What you see before you is their home. This is their dwelling place. This grass, this sunlight, these palms, this mighty ocean, the moon, the stars, the clouds overhead though they sometimes harbor rain. Under this canopy they have staked out a life for themselves. For Terrence and for Felix, this is also the wide bridge over which they passed from life into death. Their graves will be unmarked but that does not mean they are forgotten. The Earth remembers them, even as it gathers them tenderly into its embrace. The sky still claims them and we who honor them will hold them dear from this day forward.

In closing, the trumpeter sounded “Taps.” When the service ended people hugged and shook hands and wiped their eyes and blew their noses, connected for that small window in time. The camaraderie might never rise to the fore again, but I believe it was heartfelt and genuine while it lasted.

As for the matter of the ashes, William and Henry and I considered scattering them along the beach, thus committing an act of civil disobedience, but in the end, Henry came up with a better idea. We took the ashes home with us, and in a private ceremony of our own, we folded them into the rich earth in Henry’s flower beds, where they’ll nourish the roses when spring comes again.

Respectfully submitted,

Kinsey Millhone

•   •   •

Author’s Note

AUTHOR’S NOTE

A few words about the basic underpinnings of this novel:

Addiction medicine and scientific fraud are both complex issues, and I lay no claim to a comprehensive understanding of the two fields. It’s my hope that in folding pharmacological research and crime into the same mix, I do no great disservice to either. For errors, witting and unwitting, I offer my apologies. Insofar as I manage to represent these matters with any accuracy, I am indebted to the following:

Angell, Marcia, M.D. The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It. New York: Random House, 2004.

Bass, Alison. Side Effects: A Prosecutor, a Whistleblower, and a Bestselling Antidepressant on Trial. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2008.

Broad, William, and Nicholas Wade. Betrayers of the Truth: Fraud and Deceit in the Halls of Science. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1982.

Elliott, Carl. White Coat, Black Hat: Adventures on the Dark Side of Medicine. Boston: Beacon Press, 2010.

Graham, Allan W., Terry K. Schultz, Michael F. Mayo-Smith, Richard K. Ries, and Bonnie B. Wilford. Principles of Addiction Medicine, 3rd ed. Chevy Chase, MD: American Society of Addiction Medicine, 2003.

Judson, Horace Freeland. The Great Betrayal: Fraud in Science. New York: Harcourt, 2004.

Kohn, Alexander. False Prophets: Fraud and Error in Science and Medicine. Oxford, UK, and New York: Basil Blackwell, 1986.