Read Online Devil Bones by Kathy Reichs - Free Book Online Page A

already knew everything on them.
    “Split a Caesar salad?” I asked.
    “Sure.”
    “Sole meunière?”
    Katy nodded.
    “I think I’l go for the veal piccata.”
    “You always go for the veal piccata.”
    “That’s not true.” It was close.
    Katy leaned forward, eyes wide. “So. Voodoo, vampires, or vegan devil worshippers?”
    “Nice aliteration. When are we going shopping?”
    “Saturday. Don’t ignore my question. The celar?”
    “It was used for something” — what? — “ceremonial.”
    Two jade eyes roled skyward.
    “You know I can’t talk about an ongoing investigation.”
    “What? I’m going to cal in a scoop to WSOC?”
    “You know why.”

    “Jesus, Mom. This dungeon is practicaly in Coop’s backyard.”
    Katy was living two blocks from Greenleaf, in the townhouse of a mysteriously absent gentleman named Coop.
    “It’s hardly a dungeon. Tel me again. Who is Coop?”
    “A guy I dated in colege.”
    “And where is Coop?”
    “In Haiti. With the Peace Corps. It’s a win-win. I get a break on rent. He gets someone looking after his place.”
    The waiter delivered drinks, then stood smiling at Katy, pen and hopes poised.
    I recited our order. The waiter left.
    “What’s up with Bily?”
    Bily Eugene Ringer. The current boyfriend. One in a trail leading back to Katy’s middle school years.
    “He’s a dickhead.”
    A promotion or demotion from peckerhead? I wasn’t sure.
    “Care to be more specific?”
    Theatrical sigh. “We’re incompatible.”
    “Realy.”
    “Rather, he’s too compatible.” Katy took a hit of Pinot. “With Sam Adams and Bud. Bily likes to drink beer and watch sports. That’s it. It’s like dating a gourd. You know?”
    I made a noncommittal noise.
    “We have nothing in common.”
    “It took you a year to figure that out?”
    “I can’t imagine what we talked about in the beginning.” More Pinot. “I think he’s too old for me.”
    Bily was twenty-eight.
    Katy’s palm smacked the tabletop. “Which brings us to Dad. Can you believe this shit with Summer? I don’t understand why you’re being so cooperative.”
    My estranged husband was almost fifty. We’d lived apart for years, but never divorced. Recently Pete had requested that we file. He wanted to remarry. Summer, his beloved, was twenty-nine.
    “The woman squeezes puppy glands for a living.” Katy’s tone redefined the term scornful.
    Summer was a veterinary assistant.
    “Our marital status is strictly between your father and me.”
    “She’s probably sucked his brain right out through his—”
    “New topic.”
    Katy drew back in her chair. “OK. What’s up with Ryan?”
    Mercifuly, our salad arrived. As the waiter ground pepper from a mil the size of my vacuum, I thought about my own on-again off-again, what, boyfriend?
    What was Ryan doing now? Was he happily reunited with his long-ago lover? Did they cook together? Window-shop while stroling hand in hand along rue Ste-Catherine?
    Listen to music at Hurley’s Irish Pub?
    I felt a heaviness in my chest. Ryan was gone from my life. For now. For good? Who knew?
    “Hel-o?” Katy’s voice brought me back. “Ryan?”
    “He and Lutetia are trying to make it as a couple. To provide stability for Lily.”
    “Lutetia is his old girlfriend. Lily is his kid.”
    “Yes.”
    “The druggie.”
    “She’s doing wel in rehab.”
    “So you’re just out on your ass.”
    “Lily’s going through a rough patch. She needs her father.”
    Katy chose not to reply.
    The waiter arrived with our food. When he’d gone, I changed direction.
    “Tel me about work.”
    “Shoot-me-in-the-head dul.”
    “So you’ve said.”
    “I’m a glorified secretary. Scratch that. There’s nothing glorified in what I do.”
    “Which is?”
    “Maintain folders. Feed info into a computer. Assemble criminal histories. My most exciting task to date was a credit check. Heart-pounding.”
    “Did you think you’d be arguing before the Supreme