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Jupiter’s Bones
Faye Kellerman
The eleventh book in the hugely popular Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus series from New York Times bestselling author Faye KellermanA secretive cult…Dr. Emil Ganz was once a prize-winning astrophysicist with a world-renowned reputation. But for the past 15 years, he has been known as Father Jupiter, the autocratic but beloved leader of a mysterious cult.An unexplained death…Detective Peter Decker is called out to the cult’s fortress-like compound when Ganz is discovered dead – a vial of sleeping pills and an empty vodka bottle by his side. Accident? Suicide? Or murder?A race against time…The longer Decker spends inside the cult, the more concerned he becomes. Jealousy and greed are rife, and members start to disappear in unexplained circumstances. Soon, he finds himself locked in a desperate battle to uncover the cult’s secrets before scores more lives are put in danger.
Jupiter’s Bones
Faye Kellerman
Copyright (#uc84d219f-d96e-5ad4-8494-1669cb0d201f)
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
First published in the United States by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 1999
This ebook edition published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2019
Copyright © Faye Kellerman 1999
Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018
Cover photography © Shutterstock.com (http://Shutterstock.com)
Faye Kellerman asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
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.
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.
Ebook Edition © March 2019 ISBN: 9780008293581
Version: 2018-12-07
Dedication (#uc84d219f-d96e-5ad4-8494-1669cb0d201f)
For those who have made it worthwhile
to get up in the morning.
To Jesse for the projects and excitement.
To Rachel for the elegance and style.
To Ilana for the fun and games.
To Aliza for the snuggles and the warmth.
To Anne, my mother,
for the unconditional support.
To Barney, the suffering agent,
for the twenty-four-hour ear.
And to Jonathan—my partner in crime
as well as love.
Special thanks to
Special Agent Gayle Jacobs
for giving me a clue.
Any mistakes are mine, not hers.
Contents
Cover (#ud1d99a02-d9c8-5b3a-8054-a16b01d79cbe)
Title Page (#ub6bc116f-eaee-5c52-ae41-fa6f58d28a5d)
Copyright
Dedication
Prologue (#ufe35d3dd-82e9-5d1b-b39c-69c9955b8d51)
Chapter 1 (#u8f00183d-09f9-5ed5-8b22-3ffb60b355f0)
Chapter 2 (#ub5a214a6-0a4a-5e9d-9bd5-2108038fb85d)
Chapter 3 (#ud2d0ab2c-61c2-59da-b765-a4b97cf2fabf)
Chapter 4 (#ud158259a-e01c-5abd-9f44-eefc0ba82d17)
Chapter 5 (#u7181b5f8-a5c5-52eb-8d25-3d472f3cbf33)
Chapter 6 (#u0525dd42-07cc-5c60-bc81-5a37aa66bde7)
Chapter 7 (#ub4858540-28af-5f52-8901-4aa668552f1e)
Chapter 8 (#u2056d2c9-dae8-542e-85f9-0408fde9cf5b)
Chapter 9 (#u4c6df399-19cb-5b44-80d2-79c234f4899d)
Chapter 10 (#u7f805b5f-6995-5544-8609-f37c4dbbdb40)
Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 17 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 18 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 19 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 20 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 21 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 22 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 23 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 24 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 25 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 26 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 27 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 28 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 29 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 30 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 31 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 32 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 33 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 34 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 35 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 36 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 37 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 38 (#litres_trial_promo)
Keep Reading (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)
Faye Kellerman booklist (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
Prologue (#ulink_c9e27c63-8124-52e1-80e1-cb386a7f8326)
Because her recent days had been filled with scientific data and research, Europa had paused only for the most basic of human necessities—food, water, bathroom breaks. Her nights had been equally jammed as she tried desperately to play catch-up—exercising on the stationary cycle, calling friends and attempting a life. Time had taken on a pace as unstoppable as the biblical flood. The rushing tempo had given her sporadic anxiety attacks as well as migratory bouts of heart palpitation—unusual since she was in peak condition and excellent health. She’d probably live a long time, judging by her parents’ genetics. Her mother had been in her early sixties when she had died, but she had been a broken woman.
Unlike her father.
Her father. He’d be in his seventies. And like most narcissists, he’d probably be in wonderful health.
Or so she thought.
But no time for any musings. Her professional calendar had been too demanding.
Except there had been that recurring daydream, a fragment from her past, a sneaky little devil that kept insinuating itself into Europa’s brain when she least expected it.
A remembrance of things past, thank you, Proust.
Sitting by the lake, watching the water gently lap up on the shoreline. For her tenth birthday, her father had decided to take her camping—just the two of them, leaving her squalling younger brothers at home with Mom. Dad had taken her somewhere up in the San Bernardino Mountains. To this day, Europa wasn’t sure of the precise location, and after she had become estranged from her father, she hadn’t bothered to ask.
The moment to remember had been at night. Back then, the stars weren’t subjects of scientific scrutiny nor were they inanimate objects of cosmological theory. They were millions of diamonds set into a velvet sky. The moon had been out—a waning moon, Europa recalled that. Its beams had bounced and rolled along the caressing waves. They had just finished a trout dinner cooked on the campfire … roasted marshmallows for dessert. Snuggling under her sleeping blanket with her father by her side.
Just the two of them.
When her father had been the most important person in her life.
To help her fall asleep, he had told her stories, something he rarely did. Tales of evil empires in faraway places called black holes. There were also the heroic, fleet-footed knights of Quasar. And when demons of black holes tried to capture the knights of Quasar with their secret destructive weapon called gravity, the knights would turn themselves into invisible, weightless rays, and escape faster than the speed of light.
A fantastic story because her science teacher had told them that nothing traveled faster than the speed of light. And when she had mentioned that fact to her father, he had laughed, then kissed her cheek. The only time in her life when Europa remembered being the recipient of her father’s affection. Not that Dad had been overtly cruel, just inconsiderate. But mostly absent.
She thought of that night when she received the news—that her father was not only dead, but had died under suspicious circumstances.
