Sacred and Profane

Sacred and Profane
Faye Kellerman

The second book in the hugely popular Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus series from New York Times bestselling author Faye KellermanLos Angeles Police Detective Peter Decker had grown very close to Rina's young sons, Sammy and Jake, as he had to their mother, and he looked forward to spending a day of his vacation camping with the boys. A nice reprieve from the gruelling work of a homicide cop—until Sammy stumbles upon a gruesome sight . . .Two human skeletons, charred beyond recognition, are identified by a forensic dentist as teenage girls—and for Decker, the father of a sixteen-year-old daughter, vacation time is over. Throwing himself professionally and emotionally into the murder case, he launches a very personal investigation: a quest that pulls him deep into the crack dens of Hollywood Boulevard and painfully close to the children of the streets and a nightmare world he must make his own.

FAYE KELLERMAN

SACRED AND PROFANE

A PETER DECKER AND RINA LAZARUS NOVEL

Copyright

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Publisher 2014

Copyright © Faye Kellerman 1987

Cover photographs © Shutterstock.com (http://www.Shutterstock.com)

Faye Kellerman asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, 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.

Ebook Edition © January 2014 ISBN: 9780007536382

Version: 2016-03-24

Dedication

For my rocks of ages, past and present:

My father, Oscar, alav hashalom.

I miss you very much.

My mother, Anne.

My ingenious one and only, Jonathan.

And the three musketeers,

Jesse, Rachel, and Ilana.

Contents

Cover (#uc8daafe8-32e4-52ac-a80c-bc1e5e8b13b7)

Title Page (#u568e0ace-d267-5587-8d3b-aadeda5702d6)

Copyright

Dedication

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21