Bug Man Suspense 3-in-1 Bundle (50 page)

In the same way, it was reported that between one-third and one-half of all New Orleans Police Department officers had deserted their posts following the storm. This, in fact, was another urban legend; only 15 percent of the NOPD's officers failed to report for duty, many because they themselves were victims of the storm. I allowed Nick Polchak to believe this urban legend—that half of the NOPD had deserted—because that's the report that was circulating in those early days. Nick would have had no way to know that the number had been grossly exaggerated, and so he would have accepted it—just as many of us did.

Though my story required that I repeat this urban legend, I would like the reader to understand that it did not turn out to be true. The NOPD's officers are dedicated and committed individuals, many of whom repeatedly risked their lives in the rescue efforts following Katrina, and I believe they deserve our respect and admiration.

YOU CAN HELP THE PEOPLE OF NEW ORLEANS

The following is a list of some of the fine organizations either providing direct relief assistance to victims of Hurricane Katrina or collecting funds on behalf of other relief efforts. They would greatly appreciate your contributions; please visit their individual Web sites if you wish to do so.

American Red Cross
www.redcross.org

Direct Relief International
www.directrelief.org

Habitat for Humanity International
www.habitat.org

World Vision
www.worldvision.org

All of these organizations meet the
Standards for Charity Accountability
set by the BBB Wise Giving Alliance. For more information, visit their Web site at:
www.give.org

A TIMELINE OF HURRICANE KATRINA

Friday, August 26, 2005—Landfall minus three

Hurricane Katrina crosses Florida and moves into the Gulf of Mexico, gathering energy from the warm seas. At 10 p.m. CDT the National Hurricane Center predicts that Katrina will strike the town of Buras-Triumph, Louisiana, about sixty-five miles southeast of New Orleans. This early prediction proves to be uncannily accurate.

Saturday, August 27—Landfall minus two

By 5 a.m. Katrina is a Category 3 storm. By 9 a.m. officials in the parishes closest to the Gulf issue a mandatory evacuation order. In the parishes surrounding New Orleans—Jefferson, Orleans, and St. Bernard—the evacuation order is only voluntary.

Sunday, August 28—Landfall minus one

By 7 a.m. Hurricane Katrina is a Category 5 storm with sustained winds of 175 mph and gusts up to 215. At 10 a.m. the National Weather Service issues a bulletin predicting “devastating” damage. At noon the Superdome is opened for those who cannot flee the city.

Monday, August 29—Landfall

At 6:10 a.m. Katrina makes landfall, but flooding in residential areas begins an hour and a half earlier due to an eighteen-foot storm surge pushed ahead of the storm. The levees along both sides of the Industrial Canal are quickly overtopped; by 7:45 the levees along the eastern side fail completely, allowing a twenty-foot wall of water to rush into the neighborhood and wash houses off their foundations. By 8 a.m. water is seen rising on both sides of the Industrial Canal; one hour later there is six to eight feet of water in the Lower Ninth Ward. By 10:30 a.m. both the London Avenue Canal and Seventeenth Street Canal levees fail, flooding downtown New Orleans.

Tuesday, August 30—Landfall plus one

Sandbagging of the Seventeenth Street Canal levee fails. Governor Blanco estimates that 50 to 100,000 people remain trapped in the flooded city. Officials call for anyone with a boat to assist in the rescue efforts.

Wednesday, August 31—Landfall plus two

Hurricane Katrina is downgraded to a tropical depression. Eighty percent of the city is now underwater; floodwaters in the city and in Lake Pontchartrain finally equalize at three feet above normal sea level, leaving the average home in six to nine feet of water. The NOPD is ordered to abandon search and rescue efforts in order to control widespread looting in the city; a curfew is put into effect.

Thursday, September 1—Landfall plus three

National Guardsmen, accompanied by supply trucks and buses, finally begin to arrive in number at the Superdome, transporting evacuees to the Astrodome and Reliant Center in Houston.

Sunday, September 4—Landfall plus six

Evacuation of the Superdome is completed.

Monday, September 6—Landfall plus eight

The Seventeenth Street Canal levee breach is finally repaired and officials begin to pump water out of the flooded city. Sixty-seven pumps will be able to remove more than five million gallons per minute, but officials estimate that the pumping could still take a month.

Wednesday, March 1, 2006—Landfall plus six months

DMORT finally closes down its operations in Louisiana. During its six months of tireless efforts, about a thousand DMORT volunteer team members processed approximately 1100 victims of Hurricane Katrina as well as 612 disinterred caskets from flooded cemeteries, some of which were discovered thirty miles from their original place of burial.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank the following individuals and agencies for their assistance in my research for this book: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Central Library Photo Collection; Diane Galatas, Public Relations Director for the Orleans Parish Office of Communication Services; Robert Ricks of the National Weather Service in Slidell, Louisiana; Michael Smith, Deputy Circuit Librarian of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals; Marcia Kavanaugh, Public Information Officer, Orleans Parish Criminal District Court; and all the others who took the time to respond to my e-mails, letters, and calls.

I would like to say a special thanks to my research assistant, Tommy Downs, for patiently tracking down the countless facts and statistics that formed the basis of this story. And thanks to all the others who contributed to the creation of this book: my literary agent and friend, Lee Hough of Alive Communications; story editor Ed Stackler for his insight into plot, pacing, and point of view; copy editor Deborah Wiseman for her unerring red pen; my publisher, Allen Arnold, and my editor, Amanda Bostic, of Thomas Nelson for their helpful suggestions on the story; and the rest of the Nelson staff for their kindness, dedication, and patience with demanding writers.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

TIM DOWNS
has received high acclaim for his novels, including a Christy award for
PlagueMaker
. He is also the author of
Chop Shop
and
Shoo Fly Pie
. Tim lives in North Carolina with his wife and three children.

ALSO BY TIM DOWNS

PlagueMaker
Head Game
Shoo Fly Pie
Chop Shop

less
than
DEad

OTHER NOVELS BY TIM DOWNS

First the Dead
Head Game
Plague Maker
Chop Shop
Shoofly Pie

less
than
DEad

TIM DOWNS

© 2008 by Tim Downs

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Author is represented by the literary agency of Alive Communications, Inc., 7680 Goddard Street, Suite 200, Colorado Springs, CO 80920,
www.alivecommunications.com
.

Thomas Nelson books may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected].

Publisher's Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental.

Scripture quotations are taken from the
Holy Bible
, New Living Translation, © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Downs, Tim.
Less than dead / Tim Downs.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-59554-307-3
1. Polchak, Nick (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Forensic entomology—Fiction. 3. Entomologists—Fiction. 4. Murder—Investigation—Fiction. 5. Virginia—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3604.O954L47 2008
813'.6—dc22

2008019840

Printed in the United States of America
08 09 10 11 12 QW 6 5 4 3 2 1

When Saul saw the vast Philistine army, he became frantic with fear. He asked the Lord what he should do, but the Lord refused to answer him, either by dreams or by sacred lots or by the prophets. Saul then said to his advisers, “Find a woman who is a medium, so I can go and ask her what to do.”

His advisers replied, “There is a medium at Endor.” (1 Samuel 28:5–7)

For my beautiful Joy,
My sunrise, my sunset, my shining light each day

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