Alex Kava Bundle - Alex Kava [807]
“Only a couple of months.”
“And how’s Charlie?”
“Good. Really good. Three more years and he has his first parole hearing.” She turned back to the long line, distracted and smiling when she said, “Look at you.” Then she turned over the copy of his novel she had already picked up. “It’s good. I like how you did it.”
“Well, there are some things I used creative license with.”
“I know.” She smiled. She’d obviously already read the book and was pleased with her portrayal.
“How did you find out about…” and she leaned in, lowering her voice, “my father and, well, you know?”
“Mostly your mom and some newspaper articles. I suspected Jared had to kill him to end the abuse and that’s partly why Jared was the way he was. Did I do okay?”
“Oh, yes, I loved the book,” she said, hugging it to her. “Even if you did get a few things wrong or rather used creative…what was it?”
“Creative license. You know,” and he pulled her aside, indicating to Erin and the waiting line of people that he’d only be another minute or two, “I never would have believed you were capable of doing what you ended up having to do.”
“Really?” She leaned in close again. “What you didn’t realize was that it wasn’t the first time for me.”
“Excuse me?” He wasn’t sure what she meant.
“My father?” She looked around to make sure there was enough chatter behind her that she couldn’t be overheard. “It wasn’t Jared that night. He just cleaned up the mess.”
Andrew stared at her, only now realizing what she was saying, that she had killed her father and not Jared.
“So can you autograph my copy to me and Charlie?”
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Like many other suspense writers I use bits and pieces about real-life crimes and killers in my novels. Through research and interviews I often discover fascinating details that inspire a plot twist of a killer’s M.O. or an unusual piece of evidence. And always I hope it’s these small details that add authenticity to my novels.
One False Move, however, came about in an entirely different way. In March of 2001 I retreated to my favorite cabin at Platte River State Park, isolating myself to finish my second novel, Split Second. My dogs and I were the only occupants out of the thirteen cabins that surround the lake. During our second evening I heard a helicopter flying low over the park. In a matter of minutes I learned that two men had robbed a bank in nearby Lincoln, Nebraska. By the time I heard the news they had already shot a farm couple in order to steal their pickup and were on the run. The state park was in the middle of the manhunt, and so was I.
The experience sparked the idea for One False Move, and that summer I scratched out pages of notes even though I knew I’d have to put them aside while I wrote two more Maggie O’Dell novels. In the fall of 2002 I pulled out the notes again in order to finally start writing. That same fall three men walked into a bank in Norfolk, Nebraska, with the intention of robbing it. Forty seconds later they left without any money, leaving five innocent people dead and triggering a state-wide manhunt. It was the deadliest bank robbery in Nebraska’s history.
Although my idea for One False Move came a year and half before and was based on an entirely different bank robbery and manhunt, I was struck by some of the similarities. I talked to law enforcement officials and reporters who had been personally involved in the Norfolk case. Their experiences and stories gave me a greater appreciation for what I was writing about and most definitely enriched my novel.
Most of them were asking the same questions I had already been asking—why and how could anyone do something like this? What pushes some of us to do evil while others will never cross that line? If it’s human nature to fight for survival, to what extremes are we willing to go? These are the same questions I seem to ask in every one of my novels. However, this time I realized the questions were not simply