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Informationen zum Autor CAROLINE B. COONEY is the bestselling author of more than 30 young adult books, including the million-copy plus bestseller The Face on the Milk Carton. Klappentext In the vein of psychological thrillers like We Were Liars, Girl on the Train, and Beware That Girl, bestselling author Caroline Cooney's JANIE series delivers on every level. Mystery and suspense blend seamlessly with issues of family, friendship and love to offer an emotionally evocative thrill ride of a read. No one knows what happened to the killer. Janie Johnson's two families appear to have made peace. Life seems almost normal. Janie has even decided to speak to her former boyfriend, Reeve, again. But then Janie's Connecticut father suffers a stroke, and the tragedy leaves her mother reeling. Janie must step in to manage family finances and to support her mother emotionally. While handling her father's business matters, Janie discovers the one undeniable fact that could destroy both of her beloved families. And she alone must decide what to do.CHAPTER ONE Last seen flying west. Over and over, Janie read those last four words on the report. I could do that, she thought. I could be "last seen flying west." I too could vanish. By not being here, I could be a hundred times more powerful and more present. No one could ever set me down. I would control all their lives forever, just by being gone. She actually considered it. She didn't worry about the logistics--plane ticket, money, shelter, food, clothing. Janie had never lacked for shampoo or supper or shoes and she couldn't imagine not having them. She considered this: She could become a bad person. In the time it took for a jet to cross America, she, Janie Johnson--good daughter, good friend, good student, good sister--with no effort, she could ruin a dozen lives. She was stunned by the file folder in her fingers, but she was more stunned by how attracted she was to this idea--Janie Johnson, Bad Guy. In all that had happened--the kidnapping, the new family, the old family, even Reeve's betrayal--nothing had brought such fury to her heart as the contents of this folder. She couldn't even say, I can't believe it. Because she could believe it easily. It fit in so well. And it made her so terribly angry. She knew now why her older brother, Stephen, had dreamed for years of college. It was escape, the getaway from his massive store of anger. She herself had just finished her junior year in high school. If college was the way out, she could not escape until a year from September--unless she escaped the way Hannah had, all those years ago. Janie Johnson hated her father at that moment with a hatred that was wallpaper on every wall of every room she had ever lived in: stripes and circles and colors of hate pasted over every other emotion. But gently she slid the police report back into the file folder and put the folder in among the others, pressing with her palm to even up all the folders so that the one that mattered vanished. It took control to be gentle. Her fingers wanted to crush the contents of the folder, wad everything up and heave it out a window, and then fling the folder to the floor and drag her shoes over it. The drawer was marked Paid Bills. Her father was very organized, and now that he could do nothing himself, her mother wanted Janie to be organized in his place. For a few minutes, it had seemed like fun; Janie Johnson, accountant and secretary. The drawer contained a long row of folders, each with a center label, each label neatly printed in her father's square typewriter-looking print, each in the same blue ink. Folders for water bills and oil bills, insurance policies and tax reports. An...
