Quiet in Her Bones
TITLES BY NALINI SINGH
PSY-CHANGELING SERIES
Slave to Sensation
Visions of Heat
Caressed by Ice
Mine to Possess
Hostage to Pleasure
Branded by Fire
Blaze of Memory
Bonds of Justice
Play of Passion
Kiss of Snow
Tangle of Need
Heart of Obsidian
Shield of Winter
Shards of Hope
Allegiance of Honor
PSY-CHANGELING TRINITY SERIES
Silver Silence
Ocean Light
Wolf Rain
Alpha Night
GUILD HUNTER SERIES
Angels’ Blood
Archangel’s Kiss
Archangel’s Consort
Archangel’s Blade
Archangel’s Storm
Archangel’s Legion
Archangel’s Shadows
Archangel’s Enigma
Archangel’s Heart
Archangel’s Viper
Archangel’s Prophecy
Archangel’s War
Archangel’s Sun
THRILLERS
A Madness of Sunshine
Quiet in Her Bones
ANTHOLOGIES
An Enchanted Season
(with Maggie Shayne, Erin McCarthy, and Jean Johnson)
The Magical Christmas Cat
(with Lora Leigh, Erin McCarthy, and Linda Winstead Jones)
Must Love Hellhounds
(with Charlaine Harris, Ilona Andrews, and Meljean Brook)
Burning Up
(with Angela Knight, Virginia Kantra, and Meljean Brook)
Angels of Darkness
(with Ilona Andrews, Meljean Brook, and Sharon Shinn)
Angels’ Flight
Wild Invitation
Night Shift
(with Ilona Andrews, Lisa Shearin, and Milla Vane)
Wild Embrace
SPECIALS
Angels’ Pawn
Angels’ Dance
Texture of Intimacy
Declaration of Courtship
Whisper of Sin
Secrets at Midnight
BERKLEY
An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
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Copyright © 2021 by Nalini Singh
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Singh, Nalini, 1977– author.
Title: Quiet in her bones / Nalini Singh.
Description: New York: Berkley, [2021] | Series: A Madness of Sunshine
Identifiers: LCCN 2020045220 (print) | LCCN 2020045221 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780593099100 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780593099117 (ebook)
Subjects: GSAFD: Suspense fiction.
Classification: LCC PR9639.4.S566 Q85 2021 (print) | LCC PR9639.4.S566 (ebook) | DDC 823/.92—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020045220
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020045221
Cover art: trees by Laura La Monaca/Offset/Shutterstock; car by Ingo Juergens/Getty Images
Cover design by Rita Frangie
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
pid_prh_5.6.1_c0_r0
To Rene. Here’s to our next road trip.
CONTENTS
Cover
Titles by Nalini Singh
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Transcript: Session #1
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Transcript: Session #2
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Transcript: Session #3
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Transcript: Session #4
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Transcript: Session #5
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Transcript: Session #6
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Transcript: Session #7
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Transcript: Session #8
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Transcript: Session #9
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Transcript: Session #10
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Transcript: Session #11
Chapter 41
Transcript: Session #12
Chapter 42
Transcript: Session #13
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Transcript: Session #14
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
1
My mother vanished without a trace ten years ago.
So did a quarter of a million dollars in cash from my father’s safe.
The police came.
The neighbors whispered that she was a thief.
My father called her a bitch.
“She’ll turn up, and when she does, I’ll have her in handcuffs!”
That’s what he said. That’s what he screamed.
He was right.
It took ten years, but she has turned up.
The police found her car in the dense bush of the Waitākere Ranges Regional Park four hours ago. She was inside. Well, her bones were anyway. Those bones were clothed in the remnants of the red silk shirt she was wearing that night.
> The night I heard her scream.
2
I’d just spent two hours staring at my unfinished manuscript when the police came to the door of my father’s subtly upscale residence of glass and polished wood. Designer enough to make it clear he was no ordinary man, but understated enough to blend in to the dark green landscape that surrounded it.
I’d come “home” to live after my hospital discharge a month ago. Doctors’ orders.
“You can’t be on your own,” Dr. Binchy had said, hazel eyes unblinking behind square black spectacle frames. “Not yet.”
I didn’t know why I hadn’t just hired a nurse instead of returning to this unhappy place thick with ugly memories. Before adding, then deleting, a thousand pointless words on my next book, I’d started to look up nursing agencies. Then the police came. The middle-aged man in plain clothes, the twenty-something woman in full uniform, cap included.
Recognition flashed in her eyes when I opened the door.
The man, solid and stolid with a square jaw and watery blue eyes, flashed his ID. “We’d like to speak to Mr. Ishaan Rai.”
“Sure.” Turning on my crutches, I saw that my father was already coming down the hall, a well-dressed CEO on top of the world, his graying black hair perfectly styled and his shirt a crisp blue.
He wasn’t a tall man, nor was he short. Average height, with average features. He should’ve looked ordinary, even bland, but my father has a presence, a dignity to him that I’ve always found a grand irony.
“What’s this about?” he demanded, because that’s what Ishaan Rai does. Demand. It’s served him well except for when it comes to his son, who is his disappointment.
“Mr. Rai,” the man began, raising his ID. “If we could speak in private.”
“Oh, for God’s sake, just spit it out. What complaint is it now? The plant is built to the highest specifications—it isn’t breaching any environmental restrictions.” He’s so used to ordering people about that it doesn’t seem to occur to him that a senior officer wouldn’t knock on his door at eight in the morning for a complaint about emissions or discarded chemicals.
The male officer’s expression stilled, and right then, I saw an intelligence I hadn’t previously spotted. Solid and stolid could also mean dogged and relentless. “I’m Detective Senior Sergeant Oliver Regan and this is my colleague Constable Sefina Neri. We regret to inform you that the body of a deceased female was discovered early this morning in the Waitākere Ranges Regional Park. Her identity has yet to be officially verified, and normally, we wouldn’t inform you at this stage—but, given the likely publicity and attendant conjecture, the decision was made to alert you. She had her driver’s license and credit cards with her. All in the name of Nina Rai.”
Time stopped, filled with the sound of a sharp, pained scream.
Even my father seemed stunned into silence, but that never lasts long with him. “Where’s she been all this time?” he barked. “Living it up on my money I’m guessing.”
Constable Neri’s eyes were a deep, intense brown and she locked them unblinkingly on my father, but let her senior officer do the talking. Her job, I understood, was to watch and make note of any and all reactions.
The intensity of her, it reminded me of Paige.
“Indications are that the deceased has been in place for a significant period,” Regan responded, the pale skin of his face pockmarked with old acne scars. “Full forensic examinations will take some time, of course, but we have reason to believe that she’s been there since the night she was last seen alive—our people have discovered remnants of the clothing you described her wearing in your theft complaint.”
Red silk, a top that had left her arms bare and slipped neatly into the high waist of her wide-legged and tailored black pants. Her heels had been black, too, her lips a pop of red that matched her top.
Around me hung silence.
Heavy. Cold. Cutting.
Like the silence my father had utilized as a weapon against my mother. She, in turn, hadn’t been much for silence. My mother preferred smashing things, preferred screaming.
But not like that final scream.
“Could it be someone else?” I asked, because my father was just staring at them—and because I didn’t want their words to be true. “Someone could’ve stolen her wallet and you could be wrong about the clothes. It’s been a long time.”
Regan’s expression didn’t soften as he said, “The body was discovered in a vehicle registered to Nina Parvati Rai.”
My hand tightened on the edge of the door. I had no more straws left to clutch.
Deep, aching stabs of pain shot through my left leg at the same time, transmitted from the bones in my foot and ankle knitting themselves back together cell by cell.
“If you have something of Mrs. Rai’s that might hold her DNA,” Detective Regan said, “that’ll speed up the process. But we realize that may be impossible after all this time—a familial DNA match will be our next option.”
My mouth opened. “I might have something.” I had no intention of elaborating further in front of my father—what normal son went into his mother’s room and carefully picked up and bagged her favorite hairbrush? What normal son kept it all these years?
A son who’d heard a scream.
“In the interim, do either of you recognize this?” Regan removed a transparent plastic bag from his pocket, sealed with police tape.
Diamonds glinted within, big and showy.
“I bought her that ring,” my father said, his voice gritty. “For our tenth wedding anniversary. Aarav was only seven then.”
The same age as the little girl who was getting ready for school in another part of the house. Born three years after the last time I saw my mother alive.
“Happier times,” my father added, his head dropping for a moment. “Happier times.”
Taking the plastic bag, I touched the ring through it. “She lost a diamond two days before she disappeared.” I pointed out the empty spot, so tiny among all the glitter, all those carats. “She was angry because the ring was from an exclusive designer boutique that had guaranteed her the setting wouldn’t fail.”
She’d yelled at the jewelers on the phone, threatening to destroy them among her set if they didn’t fix this “right now.” She’d been pacing in our manicured backyard, phone to her ear, while I sat on the house’s back balcony trying to eat a sandwich. In the end, I’d rolled my eyes and taken my meal to my room.
I still remembered how she’d looked, the marigold yellow of her dress silhouetted against the native bush that rose dark green and ancient beyond the flimsy barrier of our fence. As if the forest was watching. Waiting.
Retrieving the ring, the cop said, “We can offer you a liaison officer. There’s likely to be intense media interest in this, given your standing in the city.”
Regan’s eyes were on my father, but Constable Neri’s gaze flicked my way. She knew who and what the media would latch on to, what would give them the best headlines, the most clickbait links.
Words came out of my mouth before I was aware of thinking them. “Was it an accident?”
“Of course it was, boy,” my father snapped, as if I were still sixteen and not twenty-six. “You know your mother liked to drink.” He looked at Regan again. “That’s what you’re saying, aren’t you? That Nina drove off the road into the forest?”
Into the chasm of green where a car could remain lost for decades. It had rained that night. So much rain, a torrential storm. Enough to hide the tracks of a car going off the road?
“We can’t say either way right now,” Regan responded with no change in his expression as he tucked the evidence bag back inside his jacket. “We’ll know more after we complete the forensic investigation.”
“I’d like a liaison,” I said before my father could wave away the offer. “I want to know when you find
things, before it ends up in the papers.” That was why they were here after all, before the official DNA identification. Someone high up had made the call that Ishaan Rai, CEO of an empire that employed thousands, and best friend to the mayor, should be warned about the sudden reappearance of his first wife.
A wife he’d divorced in her absence.
Regan nodded. “Of course. Constable Neri will be happy to be the liaison.”
Neri spoke for the first time, her voice holding a low timbre that was likely put to good effect when soothing distraught relatives. “Here are my details.” A card taken from a pants pocket, held out. “Call me anytime.”
Taking the card, I slid it away. My father would eventually break out of his paralysis and ask for it, but I wouldn’t volunteer it.
“We’ll make sure to keep you updated,” Regan said. “Please do remember that the investigation is in its very early stages. We’re still working the scene.”
“I’m coming with you.” Hobbling over as fast as the orthopedic moon boot—aka a walking cast—strapped around my fractured bones would permit, I grabbed my outdoor jacket from the hallway closet while Regan was still objecting. “I won’t cross the police tape or make a scene. I just want to know where my mother died.” Where she’d effectively been buried for ten years.
Regan exchanged a look with Constable Neri before saying, “You can ride with us.”
“No, I’ll take my car.” A rental sedan with an automatic transmission that I could drive with one functional leg. Having my own vehicle would also leave me free to go to other places, begin to dig other graves.
Considering the status of my injury, I grabbed the crutches I’d propped to one side of the doorway when I went to get my jacket; the surgeon who’d worked on me had given me the go-ahead to start putting my full weight on my foot, but she hadn’t told me to go hiking.
“Cautious, Aarav,” Dr. Tawera had said after looking at the latest X-rays. “We don’t want to negate all your progress to date.”
No, we fucking didn’t.
My father spoke at last. “I’m coming, too.”
My chest tightened, my solar plexus crushing in on itself, the reaction one I’d thought I’d long ago conditioned out of myself. “We’ll follow you,” I said to the cops, then stepped out after them.