Choose Me

by Tess Gerritsen

Frankie used to believe that if she could keep them both alive until adulthood, then she would have accomplished her job as a parent, but whom was she kidding? A parent’s job never really ends. Even if she lives to be a hundred, her sixty-something daughters will still be keeping her awake at night.

That's what I thought years ago

In Frankie’s long career as a cop, she’s kicked open doors, tracked down killers, and twice stared down the barrel of a gun, yet she cannot bring herself to confront Ms. Lorraine

Conover, age forty-six, a sales clerk at Macy’s with no criminal record.

Same last name used in another book set in Maine.

“Not everything we want in life is possible, Taryn. I’ve tried to keep up with your tuition payments, but you can’t get blood from a stone. It’s been hard enough for me, keeping up with this second mortgage. Now I’ve got nothing left to borrow against, and I’m already working double shifts. You have to be sensible.” “This is my future we’re talking about.”

Taryn is so selfish

“She was stalking me.” He sees Mac’s raised eyebrow. “Seriously, she was. It started off with her calling me and texting me at all hours. Then she started sneaking into my apartment while I was out.”

Taryn waz stalking Liam?

Even though they wouldn’t dine together, at least he’d be spending an evening with his wife. A night at the symphony was just what they both needed.

I dont think it's happenning

“It’s just that . . .” She sighed. “My job’s been crazy lately. It’s gotten hard to carve out enough time for us.” “I miss it, you know. The way we used to be.” “You think I don’t miss it too?” She looked at him. “I’m trying, Jack. I really am. But there’s so much I have to juggle. So many people who need me.”

This couple needs therapy

She thought about how easy it would be to wait here until Elizabeth Whaley returned home. How easy it would be to follow her into her apartment and pull a knife from the kitchen drawer. She wondered how hard you had to push to make a blade sink into flesh, and how deep it had to go to pierce the heart. She considered all these things.

Taryn is going wacko

What she wanted was to be respected. She wanted Liam to regret he’d ever left her. She wanted his mother to kick herself for thinking

Taryn wasn’t good enough to marry her precious son. She wanted the world to know who she was. Most of all, she wanted to make Professor Dorian proud of her.

What an egoist

She waited until he left the library before she turned her attention back to her laptop and typed in the name Professor Jack Dorian. Suddenly she was hungry to see his face, hungry to know more about him. She clicked on his faculty profile page. In his photo, which had clearly not been updated in years, he was wearing a tweedy jacket and a tie, and his smile was approachable but bland. She thought of how his green eyes lit up when he laughed, and how silver now streaked the dark hair at his temples. She liked the Jack Dorian she knew now. He might be older than in this photo, and his laugh lines were a little deeper, but what mattered wasn’t his age, only his heart and his soul.

Taryn is turning into a stalker

This was a mistake. He knew it, of course, but he couldn’t back out now, not after he’d promised to drive her to the conference. Not after all the arrangements had been made.

Sure was a big mistake. Did he kill Taryn because she became a threat

She hunted down two glass tumblers in the room, filled them with wine, and handed one to Jack.

How could he refuse? She was practically dancing with joy, and he couldn’t help smiling at her triumph. They clinked glasses and sipped. “Congratulations, Taryn,” he said. “You’re well on your way!”

Yes you could have refused

Before Mac can ask his own question, she quietly interjects herself into the conversation. “You really cared about Taryn. Didn’t you, Cody?” she says gently. Her kindness disarms him. He wipes his eyes and turns away. “Yeah,” he whispers. “She was lucky to have such a good friend.”

Typical cop roles- Frankie is nice cop and Mac is the bad cop

And sadness; how could he not feel sad about the loss of a young and vibrant life? Yet he couldn’t deny that he had hoped for some sort of divine intervention, and this was exactly what had been delivered.

Dont cook your eyes before they hatch

the defendant had no memory of the hours before the killing. He recalled that he took ten milligrams of Ativan, was unable to sleep, and took an additional pill. “The next thing I remember,” he testified, “was awakening with handcuffs on my wrists.” He had stabbed his wife more than twenty times.

Jack is frantic that he may have killed Taryn in his sleep caused by drugs

“And then what happened?” “I slapped her. I couldn’t help it. The way she was talking about my Maggie, as if she didn’t matter. As if my grandchild was nothing but a nuisance. I slapped her across the face, and she came at me like a fucking lunatic. I tried to hold

her off, but she reached for a statue on her bookshelf and swung at me.” “She hit you?” “Would have cracked my skull if I hadn’t swung back. She fell, slammed her head on the coffee table. When she didn’t move, I thought she might be dead, but then I saw she was still breathing. Oh, I thought about calling nine-one-one. Then I thought about the consequences if she woke up and told everyone what I did. What you did. Most of all, I thought about Maggie and how that—that cheap piece of trash could destroy Maggie’s happiness. That girl was relentless. She’d never give up, so I had no choice. I had to finish it.

Charlie killed Taryn

If only he could have said the words out loud. If only he could say so many things, but already the room was fading to black. The darkness descended, blotting out the face of the woman he loved.

Does Jack die and Charlie go to prison