Chapters 11, Death in 10,000 Fragments Summary and Analysis

The Meek-Jennings case is the most perplexing in Maples's career, occurring only twenty miles from his door. It starts with a terrible fire and takes up to a year and a half of Maples' and his students' time. They discover that they are dealing with four deaths, occurring in two pairs, both in fires. Two suicide notes look fake, and Maples seeks to prove that hunch. He is initially overwhelmed by all the contents of the vinyl examiner's bags. Ten thousand bone fragments are mingled and crushed inside. The two murders that Maples is responsible for in Gainesville are tied to a similar double murder in New Hampshire that occurs only a few days before. There is now great political, legal and media pressure on them.

The mind of the murderer seems to taunt the...