Whispers of the Dead Read Free Page A

I most wanted to talk to wouldn't be calling.
I put the phone away as Tom opened the boot and slid his bag into
the back. He pretended not to be breathing heavily, while I pretended
not to notice.
'Give you a lift to the cafeteria?' he offered.
'No thanks, I'll walk. I need the exercise.'
'Admirable discipline. You put me to shame.' He broke off as his
phone rang. He took it out and glanced at the display. 'Sorry, got to
take this.'
Leaving him to answer it, I headed across the car park. Although
the facility was on the University of Tennessee Medical Center
campus, it was completely independent of it. Tucked away on the
wooded outskirts, it inhabited a different world. The modern buildings
and park-like green spaces of the busy hospital were bustling
with patients, students and medical staff. A nurse was laughing with
a young man in jeans on a bench; a mother was scolding a crying
child, while a businessman held an animated discussion on a mobile
phone. When I'd first come here I'd found the contrast between the
hushed decay behind the gates and the bustling normality outside
them hard to take. Now I barely noticed it.
We can grow used to almost anything, given time.
I trotted up a flight of steps and set off along the path that led to
the cafeteria, noting with satisfaction that I was breathing barely
harder than usual. I'd not gone far when I heard footsteps hurrying
behind me.
'David, wait up!'
I turned. A man about my own age and height was hurrying along
the path. Paul Avery was one of the center's rising stars, already
widely tipped as Tom's natural successor. A specialist in human
skeletal biology, his knowledge was encyclopaedic, and the big hands
and blunt fingers were as adept as any surgeon's.
'You going for lunch?' he asked, falling into step beside me. His
curly hair was almost blue-black, and a shadow of stubble already
darkened his chin. 'Mind if I join you?'
'Not at all. How's Sam?'
'She's good. Meeting Mary this morning to cruise around some of
the baby stores. I'm expecting the credit card to take a serious hit.'
I smiled. I hadn't known Paul until this trip, but both he and his
pregnant wife Sam had gone out of their way to make me welcome.
She was nearly at full term with their first child, and while Paul did
his best to appear blase about it, Sam made no attempt to hide her
excitement.
'Glad I saw you,' he went on.'One of my PhD students has gotten
engaged, so a few of us are going downtown tonight to celebrate. It'll
be pretty relaxed, just dinner and a few drinks. Why don't you come
along?'
I hesitated. I appreciated the offer, but the thought of going out with a group of strangers didn't appeal.
'Sam'll be going, and Alana, so you'll know some people there,'
Paul added, seeing my reluctance. 'C'mon, it'll be fun.'
I couldn't think of a reason to say no.'Well . . . OK, then. Thanks.'
'Great. I'll pick you up at your hotel at eight.'
A car horn honked from the road nearby. We looked back to see
Tom's station wagon pulling up to the kerb. Winding down the
window he beckoned us over.
'I just got a call from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
They've found a body in a mountain cabin out near Gatlinburg.
Sounds interesting. If you're not busy, Paul, I thought you might want
to come out with me and take a look?'
Paul shook his head. 'Sorry, I'm tied up all afternoon. Can't one of
your graduate students help out?'
'They could, I suppose.' Tom turned to me, a sparkle of excitement
in his eyes. Even before he spoke I knew what he was going to say.
'How about you, David? Care to do a little field work?'
The highway out of Knoxville streamed with slow-moving traffic.
Even this early in the year it was warm enough to need the car's air
conditioning. Tom had programmed the satnav to guide us when we
reached the mountains, but for the moment we hardly needed it. He
hummed quietly to himself as he drove, a sign I'd come to recognize
as