Carved in Bone: A Body Farm Novel (Body Farm Novels)

357 Pages·2006·1.09 MB·English

by  Dr. Bill Bass

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C A R lV EjDj
I N B O N E
J e f f e r s o n B a s s
To the faculty, staff, and graduate students of
the University of Tennessee’s Anthropology
Department, who made the Body Farm possible . . .
and to Patricia Cornwell, who made it famous
Contents
PROLOGUE
I picked up the hunting knife with my left hand… 1
CHAPTER 1
Five minutes had passed since the deputy’s
eyelids first fluttered… 3
CHAPTER 2
Deputy Williams, still looking like he’d seen a
ghost, threaded the… 7
CHAPTER 3
“Okay, boys, saddle up and move out.” Kitchings
swung a… 17
CHAPTER 4
I directed Williams to the garage door that led
into… 28
CHAPTER 5
My truck sat all alone at the far corner of… 33
CHAPTER 6
The district Attorney, Robert Roper, gave me a
rueful nod… 36
CHAPTER 7
An hour after the walnut-paneled door of
the Knox County… 43
CHAPTER 8
Art Bohanan was glued to his microscope. Literally,
and unhappily. 58
CHAPTER 9
The phone rang just as I was contemplating
the structure… 66
CHAPTER 10
By the time I threaded my way back to the… 75
CHAPTER 11
Waylon and I rode back to the highway in silence. 86
CHAPTER 12
By the time I got back to campus, night was… 90
CHAPTER 13
The hills were showing their first signs of fall
color… 96
CHAPTER 14
I’d been avoiding the calendar for weeks,
but I couldn’t… 112
CHAPTER 15
I was half an hour early for Billy Ray Ledbetter’s… 118
CHAPTER 16
Dr. Jess Carter had offered to let me observe the
autopsy,… 124
CHAPTER 17
I leaned out the truck and down toward the
drive-through… 134
CHAPTER 18
I got no answer at the first number Jim O’Conner… 140
CHAPTER 19
I found myself riding in Waylon’s truck.
I had been… 153
CHAPTER 20
The John J. Duncan federal Building is a cube
of pink… 157
CHAPTER 21
“What, now I’m supposed to be psychic? I don’t
know… 168
CHAPTER 22
It had taken hours of thrashing, but I’d finally
gotten… 171
CHAPTER 23
Miranda was laying the last of Billy Ray
Ledbetter’s ribs… 175
CHAPTER 24
“You sure this is where we turn?” 187
CHAPTER 25
We didn’t find Injun Joe or Lester, but it wasn’t… 201
CHAPTER 26
The skull rocked gently back and forth with each
step… 211
CHAPTER 27
Still agitated after the TBI crew left, I phoned
Jim… 222
CHAPTER 28
O’Conner poured Waylon another shot of
whiskey—his third, by… 233
CHAPTER 29
The guard at the John J. Duncan Federal Building
was the… 238
CHAPTER 30
Just seeing cave springs Primitive Baptist Church
gave me the… 245
CHAPTER 31
District Attorney Bob Roper looked like he
hadn’t slept in… 253
CHAPTER 32
I was still basking in the glow of the sunshine… 257
CHAPTER 33
The phone on my desk jangled, startling me
from a… 259
CHAPTER 34
The Kudzu tunnel to Jim O’Conner’s hideaway
was becoming as… 266
CHAPTER 35
Williams arrived just minutes after the emergency
call, the strobes… 281
CHAPTER 36
Headlights danced across the mangled JetRanger
as a vehicle bumped… 288
CHAPTER 37
I parked in my usual spot under the streetlight
behind… 303
CHAPTER 38
It was the lead story in the morning paper, which… 307
CHAPTER 39
The stone walls of Cave Springs Primitive Baptist
Church and… 315
EPILOGUE
Dry leaves swirled around my boots as I scuffed
across… 330
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CREDITS
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COPYRIGHT
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