The second book in the Duncan Kincaid / Gemma James series, 1994

As always, appreciation is due to The Every Other Tuesday Night Writers: Diane Sullivan, Dale Den-ton, Jim Evans, Viqui Litman, John Hardie, and Aaron Goldblatt, with special thanks to Terry Mayeux, who gave me much needed encouragement through the last chapters of this book.

I'd like to thank my editor, Susanne Kirk, and my agent, Nancy Yost, for their friendship as well as their professional expertise; and last but by no means least, my parents, Mary and Charlie Darden, for their unwavering support.

Jasmine Dent let her head fall back against the pillows and closed her eyes. Morphine coats the mind like fuzz on a peach, she thought sleepily, and smiled a little at her metaphor. For a while she floated between sleeping and waking, aware of faint sounds drifting in through the open window, aware of the sunlight flowing across the foot of her bed, but unable to rouse herself.

Her earliest memories were of heat and dust, and the unseasonable warmth of the April afternoon conjured up smells and sounds that danced in her mind like long-forgotten wraiths. Jasmine wondered if the long, slow hours of her childhood lay buried somewhere in the cells of her brain, waiting to explode upon her consciousness with that particular lucidity attributed to the memories of the dying.