Linwood Barclay - The Accident

Bad Move

Bad Guys

Lone Wolf

Stone Rain

No Time for Goodbye

Too Close to Home

Fear the Worst

Never Look Away

The Accident

Copyright 2011 Linwood Barclay

All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication, reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system without the prior written consent of the publisheror in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, license from the Canadian Copyright Licensing agencyis an infringement of the copyright law.

Doubleday Canada and colophon are registered trademarks.

Library and Archives of Canada Cataloguing in Publication is available upon request.

eISBN: 978-0-385-67059-3

The Accident is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Cover design: Carlos Beltran
Cover art Chris Titze
Cover photograph: Juergen Stein/Getty Images

Published in Canada by Doubleday Canada, a division of Random House of Canada Limited

Visit Random House of Canada Limiteds website: www.randomhouse.ca

v3.1

For Neetha

Their names were Edna Bauder and Pam Steigerwald, and they were grade school teachers from Butler, Pennsylvania, and they had never been to New York before in their entire lives. New York was hardly the other side of the planet, but when you lived in Butler, almost everything seemed that way. As Pams fortieth birthday approached, her friend Edna said youre going to have a birthday weekend you are never, ever going to forget, and on that count she turned out to be absolutely right.

Their husbands were delighted when they heard this was a girls only weekend. When they learned it was going to be two full days of shopping, a Broadway show, and going on the Sex and the City tour, they said they would rather stay home and blow their brains out. So they put their wives on the bus and said have fun and try not to get too drunk because theres a lot of muggers in New York, everybody knows that, and you have to keep your wits about you.

They found a hotel near Fiftieth and Third that was, at least by New York standards, reasonable, although it still seemed like a lot considering all they were going to do was sleep there. Theyd vowed to save money by not taking cabs, but the maps of the subway system looked like a schematic for the space shuttle, so they decided, what the hell. They went to Bloomingdales and Macys and a huge shoe outlet in Union Square that would have held every store in Butler and still had room left over for the post office.

I want my ashes scattered through this place when I die, Edna said, trying on a pair of sandals.

They tried to get to the top of the Empire State Building, but the line to get in was huge, and when you had only forty-eight hours in the Big Apple you didnt want to spend three of them waiting in line, so they bailed.

Pam wanted to eat lunch at that deli, the one from that movie where Meg Ryan had the fake orgasm. Their table was right next to the one they used in the moviethere was even a sign hanging over it to mark the spotbut when they got back to Butler theyd tell everyone they got the actual table. Edna ordered a pastrami sandwich with a knish, even though she had no idea what a knish was. Pam said, Ill have what shes having! and the two of them went into fits of hysterics when the waitress rolled her eyes.

While having coffee afterward, Edna said, almost out of nowhere, I think Phils been seeing that waitress at Dennys. And then she burst into tears, and Pam asked why she suspected such a thing, that she thought Ednas husband, Phil, was a good guy whod never cheat, and Edna said she didnt think he was actually sleeping with her or anything, but he went there for coffee every single day, so that had to mean something. And the thing was, he hardly ever touched her anymore.

Come on, Pam said. Were all busy, we got kids, Phils working two jobs, whos got the energy?

Maybe youre right, Edna said.

Pam said, You need to get your mind off that nonsense. You brought me here to have fun. She opened her New York Fodors tourist guidebook to the spot where shed put a sticky note and said, You need more retail therapy. Were going to Canal Street.

Edna had no idea what that was. Pam said you could buy pursesdesigner purses, or at least purses that looked just like designer pursesfor next to nothing down there. You have to ask around for the best deals, she said. Shed read in a magazine somewhere that sometimes the best stuff, its not even out where the people can see it. You have to go into a back room or something.

Youre talkin my language, honey, Edna said.

So they grabbed yet another cab and asked to be taken to the corner of Canal and Broadway, but at Lafayette and Grand the taxi came to a dead stop.

Whats happened? Edna asked the driver.

Accident, he said in an accent Pam thought could be anything from Salvadoran to Swiss. I cant turn around. Is just few blocks that way.

Pam paid the driver and they started walking in the direction of Canal. A block up, a crowd had gathered. Edna said, Oh my God.

She looked away, but Pam was transfixed. A mans legs were splayed across the hood of a yellow cab that had crashed into a streetlight. His upper body had gone through the windshield and was draped over the dashboard. A mangled bicycle was trapped under the cars front wheels. There was no one behind the wheel. Maybe the driver had already been taken to the hospital. People with FDNY and NYPD on their backs were inspecting the car, telling the crowd to move back.

Someone said, Fucking bike messengers. Amazing it doesnt happen more often.

Edna took Pam by the elbow. I cant look at this.

By the time they found their way to Canal and Broadway, they hadnt exactly put that horrible image out of their heads, but theyd been repeating a These things happen mantra that would allow them to still make the most they could out of this weekend.

Pam used her camera phone to get a shot of Edna standing under the Broadway street sign, and then Edna got a shot of Pam doing the same. A man walking past offered to take pictures of the two of them together, but Edna said no thank you, telling Pam later it was probably just a ploy to steal their phones. I wasnt born yesterday, Edna said.

As they moved east on Canal the two of them felt as though theyd wandered into a foreign country. Werent these what the markets in Hong Kong or Morocco or Thailand looked like? Stores jammed together, merchandise spilling out onto the street?

Not exactly Sears, Pam said.

So many Chinese people, Edna said.

I think thats cause its Chinatown, Pam said.

A homeless man wearing a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey asked for change. Another tried to hand them a flyer but Pam held up her hand defensively. Throngs of teenage girls giggled and gawked, some able to carry on conversations while music chattered from the buds stuffed into their ears.

The store windows were jammed with necklaces, watches, sunglasses. A WE BUY GOLD sign was positioned out front of one. A long, vertical sign hanging off a fire escape read TattooBody PiercingHenna Temporary SuppliesWholesale Body JewelryBooks Magazines Art Objects 2nd Floor. There were signs pushing Leather and Pashmina and countless banners in Chinese characters. And even a Burger King.