Book Read Free

Flesh and Blood: A Scarpetta Novel (Scarpetta Novels Book 22)

Page 38

by Patricia Cornwell


  Benton unbuttons his shirt, arranging pillows behind me as if I’m back where I started, in the double lounger again.

  “I’m ashamed I didn’t,” I say to him. “No matter what you say the fact is she was right there and I let her get the best of me.”

  “You didn’t. You sliced open her face and probably saved both of us.” He says the same thing as he sits next to me in his boxer shorts. “You’re the most perfect person I’ve ever known. And you don’t panic. You didn’t and that’s the difference between you and almost everybody else. Don’t ever forget it.”

  “I didn’t fix it. Nothing’s fixed, Benton.”

  “We never fixed it. No one did. It’s not just you. Maybe we never fix anything. I don’t know what’s gotten into Sock tonight. He’s sticking to me like shrink wrap.”

  “Probably because Lucy was horsing around like she’s ten years old again. Sock isn’t used to so much commotion. He’s used to being around two stick-in-the-muds. I won’t mention names.”

  “I love you, Kay.”

  I reach for the lamp. I switch it off and I hear it.

  SNAP

  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, the Creasey, the Anthony, the Macavity, and the Prix du Roman d’Aventure. Beyond the Scarpetta series, Cornwell has written a definitive book about Jack the Ripper, a biography, and 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, North Carolina, and now lives and works in Boston.

  www.PatriciaCornwell.com

  Twitter: @1pcornwell

  Facebook.com/Patricia.Cornwell

  Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.

  Also By Patricia Cornwell

  SCARPETTA SERIES

  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

  Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper—Case Closed

  ANDY BRAZIL SERIES

  Isle of Dogs

  Southern Cross

  Hornet’s Nest

  WIN GARANO SERIES

  The Front

  At Risk

  BIOGRAPHY

  Ruth, A Portrait: The Story of Ruth Bell Graham

  OTHER WORKS

  Food to Die For: Secrets from Kay Scarpetta’s Kitchen

  Life’s Little Fable

  Scarpetta’s Winter Table

  Credits

  Title page image by Soren Egeberg Photography/Shutterstock, Inc.

  Cover design by Amanda Kain.

  Cover photograph © by Elisa Lazo de Valdez/Corbis.

  Copyright

  This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used fictitiously. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.

  FLESH AND BLOOD. Copyright © 2014 by Cornwell Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable 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 hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  FIRST EDITION

  ISBN 978-0-06-232534-1 (hardcover)

  ISBN 978-0-06-234160-0 (international edition)

  EPub Edition NOVEMBER 2014 ISBN: 9780062325365

  14 15 16 17 18  OV/RRD  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  About the Publisher

  Australia

  HarperCollins Publishers Australia Pty. Ltd.

  Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street

  Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia

  www.harpercollins.com.au

  Canada

  HarperCollins Canada

  2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor

  Toronto, ON, M4W, 1A8, Canada

  www.harpercollins.ca

  New Zealand

  HarperCollins Publishers New Zealand

  Unit D, 63 Apollo Drive

  Rosedale 0632

  Auckland, New Zealand

  www.harpercollins.co.nz

  United Kingdom

  HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

  77-85 Fulham Palace Road

  London, W6 8JB, UK

  www.harpercollins.co.uk

  United States

  HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

  195 Broadway

  New York, NY 10007

  www.harpercollins.com

 

 

 


‹ Prev