PART 2 THE COLLECTOR OF OPPORTUNITIES - Prologue
It was a warm May morning and Claire, just turned four, was building a sand castle on the beach of White Cliffs, Massachusetts.
It was her first time at the seaside. She had been ill all winter because of the cold and her mother and aunt had brought her there to let her breathe some pure ocean air.
It was a fine day, there was no wind and the water was calm and bright. The beach still bore the signs of the past season and was littered with thousands of empty shells, algae and driftwood, washed ashore from who knows where and, for that, all the more fascinating.
The two women were engaged in serious sunbathing, determined to get tanned ahead of their friends and, thus, enduring the discomfort of their already reddening skins. After having
