Say Goodbye
by Lisa Gardner
Summary
As a member of the Evidence Response Team, dead hookers aren’t exactly Kimberly’s specialty. The young agent is five months pregnant—she has other things to worry about than an alleged lunatic who uses spiders to do his dirty work. But Kimberly’s own mother and sister were victims of a serial killer. And now, without any bodies and with precious few clues, it’s all too clear that a serial killer has found the key to the perfect murder . . .
Kimberly’s caught in a web more lethal than any spider’s, and the more she fights for answers, the more tightly she’s trapped.
Excerpt
ONE
THESE ARE THE THINGS THAT NO ONE TELLS YOU, THAT YOU must experience in order to learn:
It only hurts the first few times. You scream. You scream and you scream and you scream until your throat is raw and your eyes swollen and you taste a curious substance in the back of your throat that is like bile and vomit and tears all rolled into one. You cry for your mother. You beg for God. You don’t understand what is happening. You can’t believe it is happening.
And yet, it is happening.
And so, bit by bit, you fall silent.
Terror doesn’t last forever. It can’t. It takes too much energy to sustain. And in truth, terror occurs when you are confronted with the unknown. But once it has happened enough, you have been systematically violated, beaten, cowed, it’s not unknown, is it? The same act that once shocked you, hurt you, shamed you with its perversity, becomes the norm. This is your day now. This is the life you lead. This is who you have become.
A specimen in the collection.
TWO
“Spiders are always on the lookout for prey, but predators are also on the lookout for spiders. Clever disguises and quick getaways help keep spiders out of trouble.”
FROM Spiders and Their Kin,
BY HERBERT W. AND LORNA R. LEVI, A GOLDEN GUIDE FROM ST. MARTIN’S PRESS, 2002
“WE GOT A PROBLEM.”
“No kidding. Widespread production of methamphetamines, a middle class that keeps falling further and further behind, not to mention all the ruckus over global warming . . .”
“No, no, no. A real problem.”
Kimberly sighed. They’d been working this crime scene for three days now. Long enough that she no longer noticed the smell of burning jet fuel and charcoaled bodies. She was cold, dehydrated, and had a stitch in her side. It would take a lot, in her opinion, to qualify as a real problem at this point.
She finished up the last swig of bottled water, then turned away from the tent city that currently comprised command central, and faced her teammate. “All right, Harold. What’s the problem?”
“Uh-uh. Gotta see it to believe it.”
Harold didn’t wait for her answer, but set off at a half-jog, leaving Kimberly no choice but to follow….
“Harold, what the hell?”
“Five more minutes. You can do it….”
“Better be good, Harold.”
“Yep.”
“If this is to show me some kind of rare moss or endangered grass species, I will kill you.”
“I don’t doubt it.”
Harold dashed and ducked around shattered trees. Bobbed and weaved through the thick underbrush. When he finally stopped, Kimberly nearly ran into his back.
“Look up,” Harold ordered.
Kimberly looked up. “Ah shit. We have a problem.”
Copyright © 2008 by Lisa Gardner. Excerpted by permission of The Bantam Dell Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.
Reviews
"[A] stunner of a suspense novel”–Tulsa World
"[S]uspenseful, fast paced, and just a little creepy (OK, a lot creepy)”—Booklist
“Engaging if highly disturbing”—Publishers Weekly
Author's Biography
Lisa Gardner is the New York Times bestselling author of Gone, Alone, The Killing Hour, The Survivors Club, The Next Accident, The Other Daughter, The Third Victim, and The Perfect Husband. She lives with her family in New England, where she is at work on her next novel of suspense.