Cold-Blooded

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Many of the places mentioned in this novel are real places, businesses, et cetera in Philadelphia. I try to make the setting as authentic as possible. However, sometimes it is necessary to fabricate certain things. For example, Dirk’s Gameplex is fake, and Franklin West, the high school mentioned throughout this book, is complete fiction. I made it up and all of the events that took place within it. Franklin West figures heavily in another novel, HARM, unrelated to this book, which will be released in 2017. It is in that book that the 2006 school shooting mentioned herein occurs. Also, in service of the story, I have occasionally taken liberties in order to move the plot forward. So if you find yourself saying, “That’s not entirely accurate,” you would be right. This is, after all, a work of fiction.

In loving memory of Walter Conlen

and for Shilie Turner

May 9, 2000

She’d gotten a late start. It was a quarter after seven as Sydney Adams jogged that evening along Boxer’s Trail, a path for runners that meandered through Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park east of the Schuylkill River and looped around the outside of the park’s athletic field. But it was May, and the sun still strained on the horizon, not willing to give up the fight, even at this late hour. Soon though, night would descend. She didn’t like to start so late, but her grandmother had made breaded pork chops, and Sydney had gorged herself until she felt bloated and lethargic. She’d almost skipped the run. Track and Field season was nearly over. What was one practice run?

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