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Chaos
Patricia Cornwell
No. 1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia Cornwell delivers the twenty-fourth engrossing thriller in her high-stakes series starring medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta.Someone is following you…One summer evening in New England, two young girls stumble upon a body. Forensic pathologist Dr. Kay Scarpetta arrives at the scene to find a young woman has been attacked with almost superhuman force.Someone is taunting you…Meanwhile, people close to Scarpetta start receiving suspicious calls. Could they be linked to Scarpetta’s anonymous cyber stalker, Tailend Charlie?Someone wants to destroy you…A second death shocks Scarpetta to her core. Because analysis of the body shows a material that doesn’t exist on earth. And it’s clear that someone, or something, is coming for her, and is hell-bent on creating chaos…
Copyright (#uae2f268a-757e-5538-a906-04752c87c64c)
This novel is entirely a work of fiction.
The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are
the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to
actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is
entirely coincidental.
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2016
First published in the United States by William Morrow,
an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2016
Copyright © Cornwell Entertainment, Inc. 2016
Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2016
Cover photograph © Elly De Vries / Arcangel (http://www.arcangel.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=Homepage)
Patricia Cornwell asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books
Source ISBN: 9780008150655
Ebook Edition © OCTOBER 2016 ISBN: 9780008150648
Version: 2018-09-24
Dedication (#uae2f268a-757e-5538-a906-04752c87c64c)
To Staci
—In Memory of Tram—
Epigraph (#uae2f268a-757e-5538-a906-04752c87c64c)
THERE IS LOVE IN ME THE LIKES OF WHICH YOU’VE NEVER SEEN. THERE IS RAGE IN ME THE LIKES OF WHICH SHOULD NEVER ESCAPE.
—Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
Table of Contents
Cover (#u0723d9d5-5e08-58fa-9cbb-df6f26e7372a)
Title Page (#uaf962008-cc4d-51fe-89da-b464726a2e5f)
Copyright (#u65f9fbf8-4818-54e4-9904-6ec23e043f75)
Dedication (#u1002a3c7-aea6-5d3b-ac21-850182462636)
Epigraph (#uf43a7722-00bb-5f95-89e9-85195bdcc6d1)
Prologue (#u834e8f15-4f07-545b-b318-7068d909c129)
Chapter 1 (#u83e10d65-3b89-551e-93df-6e2b6c38e58e)
Chapter 2 (#ud498258f-6fba-5d2a-90f9-18326631365a)
Chapter 3 (#ufa1b3d8f-8e31-5498-a525-c05a08c79c61)
Chapter 4 (#u43089315-a92a-5c88-9844-d0a4aa64bdcb)
Chapter 5 (#ucb28ccc0-cf9a-5edf-b142-8ff87c734a3a)
Chapter 6 (#u3915ba02-3000-5efd-ae23-d9f26f8e6099)
Chapter 7 (#ud17d255d-e5d5-52ea-a6d6-a495f62eace3)
Chapter 8 (#u9943079b-41e8-56b5-99b1-2f6067eff640)
Chapter 9 (#ub83f0d1f-79ee-5387-af6e-643d1da73cd2)
Chapter 10 (#u334ec4ff-c628-5bec-97a0-8d566bfefa21)
Chapter 11 (#ua9c9600d-0b24-59cb-b2e1-cde4ae9bf3e1)
Chapter 12 (#ub188cfe1-0525-5a3c-841c-c77059dc150f)
Chapter 13 (#u8b6d1c28-bd16-5d87-9415-5a2e46d725a0)
Chapter 14 (#u516adbba-0587-5ca4-8a03-fbc1a9cafd32)
Chapter 15 (#u5fce6d85-b5bf-533c-9ba9-a212dba4d3df)
Chapter 16 (#u4bb46578-bffe-51b7-82ed-245d11e6a887)
Chapter 17 (#u3a8e07bc-19e9-5c19-b972-cc5ed72ad5fa)
Chapter 18 (#uc21e207d-0af4-5f14-ad4c-a54f84f4ca8c)
Chapter 19 (#ud572a21a-7c44-5cde-bc69-a41aef5d0713)
Chapter 20 (#uc31c4c8b-8471-576b-911d-5bf15309e773)
Chapter 21 (#u4449d94f-a2b3-5b4f-91cc-13f460b3f262)
Chapter 22 (#uee9f36b4-95b4-5b2a-8420-65aa094efa36)
Chapter 23 (#u89de8fdb-9fe7-51a5-88a4-e274fc9173b1)
Chapter 24 (#u7ef3daeb-d6ad-5189-b878-3f6f02ae55ac)
Chapter 25 (#u8f2ac8f6-ebab-5860-8b19-5c012edd26c9)
Chapter 26 (#u8af763fa-6c50-5200-9d36-c3a742b351e1)
Chapter 27 (#ue867091f-dc4a-57da-bfe1-b9e3ab95b39b)
Chapter 28 (#uf86b0097-4d91-5b86-99a5-7113ad1d567f)
Chapter 29 (#uc4d6ab5f-bf2e-5ec8-a45f-9d27b74b958f)
Chapter 30 (#u8d2c7736-37b1-521e-bd67-d22731e2e93a)
Chapter 31 (#u8acfd7d2-8432-5fa8-bb95-bbe5c1c1d4d9)
Chapter 32 (#u47cb810b-cd2a-58cc-8a95-aeeac2cec9c5)
Chapter 33 (#u10dc54be-943f-5a3e-a3c2-9ccf88d56b7a)
Chapter 34 (#ueeaab758-cc92-5287-8f7e-b975839ac530)
Chapter 35 (#ube14f950-2a7b-55f9-ba1f-3ccde661f571)
Chapter 36 (#u4a82557f-3ef2-5efa-9f25-aa23fa388175)
Chapter 37 (#u1c4ee620-1ced-565c-ad87-583829c818fb)
Chapter 38 (#uda07716c-25d9-58c9-9b87-55b2606517db)
Chapter 39 (#ud37e6274-d12b-57f2-9232-f4fcfaa1dfe2)
Chapter 40 (#ud166c734-0c72-5525-b7af-edb662744a61)
Chapter 41 (#u1035cd9a-00d8-5759-9741-53ff64190e31)
Chapter 42 (#u3d18ecbc-3e15-5c61-a6bd-a6adfb5f289d)
Chapter 43 (#ua23bf3c9-3c2c-5a3b-bd87-41c8c791fa7b)
Chapter 44 (#u4bbd55dd-9fe7-52d3-9c07-2809a2b2e8fb)
Chapter 45 (#u3027ade8-7dbe-52ed-b827-9e67101ab971)
Chapter 46 (#uc2eaedd5-b33e-5f55-9614-eee9782ce43f)
Chapter 47 (#u18d3d9b6-13b5-5e76-964b-06e56dfb6b35)
Keep Reading … (#u6d5ac03e-0310-59ff-a4ab-45012f07c69e)
About the Author (#u9816452b-3329-5c53-bed2-c1989ea26c8f)
Also by Patricia Cornwell (#ufbaddcb6-e0c4-5dbf-9a84-0449f8c48910)
About the Publisher (#u861c49ef-2535-5c3e-b12b-3c2709bf2232)
CHAOS
From the Ancient Greek (
or kháos)
A vast chasm or void
Anarchy
The science of unpredictability
PROLOGUE (#uae2f268a-757e-5538-a906-04752c87c64c)
TWILIGHT
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7
Beyond the brick wall bordering Harvard Yard, four tall chimneys and a gray slate roof with white-painted dormers peek through the branches of hardwood trees.
The Georgian building is a welcome sight no more than fifteen minutes ahead as the crow flies. But walking wasn’t smart. I was foolish to refuse a ride. Even in the shade it feels like an oven. The atmosphere is stagnant, nothing stirring in the hot humid air.
Were it not for the distant sounds of traffic, the infrequent pedestrian, the vapor trails overhead, I might believe I’m the only human left on a post-apocalyptic earth. I’ve never seen the Harvard campus this deserted except maybe during a bomb scare. But then I’ve also not been witness to such extreme weather in this part of the world, and blizzards and arctic blasts don’t count.
