model in an old-fashioned hair-spray ad. “Like it?” I wiggled a thumb horizontally, halfway between thumbs-up and thumbs-down. “I have a brand-new cranial suture under here,” she said, “so they’ve duct-taped me back together for now. But once the bone knits and the hair grows, I’m good as new.”
“That’s pretty damn good,” I said. The white gauze glowed in the early light, and she could almost have passed for a medieval saint, the ones with the dinner plates painted behind their heads.
“I thought I’d lost you, Miranda,” I said. “I was so afraid I’d lost you.”
“But you didn’t lose me,” she said, “you saved me. Against all odds, you saved me.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
It’s always a pleasure to thank people who have been kind enough to help us. It’s a long list, and even at that, we’ve probably left some folks out. If you’re one of those, we do apologize!
We’re grateful to several other forensic anthropologists-all products of the UT Anthropology Department’s graduate program-whose research we’ve drawn on in this book: Joanne Devlin, Steve Symes, and Elaine Pope have done fascinating experiments to explore how cars burn and how fire affects flesh and bone. Angi Christensen-now serving as the FBI’s staff forensic anthropologist-has extensively studied the use of frontal sinuses in human identification (for her Ph.D. dissertation) and notso-spontaneous human combustion (for her M.S. thesis). Rick Snow, the staff forensic anthropologist for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, knows firsthand-thanks to the Noble, Georgia, crematorium scandal-what it takes to identify hundreds of uncremated bodies.
Dave Icove, a superb arson investigator and whip-smart engineer, increased our understanding of fires, and of people who set them. Roger Nooe, a retired UT professor of social work (who now works for the Knox County public defender’s office), provided a remarkable look at the world of the homeless in Knoxville, as did Maxine Raines of Lost Sheep Ministry and Lisa Wells and Donna Rosa of Volunteer Rescue Ministry. Roger, Lisa, and Maxine also bravely allowed us to use their real names in the book.
Helen Taylor-the real-life Helen-welcomed us into East Tennessee Cremation Services, showing us what an impeccably run crematorium is like.
Art Bohanan continues to allow us to fictionalize him, and continues to be a close friend, as well as a remarkable source of information about fingerprints, other trace evidence, police work, and life in general.
Karen Kluge-the hostess with the mostest-provided a quiet and elegant writing refuge, without which this book could not have been completed on time (or almost on time, anyway).
Heather McPeters, a fast and brilliant reader, praised the good parts of the first draft and helped make the not-as-good parts better. So did our copy editor, Maureen Sugden, who went above and beyond the call of duty.
We are deeply thankful for the faith and encouragement of our editor, Sarah Durand, and our publisher, Lisa Gallagher, who have made us feel so welcome at William Morrow. Sarah’s able assistant, Emily Krump, keeps the wheels turning smoothly a surprising amount of the time, and always leaps in to help when we need something unexpectedly and quickly. We’re also thankful for the fine work of the Morrow art and production staff-especially our production editor, Andrea Molitor-for turning our bare-bones typescript into beautiful books, sometimes on very tight schedules!
The work doesn’t end when a book is published. At Morrow, no one knows that better than our publicist, the tireless Buzzy Porter. Buzzy and Ben Bruton have performed Herculean labors to publicize our books, and we’ll be very grateful-just as soon as we recover from the book tour! The sales and marketing staff at Morrow have also done a wonderful job building demand for our books. So have freelance videomeister Buck Kahler and Web designer Jack Hardcastle, the creative minds behind Jefferson Bass.com.
Susan and Jim Seals and Mary Jo Tarvin have volunteered many hours of their time to help make our book signings run like clockwork. Their graciousness, thoughtfulness, and generosity are remarkable. Similarly, Donna Griffin-the Anthropology Department’s secretary-is helpful in more ways, on more occasions, than we can even begin to keep track of.
Our agent, Giles Anderson, never ceases to amaze us; we appreciate the fine job he’s done of keeping us off the streets and gainfully employed these past several years.
Last, but far from least, we’re especially grateful to the many booksellers and readers who have embraced us, our books, and our characters so warmly. Many thanks, y’all.
— Jon Jefferson and Dr. Bill Bass: Jefferson Bass
