Black Sun Descending Read Online Free Page A

Trinity.’ It’s a line from Desert Solitaire . It’s about uranium mining on the Colorado Plateau. I thought that I had to drive to Trinity, New Mexico, but I realized that what Penny really wanted me to do was come here.”
    â€œSo you thought you’d just wander around one of the largest radioactive waste sites in the world until you found a body?”
    â€œThe drowning part was the giveaway. I started close to the river. It only took three nights.”
    â€œOnly? Don’t you have a favorite TV show or something?” Silas looked at her and smiled. “What did you find?” Katie asked.
    â€œA skull. I think it’s an intact skeleton though, because there were the vertebrae from the neck, and the scapula too. I don’t think decomposition was complete. There was some . . . tissue.”
    â€œListen to you.” Rain was smiling behind her visor. “Find a few bodies in the desert and you’re a forensic anthropologist.”
    â€œI just think—”
    â€œI’m kidding, Silas. Tell me how the body was positioned. Did you move anything?”
    â€œI don’t think so. It might have shifted when I moved some of the overburden away. The skull was at a slight angle, as were the shoulders. It appeared as though the body might have been positioned on its side a little.”
    â€œYou said positioned . You think the body was moved here from somewhere.”
    â€œYeah, don’t you? It’s not like someone who worked on site just went out for a nap, lay down in the radioactive dust, and never got back up again.”
    Rain smiled. “No, but we don’t know how old these bones are. This could date from when the mill was operating. Bodies in radioactive material could decompose unpredictably. We don’t have decomposition rate charts for this sort of thing. Once I get this body out of the ground and do some work on it I’ll know what time period we need to search for missing persons.”
    They were silent a moment, lost in their own thoughts. “You’ve been busy?” asked Silas. He felt suddenly awkward.
    â€œI have. We’ve been working on a case on the West Coast. More than fifteen decomposed bodies. I’ve been doing the forensics on them. I’ve been in Seattle and Portland most of the last two months.”
    â€œI just—”
    â€œSilas, let’s talk later. It’s hard for a girl to breathe in this getup. Let me get a look at what you found.”
    â€œYou know, when I dream now, I don’t think that I’m dreaming about Penny anymore. I don’t wake up and think my wife wants me to find her. My first thought after this dream wasn’t Penny wants me to find her, but Penny wants me to find someone .”
    â€œLet’s go find out who.”

SILAS PARKED HIS SUBARU IN front of the two-story adobe home of Ken and Trish Hollyoak and sat motionless behind the wheel. The afternoon sun had sunk below the Moab Rim. Clouds marched in tight formation across the western sky. We might get more snow before April is over , thought Silas. Startled by a tap on his window, he jumped and hit his head on the ceiling of the car.
    Ken Hollyoak laughed so hard that he nearly doubled over. Silas rolled the window down. “You know, you shouldn’t go sneaking up on people. You , of all people, should know what that does to a man’s heart.”
    â€œDr. Pearson,” Ken said, growing serious. “It’s not the shock of surprise that has made my heart grow weary. It’s the lack of surprise I find in the woes of the world that has given my heart trouble all these years.”
    â€œI thought it was booze, fried food, and sitting on your butt in a courtroom that did it.”
    â€œThat too,” the lawyer conceded. “Are you coming in or you going to lower property values in my neighborhood by sitting in your car all night long?” Silas nodded, rolled up the