Chapter 43

  THE SMELL OF BURNED FLESH hit us before we crossed the threshold into the smoking ruins of the Meacham house in Cow Hollow. It had once been an architectural masterpiece. Now it was a crypt.

  Arson¹ investigator² Chuck Hanni stepped out of the shadows to greet us. He looked uncharacteristically tired and grim.

  “My second job tonight,” he explained.

  “The first one was like this?” Conklin asked.

  “Nope. Meth lab explosion,” Hanni said. “Victim was blown out of the house and into the back of her pickup³ truck.” He shook his head. “Now this is exactly like the Malone fire.”

  We followed Hanni into what was once the Meachams’ living room. I imagined the space as it once was - the cathedral ceiling, the massive fireplace, and the mirror above the mantel. Now it was all smoke-blackened gilt⁴ and carbon-streaked marble. The bodies were lying close together in three inches of black water, flat on their stomachs, hands curled in a pugilistic attitude, the result of tendons tightening⁵ as their bodies burned.

  “If there were ligatures on the victims, they’ve burned up,” Hanni said, hunching⁶ down beside the bodies. “No point in dusting for prints. Maybe tomorrow, in the light of day. . . . Anyway,” Hanni went on, “I found this on the kitchen counter.” He handed a book to Conklin. I read the title: A History of Yachting. “Got a signature in there for you, Rich. It’s in Latin.”

  Conklin cracked open the book to the title page and read out loud. “Radix omnium malorum est cupiditas.”

  “What’s it mean?” Hanni asked him.

  Conklin tried to hunch⁷ it out, saying, “Something, something, bad is love? I don’t know. What the hell. My tenthgrade Latin is exhausted⁸.”

  “Aren’t we all?” Claire said, stepping into the room, a crew of two assistants trailing behind her. “What have we got here?”

  She walked to the bodies, rolled the smaller of the two, and a rush of air came from the victim’s mouth. Paaahhhhhh.

  “Look here,” Claire said to Chuck, showing him a liquor bottle that had been partially⁹ hidden by the victim’s body.

  Hanni picked it up with a gloved hand.

  “Maybe we’ll get some prints after all,” he said.

  Conklin and I left Claire and Hanni with the bodies of the victims and went outside. The first officer pointed¹⁰ out an attractive woman standing¹¹ at the front of the now-thinning crowd at the edge of the lawn.

  “That’s the woman who called it in. Her name is Debra Kurtz,” the cop told me. “She lives directly across the street.”

  Kurtz was in her late forties, five four or so, a tad too thin, maybe anorectic, wearing black spandex running gear. Mascaraed tear tracks marked her cheeks. I introduced myself and Conklin, asked Kurtz if she’d known the deceased.

  “Steve and Sandy Meacham were my closest friends,” she said. “I called 911 when I saw the fire. God, oh, God, it was already too late.”

  “Mind coming down to the station with us?” I asked. “We need to know everything we can about your friends.”

1 arson   

n.纵火，放火

参考例句：

• He was serving a ten spot for arson.他因纵火罪在服十年徒刑。
• He was arraigned on a charge of arson.他因被指控犯纵火罪而被传讯。

2 investigator   

n.研究者，调查者，审查者

参考例句：

• He was a special investigator for the FBI.他是联邦调查局的特别调查员。
• The investigator was able to deduce the crime and find the criminal.调查者能够推出犯罪过程并锁定罪犯。

3 pickup   

n.拾起，获得

参考例句：

• I would love to trade this car for a pickup truck.我愿意用这辆汽车换一辆小型轻便卡车。||The luck guy is a choice pickup for the girls.那位幸运的男孩是女孩子们想勾搭上的人。

4 gilt   

adj.镀金的；n.金边证券

参考例句：

• The plates have a gilt edge.这些盘子的边是镀金的。
• The rest of the money is invested in gilt.其余的钱投资于金边证券。

5 tightening   

上紧，固定，紧密

参考例句：

• Make sure the washer is firmly seated before tightening the pipe. 旋紧水管之前，检查一下洗衣机是否已牢牢地固定在底座上了。
• It needs tightening up a little. 它还需要再收紧些。

6 hunching   

隆起（hunch的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• She leaned forward, hunching over the desk. 她身体前倾，伏在写字台上。

7 hunch   

n.预感，直觉

参考例句：

• I have a hunch that he didn't really want to go.我有这么一种感觉，他并不真正想去。
• I had a hunch that Susan and I would work well together.我有预感和苏珊共事会很融洽。

8 exhausted   

adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的

参考例句：

• It was a long haul home and we arrived exhausted.搬运回家的这段路程特别长，到家时我们已筋疲力尽。
• Jenny was exhausted by the hustle of city life.珍妮被城市生活的忙乱弄得筋疲力尽。

9 partially   

adv.部分地，从某些方面讲

参考例句：

• The door was partially concealed by the drapes.门有一部分被门帘遮住了。
• The police managed to restore calm and the curfew was partially lifted.警方设法恢复了平静，宵禁部分解除。

10 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

11 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。