“I don’t want to pretend. You don’t want us sitting near windows. That’s why we’re not eating on the sunporch, isn’t it? I don’t want that bad lady to hurt us.”

“No one is going to hurt us.” I collect glasses from a cupboard and follow Desi out of the kitchen, and I think about the way we lie to children.

I can’t tell Desi the truth. I won’t have him live in fear. We’re not safe. But for him to know that solves nothing. It makes things only worse.

“Now I’m going to show you a trick.” I turn on the overhead alabaster chandelier inside the dining room. “That’s assuming you might want to learn a trick.” I close the draperies in big windows overlooking the side yard.

“Yes! Please show me!”

I get place mats out of the breakfront and help him set the table. I teach him how to fold linen napkins into a tree. A flower. A horse. A bow tie. By the time we make an elf hat he’s giggling. He’s laughing hysterically. Then I fold a napkin into a heart. I put it on a plate.

“This is your place,” I say to him. “And you know what that means don’t you?” I wrap my arms around him.

“It means I sit here!”

“It means I’ve given you my heart.”

“Because you love me!”

“Yes.” I kiss the top of his head. “I think I might. Maybe just a little bit.”

If you enjoyed Depraved Heart, try:

It’s Chief Medical Examiner Dr Kay Scarpetta’s birthday, and while she’s enjoying a leisurely morning, a man is shot dead five minutes from her house. The bullet tore through him as he unloaded groceries from his car. Yet nobody heard or saw a thing …

Click here to order Flesh and Blood.

About the Author

About the Author

Patricia Cornwell is recognized as one of the world’s top bestselling crime authors with novels translated into thirty-six languages in more than 120 countries. Her novels have won numerous prestigious awards including the Edgar, Creasey, Anthony, Macavity, and the French Prix du Roman d’Aventure prize. Beyond the Scarpetta series, Patricia has written a definitive book about Jack the Ripper and a biography and has created two more fiction series among others. Cornwell, a licensed helicopter pilot and scuba diver, actively researches the cutting-edge forensic technologies that inform her work. She was born in Miami, grew up in Montreat, NC, and now lives and works in Boston.

Also by Patricia Cornwell

ALSO BY PATRICIA CORNWELL

SCARPETTA SERIES

Flesh and Blood

Dust

The Bone Bed

Red Mist

Port Mortuary

The Scarpetta Factor

Scarpetta

Book of the Dead

Predator

Trace

Blow Fly

The Last Precinct

Black Notice

Point of Origin

Unnatural Exposure

Cause of Death

From Potter’s Field

The Body Farm

Cruel and Unusual

All That Remains

Body of Evidence

Postmortem

NONFICTION