Devil Bones Quotes
"I’m a forensic anthropologist. I know death. Now it stalks me. This is my story."
"The trait of avoiding excess. Double order, please. Side of restraint. Hold the ego."
"The worst part of my job. There is no easy way to tell a mother and father that their child is dead."
"It’s the interminable meetings that I detest. And the faculty politics."
"The room was stifling, the topic poke-me-in-the-eye dull."
"Forensic anthropologists work with the recently dead."
"I love being a professor. I regret that my interaction with students seems more limited each year."
"I was starving. Totally engaged in processing the cellar, and nerve-fried by the underground context in which I was forced to work, I’d been oblivious to hunger."
"Skeletons often appear sinister to the uninitiated."
"There is no easy way to tell a mother and father that their child is dead."
"The guy’s got the personality of a blocked nostril."
"I am incapable of such tidiness, and suspicious of those who are."
"The stinky room. For decomps and floaters. My kinds of cases."
"Devil worship? Or underground Dumpster? The investigation is ongoing."
"Everyone knows mammal teeth come in two sets, baby and adult."
"Setting sentimental musing aside, I refocused on the science."
"The bone looked and felt solid, not porous or degraded like old cemetery remains or archaeological materials."
"Painting that face would be a sin. Like colorizing a Renoir."
"Killing the TV and lamp, I lay in the dark, tense and angry."
"The school portrait. Who was she? Had Skinny's decision been wise?"
"I thought about Andrew Ryan. I did miss him."
"Lyrics popped into my head. England Dan and John Ford Coley. I'm not talking 'bout moving in, And I don't want to change your life..."
"A belief system that combines two or more cultural and spiritual ideologies into a single new faith is called a syncretic religion."
"Each deity has a corresponding Catholic syncretism."
"The concepts of ashe and ebbo are fundamental."
"Priests and priestesses are known as santeros and santeras."
"Emerging, I found Birdie batting a blowfly around the bathroom floor. Before I could act, he ate it."
"Sanctuary from what? Day-Glo bass and eight-legged toads?"
"Everyone there was a veteran, used to murder, mutilation, and all the horror one human can inflict on another."
"They work hard at returning the dead to the earth. From a forensic perspective, bugs kick ass."
"The body lay with rump up, legs tucked, chest and face to the ground. Had there been a face."
"I felt, what? Relieved? Resigned? I wasn't sure."
"I’ve never been an autumn person. I find the season bittersweet, nature’s last gasp before the clocks are turned back and life hunkers down for the long, dark winter."
"Forget Johnny Mercer’s 'Autumn Leaves.' In my view the original French title had it right. 'Les feuilles mortes.' The dead leaves."
"Paintings, most modern, a few traditional and obviously old. Sculptures in wood and metal. An African carving. A mask I guessed was Indonesian."
"Though Charlie knew I’d knocked back my share of beers in high school, he didn’t ask about my changed relationship with booze. I liked that."
"I’ve seen it happen. Some holier-than-thou nitwit hits the airwaves, next thing you know folks are organizing down at the mini-mart to go out and kick ass."
"Ignore him. Lingo’s positioning for a run at a state senate seat and needs publicity."
"The kitchen was all stainless steel and natural wood. Charlie’s culinary efforts covered one granite countertop."
"And there’s too little of either, given a minimum PMI of forty-eight hours."
"You want to pray, you go to church. You want action, you go to T-Bird."
"All I know is, my grandma say you need something, T-Bird make it happen."
"The one ain’t got nothing to do with the other."
"I wanted Cliff to take care of me and the baby."
"If you like, I can make some calls, see what sort of aid might be available."
"That’s my private line, Takeela. Call anytime."
"That’s Cernunnos, the Celtic father of animals."
"He is the essence of the masculine aspect of the balance of nature."
"Wicca is a neopagan religion whose roots predate Christianity by centuries."
"Wiccans employ witchcraft exclusively for the accomplishment of good."
"We consider ourselves witches, yes. But we are not Satanists."
"Wicca incorporates specific ritual forms, the casting of spells, herbalism, divination."
"Wiccans perform no destructive or exploitive magic."
"I don’t have to sit still for your bullying."
"I was a messed-up kid. Four years ago, I discovered Wicca."
"Wicca is an Earth-oriented religion dedicated to a goddess and god."
"We believe it’s the ability to rise above destructive urges, to channel negative energies into positive thoughts and actions, that separates normal people from rapists and mass murderers and other sociopaths."
"In Wicca, magic is viewed as a religious practice."
"This town’s got more lawyers than a bayou’s got gators."
"I’m Asa Finney. I’ve done nothing wrong. Let the public know. This is religious persecution."
"Everything’s brown like the Greenleaf skull."
"Oh, yeah." Slidell waggled his cell and disappeared again.
"I'm sorry if I offended you, but I was concerned for your safety."
"Please take this as a token of my sincere apology."
"In today's climate of religious extremism, there are those who condemn beliefs they don't understand."
"Ours is a joyous religion born of kinship with nature. Wiccans celebrate life, we do not take it."
"With each breath receive blessings from the universe."
"You will see. Ours is a joyous religion born of kinship with nature. Wiccans celebrate life, we do not take it."
"Fear of women's power runs like a subtext through most of today's religions."
"Wiccans are modern pagans who imagine our first mother as the Goddess worshipped in prehistory."
"We want a different world here and now, one in which women and men are equal."
"Wiccans honor the feminine, but, first and foremost, we view our religion as a personal, positive celebration of life."
"Persecution of the sort sold wholesale by Boyce Lingo."
"I'm sorry, Bird." I wiped saliva from my cheek.
"I don't see it. After his wife died all Eddie wanted to do was go home, play his egghead music, and work crossword puzzles."
"He once said his former girlfriend looked like Pamela Anderson." Pinder snorted. "In his dreams."
"I decided to try another tack. 'How did you and Vince meet?' 'He came into the bar.'"
"Jimmy and Vince are friends, you know, both being on their own." She looked from me to Slidell and back. "Jimmy’s nice. Shy, you know? And kind of sweet."
"I was definitely not up to soothing Skinny’s wounded sensitivity."
"I know what you’re thinking. Another romp in the sheets, slut girl. That’s not what happened."
"The night Vince got out we stayed here, caught some TV and ordered a pizza. Cheap bastard."
"I’m talking about inside the compact bone, not in the marrow cavity."
"I'm neither a cop nor a scientist. To keep my work accurate I must rely on those actually involved in the investigations."
"It stretches our window for time of death. That's something."
"I got zero shut-eye last night. I’m going ten-oh-two for a couple hours."
"I like that in a— I started to say man — friend."
"Keep the leopard-skin thong. It was always my favorite."
"Jesus, Ryan. Somehow, Rinaldi figured all this out. Evans discovered that he knew."
"I keep seeing Klapec in that interrogation room. First, he lost his son. Now he’s probably murdered an innocent man."
"And maybe he runs bare-ass in crop circles under full moons."
"He's right, you know. They'll hunt you down and run you to ground. There's nowhere you can hide."
"Jimmy made a big mistake. He cut into my trade. I had to straighten up his thinking. Things got out of hand."