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CHAPTER 2

Five e, Miranda and I pulled away fro UT Medical Center, and crossed the Tennessee River Far below the highway bridge, a ribbon of frigid green swirled between banks sheathed in ice

A thought occurred to hway to Interstate 40, I angled the truck onto Kingston Pike and threaded the winding streets into hborhood, Sequoyah Hills

“I thought ere racing to a death scene in Oak Ridge,” said Miranda

“We are,” I said “But I just thought of so to my house first”

“I hope what you’re thinking we etting hungry enough to chew my arm off”

“The cupboard’s bare,” I said, “so youDon’t eat both arms — I’ll need you to take notes at the scene”

“Your concern is deeply touching”

“I know,” I said “So vegetarian, I think there’s a Snickers bar in the glove box” Evidently she did, because she opened the latch and ruistration papers and maintenance records

“There better not be a mousetrap hidden in this — YOUCH!” She juhed as she fished out the candy bar “You are so gullible,” she said “It’s like shooting fish in a barrel”

“I knew you were faking,” I said “But I also knew you’d sulk if I didn’t play along” As I pulled into the driveway, I tapped the ree

Miranda unwrapped one end of the Snickers bar — the giant size — and bit down “Youch!” she said again, this ti is hard as a rock” She studied the faint impressions her teeth had made in the frozen chocolate “Lucky I didn’t breakUT for workers’ comp”

“You’d file a claihed out of the state,” I said

She flashed , sarcastic smile — Miranda had one of the best s at one corner of the Snickers with her right molars, the immense bar clenched in her fist “You stay here and work on that,” I said “I’ll be right back”

I found what I was looking for in the garage — an oblong case e plastic — and stowed it in the rear of the pickup As I got back in the cab, Miranda’s eyebrows shot up quizzically I se Miranda’s jaorking hard — evi

dently she had sheared off a huge hunk of the candy bar Finally she mumbled, “Ih at wuh I ink ih ih?”

“What? I can’t understand a word you’re saying when you mumble like that”

“Ih AT wuh I INK ih ih?!”

“The problem here,” I said, “is not that I’ with your mouth full”

She rolled her eyes but sed hard, and I could see her running her tongue along the front and sides of her teeth to swab off the chocolate and caraain “Is that what I think it is?”

“Is hat you think it is?” She popped me one on the shoulder, hard “Youch,” I said “Oh, youI put in the back? It is if you think it’s a Stihl ‘Farm Boss’ chainsaw, uessed — and the fact that it was pronounced “steel” A manly name for a manly power tool

“Why on earth are you bringing a chainsaw to a death scene? You planning to dis?”

“I used to be a Boy Scout,” I said “It’s always a good idea to be prepared”

“Yeah, well, it’s always a good idea to be sane, too,” she said, “but I don’t see you taking giant steps in that direction at the moment”

“Watch and learn, grasshopper,” I said “Watch and learn”

We drove the twenty-five e in silence Near-silence, actually, broken only by the grinding, s the rest of the Snickers bar

As we topped the last rise before dropping down the four-lane into Oak Ridge, Miranda pointed at the Cuh atop Buffalo Mountain, a serpentine line of white wind turbines reared against the azure sky The three-bladed rotors — they looked like the world’s largest airplane propellers — flashed as their tips caught the sun’s rays and whirled the by how far the turbines towered above nearby trees, they must have stretched nearly four hundred feet into the sky