Carved in Bone - Jefferson Bass [139]
“I’ll try.” I slid the tip through the biggest of the perforations in the lid, wiggling it gently to widen the opening. Once it was several inches in, I pried gently upward. The trowel tore the crumbling metal easily, and it took only a minute to sever the lid completely.
“The forensic can opener,” Angie cracked. “First time I’ve seen one of those in action.”
Using the blade like a spatula, I lifted the lid–a small, rusty pancake–until it cleared the rim. Inside the can, barely visible above the murky water, was the edge of a small, soggy book.
Angie plucked it from its watery grave. It was a hard-covered black book, bearing no title or label. It appeared to be a journal or ledger book, but its pages were stuck tight, so its meaning remained as effectively sealed, at least for now, as it had been in its hiding place. Angie carefully sealed it in a double layer of ziplock bags, and labeled a seal on the outer bag with a black Sharpie. “I’d like to get this to the lab pretty quick,” she said. “Maybe air-dry it overnight, so it doesn’t start to mold. If our documents examiner’s still there by the time we get back, I’ll hand it straight off to her.”
“You’re the boss,” I said. “And my ride back to civilization. Whenever you want to go, just say the word.”
Five minutes later we were on the road to Tallahassee, with a camera-full of photos of ruins and one lone piece of evidence. Potential evidence. For all we knew, the book’s pages–its fused, soggy pages–were as blank as the empty eye orbits of a skull.
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
CARVED IN BONE. Copyright © 2006 by Jefferson Bass, LLC. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition © NOVEMBER 2010 ISBN: 9780062076830
* * *
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jefferson Bass
Carved in bone / Jefferson Bass.—1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978-0-06-075981-0
ISBN-10: 0-06-075981-X
* * *
06 07 08 09 10
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
25 Ryde Road (PO Box 321)
Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
55 Avenue Road, Suite 2900
Toronto, ON, M5R, 3L2, Canada
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
77-85 Fulham Palace Road
London, W6 8JB, UK
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
10 East 53rd Street
New York, NY 10022
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Contents
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
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