Chapter 70. Holly
Holly
New York City, three months later
“True crime? For real, Holly?” Dan scratched his head.
Car horns blared outside his window, angry taxi or Uber drivers.
She’d expected to miss it more. Manhattan had colorful umbrellas, same as at the beach, but underneath them, determined food vendors sold roasted peanuts and boiled hot dogs.
New York had no shortage of buskers either, but none played as discordantly as Sid’s son—the accidental hero of the story.
After a few days in New York, catching up with old friends and now meeting with Dan, Holly found herself missing the cottage, the ocean waves, her friends and family in Beauport.
The quaint seaside town felt like home again.
“I don’t know how you managed to get a completed manuscript to me so quickly. Maybe ocean living has been good for you,” he said from his brown leather desk chair.
“My return to Beauport has been nothing short of life-changing. And it’s all documented—right here in this book.”
Holly held up a stack of white pages she believed was the best thing she’d ever written.
She had opted to hand-deliver the manuscript, even though she could have emailed it.
But this book was too personal, too important to blast it off into the ether.
She wanted to see Dan’s reaction. He had promised to read the first few chapters while she sat in his office.
Reading is rarely a spectator sport, but five pages in and Holly could tell he was hooked.
She watched him read for a while until it was obvious he wasn’t going to be stopping anytime soon, so she went to grab some tea in the building’s cafe.
When she returned a couple hours later, he was just finishing up, and she could tell he hadn’t left his chair once.
He glanced up from the pages with a smile on his face as wide as a canyon. “This is all true?”
Holly nodded. “I started it ages ago as a thriller novel, but I was closer to the truth than I realized. Honestly, I’ve never written anything this fast or easily.
The words just poured out of me—and thanks to Officer Finn McNeil from the Beauport PD, I can assure you that I got the procedural parts correct. ”
Dan’s expression turned gloomy. “Do we have permission for this, Holly? The legal ramifications could be immense. A publisher is going to need assurances.”
“I got permission from all the parties involved to tell the story using their real names. They’re all happy to sign releases too.”
How quickly the dark clouds covering Dan’s face parted.
“I think the result is a suspenseful, true-to-life page-turner,” Holly said.
Dan agreed. He picked up the phone and started calling publishers.