At the Inpatient Rehab Center at Western Pediatrics, Kelvin Vander lived in a private room sentried twenty-four seven by private eyes subcontracted by Aaron Fox. A third of every billable hour the freelancers submitted was deposited directly into Fox’s bank account.
Kelvin’s new lawyers were happy to pay. Their own hourly billings were drawn upon a seven-figure account attached to the Vander estate. The estate had been valued at over a hundred and seventy million. A family court judge assigned to protect Kelvin promised to keep an eye on the boy’s money. If things got out of hand, he’d cap the attorneys’ annual draw at a million or two.
Over a three-week period, I spent over a hundred hours with Kelvin, would eventually send my own bill, but had other things on my mind.
When I showed up, the boy looked straight at me.
One month later. Still not a word.
I tried drawing, games, just sitting there.
My own benevolent silence.
At my wit’s end, I called the judge and made a request.
He said, “Hmm. Kind of creative, Doctor. You think it’ll work?”
“I thought he’d open up by now, no predictions.”
“Know what you mean. Went to see him, myself. Cute, but like a little statue. Sure, I’ll authorize it.”
The next day, I was in Kelvin’s room when a spinet piano and matching bench were delivered. In the bench drawer were folders of sheet music I’d retrieved from the Steinway grand gracing the boy’s ocean-view bedroom in the house on Calle Maritimo.
I removed some of it, fanned it on his hospital bed.
He closed his eyes.
I waited awhile, left his room. Was charting at the nurses’ station when the music began, first tentative, then louder, streaming through the door and perking up the private cop on shift.
Everyone listened.
“What’s that?” said a nurse. “Mozart?”
I said, “Chopin.” One of the études, I was pretty sure.
Over and over.
I drove home and dug out a box of CDs.
Ten minutes later I had it: Opus 25, number 2, in F minor.
Technically challenging, sometimes sprightly, sometimes sad.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JONATHAN KELLERMAN is one of the world’s most popular authors. He has brought his expertise as a clinical psychologist to more than two dozen bestselling crime novels, including the Alex Delaware series, The Butcher’s Theater, Billy Straight, The Conspiracy Club, and Twisted. With his wife, the novelist Faye Kellerman, he co-authored the bestsellers Double Homicide and Capital Crimes. He is the author of numerous essays, short stories, scientific articles, two children’s books, and three volumes of psychology, including Savage Spawn: Reflections on Violent Children. He has won the Goldwyn, Edgar, and Anthony awards, and has been nominated for a Shamus Award. Jonathan and Faye Kellerman live in California and New Mexico. Their four children include the novelist Jesse Kellerman. Visit the author’s website at www.jonathankellerman.com
Bones is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2008 by Jonathan Kellerman
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
BALLANTINE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kellerman, Jonathan.
Bones: an Alex Delaware novel / Jonathan Kellerman.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-345-50945-1
1. Delaware, Alex (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Sturgis, Milo
(Fictitious character)—Fiction. 3. Police—California—Los Angeles—Fiction. 4. Psychologists—Fiction. 5. Los Angeles (Calif.)—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3561.E3865B66 2008
813’.54—dc22 2008035125
www.ballantinebooks.com
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37
CHAPTER 38
CHAPTER 39
CHAPTER 40
CHAPTER 41
CHAPTER 42
CHAPTER 43