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  At the Inpatient Rehab Center at Western Pediatrics, Kelvin Vander lived in a private room sentried twenty-four seven by private eyes subcontracted by Aaron Fox. A third of every billable hour the freelancers submitted was deposited directly into Fox’s bank account.

  Kelvin’s new lawyers were happy to pay. Their own hourly billings were drawn upon a seven-figure account attached to the Vander estate. The estate had been valued at over a hundred and seventy million. A family court judge assigned to protect Kelvin promised to keep an eye on the boy’s money. If things got out of hand, he’d cap the attorneys’ annual draw at a million or two.

  Over a three-week period, I spent over a hundred hours with Kelvin, would eventually send my own bill, but had other things on my mind.

  When I showed up, the boy looked straight at me.

  One month later. Still not a word.

  I tried drawing, games, just sitting there.

  My own benevolent silence.

  At my wit’s end, I called the judge and made a request.

  He said, “Hmm. Kind of creative, Doctor. You think it’ll work?”

  “I thought he’d open up by now, no predictions.”

  “Know what you mean. Went to see him, myself. Cute, but like a little statue. Sure, I’ll authorize it.”

  The next day, I was in Kelvin’s room when a spinet piano and matching bench were delivered. In the bench drawer were folders of sheet music I’d retrieved from the Steinway grand gracing the boy’s ocean-view bedroom in the house on Calle Maritimo.

  I removed some of it, fanned it on his hospital bed.

  He closed his eyes.

  I waited awhile, left his room. Was charting at the nurses’ station when the music began, first tentative, then louder, streaming through the door and perking up the private cop on shift.

  Everyone listened.

  “What’s that?” said a nurse. “Mozart?”

  I said, “Chopin.” One of the études, I was pretty sure.

  Over and over.

  I drove home and dug out a box of CDs.

  Ten minutes later I had it: Opus 25, number 2, in F minor.

  Technically challenging, sometimes sprightly, sometimes sad.

  Later, the nurses told me he’d played it all day and well into the night.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  JONATHAN KELLERMAN is one of the world’s most popular authors. He has brought his expertise as a clinical psychologist to more than two dozen bestselling crime novels, including the Alex Delaware series, The Butcher’s Theater, Billy Straight, The Conspiracy Club, and Twisted. With his wife, the novelist Faye Kellerman, he co-authored the bestsellers Double Homicide and Capital Crimes. He is the author of numerous essays, short stories, scientific articles, two children’s books, and three volumes of psychology, including Savage Spawn: Reflections on Violent Children. He has won the Goldwyn, Edgar, and Anthony awards, and has been nominated for a Shamus Award. Jonathan and Faye Kellerman live in California and New Mexico. Their four children include the novelist Jesse Kellerman. Visit the author’s website at www.jonathankellerman.com

  Bones is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2008 by Jonathan Kellerman

  All rights reserved.

  Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

  BALLANTINE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kellerman, Jonathan.

  Bones: an Alex Delaware novel / Jonathan Kellerman.

  p. cm.

  eISBN: 978-0-345-50945-1

  1. Delaware, Alex (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Sturgis, Milo

  (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 3. Police—California—Los Angeles—Fiction. 4. Psychologists—Fiction. 5. Los Angeles (Calif.)—Fiction. I. Title.

  PS3561.E3865B66 2008

  813’.54—dc22 2008035125

  www.ballantinebooks.com

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  CHAPTER 31

  CHAPTER 32

  CHAPTER 33

  CHAPTER 34

  CHAPTER 35

  CHAPTER 36

  CHAPTER 37

  CHAPTER 38

  CHAPTER 39

  CHAPTER 40

  CHAPTER 41

  CHAPTER 42

  CHAPTER 43