Crude Sunlight 1 Read Online Free PDF

Since the end of last November. We had a fight, and that was the last I saw of him."
    Thomas nodded, "All right. Can you tell me what you guys fought about?"
    Julia finally sipped her hot chocolate, and then set the mug down before her. "Eric. It was--it was complicated. I don't even know how things got to where they did, but things moved quickly and then Henry was demanding I pick between them. He was always so dramatic." She shook her head, her gaze focused on something internal, some memory. "I told him I didn't want either of them, and he left."
    "Were you dating--involved--with both of them?"
    "No. Well, yes. I was seeing Eric at the time. We'd been dating off and on since the end of our junior year. I got involved with Henry in late October. We fought in late November, and I broke up with Eric a few days later."
    Thomas nodded again, and realized that he had finished his espresso. College kids and their relationships. He remembered how intense and important his own romances had seemed back then, running across the campus in the middle of the night to confront or explain or declare something absolutely vital.
    "What about your late-night hobby?"
    Julia didn't start. "What about it?"
    "What's up with that? What were you guys doing?"
    She fixed him with a neutral gaze. "It was an art project. Just school work."
    "Uh huh," said Thomas. "An art project. Is that what you told the cops? Sorry, but I'm not buying it. I've seen some of the videos Henry shot. Let's try again. What were you guys doing?"
    Julia glared at him, annoyed, and then raised an eyebrow. "Breaking into buildings late at night to explore them."
    Thomas smiled and shifted in his seat, "No, see, it's not that simple. You can make it sound simple, but it's not. Come on. How did Henry get involved?"
    It was her turn to gauge him. "You going to tell the cops?" She was half joking.
    "Of course. I'm wearing a wire. There's a team of FBI agents in an unmarked van outside listening in right now."
    She snorted, "Fine. Henry got involved through me. It's hard to hide a late-night hobby from someone you're sleeping with. So I told him. He said he wanted to try it out, so I introduced him to Eric."
    "Did he know you were dating Eric?"
    "Yep."
    "Did Eric know you were sleeping with Henry?" Thomas was having trouble fathoming all this.
    "Not at first. Anyways, this was all Eric's idea. He picked the buildings, told us what to do and bring and so forth. He and Henry really got along. He let Henry come with us a couple of times, and then made him a full time member. Henry was going to put up a website where we'd document our trips."
    "A website? Wouldn't that be a bad idea?"
    "Not if you kept it anonymous. Look online. There are tons of them." She leaned forward and forked a chunk of cake, and sat back, chewing slowly on it. "So Henry explored with us from... the end of October onward. I stopped going when I broke up with them both, but I think they kept it up. I haven't really spoken to Eric since we broke up though, so I can't tell you any more than that."
    "And you didn't think to come forward and tell anybody about all this?" She met his gaze and held it, and then shook her head.
    "What was I going to say? That he might be somewhere in the city in any number of the hundreds of abandoned buildings? As of last November? Or December? What good would that do? I decided to talk to Eric instead."
    "Yeah? And?"
    "When I tried to find him I found out that he hadn't come back this semester. I had trouble finding him. He'd moved out of the dorms." She saw Thomas' expression, and quickly shook her head, "No, he hadn't disappeared. He's still in Buffalo. I left a bunch of messages on his cell, but he never called back. I was going to go over to his new place and talk to him, but..." She trailed off.
    "But what?" Thomas looked at her, and then understood, "But you're not sure you want to know, do you?" She nodded reluctantly. "What was it you guys found down there? In those