Costal de huesos

Stephen

KING
BAG OF BONES

Hodder & Stoughton

Grateful acknowledgement is made for permission to reprint excerpts from the following copyrighted material: 'All She Wants to Do Is Dance' by Danny Kortchmar. Copyright © 1984 WB Music Corp. All rights reserved. Used by permission. WARNER BROS. PUBLICATIONS U.S. INC., Miami, FL. 33014 'As Time Goes By' by Herman Hupfeld. Copyright © 1931(Renewed) Warner Bros. Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission. WARNER BROS. PUBLICATIONS U.S. INC., Miami, FL. 33014 'Don't Worry Baby' by Brian Wilson, Roger Christian, Jay Siegel, Philip Margo, Henry Medress, Mitchell Margo. Copyright © 1964 Irving Music, Inc. Renewed, Assigned to Irving Music, Inc, and Careers-BMG Music Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission. WARNER BROS.PUBLICATIONS U.S. INC., Miami, FL. 33014 Seferis, George; Collected Poems. Copyright © 1967 by Princeton University Press, 1980 by Edmund Keetey and Philip Sherrard Greek M. Seferiades 1972, 1976. Reprinted by permission of Princeton University Press. 'Welcome to the Jungle' words and music by W. Axl Rose, Slash, Izzy Stradlin', Duff McKagen & Steven Adler. Copyright © 1987 Guns N' Roses Music(ASCAP) International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Cherry Lane Music Company.

Copyright © 2001 by Stephen King First published in Great Britain in 1998 by Hodder and Stoughton A division of Hodder Headline PLC The right of Stephen King to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act1988. 10 9 8 7 6 54 3 2 1 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library ISBN 0 340 71819 6 Designed by Peter Ward Typeset by Palimpsest Book Production Limited, Polmont, Stirlngshire Printed and bound in Great Britain by Mackays of Chatham PLC Hodder and Stoughton Adivision of Hodder Headline PLC 338 Euston Road London NW1 3BH

This is for Naomi. Still.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

To an extent, this novel deals with the legal aspects of child custody in the State of Maine. I asked for help in understanding this subject from my friend Warren Silver, who is a fine attorney. Warren guided me carefully, and along the way he also told me about a quaint old device calledthe Stenomask, which I immediately appropriated for my own fell purposes. If I've made procedural mistakes in the story which follows, blame me, not my legal resource. Warren also asked me-rather plaintively — if I could maybe put a 'good' lawyer in my book. All I can say is that I did my best in that regard. Thanks to my son Owen for technical support in Woodstock, New York, and to my friend(and fellow Rock Bottom Remainder) Ridley Pearson for technical support in Ketchum, Idaho. Thanks to Pam Dorman for her sympathetic and perceptive reading of the first draft. Thanks to Chuck Verrill for a monumental editing job--your personal best, Chuck. Thanks to Susan Moldow, Nan Graham, Jack Roman s, and Carolyn Reidy at Scribner for care and feeding. And thanks to Tabby, who was there for meagain when things got hard. I love you, hon. S.K.

Yes, Bartleby, stay there behind your screen, thought I; I shall persecute you no more; you are harmless and noiseless as any of these old chairs; in short, I never feel so private as when I know you are here. 'Bartleby' HERMAN MELVILLE

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again . . . As I stood there, hushed and still, I could swear that...