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Blood Memory
Greg Iles
‘Iles’s way of telling the story lifts him clear of the pack into a different league’ (Observer) in this masterful psychological serial killer thriller from the New York Times No.1 bestseller.Some memories live deep in the soul, waiting to be resurrected…He kills like an animal, but the bite marks on his victims are unmistakably human… In the suffocating heat of a New Orleans summer, forensic expert Cat Ferry is called on by the FBI to investigate a series of brutal murders. Cat has seen some terrible crimes over the years, though none so horrific or apparently random as these.Called on by the FBI to investigate serial murders, Cat has seen some terrible crimes over the years, but none as horrific or apparently random as the sequence of brutal slayings that confront her now.Plagued by nightmares and panic attacks, Cat returns to her Mississippi hometown. But something associated with this case is calling out to her. Something rooted in the dark recesses of her memory. Someone from the past, who wants Cat to remember what time has allowed her to forget…
GREG ILES
Blood Memory
Dedication (#ulink_c4437cae-30c8-55bc-80d8-e26267ad0209)
This novel is dedicated to all those women who realize in the dead of night that something is wrong, and has been for a long time. More than most, they know that Faulkner’s words are true: ‘There is no such thing as was – only is. If was existed, there would be no grief or sorrow.’ You are not alone.
Memory is the guardian of all things.
—Cicero
Evil being the root of mystery,
pain is the root of knowledge.
—Erasmus
Table of Contents
Cover (#ua678fd22-3d06-52dc-9acd-a9e5aea78b29)
Title Page (#u7dc4d53b-ba99-5671-88bd-99eeae1ec3fb)
Dedication (#u6750a7bf-447b-5fed-a0b6-6dfbb43940e7)
Epigraph (#u24c84b51-113e-5785-8817-e0212e513a5f)
Chapter One (#u5748c738-996b-5ffc-8980-c0550be16971)
Chapter Two (#ub3b2415d-2b4c-5255-a46d-b9a2ca570cec)
Chapter Three (#u6fc485ed-4326-52e6-9ef6-0fbcb0eb8df4)
Chapter Four (#ua38b2455-634d-56ac-adb0-988033130e5a)
Chapter Five (#uc5c6385b-41be-5c71-8cda-94a33d21dd24)
Chapter Six (#u0a60cfbf-80ab-573c-8e5b-822c75ac36aa)
Chapter Seven (#u9883a454-e45d-5383-90ba-9321ccce219b)
Chapter Eight (#uc5ddbb88-e4cd-5aad-86f5-bc2f52168563)
Chapter Nine (#u3ce6c47e-23df-5858-999c-cc5bf78d06da)
Chapter Ten (#u8a66507b-e253-5aa9-ab4d-f771b0a318a9)
Chapter Eleven (#u40c15740-e267-5c95-8cdd-e3bae7a271a8)
Chapter Twelve (#ude0b90ec-43e2-5c32-bae8-ef35ff28bb0c)
Chapter Thirteen (#u1c8629d0-500f-5566-86f7-86f7b3282ac1)
Chapter Fourteen (#ue7b09be2-af9f-5d99-8ac6-24fa92496928)
Chapter Fifteen (#u80a3f15c-5f79-5b72-a802-79f61cca2bf0)
Chapter Sixteen (#u3e06d8f3-7838-51a2-b5c8-9d147767ab58)
Chapter Seventeen (#uf2897ac0-1e10-5e01-85ca-19945a0dfeea)
Chapter Eighteen (#uf52aa32a-0716-5241-ae4e-ff62acf63e06)
Chapter Nineteen (#uf948ec60-62d5-50c8-b2e0-00e19d6456bd)
Chapter Twenty (#ubec9cc5f-a09a-5f12-93af-40559546d140)
Chapter Twenty-One (#u9dd94c50-03d0-5941-869a-e859f935c112)
Chapter Twenty-Two (#u11b9bb8a-57ab-5c0f-8703-3dbb4fbb8475)
Chapter Twenty-Three (#ud2c6374a-6d9f-5144-9982-847ff0512632)
Chapter Twenty-Four (#ufe4557be-4b2d-58e1-900b-09232a6a95d9)
Chapter Twenty-Five (#u7acd31fd-25f5-5dd4-9520-b82701f7f665)
Chapter Twenty-Six (#u147293e1-6087-5b5d-b194-fe56576841d2)
Chapter Twenty-Seven (#u32fb8109-0956-5052-8c57-5b88d6b8cbfd)
Chapter Twenty-Eight (#u432e1114-0513-5af8-9a4e-7ae00be8d335)
Chapter Twenty-Nine (#u74995a6f-d07b-5d04-b6d4-c0653be88711)
Chapter Thirty (#u1406702f-a3e0-56b6-9638-f16e0778deb8)
Chapter Thirty-One (#u6c9bce3b-b406-569a-b471-8e00db017aed)
Chapter Thirty-Two (#u64a2d405-3118-532c-ab16-4970c5aec8c6)
Chapter Thirty-Three (#u6c5018b8-c23f-5679-a47a-bf505b9cb710)
Chapter Thirty-Four (#u51d75301-8207-54a2-9423-0100650abfac)
Chapter Thirty-Five (#ud587845d-36dc-5ba9-93ae-8ff8b4a01cd7)
Chapter Thirty-Six (#u88f1868d-63bd-5120-a1ac-4a6d62577b99)
Chapter Thirty-Seven (#u708e1f83-9efc-5bb7-8cb7-ee6f45f8cea4)
Chapter Thirty-Eight (#u8dd4de93-137d-5f13-87a8-b44cab204551)
Chapter Thirty-Nine (#u83a209ed-5258-5fa6-a4fc-559065fda524)
Chapter Forty (#ub9c06847-5772-5592-814c-1d929c6b4271)
Chapter Forty-One (#u84accb61-a54e-54d0-8abf-4a3df8a5851b)
Chapter Forty-Two (#u541d7211-1828-5035-863b-83ae34adf3f4)
Chapter Forty-Three (#u20a8d965-fcd9-57d8-a0c2-55c7ddc7d8d9)
Chapter Forty-Four (#ub9372ed8-4eaa-5b06-8701-f20ad2557f48)
Chapter Forty-Five (#ucdd4f3f3-386e-50dc-b9ca-9cad3f69adaa)
Chapter Forty-Six (#u42766df5-f6dd-562f-b815-8b93fc8ff14e)
Chapter Forty-Seven (#ua2a1f076-b419-52a5-a459-bc79d0438f97)
Chapter Forty-Eight (#u861d88a3-31f3-511e-938e-7414771682b8)
Chapter Forty-Nine (#uf8aa5b90-d6ad-5a90-ba90-ef1a3453e6e0)
Chapter Fifty (#u733da45b-5ed0-50ec-bfe7-16b2653b4011)
Chapter Fifty-One (#u7bb890f2-9599-5920-a8ad-9e6d5eb1b328)
Chapter Fifty-Two (#ud71c6503-014c-5d95-b613-8daaa9cfa583)
Chapter Fifty-Three (#u39f68baa-1811-5f85-80b7-5ba748fb4a8a)
Chapter Fifty-Four (#u5c52e4f7-bf23-5e98-820b-3791110dd85d)
Chapter Fifty-Five (#u68e70396-d228-5560-be7a-ee501983dfb4)
Chapter Fifty-Six (#u5503d961-22e7-5e38-9506-54af73f87583)
Chapter Fifty-Seven (#u8a3edeb4-a0e7-5b86-987c-676e26aa9603)
Chapter Fifty-Eight (#u48c47f14-4f64-56bb-82fa-af96cd7710d2)
Chapter Fifty-Nine (#u7673d297-cd71-5de9-be13-5b1d938a2ac1)
Chapter Sixty (#u93d04fb5-4764-52e4-8a42-b4b103e69097)
Chapter Sixty-One (#uc3dc4b95-4d78-57d9-8ef4-25d7d4a627e8)
Chapter Sixty-Two (#u90310b28-eae0-5397-8faa-7617e7f65367)
Chapter Sixty-Three (#u02280dbb-8566-5524-9ebd-d70ad30bf289)
Chapter Sixty-Four (#u540910f4-024d-5eb9-a341-c35a4d531212)
Chapter Sixty-Five (#u1010ae97-d0a1-553d-b2b1-f45cc324fca8)
Chapter Sixty-Six (#ub25ffc7c-62b1-5425-885e-57c955ae394e)
Acknowledgements (#ue3fe2e42-caad-5053-86ed-6743534e929f)
About the Author (#u7ae33f89-8f60-5559-859f-5881949ce968)
Books by Greg Iles (#u4076bc59-c237-535d-aaa3-dca679b092b1)
Copyright (#u7a7d532f-b44b-5f8d-9bf4-4d8083b2845f)
About the Publisher (#u1adc0db2-ecaf-5830-b1b1-3a953918e3f4)
ONE (#ulink_4c4dd61b-d90a-5bf8-ade8-5133c48ec377)
When does murder begin?
With the pull of a trigger? With the formation of a motive? Or does it begin long before, when a child swallows more pain than love and is forever changed?
Perhaps it doesn’t matter.
Or perhaps it matters more than everything else.
We judge and punish based on facts, but facts are not truth. Facts are like a buried skeleton uncovered long after death. Truth is fluid. Truth is alive. To know the truth requires understanding, the most difficult human art. It requires seeing all things at once, forward and backward, the way God sees.
Forward and backward …
So we begin in the middle, with a telephone ringing in a dark bedroom on the shore of Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans, Louisiana. There’s a woman lying on the bed, mouth open in the mindless gape of sleep. She seems not to hear the phone. Then suddenly the harsh ring breaks through, like defibrillator paddles shocking a comatose patient. The woman’s hand shoots from beneath the covers, groping for the phone, not finding it. She gasps and rises onto one elbow. Then she groans and picks up the receiver from the bedside table.
The woman is me.
“Dr. Ferry,” I croak.
“Are you sleeping?” The voice is male, taut with anger.
“No.” My denial is automatic, but my mouth is dry as a cotton ball, and my alarm clock reads 8:20 P.M. I’ve been out for nine hours. The first decent sleep I’ve had in days.
“He hit another one.”
