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Chapters (50)
  1. COVER PAGE
  2. TITLE PAGE
  3. COPYRIGHT PAGE
  4. DEDICATION
  5. CONTENTS
  6. 1
  7. 2
  8. 3
  9. 4
  10. 5
  11. 6
  12. 7
  13. 8
  14. 9
  15. 10
  16. 11
  17. 12
  18. 13
  19. 14
  20. 15
  21. 16
  22. 17
  23. 18
  24. 19
  25. 20
  26. 21
  27. 22
  28. 23
  29. 24
  30. 25
  31. 26
  32. 27
  33. 28
  34. 29
  35. 30
  36. 31
  37. 32
  38. 33
  39. 34
  40. 35
  41. 36
  42. 37
  43. 38
  44. 39
  45. 40
  46. 41
  47. 42
  48. 43
  49. 44
  50. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

“There’s a little town called Endor in the foothills just a couple of miles from here. They’ve got a nice little place up there.”

“Describe it for me.”

“Nice. Little.”

“I passed a Hyatt on the way out.”

“So far away. So inconvenient.”

“This ‘nice little place’ has cockroaches, doesn’t it?”

“I wanted you to feel at home.”

“Thanks. How do I find it?”

“Ask the sheriff’s deputy. I think he’s a local.”

“Yes, I deduced that.”

“Anything else?”

“I’d like to know something: While I’m collecting desiccated insects from corpses and camping out at the No-Tell Motel in Endor, what exactly will you be doing—attending extra parties?”

“No, I’ll be checking with the FBI’s National Crime Information Center to see if there are any old missing persons reports from this area that might help us identify those two bodies. I’ll check the local law enforcement records too—though I expect that to take longer. Between the two of us, I’m hoping we can figure this thing out.”

“And what if there are more than two bodies?”

Donovan shrugged. “We’ll worry about that when the time comes.”

The two men started back toward the sheriff’s deputy.

“How long do you think they’ll keep you in Washington?” Nick asked.

“Just until the spotlight fades, I suppose. I hope it’s soon—we miss New York.”

“You should screw up all the time the way I do. They let me go wherever I want.”

“Thanks for the career tip.” He stopped and turned to Nick. “One more thing: Stay away from the camera, okay? Don’t talk to the press. No interviews. We’ll have a public liaison officer here and everything will go through him. Got it?”

“Don’t you trust me?”

“If I didn’t trust you, you wouldn’t be here. There’s a lot riding on this, Nick. A lot of important people will be watching—the sort of people who care a lot about what other people think.”

“Including a certain U.S. senator?”

“Yeah—especially him.”

3

3

Nick knelt on two wooden planks he had placed on either side of the skeleton to keep his weight from compacting the soil further and possibly damaging artifacts that might be recovered below. A fat lot of good it’ll do now, he thought. The construction worker who discovered this skeleton probably stomped all over it in hobnailed boots. But you couldn’t really blame him—all the poor guy was expecting to find was the grave’s rightful owner resting peacefully in a pine box; he sure wasn’t expecting to find a second resident sleeping in the top bunk.

Still, the construction worker hadn’t made Nick’s job any easier.