Jeffery Deaver - XO

The third book in the Kathryn Dance series, 2012

Free mp3 download of Your Shadow, with lyrics by Jeffery Deaver and music by Clay Stafford and Ken Landers, available from www.jefferydeaver.com.

The lyrics to all the songs in Your Shadow, the country-music album at the heart of this novel, can be found at the back of the book. These tunes are referred to throughout and may just contain some clues about the events that unfold along the way. And if youd like to listen to the actual title track itself, and other songs from the album, recently recorded in Nashville, go to www.jefferydeaver.com for information on downloads.

To most listeners, the title track, Your Shadow, is simply a love song.

Some feel differently.

Subject: Re: Youre the Best!!!

From: noreply@kayleightownemusic.com

To: EdwinSharp18474@anon.com

2 January 10:32 a.m.

Hey there,

Edwin-

Thanks for your email! Im so glad you liked my latest album! Your support means the world to me. Be sure you go to my website and sign up to get my newsletter and learn about new releases and upcoming concerts, and dont forget to follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

And keep an eye out for the mail. I sent you that autographed photo you requested!

XO,

Kayleigh

Subject: Unbelievable!!!!!

From: EdwinSharp26535@anon.com

To: ktowne7788@compserve.com

3 September 5:10 a.m.

Hi, Kayleigh:

I am totally blown away. Im rendered speechless. And, you know me pretty good by now-for me to be speechless, thats something!! Anyway, heres the story: I downloaded your new album last night and listened to Your Shadow. Whoahhh! Its without doubt the best song I have ever heard. I mean of anything ever written. I even like it better than Its Going to Be Different This Time. Ive told you nobodys ever expressed how I feel about loneliness and life and well everything better than you. And that song does that totally. But more important I can see what youre saying, your plea for help. Its all clear now. Dont worry. Youre not alone, Kayleigh!!

Ill be your shadow. Forever.

XO, Edwin

Subject: Fwd: Unbelievable!!!!!

From: Samuel.King@CrowellSmithWendall.com

To: EdwinSharp26535@anon.com

3 September 10:34 a.m.

Mr. Sharp:

Ms. Alicia Sessions, personal assistant to our clients Kayleigh Towne and her father, Bishop Towne, forwarded us your email of this morning. You have sent more than 50 emails and letters since we contacted you two months ago, urging you not to have any contact with Ms. Towne or any of her friends and family. We are extremely troubled that you have found her private email address (which has been changed, I should tell you), and are looking into possible violations of state and federal laws regarding how you obtained such address.

Once again, we must tell you that we feel your behavior is completely inappropriate and possibly actionable. We urge you in the strongest terms possible to heed this warning. As weve said repeatedly, Ms. Townes security staff and local law enforcement officials have been notified of your repeated, intrusive attempts to contact her and we are fully prepared to take whatever steps are necessary to put an end to this alarming behavior.

Samuel King, Esq.

Crowell, Smith & Wendall, Attorneys-at-Law

Subject: See you soon!!!

From: EdwinSharp26535@anon.com

To: KST33486@westerninternet.com

5 September 11:43 p.m.

Hi, Kayleigh-

Got your new email address. I know what theyre up to but DONT worry, itll be all right.

Im lying in bed, listening to you right now. I feel like Im literally your shadow And youre mine. You are so wonderful!

I dont know if you had a chance to think about it-youre sooooo busy, I know!-but Ill ask again-if you wanted to send me some of your hair thatd be so cool. I know you havent cut it for ten years and four months (its one of those things that makes you so beautiful!!!) but maybe theres one from your brush. Or better yet your pillow. Ill treasure it forever.

Cant WAIT for the concert next Friday. C U soon.

Yours forever,

XO, Edwin

THE HEART OF a concert hall is people.

And when the vast space is dim and empty, as this one was at the moment, a venue can bristle with impatience, indifference.

Even hostility.

Okay, rein in that imagination, Kayleigh Towne told herself. Stop acting like a kid. Standing on the wide, scuffed stage of the Fresno Conference Centers main hall, she surveyed the place once more, bringing her typically hypercritical eye to the task of preparing for Fridays concert, considering and reconsidering lighting and stage movements and where the members of the band should stand and sit. Where best to walk out near, though not into, the crowd and touch hands and blow kisses. Where best acoustically to place the foldback speakers-the monitors that were pointed toward the band so they could hear themselves without echoes or distortion. Many performers now used earbuds for this; Kayleigh liked the immediacy of traditional foldbacks.

There were a hundred other details to think about. She believed that every performance should be perfect, more than perfect. Every audience deserved the best. One hundred ten percent.

She had, after all, grown up in Bishop Townes shadow.

An unfortunate choice of word, Kayleigh now reflected.

Ill be your shadow. Forever

Back to the planning. This show had to be different from the previous one here, about eight months ago. A retooled program was especially important since many of the fans would have regularly attended her hometown concerts and she wanted to make sure they got something unexpected. That was one thing about Kayleigh Townes music; her audiences werent as big as some but were loyal as golden retrievers. They knew her lyrics cold, knew her guitar licks, knew her moves onstage and laughed at her shtick before she finished the lines. They lived and breathed her performances, hung on her words, knew her bio and likes and dislikes.

And some wanted to know much more

With that thought, her heart and gut clenched as if shed stepped into Hensley Lake in January.

Thinking about him, of course.

Then she froze, gasping. Yes, someone was watching her from the far end of the hall! Where none of the crew would be.

Shadows were moving.

Or was it her imagination? Or maybe her eyesight? Kayleigh had been given perfect pitch and an angelic voice but God had decided enough was enough and skimped big-time on the vision. She squinted, adjusted her glasses. She was sure that someone was hiding, rocking back and forth in the doorway that led to the storage area for the concession stands.

Then the movement stopped.

She decided it wasnt movement at all and never had been. Just a hint of light, a suggestion of shading.

Though still, she heard a series of troubling clicks and snaps and groans-from where, she couldnt tell-and felt a chill of panic bubble up her spine.

Him

The man who had written her hundreds of emails and letters, intimate, delusional, speaking of the life they could share together, asking for a strand of hair, a fingernail clipping. The man who had somehow gotten near enough at a dozen shows to take close-up pictures of Kayleigh, without anyone ever seeing him. The man who had possibly-though it had never been proven-slipped into the band buses or motor homes on the road and stolen articles of her clothing, underwear included.