The Bodies Left Behind
By Jefferey Deaver (Simon & Schuster, $26)
As she approached the Feldman house Brynn McKenzie decided that even with the glow from behind ivory curtains the place was
eerie as hell. The other two houses she’d passed might have been the sets for family dramas; this was just the place for a
Stephen King movie, the kind she and her first husband, Keith, would devour like candy.
She looked up at the three-story home. You sure didn’t see many houses of this style or size in Kennesha County. White siding,
which had seen better days, and a wraparound porch. She liked the porch. Her childhood house in Eau Claire had sported one.
She’d loved sitting out in the chain swing at night, her brother singing and playing his battered guitar, her sister flirting
with her latest boyfriend, their parents talking, talking, talking. But as for her present house, she didn’t know where a
porch would fit.
Approaching the Feldmans’, she glanced at the yard, impressed. The landscaping was expensive. The place was surrounded by
strategically placed dogwoods, ligustrum and crepe myrtles that had been cut way back. She recalled her husband’s advice to
his customers against this practice (“Don’t rape your crepes”).
Parking in the circular gravel drive, she caught movement inside, a shadow on the front curtain. She climbed out into the
chill air, fresh and sweet with the perfume of blossoms and firewood smoke.
