Best When Quotes by Victoria Laurie

"What good does it do to know the when, if you can’t know at least one of the other three?"

"It’d be easier if I knew that the dates couldn’t be changed, that they’re set in stone as solid as the gravestone they’ll be printed on."

"How come I can see the exact date that someone will die, but nothing else about the how, where, or even why?"

"That’s what Ma says to me all the time when one of my clients doesn’t take the news so well."

"I knew right away that she was from Parkwick. They’ve got big bucks in Parkwick."

"Sometimes I’ll Google a client whose date has passed, and I’ll find an obit with the exact date I predicted."

"Warning people has never bought them more time."

"It’s up to you, Mrs. Fynn. If you’d like to have your brother-in-law present while we question your daughter, that’s your right as her guardian."

"Now that he was gone, its constant ticktock was the closest thing we had to his heartbeat. I loved listening to it—and to the chimes, soft and sweet, like the first notes of a lullaby."

"I’ve taken out extra life insurance. To get the insurance they had to put me through a physical, and it turns out I’ve got a few issues. I think that’s how it’ll happen. My heart will give out or it’ll be a stroke or something like that."

"Most people, they have no idea when they wake up in the morning that it’ll be their last day, but I know the exact date, and because of that, I’ve been taking care of things."

"We’ve never been closer. And I’ve been checking things off my bucket list, too. You know, the stuff you always say you want to do but never get to because there’s always tomorrow?"

"With a sigh I turned away from the photo and went to the window. Peering out into the night, I saw a sedan come down the street and park a bit up from our house."

"The TV was still on in the living room, but I couldn’t make out much more than white noise."

"Finally, after about fifteen minutes, the agents slowly pulled away from the curb and drove off."

"I couldn’t leave Ma, because who’d get to her quickly if something bad happened?"

"I’ve seen this reaction from some of my clients with terminal diseases. They simply accepted it and got busy getting their affairs in order."

"I thought I heard a familiar name. Moving to the doorway between the kitchen and the living room, I saw that the news was on."

"The news reporter rattled off that the FBI was now leading the investigation in the disturbing murder, stating that Tevon’s body had been found riddled with wounds, and there were preliminary signs that the boy had been tortured."

"I should’ve talked to her at the diner," he said. "Or you and I should’ve gone over to her house that night. We should’ve tried harder to get her to listen."

"None of this is your fault. I should’ve been the one to vouch for you."

"If you’d gotten on the phone, or gone over there, she might’ve called the cops on both of us."

"I can tell he’s worried," I whispered, more afraid of sensing that from Donny than anything else that’d happened to me that day.

"In this country you’re innocent until proven guilty."

"I knew as well as she did what came in and what went out, and the thing that always brought us up short was the liquor tab."

"I think his unique fascination started when Stubs was younger and he used to sit with his dad on Sunday afternoons and watch football."

"I wanted nothing more than to feel the texture of Aiden’s soft curls."

"In that instant everything else went silent, and it felt like the whole world had paused to allow us a moment of perfection."

"I was like a whirlpool of tragedy, and anybody who dared to get too close to me could get sucked in and drown."

"If Dad were alive today she wouldn’t be like this."

"I’m more worried about you riding around in the dark than I am about your mom."

"We can’t sit back and do nothing. We’ll warn her, but not here and not now."

"But you have to trust me on this. We can’t say anything to her tonight."

"I wanted Ma to see how tired I was. How worried. How afraid. I wanted her to choose to look out for me for a change."

"If you go," she whispered, "I’ll never get to see you again."

"I promise I will." She then reached out and took up my hand. "But I need you here. I can’t make it without you. Promise me you’ll stay?"

"I’m heading to the Drug Mart on Pavilion. I saw an ad online that they’re looking for part-time help. Wish me luck?"

"I swallowed hard, moved that she was trying. 'Good luck, Ma.'"

"Were the dates fixed? Or could they be changed?"

"I realized that simply because I didn’t know the answer didn’t mean that Stubs and I still couldn’t try to change destiny."

"I knew immediately that she’d found someplace to stop for a few drinks."

"I sighed. My idea wasn’t great, but it was all I could think of given Donny’s warning and how Faraday and Wallace were watching nearly my every move."

"I nodded vigorously. 'Yeah, Stubs, she’d totally open a birthday card, even if it didn’t have a return address, just to see if there was a check inside or to find out who it was from.'"

"I bit my lip when I saw that there wasn’t a hint of a tremor."

"Ma’s face blossomed into a beautiful smile, and she reached out to wrap me in her arms and hug me fiercely. It was the safest I’d felt in a long, long time."

"If you got a phone call from a total stranger telling you that you were about to die, wouldn’t your next call be to the police to report a death threat from a lunatic?"

"But even if there’s a chance we can save her, we have to try."

"I smiled encouragingly at her but couldn’t help drop my gaze to her hands. If there were tremors, I knew she’d be totally sober."

"You don’t need a warrant to go through someone’s trash, did you know that?"

"You hanging in there, Maddie?" he asked kindly.

"Don’t say a word until I get back, Arnold; do you understand?"

"I can’t even imagine how hard it must be for you."

"If she hadn’t moved us here in the first place."

"You have to help him, Donny! He didn’t do anything!"

"I see so many people who think they’ve got another fifty or sixty years ahead of them; they have no idea that death is so close."

"I can’t come back here, Donny. Everybody’s against me."

"It’s something that I still need to look at, but there could be something that shifts the investigation away from both of you."

"It’s clear to me that you have a special and incredible talent, and that talent has brought you a world of hurt and misjudgment."

"Bullying at this high school—or at any school within my jurisdiction—is intolerable."

"It's not like that. I just don't want to upset you."

"You've been trying to turn invisible for too long. Guess what: you're not invisible anymore."

"Stubs told me the knife was a present from his dad and the dried blood is his."

"If Carter was eighteen, then he doesn't fit the victim profile of the other murders."

"Your mom's sick. She has a disease, and she needs help."

"I didn't do it. I didn't hurt anybody, and neither did Stubby."

"Leaving you on your own while you're trying to juggle the investigation and school is a little much."

"Donny, I’ve been taking care of Ma for the past couple of years. I’m the one who gets the groceries, does the laundry, makes sure Ma gets something to eat! I can manage okay."

"I can’t go back there, Donny. I can’t breathe when I’m there."

"Oh, but it’s no imposition!" Mrs. Duncan insisted. "Maddie’s a lovely girl, and frankly, I’m an old woman who could very much use a bit of company and a reason to get out of my old house."

"Maddie’s a wonderful girl. She’s no trouble."

"You’ll come to my house for Thanksgiving. I insist."

"Kiddo, both legally and scientifically alcohol is a drug, and your mom had quite a bit more than, ‘a little too much to drink.’"

"Your dad never mentioned the theory again," he said. "But I knew him better than anybody. On the day he died it had to have been a thought in the back of his mind, but he was never the kind of guy who would turn his back on his brothers in blue. I think he went into that building knowing there was a good chance he wouldn’t come out alive, and he made the hardest choice there is to make, because deep down, Scott was a guy with the heart of a hero."

"The only way she’ll get better is to accept that she’s really messed up her life."

"It's something I've always been able to see."

"Truthfully, Maddie, you and Arnold don’t fit the profile for two serial killers."

"If you knew all of this, why are you still keeping Stubby in jail?"

"Thank you, Agent Faraday. Thank you very much."

"Until then, you hold your head high, 'cause you're a Fynn, and that's what your dad would've told you to do."

"Agent Wallace’s deathdate should be August seventh, twenty fifty-one. But right now it’s changed. It’s showing something different!"

"Damn it! He might not answer my first call if he was in the middle of something, but he’d never let a second or a third call go by."

"I need to hear if any of you knows where Agent Wallace is right now!"

"Screw proper authorization! I need to see what lead Kevin was working on before he left!"

"Listen, this is special agent Mack Faraday. I’m investigating a series of murders, and I need to know—"

"Yeah, sure you’re a special agent. What are you, double-oh-doofus?"

"I think you got to him in time. His numbers are still flickering, but the twenty fifty-one date is a little stronger now."

"Agent Needs Assistance. We only use it when one of our guys is in serious trouble."

"You’re to stay put, Maddie. Under no circumstances are you to get out of this car. Do you understand?"

"He’s my best friend. And you saved his life, Maddie."

"You poor kid. The ambulance should be here in a minute, honey."

"She’s her father’s daughter, Agent Faraday. And he had the heart of a hero."

"I felt his hand on mine. 'Hey, Maddie?' he said, and there was a little humor in his voice. 'I shot a bad guy for you tonight. The least you could do is call me Mack.'"

"Once we’d all had a good laugh, Mrs. Duncan invited Donny and his girlfriend to stay at her house, but the girlfriend didn’t seem to want to go for that idea."

"I lay back on the soft pillow and nestled into the flannel sheets and thought there was no way I was going to sleep that night. A moment later, I was out cold."

"After talking with Susan a couple of times, I started to feel better. I had fewer nightmares, and I felt okay about going back to school."

"We walked the halls with our heads held high, and I thought my dad might be proud."

"I saw that Aiden was grinning at me, too. 'I know you!' he said. 'We met at the park last fall.'"

"I took the envelope and realized it was addressed to me. Opening it up I saw that it was a copy of a letter that Mrs. Duncan had sent to the Cornell admissions office."

"Somewhere deep inside I also felt a knowing so strong that I couldn’t quite describe it."

"And in that enchanted moment, as I watched the dates skipping lightly across Aiden’s forehead, instead of death, all I saw was… Life."