechwood boulevard, Elizabeth is waiting for the detective. Eight times, eight visits, one week. She watches and waits. He's told her he won't be bothering her so regularly anymore. The person who killed her husband has not been found, that's the bare-rock truth. Seven days, eight meetings ago, Commander Christie said the usual tough things about finding the killer--his sentences might have been spoken by any detective in any film--but his eyes were soft, full of feeling, and she never doubted his sincerity. He knew her husband a little, that was part of it, and anybody who knew Daniel loved him. And here she is, a week later, the funeral over by several days, the children back at college--a difficult decision but if her work has taught her anything it's that people need to take up their lives again--here she is, alone. Yesterday brought a glimpse of what real desolation is and today she got the whole blank canvas as she wandered through the house, almost dizzy with the space and silence. People called, of course, but less frequently now that the funeral was over. They'd expended their store of philosophy in those first three days of mourning. There was nothing left to say but "Anything new? Have they found anything?" She turned the machine off because it was hard to keep saying, "No, no, nothing." The house is empty, the larder bare. The funeral meats are gone, unthriftily given to anyone who would accept cold cuts, pastries, roasts, hams, salads. Even the children took some of the surfeit. Elizabeth wanted the food and flowers out of the house. She wanted to throw away--same as when she was spring cleaning or tackling the basement--anything, everything. Now there is nothing. She wonders, should she fill a pitcher of water, put out two glasses? The detective never takes anything. She walks back and forth inside her own house as if it belongs to a stranger. Outside the house and across the street, at the en-trance to Frick Park, a man in navy jogging cl...

Product details

• Authors: Kathleen George
• Publisher: Dell Publishing Inc.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 29.06.2004
• EAN: 9780440236641
• ISBN: 978-0-440-23664-1
• No. of pages: 400
• Dimensions: 107 mm x 177 mm x 20 mm