Cross Bones
Chapter One
Following an Easter dinner of ham, peas, and
creamed potatoes, Charles "Le Cowboy" Bellemare
pinched a twenty from his sister, drove to a
crack house in Verdun, and vanished.
That summer the crack house was sold up-market.
That winter the new homeowners grew frustrated
with the draw in their fireplace. On Monday,
February seventh, the man of the house opened
the flue and thrust upward with a rake handle. A
desiccated leg tumbled into the ash bed.
Papa called the cops. The cops called the fire
department and the Bureau du coroner. The
coroner called our forensics lab. Pelletier
caught the case.
Pelletier and two morgue techs were standing on
the lawn within an hour of the leg drop. To say
the scene was confused would be like saying
D-day was hectic. Outraged father. Hysterical
mother. Overwrought kids. Mesmerized neighbors.
Annoyed cops. Mystified firefighters.
Dr. Jean Pelletier is the most senior of the
five pathologists at the Laboratoire de sciences
judiciaires et de medecine legale, Quebec's
central crime and medico-legal lab. He's got bad
joints and bad dentures, and z ... read full excerpt from Cross Bones ebook
