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Moon Music
Faye Kellerman
A gripping detective story set in Las Vegas from New York Times bestselling author Faye KellermanA brutal murder…In the desert just outside the bright lights of Las Vegas, a horrific discovery is made. The body of a young, beautiful Vegas showgirl is found – mutilated almost beyond recognition.A detective with everything to prove…Detective Sergeant Romulus Poe is struck by the similarities to an unsolved case from years ago – and a killer known as “the Bogeyman”. But when he discovers one of his colleagues slept with the showgirl, the case takes an even stranger twist.A case which exposes the underbelly of a city…As Poe investigates, he is caught up in Las Vegas’s hidden history – from Native American legends to modern scientific secrets. And when the body of another young woman is found, the race is on to stop a murderer who is becoming bolder with every passing day.
Moon Music
Faye Kellerman
Copyright (#ub2455200-f943-5c8c-899f-33ab50ebce32)
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, 1998
This ebook edition published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2019
Copyright © Faye Kellerman 1998
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 © April 2019 ISBN: 9780008293574
Version: 2018-12-08
Dedication (#ub2455200-f943-5c8c-899f-33ab50ebce32)
For Jonathan, Mom, and the children:
my celestial beings
Contents
Cover (#ue123c6f8-7ee0-5cee-a9ca-5fac0aea0b0e)
Title Page (#u9999ed21-cf97-53cd-879b-ad7a0ff29f4d)
Copyright
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1 (#ud647cc49-a504-54ac-a00f-ce23c8f8d087)
Chapter 2 (#ub70a2a65-6201-5cdf-b673-0908f57bb736)
Chapter 3 (#u0717cdfb-f433-5f04-95ff-937a283ca0a4)
Chapter 4 (#u54b79b4a-9339-5c5a-bebb-4736cfaa9719)
Chapter 5 (#u184cd60e-ec7f-5c29-80de-6d8445919ab7)
Chapter 6 (#u3d8010d3-5e54-5c96-8121-656f00814cd4)
Chapter 7 (#uf7808ebe-0b7c-53ac-9acd-7cca93527618)
Chapter 8 (#u27a76296-7910-55c2-aa4a-9ef4b5d5cc53)
Chapter 9 (#uf34da4f6-cd45-51e6-a04a-79b19f45ef41)
Chapter 10 (#u277eb390-994d-5ad6-9e63-fa39147c4bf2)
Chapter 11 (#uf9b8252b-fc7c-5f0a-b1fc-b3d5d3000e14)
Chapter 12 (#u0032b509-0ec4-5639-9f81-af270a019665)
Chapter 13 (#ud28030fa-a597-546b-9cfd-1facddabf212)
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)
Chapter 39 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 40 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 41 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 42 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 43 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 44 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 45 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 46 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 47 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 48 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 49 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 50 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 51 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 52 (#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 (#ub2455200-f943-5c8c-899f-33ab50ebce32)
It was a land—hostile and unforgiving. Vast stretches of savage, alkaline desert where the wind blasted grit in the winters and summers were relentless hours of sweltering heat. Deep into August, the wasteland surfaces withered and cracked, producing deep fissures to a fiery hell. An area so seemingly without heartbeat that it had once been used for atomic bomb testing.
But to the chosen few—like herself—it was a place called home. Because she knew this barren topology as well as she knew every cell in her body. She knew its crevices, its caves, its rocks, and its shelters. As she surveyed the area from above, a tear formed in her eye.
Once, the mesas had held flourishing greenlands—wild grasses and flowers fed by natural artesian springs. So beautiful the Indians had referred to the land as The Meadows, translated into Spanish as Las Vegas. But the White Man grew greedy and raped the ground’s precious resources—the oh-so-righteous Mormons with their all-knowing God, the silver prospectors with their debauchery, the Department of Energy shooting off bombs, the gaudy gangsters bringing crimes and corruption, and the billionaires with their lifeless corporate empires.
All of them—parasites. They may have built the desert, but they couldn’t make it bloom. Because they never gave a thought to the land’s indigenous inhabitants—the majestic bighorn sheep, the powerful rattlesnakes, the playful rabbits, the ancient desert tortoises, the clever coyotes, and the beautiful, athletic birds which soared in the open sky as if gliding to heaven.
Still, she smiled. There was hope. Because the land rapers had been all take and no give, they were in the dark about the true power of the land, unaware of its deep mystery and magical forces. Mired in tunnel vision, they were ignorant that the land and its creatures had power.
But she knew the secret.
The desert could fight back.
1 (#ulink_493982b8-98ee-55da-a990-7546e10d3abc)
Ignoring the subtle vibrations under his pillow because he was just too damn comfortable. Warm and sated, inhaling the rich sensuality of musky sex. With force, Jensen opened a rebellious lid, his vision assaulted by the Strip’s strobic neon. Outside the winds moaned, pushing everything in their paths. Grit crackled against the picture window as his eyes swept over the vista. A panoply of garish colors nonexistent in nature.
Looking away from the glass, back down at his covers. Beside him, Gretchen slept—young and lithe—beads of sweat lining the crack of her small, round ass. He wanted to take a bite out of it. His breathing became pronounced, audible.
Then his pager went off again.
Jensen swore to himself, then, with resignation, lifted his head from the pillow. He’d never realized how much a cranium could weigh. Digging his palms into the mattress, he hoisted his large frame forward until he was sitting. He tried to make out the number in the dark, but gave up and flicked on the light.
“Hmmm,” she grunted. “Turn it off.”
“In a minute.”
