Crossroads (42 page)

"Couldn’t have even got you out of the harbor yesterday," he said. "There were swells out here twenty-eight feet high and winds near a hundred miles an hour. Now look at it. Never saw it calm so fast."

"Like magic," said Sheila, smiling.

"Yeah," muttered the captain, shaking his head. "I hope old Silky’s okay. Should have been able to see his house. I’m afraid it got blown clear away. But there’s Clem’s boat."

As the
Dusky Dreamer
bumped against the pilings two older men hobbled around the path at the top of the hill, and the captain waved.   

"Guess they’re both okay after all," he said. "I’ll just toss ‘em a line."

"That won’t be necessary," said Sheila . "You don’t have to stay. Just hold alongside long enough for us to get ashore."

"Well, it’s no problem-"

"Really," said the teenager in a voice that sounded very commanding for one so young. "Just let us off on the dock."

"Okay, then."

Sheila and Kira clambered up the ladder and met the two old men at the foot of the wharf. Both stared at them curiously.

"I’m Sheila," said Sheila, holding out her hand to start the introductions.

"Do you know why we’re here?" asked Kira, finally.

Clem shook his head. Silky just gave her a curious look.

"Shandan told me that he had a very old friend who never got to live his dream," said Kira. "I think that’s you. I have a dream, too."

"What’s yours?" asked Silky, in a shaky voice.

"I want to grow up in the carnival, like I was supposed to," said Kira.

Silky’s eyes lit up. "I always wanted to own my own show."

Kira glanced at Sheila, but she was staring back down the
empty
wharf.

"I think mother would like that," said Sheila.

Kira nodded. "I know where to get the money."

Author Bio

Although he is the author of four critically acclaimed supernatural/suspense thrillers, Chandler McGrew, lives in quiet seclusion in the mountains of Maine. He writes ten to twelve hours a day, fueled by liberal doses of coffee and Pepsi, with only an occasional dollop of single malt scotch to take the edge off.

Born in Texas he lived for almost a decade in Alaska where his first novel, 
Cold Heart
, is set. 
I Love a Mystery 
called the book a 
‘tense and satisfying read
.’ While the 
Contra Costa Times 
said it was 
‘The best opening 10 pages I've read this year...reads like a good martini tastes: icy cold, with flecks of terror where the ice chips should be.
’

Not a bad start for a man who didn’t begin to write professionally until he was in his forties.

Chandler followed 
Cold Heart
 with 
Night Terror
, a psychological thriller about a woman who has lost her only son and believes she may be losing her mind as well. Like all his novels the book is peopled by characters who might be your next door neighbor. Or they might be escapees from a boobie hatch. The
 Denver Post
 said the novel 
‘...plays on the primal fears that cause most adults to lose sleep.’

That’s an adequate description of all of Chandler’s work.

The Darkening, 
his third book, is a dark, apocalyptic thriller in which two very different individuals must not only find each other but themselves as well before discovering the path that will lead them to salvation. 
Publisher’s Weekly, 
the industry standard, said of the book that it was an 
"addictive...one part Rapture drama, one part Lovecraftian horror story, one part blood-soaked chase... a thrilling one-sit read."

Which brings us to 
In Shadows, 
McGrew’s latest which the 
Chicago Tribune 
called "...
a born-to-be-a-TV-series story."

McGrew has the uncanny knack for touching readers and frightening the bejeesus out of them at the same time.