Every Dead Thing

## Overview

*Every Dead Thing* (EDT) is the first novel in the Charlie Parker series. Connolly writes in the Introduction about how he had spent 6 months nailing down the Prologue.

The major themes are grief and regret, but also about hope and forgiveness. For Connolly, this book was about his protagonist turning away from his tragic past, and instead developing empathy. Connolly states that he initially expected that the transformation of Parker from revenger to empath would take two books, but realized it could be done in one "hour glass shaped" novel. Indeed, the device of false identities is neatly mirrored in both halves of the book. By the end - Parker has developed a great well of empathy that motivates him in the rest of the series.

Of the series, EDT is one of the least concerned with the supernatural. While certain characters - notably Tante Marie - appear to be attuned to it, Charlie Parker's visions are ambiguous; he's not certain they are "real" and believes they are more likely a product of his guilt and grief.

## Synopsis

### Prologue

The prologue begins just before Christmas with Charlie Parker, an NYPD cop, returning home after a night of drinking to find his wife, Susan, and daughter, Jennifer, brutally murdered. They have been mutilated - most notably with their faces removed - and displayed in a macabre pose resembling a pieta.

He spends the next several months guilty and grieving. His police friends ostracize him, and he only finds support from a few quarters: his friend Angel and Angel's lover Louis, an FBI agent named Woolrich, and the people at the Colony - a religious community in Maine that helps addicts get back on their feet. He relates how Woolrich is one of his closest personal friends, and - while Woolrich is divorced from his wife and estranged from his daughter, he would often spend time with Parker's family. Eventually Parker resolves to track down Susan and Jennifer's killer. In his search, he finds a man who is selling children as sex slaves, tracks him down into a bathroom, and brutally murders him. The murder is unsolved, but there are some in the police force who suspect his involvement.

### Part One - For I am every dead thing ... I am re-begot / Of absence, darkness, death; / things which are not

In order to pay the bills, Parker begins to work as a Private Investigator. One of his cases is to apprehend Ollie Watts, who has jumped bail. As Parker is about to do so, Ollie and his girlfiriend are assassinated. Parker gives chase, but someone shoots and kills the assassin and speeds off.

Woolrich, now Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the FBI field office in New Orleans, has heard a story from a mystic - *Tante* Marie Aguillard - who claims to have had a vision about a girl who was murdered by man she calls the Traveling Man. In the vision, the victim's face was removed - which is similar to the mutilation performed upon Susan and Jennifer. Woolrich has Parker come down to help check out the lead. While there, Parker asks after Woolrich's most recent girlfriend - "Crazy Judy." Woolrich explains that Judy - a nurse - has taken a job in California and their relationship has ended. When they visit Tante Marie, it becomes obvious that Woolrich is in a relationship with Tante Marie's daughter, Florence.

Back in New York Parker's friend and one-time partner on the NYPD, Walter Cole, asks him to do him a favor and, on behalf of the wealthy philanthropist at the non-profit he works with, investigate the disappearance of a woman, Catherine Demeter. The non-profit has been scandalized by the recent disappearance of a child, and the philanthropist, Isobel Barton, wants someone to work discreetly. Parker meets with Barton, who explains that Catherine was dating her stepson Stephen Barton, and she has become quite fond of her, and is worried at her sudden disappearance. Parker begins digging in to the situation and discovers that Stephen Barton is loosely connected with a Mob family, the Ferrera's - "the old man" and his youngest surviving son, Sonny. There is some bad blood between the elder Ferrera and Sonny, and people have noticed that the elder Ferrera's lieutenant, Bobby Sciorra, has been very active lately, and the chances are one of the Ferrera's had Ollie killed for some reason.

Parker breaks into Catherine's apartment and finds that she had placed several calls to a Sheriff Granger and other authorities in her hometown of Haven, Virginia. When Stephen Barton turns up dead and dumped in a sewer, suspicion falls on the Ferreras, but this does not seem like a Ferrera job. Parker learns that there is a contract out on him.

The Traveling Man calls Parker and taunts him, and delivers the face of Parker's daughter preserved in a glass jar. This is the catalyst for Parker to go to Haven and try to save Catherine Demeter.

### Part Two - Though changed, I shall arise the same

On the way to Haven, Parker recognizes that he is being tailed. While he loses the tail, eventually the killers find him in Haven, and he kills one of them, and hospitalizes the other.

He discovers that there were a series of child murders thirty years ago in Haven. Catherine Demeter's sister was one of the children killed. The killings stopped when an heiress - Adelaide Modine - attempted to abduct a child in a neighboring town. Everyone assumes that this must mean Modine is the child killer along with her brother, since as a woman she is incapable of abducting the children by herself. A posse gathered and hanged Adelaide's brother. Adelaide's charred remains were found in an abandoned house that had deliberately been set on fire. Parker talks to Connell Hyams, a lawyer and son of the town doctor at the time, and Walt Tyler - the father of one of the first (black) children abducted. He discovers the location of the house where the children's bodies were found.

Parker visits the ruins of the house, and finds the trap door down to the basement. He unlocks the door and descends, to find the bodies of Sheriff Granger, as well as Catherine. Connell Hyams attempts to lock him in the basement, but is killed by Bobby Sciorra who materializes out of nowhere. It is obvious that Hyams was Modine's accomplice, not her brother, and that he had falsified the dental records for his father to find and misidentify the burnt corpse as Adelaide Modine, thus allowing Modine to escape.

When Parker checks in with the police, he learns that the hospitalized assassin has been killed, and immediately recognizes a pattern with Ollie and realizes that it was Bobby Sciorra covering up for the Ferreras. Parker uses the keys on Hyams' body to gain entry to his house, and discovers records that link Hyams to a wine warehouse in Flushing owned by Sonny Ferrera.

Parker races back to New York, where Angel and Louis have begun casing the warehouse. The trio breaks in to the warehouse to discover that one of the storage rooms in the basement has been used as a torture chamber and burial ground for multiple children; Angel discovers the whole thing was being recorded. They find the body of the boy who had disappeared while in the care of the non-profit, and the boy is still clutching a piece of evidence that links him to Isobel Barton. Bobby Sciorra shows up, but is killed by Louis.

#### Spoilers

Parker goes to confront old man Ferrera, and finds that he has killed his son. Ferrera confesses that Sonny had taken an interest in child torture and helped provide the location for Barton and Hyams to film the abuse. Ollie had happened upon Sonny's stash of tapes and a child that Sonny had abducted, and so Sciorra killed Ollie to protect Sonny and the family. But the elder Ferrera had realized that this had gone too far and that he had to kill his only remaining son.

Parker deduces that Catherine Demeter had recognized Isobel Barton as Adelaide Modine when she met her boyfriend's stepmother, and had called Sheriff Granger. Hyams had intercepted the calls and killed Catherine when she showed up in Haven, and then killed the Sheriff to make sure no one could link the two. Parker goes to the Barton residence and finds a corpse in the hallway whose facial features and teeth had been smashed, and dressed to look like Isobel Barton. He discovers that the kitchen gas has been turned on, and pots and pans have been crammed into the microwaves to create an explosion, and barely manages to escape the house. He sees Barton/Modine flee, and pursues her, forcing her car off the road. She survives the crash, and attacks Parker. He shoots her, and she declares that she knows who the Traveling Man is before the car catches fire and she is immolated.

### Part Three - The concavities of my body are like another hell for their capacity

Florence Aguillard, Tante Marie's daughter, calls Parker in a panic and explains that her mother told her the Traveling Man was coming. Parker immediately leaves for New Orleans. When he arrives, he meets Woolrich and other FBI agents and local police - including John Morphy - and they go to the Aguillard home. They find first Tee Jean (Tante Marie's youngest son) and then Tante Marie herself brutally murdered, eviscerated, and posed. Florence is discovered at the home, and commits suicide.

At the funeral, Raymond Aguillard (Tante Marie's eldest son) confirms his mother's vision and relates that he has seen a ghost at a specific location in Honey Island, down around Pearl River. He gives Parker a map on the back of a pack of cigarettes. Parker further learns that Tee Jean and Tante Marie both had ketamine in their system, a drug which keeps you conscious but suppresses the ability to move; they both were very much aware as they were being mutilated and murdered. Like Tante Marie, Parker has a vision of a female victim in an underwater container.

Louis, Angel, and Rachel Woode (a criminal psychologist who previously worked with Walter Cole on developing a profile of the Traveling Man) come down to New Orleans to help Parker. Woode's is continuing her profile of the Traveling Man, and notes some of the phrases that he uses in the phone conversations - notably "Our sin was not pride, but lust for humanity." She explains that it was only after St. Augustine that the Devil's fall from grace was because of Pride; prior to that the Book of Enoch held sway and a) described a fiery hell, b) posited that Lust was the reason for the fallen angels. It seems that the Traveling Man sees himself as a demon.

A fingerprint found at the scene of the Aguillard killings links to Tony Remarr, an underling of the Joe Bonnano (or Joe Bones) crime family. Joe Bonnano and the Fontenots are locked in a feud. David Fontenot - one of the leaders of the Fontenot family with his brother - then mysteriously turns up murdered in Honey Island.

Parker deduces that Joe Bones sent Remarr to the Aguillard house in order to shake her down to buy her property, and guesses that he saw the aftermath and fled. He further suspects Remarr in the death of Fontenot, but feels that someone else must have lured Fontenot out to Honey Island and then tipped off Remarr. Looking for answers, Parker confronts Joe Bones - who gives him no information. He tracks Remarr down to a girlfriend's house with Louis and Angel. When they arrive, they find Remarr brutally murdered and displayed. Rachel points out the similarities between the displayed victims, and a series of medieval physiological studies.

Charlie and Rachel go to David Fontenot's funeral, and end up in a gun fight when Joe Bones' men ambush the services. Rachel is forced to shoot someone. Afterwards, Charlie and Rachel have sex.

Charlie visits Morphy, and the two decide to go to Honey Island and check out the location that Raymond Aguillard marked. They find several drums at the bottom of a lagoon and find - in one of them - the body of Lutetia Fontenot, with signs that she, too, was killed by the Traveling Man. Charlie visits Luther Fontenot - the leader of the Fontenot family - because he reckons that Fontenot is going to move on Joe Bones; Parker wants to be there to find out from Bones who tipped off Remarr. Parker goes with Fontenot when they attack the compound, but Bones still will not give up any information, and Fontenot kills him and the rest of his gang.

Rachel is disgusted with Parker. Parker visits Morphy and his wife one last time, but there is no new information. Parker has a vision of another victim in an underwater container. Seemingly at the end of the line, Louis and Angel leave to return to New York. Parker and Rachel are about to leave, when the police arrive and arrest them for the murder of Morphy and his wife, who have been murdered by the Traveling Man and posed.

Woolrich and the federal authorities believe they have a suspect - a janitor who worked at a hospital in New York close to where Parker lived. He originally came from Baton Rouge and has an ex-wife, who studied care giving and reported that her husband was very interested in her anatomy work. The authorities track down and kill the janitor in the bayous, where they find a shack filled with the type of jar used by the Traveling Man to send Jennifer's remains to Parker.

#### Spoilers

Parker and Rachel are cleared, but are told to leave New Orleans immediately. Morphy's partner Delacourt arrives to take them to the airport, but instead takes them to another crime scene; a dredge has pulled up another container and inside is another victim of the Traveling Man. The small group realizes that the Traveling Man must have inside information, and so try to keep this news very secret while they attempt to discern the identity of the victim. Parker leaves Rachel at a motel to get some rest when he learns that the victim was actually Woolrich's daughter and was killed in December, around the same time that Susan and Jennifer were killed. He meets with Woolrich in a bar, and Woolrich claims to have heard from his daughter recently. Parker excuses himself to process the information, and when he returns, Woolrich is gone. He races back to the motel, but finds that Woolrich has taken Rachel.

He desperately tries to think of where the Traveling Man/Woolrich would have a safe house, and finally is able to track down "Crazy Judy's" house. Parker checks with the hospital Judy was supposed to have gone to, but none of them have any idea of what he's talking about. A quick canvas reveals that Judy's neighbors haven't seen her in awhile because she left for a job, but her boyfriend Woolrich has been around keeping the place in order.

Parker breaks in to the house and finds Rachel naked, suspended upside down, and obviously paralyzed with ketamine. He also finds Woolrich, and confronts him. Woolrich explains that he is trying to send a lesson to humanity, and killed his daughter "because he could." He starts to cut Rachel, keeping her body between himself and Parker. Eventually he shoots Parker with a ketamine dart, but Parker grabs his gun and kills Woolrich.

### Epilogue

The book ends in a rather indirect fashion. Parker recounts somewhat dreamily that - like his mother before - he retreats to Portland, Maine and to his grandfather's house. He keeps in touch with Angel and Louis, but Rachel refuses to return his calls and he is estranged from Walter Cole - who cannot reconcile Parker's penchant to mete out revenge. Parker looks forward to starting anew and fixing up his grandfather's house.