Cold, exhaustion, and hunger overwhelmed me.
I closed my eyes.
"When I came to, the first thing I saw was the pure white counterpane on my hospital bed. I felt warm and comforted for the first time in days. Looped around the upper rim of the metal railing was an intravenous tube. The IV pole was next to my headboard, and I could see that the glucose solution was almost empty. I must have been badly dehydrated.
I looked at the clock on the bedside table and it said 11:42. The shades were drawn three-quarters of the way down, open enough to reveal that it was night.
I rolled from my side onto my back, wiggling my toes as I did so. I lifted each foot, one at a time, to reach my hands, and counted to make sure I had all my toes.
When I moved onto my other side, my cheek scraped against something hard. There, pinned against the corner of the pillow, was Jake's glittering little bird atop a rock.
Through the glass windows that separated my room from the nurses' station, I could see five people standing together. Jake Tyler and Mercer Wallace were leaning against the counter watching Mike Chapman and laughing at him. He was gesturing with great animation, regaling two nurses with his war stories and adventures.
I knew it wouldn't take long for Mike and Mercer to coax me back to Blackwells, with the old map, to dig for diamonds with them. They would find my stalker, too. I was sure of that.
Outside the door to my room was another IV stand. Attached to it, hanging upside down, was a bottle of champagne. Tommorow would begin a happier new year.
I smiled and closed my eyes.
Acknowledgments
I never asked permission of Alex Cooper-the real one-when I purloined his name for my heroine several years ago. He and Karen have been dearest friends, perfect traveling companions, great readers, and part of the family since Justin and I first met. I treasure their friendship.
A very special credit is due to Judy Berdy, who shares my passion for Renwick's stunning skeleton, and who helped enormously with my research about Blackwells Island. To Judy and the Roosevelt Island Historical Society, I am enormously grateful.
I was fortunate to find a wealth of material, in the form of old institutional records and reports, at the superb library of the New-York Historical Society. My thanks to Betsy Gotbaum, and the librarians who take such fine care of the antique documents.
The archives of The New York Times and the microfiche files of the New York Herald Tribune were also invaluable. And two books, Gotham by Edwin Burrows and Mike Wallace and The Other Islands of New York City by Sharon Seitz and Stuart Miller, provided wonderful vignettes of the crime scene.
Several characters take their names from real individuals. That is because a number of very generous people contributed to a variety of charitable causes and public service auctions in exchange for the opportunity to have a figure named for them in an Alexandra Cooper novel. Some are good guys, some are suspects, some are perps-that's the chance they take. They all have my thanks for their good cheer and benevolence.
Robert Morgenthau remains the professional patron saint of prosecutors, and I am always mindful of my great fortune in working for him for a quarter of a century. My friends in the New York County District Attorney's Office Sex Crimes Prosecution Unit are the very best in the business. They prove it every day of the year. The men and women of the NYPD who risk their lives for all of us on a daily basis have my most sincere gratitude, and our colleagues at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner continue to amaze me, giving us cold hits and solutions to major cases with increasing frequency.
Everyone at Scribner has made this experience a real joy. That starts at the top, with the generous support of Susan Moldow, which I appreciate tremendously. Giulia Melucci is the best publicist in a tough business and a delightful friend.
Susanne Kirk, my beloved editor, started me on this path a few books back. She has been with me every step of the way, and her reputation as the finest in this field is well deserved. Her heart is in these books, along with my own, and that means the world to me. Thanks, also, to her assistant, Erik Wasson, for his good cheer and attention to detail.
My agent and pal, Esther Newberg, is beyond simple acknowledgments. She has changed my life. How did I ever get so lucky?
Family and friends make all this possible. My incredible mother, Alice-and all the Fairsteins, Feldmans, and Zavislans- continue to give me joy and encouragement.
And most of all, my husband, Justin Feldman, remains my devoted coach, most loyal fan, and constant inspiration.
About the Author
Linda Fairstein, America's foremost prosecutor of crimes of sexual assault and domestic violence, has run the Sex Crimes Prosecution Unit of the District Attorney's Office in Manhattan for almost three decades. A Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, she is a graduate of Vassar College and the University of Virginia School of Law. She is the author of three earlier international bestselling Alexandra Cooper novels, Final Jeopardy, Likely to Die, and Cold Hit as well as the nonfiction book Sexual Violence, a New York Times Notable Book in 1994 She lives with her husband in Manhattan and on Martha's Vineyard.
***
FB2 document info
Document ID: fbd-b3f746-b199-3f46-e1b4-0779-6b8b-e69bba
Document version: 1
Document creation date: 19.02.2009
Created using: Fiction Book Designer software
Document authors :
Source URLs :
About
This file was generated by Lord KiRon's FB2EPUB converter version 1.1.5.0.
(This book might contain copyrighted material, author of the converter bears no responsibility for it's usage)
Этот файл создан при помощи конвертера FB2EPUB версии 1.1.5.0 написанного Lord KiRon.
(Эта книга может содержать материал который защищен авторским правом, автор конвертера не несет ответственности за его использование)
http://www.fb2epub.net
https://code.google.com/p/fb2epub/
The DeadHouse Page 38