S Is for Silence

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    This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third party websites or their content.

    S IS FOR SILENCE

    A Berkley Book / published by arrangement with the author

    Copyright © 2005 by Sue Grafton.

    All rights reserved.
    No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
    For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

    ISBN: 1-101-14696-6

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For my granddaughter, Addison,
with a heart full of love

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
    The author wishes to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of the following people: Steven Humphrey; Ben Holt, Ben Holt Equipment; Ken Seymour, www.1953chevrolet.com; John Mackall, Counselor-at-Law, Seed Mackall LLP; Greg Boller, Deputy District Attorney, Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office; John Lindren, D&H Equipment; Bill Turner, Detective Sergeant (retired), Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department; G. David Dyne, M.D.; T. J. Dwire, Title Officer, Lawyers Title Company; Emily Craig, Forensic Anthropologist, Kentucky State Medical Examiner’s Office; John White, KellyCo Metal Detector Super-store; Dale Kreiter, Library Technician, and the Staff of the Santa Maria Public Library; Leslie Twine; Florence Michel; C. L. Burk; and Don Gastiger.
    Thank you, Hairl Wilson, for the use of your first name, and Bob Ziegler, for the use of your name in its entirety.

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
    This is a work of fiction. All the characters are conjured out of whole cloth, which is to say, the persons inhabiting this novel are figments of my imagination and have no real-life counterparts. Anyone who knows the city of Santa Maria and the surrounding countryside will not only recognize the setting for this book but will also note the many liberties I’ve taken with geography. There is no abandoned two-story Tudor residence in the center of that flat, agricultural landscape. The towns of Serena Station, Cromwell, Barker, Freeman, Tullis, Arnaud, and Silas are invented. Some of the roads exist, but as I’ve recently appointed myself Acting Chair and sole member of the Santa Teresa County Regional Transportation Planning Agency, I’ve relocated, rerouted, and renamed these roads according to the dictates of the story. Please do not write me those notes telling me I got it wrong, because I didn’t.

1
    LIZA
    Saturday, July 4, 1953
    When Liza Mellincamp thinks about the last time she ever saw Violet Sullivan, what comes most vividly to mind is the color of Violet’s Japanese silk kimono, a shade of blue that Liza later learned was called “cerulean,” a word that wasn’t even in her vocabulary when she was fourteen years old. A