City of Bones
Chapter One
The old lady had changed her mind about dying but by then it was too
late. She had dug her fingers into the paint and plaster of the
nearby wall until most of her fingernails had broken off. Then she
had gone for the neck, scrabbling to push the bloodied fingertips up
and under the cord. She broke four toes kicking at the walls. She
had tried so hard, shown such a desperate will to live, that it made
Harry Bosch wonder what had happened before. Where was that
determination and will and why had it deserted her until after she
had put the extension cord noose around her neck and kicked over the
chair? Why had it hidden from her?
These were not official questions that would be raised in his death
report. But they were the things Bosch couldn't avoid thinking about
as he sat in his car outside the Splendid Age Retirement Home on
Sunset Boulevard east of the Hollywood Freeway. It was 4:20 p.m. on
the first day of the year. Bosch had drawn holiday call-out duty.
The day more than half over and that duty consisted of two suicide
runs-one a gunshot, the other the hanging. Both victims were women.
In both cases there was evi ... read full excerpt from: City of Bones ebook
