Last to Die: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel

to be an accident.” She brought Will’s file back to the desk and handed it to Jane. “Then the NTSB found forensic evidence of explosives. The investigators searched for a motive, for any reason why this particular couple was targeted. They never came up with an answer. Luckily their son, Will, wasn’t on board his parents’ plane that day. He’d chosen to spend the weekend with his aunt and uncle, so he could work on a science project.”
    Jane opened the folder and scanned the Evensong School’s intake form.
    Fourteen-year-old white male with no known surviving family members. Referred by the state of New Hampshire after a fire of suspicious origin destroyed the home of his aunt and uncle, Brian and Lynn Temple, who have served as his guardians since his parents’ deaths two years ago …
    Jane read the next paragraph and looked up at Welliver, who was adding yet a fourth teaspoon of sugar to her cup of herbal tea. “The kid was briefly considered a suspect in the New Hampshire fire?”
    “The police had to consider that possibility, because Will was the sole survivor. He told them he was outside looking through his telescope when the house exploded. A passing motorist spotted the flames and stopped to help. She’s the one who brought the boy to the emergency room.”
    “The kid just
happened
to be outside looking through his telescope?”
    “Will’s father and his uncle were both NASA scientists who worked at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. It’s not surprising that Will’s an amateur astronomer.”
    “So the kid’s a geek,” said Jane.
    “You could call him that. Which is why the police considered him a suspect, if only briefly, because he certainly has the intelligence to build a bomb. But he had no motive.”
    “That they know of.”
    “From what I’ve observed, Will is a very well-behaved boy with excellent academic skills, especially math. I see no aggression whatsoever. Socially he’s a bit awkward. His aunt and uncle homeschooled him in New Hampshire, so he didn’t have much interaction with other children. That may be one of the reasons he’s not quick to make friends.”
    “Why was he homeschooled?” asked Maura.
    “He had problems back in Maryland. The poor boy was teased and bullied.”
    “Why?”
    “Because of his weight.” Dr. Welliver looked down at her own large frame, only partly disguised by the voluminous dresses she always wore. “Most of my life, I’ve struggled with my own weight, so I know what it’s like to be ridiculed. Children can be especially cruel, zeroing in on the fact Will’s heavy, and also a bit clumsy. Here we intervene at once if we see any bullying going on, but we’re not omniscient. Despite any teasing, Will’s always cheerful and good-natured. He’s kind to the younger children. He’s a reliable student who’s never in trouble.” Welliver paused. “Unlike the girl.”
    “Claire Ward,” said Jane.
    Welliver sighed. “Our little nocturnal wanderer.” She pushed out of her chair and went back to the filing cabinet to look for Claire’s chart. “Now,
this
child has caused us multiple headaches. Most of them related to her neurologic issues.”
    “What do you mean,
neurologic issues
?”
    Welliver straightened and looked at her. “Claire was with her parents the night they were attacked in London. All of them were shot in the head. Only Claire survived.”
    In the distance, thunder rumbled, and the sky had turned ominously dark. Jane looked down at her own arm and saw that the hairs had lifted, as if a cool wind had just blown across her skin.
    Welliver placed Claire’s folder in front of Jane. “It happened as the family was walking to their car after dining in a restaurant. Claire’s father was Erskine Ward, a foreign service officer who’d worked in London, Rome, and Washington. Her mother, Isabel, was a homemaker. Because of Erskine’s job at the US embassy, there was concern that this might have been a terrorist attack, but in the end the police concluded it was a robbery gone wrong. Claire couldn’t help the investigationbecause she couldn’t remember the attack. The first thing she does remember is waking up in the hospital, after surgery.”
    “For a girl who was shot in the head, she seems amazingly normal now,” said Jane.
    “At first glance, she does look perfectly normal.” Welliver looked at Maura. “Even you didn’t immediately spot her deficits, did you, Dr. Isles?”
    “No,” Maura