Sidney Sheldon's Angel of the Dark (31 page)
Read Sidney Sheldon's Angel of the Dark Online
Authors: Sidney Sheldon,Tilly Bagshawe
T
HE
LAPD
OFFICER WALKED INTO THE
room and gagged. Then he ran out and threw up until there was nothing left in his stomach.
There was blood everywhere.
Everywhere.
But it wasn't fresh blood. It was old and caked and dark and stinking. At its center lay what must once have been a body, now a gray-green, fetid, oozing lump of slime, riddled with maggots. Only the occasional bone protruding from the filth, clean and white and gleaming, gave any indication that this had once been a human being.
Covering his mouth and nose, the cop walked back in.
“How long has he beenâ¦like this?” he asked the pathologist.
The pathologist shook his head. “Impossible to say. Two or three months? Could be more. We'll do some tests on the larvae. That might give us some idea.”
At the word
larvae,
the detective retched again, but he forced himself to stay where he was.
“Male? Female? Age?”
“Male. Thirty-two. Would have turned thirty-three in June.”
The detective was impressed. “You can tell all that fromâ¦
that
?” He eyed the rotten, bloated corpse with disgust.
“Nope. Your lieutenant just told me. He signed a lease three months ago. All the personal details are there.”
Right on cue, the lieutenant handed his boss a single sheet of paper. It was xeroxed, and a little smudged, but the name at the top was clear. The detective stared at it, thinking. He couldn't shake the feeling that it was a name he remembered from somewhere. But the thought slipped away, like the flesh sliding off the poor bastard's bones.
The name on the lease was Carlos Hernandez.
W
ITH THANKS AND LOVE TO THE
entire Sheldon family, especially Alexandra and Mary, for all their kindness and support. I am also grateful as ever to my editors, May Chen and Sarah Ritherdon, for everything they do to whip my rough-and-ready manuscripts into shape; and to the entire team at HarperCollins for their professionalism and hard work. To my agents, Luke and Mort Janklow and Tim Glister in London, and to all at team Janklowâyou are the best. Finally, thanks to my wonderful family, especially my husband Robin, for coping with my midbook neuroses, and our four amazing children, Sefi, Zac, Theo and little Summer. Also to my darling sister Alice, to whom this book is dedicated. I'd be lost without you, Al.
The late novelist and screenwriter
SIDNEY SHELDON
remains one of the world's top bestselling authors, having sold more than 300 million copies of his books. He is the only writer to have won an Oscar
©
, a Tony, and an Edgar Award.
Guinness World Records
cites him as the most translated author in the world.
TILLY BAGSHAWE
is the
New York Times
bestselling author of
Sidney Sheldon's Mistress of the Game
and
Sidney Sheldon's After the Darkness,
as well as five other novels. She lives in Los Angeles, California, and London with her husband and children.
Visit
www.AuthorTracker.com
for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.
OOKS BY
S
IDNEY
S
HELDON
Angel of the Dark
After the Darkness
Mistress of the Game
Are You Afraid of the Dark?
The Sky Is Falling
Tell Me Your Dreams
The Best Laid Plans
Morning, Noon & Night
Nothing Lasts Forever
The Stars Shine Down
The Doomsday Conspiracy
Memories of Midnight
The Sands of Time
Windmills of the Gods
If Tomorrow Comes
Master of the Game
Rage of Angels
Bloodline
A Stranger in the Mirror
The Other Side of Midnight
The Naked Face
Cover photograph © by Ilina Simeonova / Trevillion
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
ANGEL OF THE DARK.
Copyright © 2012 by Sheldon Family Limited Partnership, successor to the rights and interests of Sidney Sheldon. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
ISBN 978-0-06-207341-9 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-0-06-212689-4 (international edition)
Epub Edition © APRIL 2012 ISBN: 9780062073433
12 13 14 15 16
OV/RRD
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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