The Girl with a Clock for a Heart: A Novel

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by Peter Swanson


  “I can’t. I’m sorry.”

  “What are you going to do if you find her?”

  “I have to go. Take care of Nora. I’ll be back.”

  George hung up before Irene could ask more questions.

  If he did find Liana, what would he do? The truth was, he didn’t know exactly. He wished he could tell himself that he would make her pay for what she had done. But he wasn’t sure. All he knew was that if he didn’t find Liana Decter and prove to the world that she was guilty, he was going to be arrested and sent away for a long time. And he knew that everything that happened in Boston, from her appearance at Jack Crow’s to the bloodbath aboard Bernie’s boat, had unfolded exactly the way it was supposed to, exactly the way Liana had planned it.

  He wrapped the cheap disposable phone up in the bag it had come in and shoved it down into the garbage can next to the picnic table. A black bird with yellow eyes swept down and perched on the garbage can’s edge, wondering if he’d disposed of food. George stood, slinging the strap of his messenger bag over his shoulder, ten thousand dollars wrapped in yesterday’s Boston Globe in the zippered inside pocket. It was all he’d brought with him, besides his passport and a few changes of clothes, as he’d left his apartment the day before. Knowing that the police might be watching him, he didn’t dare bring a larger bag.

  Emerging from his apartment into the cool dawn, he saw nothing suspicious, just one yellow cab idling on the corner. Still, he walked to his garage where he kept his Saab, entered through the front door, then slipped by the night attendant sleeping at his desk and made his way out the rear entrance to a garbage-strewn alleyway. From there he walked to the nearest T station and took the subway to South Station. He was sure that if he went to Logan and tried to take a departing flight he’d be stopped. But he thought he might have a chance from an airport in Canada. There was no train service to Montreal, so George bought a one-way bus ticket.

  The Canadian agent at the border stamped his passport and barely looked at him. It was the same at Montréal-Trudeau Airport, where he bought a ticket to Cancun. George had been so sure that he’d be questioned at security, or that his messenger bag would be searched and the cash discovered, that he could hardly believe it when the three-quarters-full plane lifted over downtown Montreal and the St. Lawrence River on its way to Mexico.

  A dilapidated bus took him an hour south of Cancún to Tulum. He’d need to get a hotel room, someplace cheap that would take cash without asking questions. But first he bought a phone and headed toward the Mayan site.

  It’s just like the postcard, George thought as he looked at the gray ruins that spread out along the bluff and, in the distance, the quiet, sun-flecked surface of the sea. And George knew, with absolute certainty, that Liana wasn’t resting on the bottom of the Atlantic. She was alive.

  Acknowledgments

  This book wouldn’t exist without my agent, Nat Sobel, who read a story about a couple of college freshmen and wondered what would happen if they met twenty years later. He coached me all the way to the finish line. Every time I thought I’d done something perfect, Nat would let me know that it could be a whole lot better. He was right every time.

  A heartfelt thanks also goes to Joe DeMarco, who first published The Girl with a Clock for a Heart in novella form in Mysterical-E. Very few literary journals, and even fewer online journals, are interested in stories over ten thousand words. Not only did Joe read the long story I sent him, he gave it a home. And thank you to Spinetingler Magazine for nominating my story for Best Short Story on the Web.

  Thank you to David Highfill, my editor at William Morrow. David’s intelligence and enthusiasm made the editing process so much less painful than I thought it would be. Angus Cargill, my editor at Faber and Faber, offered astute suggestions, all of which improved the book. And thanks to the entire Sobel Weber team—Judith, Adia, Julie, and Kirsten—whose professionalism was only exceeded by their kindness.

  Myriam Steinback is the rarest of combinations—a great boss and a close friend. Over the sixteen years that we have worked together in teacher training, she has accommodated my schedule to allow me time to write, and has offered constant encouragement, both for the work I do as a project manager, and the writing that I do in my spare time. Thank you.

  And a final heart-shaped thank-you to Charlene, my first reader, biggest fan, and toughest critic. Thank you for letting me shut the office door as often as I do.

  About the Author

  PETER SWANSON has degrees in creative writing, education, and literature from Trinity College, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Emerson College. His stories and poems have appeared in the Atlantic, Mysterical-E, Vocabula Review, and Yankee Magazine. He lives with his wife in Somerville, Massachusetts, where he is at work on his second novel.

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

  Credits

  Cover photograph © by Mauritius Images GmbH/Alamy

  Copyright

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  THE GIRL WITH A CLOCK FOR A HEART. Copyright © 2014 by Peter Swanson. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  FIRST EDITION

  ISBN 978-0-06-226749-8 (hardcover)

  ISBN 978-0-06-232527-3 (international edition)

  EPub Edition FEBRUARY 2014 ISBN 9780062267511

  14 15 16 17 18 OV/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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