The Jodi Picoult Collection #3 Read online

  The counterpart of the research I’ve done on death row involves holing up in my office wading through the Gospels for research . . . not just the ones that made it into the Bible but the ones that didn’t, like the Gospel of Thomas—a Gospel found in 1945 in Nag Hammadi, Egypt. Like the other fifty-one texts found at Nag Hammadi, they contain a lot of sayings you can find in the Bible . . . and a lot you won’t. These are referred to as the Gnostic Gospels—part and parcel of a religious movement that was denounced as heresy by Orthodox Christianity in the middle of the second century. Gnosis means knowledge in Greek—and the basis for the Gnostics’ beliefs is that if you want to know God, you have to know yourself. Or in other words, there’s a little bit of divinity in all of us, coded and hidden . . . and it’s up to each of us to figure out how to get it out. The Gnostics felt that religion was something that by definition had to be personal—and that if you simply believed what others told you to believe or said the right words during a church service or got baptized, it wasn’t enough to reach spiritual fulfillment. Above all else, the Gnostics said, ask questions. Don’t believe everything you’re told; don’t assume that just because someone says “This is the way it should be done” that he or she is right. There are a lot of reasons—political and religious—why Orthodox Christianity rejected the Gnostic movement . . . but in a way, the baby was thrown out with the bathwater. Not only were these Gospels lost for thousands of years . . . but so was some of the open-mindedness about faith in general. “If you bring forth what is within you,” Jesus says, in the Gospel of Thomas, “what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.” Sounds like a riddle, right? But it’s actually pretty simple: The potential to free yourself—or ruin yourself—is entirely up to you. And just maybe instead of focusing on the destination, we ought to look at the journey.

  1230 Avenue of the Americas

  New York, NY 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2006 by Jodi Picoult “Magic Words” © 1967, 1968 Education Development Center, Inc. (www.edc.org)

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Atria Books, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

  Picoult, Jodi, 1966–

  The tenth circle: a novel / by Jodi Picoult.

  p. cm.

  1. Fathers and daughters—Fiction. 2. Comic books, strips, etc.—

  Authorship—Fiction. 3. Rape victims—Fiction. 4. Date rape—Fiction.

  I. Title.

  PS3566.I372T46 2006

  813'.54—dc22

  2005048281

  ISBN-13: 978-0-7434-9670-4

  ISBN-10: 0-7434-9670-1

  ISBN-13: 978-0-7434-9671-1 (Pbk)

  ISBN-10: 0-7434-9671-X (Pbk)

  This Washington Square Press trade paperback edition October 2006

  ATRIA BOOKS and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  Designed by Jaime Putorti

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Part One

  Chapter 1: March 6, 2007

  Chapter 2: Seventeen Years Before

  Chapter 3: Hours After

  Chapter 4: Twelve Years Before

  Chapter 5: The Day After

  Chapter 6: Six Years Before

  Chapter 7: Ten Days After

  Chapter 8: One Year Before

  Chapter 9: One Month After

  Chapter 10: The Month Before

  Part Two

  Chapter 11: Five Months After

  Chapter 12: 6:30 A.M., The Day Of

  Chapter 13: Five Months After

  Chapter 14: 10:16 A.M., The Day Of

  Chapter 15: Five Months After

  Chapter 16: March 6, 2008

  Readers Club Guide

  For Emily Bestler, the finest editor and fiercest champion a girl could ask for, who makes sure I put my best foot forward, every time.

  Thanks for your keen eye, your cheerleading, and most of all, your friendship.

  Acknowledgments

  You know it’s going to be an intriguing paragraph when I first thank the man who came to my house to teach me how to shoot a handgun in a woodpile in my own backyard: Captain Frank Moran. Thanks, too, to his colleague, Lieutenant Michael Evans, for detailed information on firearms, and to police chief Nick Giaccone for the bazillion last-minute email questions about search, seizure, and all things police-oriented. Detective Trooper Claire Demarais gets her own special kudo for being the queen of forensics and for walking Patrick through a crime scene of enormous proportion. I’m fortunate to have many friends and family who happen to also be experts in their fields, who let me share their stories, or who serve as sounding boards: Jane Picoult, Dr. David Toub, Wyatt Fox, Chris Keating, Suzanne Serat, Doug Fagen, Janine Scheiner, Conrad Farnham, Chris and Karen van Leer. Thanks to Guenther Frankenstein for his family’s generous contribution to the expansion of Hanover’s Howe Library and for the use of his marvelous name. Glen Libby patiently answered my questions about life at the Grafton County Jail, and Ray Fleer, the undersheriff at the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, provided me with materials and information about the school shooting at Columbine. Thanks to David Plaut and Jake van Leer for the really bad math joke; Doug Irwin for teaching me the economics of happiness; Kyle van Leer and Axel Hansen for the premise behind Hide-n-Shriek; Luke Hansen for the C++ program; and Ellen Irwin for the popularity chart. I’m grateful, as always, to the team at Atria Books that makes me look so much better than I truly am: Carolyn Reidy, David Brown, Alyson Mazzarelli, Christine Duplessis, Gary Urda, Jeanne Lee, Lisa Keim, Sarah Branham, and the indefatigable Jodi Lipper. To Judith Curr, thanks for singing my praises without stopping to take a breath. To Camille McDuffie, thank you for making me that rarest of things in publishing: a brand name. To Laura Gross, I raise a wee dram of Highland whiskey and salute you, because I can’t imagine this business without you. To Emily Bestler, well, check out the following page. A very special nod to Judge Jennifer Sargent, without whose input the character of Alex could not have existed. And to Jennifer Sternick, my own personal prosecutor—you’re one of the brightest women I’ve ever met, and you make work way too much fun for our own good (long live King Wah), so it’s clearly your own damn fault that I keep asking you to help again and again. Thanks, as always, to my family—Kyle, Jake, and Sammy—who make sure I remember what’s really important in life; and to my husband, Tim—the reason I’m the luckiest woman on earth. Lastly, I would like to thank a cadre of people who were the heart and soul of this book: the survivors of actual school shootings in America, and those who helped with the emotional aftermath: Betsy Bicknase, Denna O’Connell, Linda Liebl, and the remarkable Kevin Braun—thank you for having the courage to revisit your memories and the grace to let me borrow them. And finally, to the thousands of kids out there who are a little bit different, a little bit scared, a little bit unpopular: this one’s for you.

  PART ONE

  If we don’t change the direction we are headed, we will end up where we are going.

  —CHINESE PROVERB

  By the time you read this, I hope to be dead.

  You can’t undo something that’s happened; you can’t take back a word that’s already been said out loud. You’ll think about me and wish that you had been able to talk me out of this. You’ll try to figure out what would have been the one right thing to say, to do. I guess I should tell you, Don’t blame yourself; this isn’t your fault, but that would be a lie. We both know that I didn’t get here by myself.

  You’ll cry, at my fune