Home > Work > Before She Disappeared (Frankie Elkin, #1)
1 " Feel your feels, as the saying goes. Except so many feelings are hard to take. "
― Lisa Gardner , Before She Disappeared (Frankie Elkin, #1)
2 " Maybe the question shouldn’t be why am I doing this, but why isn’t everyone looking? "
3 " I don’t get the big deal myself. If you can die for your country at eighteen, why not have a beer? "
4 " I hate the raw edge to my voice, but I can’t stop it. These cases shouldn’t be personal to me. But they are. That’s the thing I can’t help, and Paul couldn’t understand. "
5 " Kind of guy who’d sell out his own mother to get ahead, that’s for sure. Maybe he did. "
6 " But doing what, Charlie? Fake drinking IDs can’t be that big money. Like you said, fake passports, identity packages, hell, work visas, that all makes sense. But how do you get from good-enough driver’s licenses to that level of expertise? "
7 " Nah, his fake company produced paperwork that real people could use to apply for real visas. Guy got greedy, though. Soon enough, the powers that be got wise to a small firm needing hundreds of engineers. Especially when none of the foreigners applying for work had an engineering degree. Good while it lasted, though. "
8 " What would be worth kidnapping two enterprising teen girls and holding them hostage? How about setting up a system to generate real student visas? I can even see Angelique’s personal interest in taking on such a project, given her immigration status, and her brother’s. Maybe that had made it sound like a good idea … before it wasn’t. "
9 " Given the girls’ aptitudes in computer programming and design, this little enterprise could’ve gone on and on, growing in scope and size. From a fake university for student visas to a fake corporation for work visas, such as Charlie described. That revenue potential would be through the roof. Definitely worth the risk of holding two girls captive. "
10 " In the end, it’s not much of a decision at all. Angelique. I am here to find Angelique. To save a girl. To redeem a sin I can never change. And maybe to chase a bullet I dodged ten years ago. I turn left, down the end of the hall to the fire escape. Then, I vanish into the dark. "
11 " I know the signs too well. Deke Alarie, my lead candidate for all things evil, is about to die. "
12 " There’s power in humility. It’s one of the toughest lessons I’ve had to learn. "
13 " Later came the hard knowledge that no one can save you from yourself. "
14 " A counterfeiting operation for student visas. Requiring one mastermind, followed by enough men to kidnap two teenage girls and force them into servitude. That shouldn’t require too many bodies. "
15 " They have to get through each day, which makes truth a fickle companion. "
16 " What I gleaned: Especially in situations where technology has failed, the right person asking the right questions can make all the difference. That total strangers care that much for the missing among us, I found powerful—though also heartbreaking. So this book is for the dedicated, whether they’re amateur detectives, professional pilots, registered dog handlers, "
17 " We have been together too long for her to want to be apart. We are hers, the children of her sister’s body and her heart. "
18 " Thank you,” I say, and I mean it. Ten days, ten months, ten years, you never know when the next craving is going to hit, and in those moments, a single connection can make all the difference. "
19 " Most people don’t realize what a financial luxury privacy is. An individual bedroom, time alone, designated workspace: These things cost money. Angelique got to sleep in a shared family room, while probably doing homework on the kitchen table on a refurbished laptop after her brother had his turn. "
20 " A detail provided by Emmanuel, I realize now, in order to humanize his sister. Make her real not just for sympathizers, but to any predator who might be holding her. "
