The Lesson of Her Death

teenage boys who loved shortcuts; he ought to put in gravel and be done with it.
    Nevertheless Corde arranged the sprinkler carefully and turned on the water.
    He sat down in a plaid lawn chair, the aluminum legs screeching on the slab of concrete he’d laid two years ago and spent two years meaning to enclose. He looked at his watch. Tonight the family was going to visit Jamie in the hospital. They were going to smuggle in a VCR and Corde was going to hook it up to the TV in the hospital room. They were all going to watch a movie Diane had rented, some cop comedy. But that excursion was planned for after dinner. Now, he wanted to relax for a few minutes. He opened the beer and drank half of it then replaced the can on the concrete while he watched the intermittent rainbow the sprinkler made as it waved a fan of water high enough to catch the last of the sun. He glanced behind him and saw Diane behind the twin Thermopanes, occupied with dinner.
    Corde felt a stack of three-by-five cards gig him in the thigh and he took them out of his pocket. Most of them would be filed away in the tall green cabinets he had testily commandeered for his own use down at the Sheriff’s Department. One card though, filled with his careful block lettering, he intended to pin up on his bulletin board. He thought he would put it in the space next to his favorite quote—about physical evidence being the cornerstone of a case. This card read:
    I T IS THE POET WHO PERCEIVES THE WORLD BY THE ILLUMINATION OF PURE UNDERSTANDING, WHILE OTHERS SEE ONLY IN REFLECTED LIGHT .
    L. D. G ILCHRIST
    He slipped the card into his pocket then picked up his beer, took several sips and cradled the sweating can on his stomach, listening to the sounds of dusk: cicadas, cricket creaks, an owl waking to his hunger, a dinnertime summons to the neighbor children. Diane banged on the window and shouted, “Ten minutes.”
    Bill Corde said okay. He waited half that time then stood and stretched. He walked to the edge of the concrete deck and leaning outward began to wave the white cards high in the air, shouting “Whoa, whoa!” at a half dozen shiny grackles, which fled from his muddy patch of frail lawn and vanished into the moonless sky.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    Jeffery Deaver’s novels have appeared on a number of bestseller lists around the world, including the
New York Times
, the
London Times
and the
Los Angeles Times
. The author of sixteen novels, he’s been nominated for four Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America and an Anthony award and is a two-time recipient of the
Ellery Queen
Reader’s Award for Best Short Story of the Year. His book
A Maiden’s Grave
was made into an HBO movie starring James Garner and Marlee Matlin, and his novel
The Bone Collector
was a feature release from Universal Pictures, starring Denzel Washington. Turner Broadcasting is currently making a TV movie of his novel
Praying for Sleep
. His most recent novels are
The Stone Monkey, The Blue Nowhere
(soon to be a feature film from Warner Brothers),
The Empty Chair
and
Speaking in Tongues
.
    Look for his other suspense novels from Bantam Books:
Manhattan Is My Beat, Death of a Blue Movie Star, Hard News
and
The Lesson of Her Death
.
    Deaver lives in Virginia and California and is now at work on his next Lincoln Rhyme novel.
    Readers can visit his website at
www.jefferydeaver.com
and the site for his latest book:
www.thebluenowhere.com
.

All of the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
NOT ONE WORD HAS BEEN OMITTED.
    THE LESSON OF HER DEATH
A Bantam Book / published by arrangement with Doubleday
    All rights reserved
.
Copyright
©
1993 by Jeffery Deaver
.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 92-36496

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher
.
    For information address: Doubleday
    eISBN: 978-0-307-56967-7
    Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Random House, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words “Bantam Books” and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books, 1540 Broadway, New York, New York 10036
.
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