Body Farm 2 - Flesh And Bone by Jefferson Bass Read Free Book Online

fear?”
    “Eternal vigilance,” she said. “I love the Internet; I couldn’t do what I do, the way I do it and where I do it, without e-mail and Google and all those other things. But cybertechnology is the best of tools and the worst of tools. Besides allowing people to do things faster and better than ever, it allows people to do things faster and worse than ever. Including letting kids get in way over their heads way before they realize it.”
    “I know you can’t put the genie back in the bottle, but how do you protect the kids? I mean, I don’t do that much on the Internet, but even so, I’m always getting e-mails promising to enlarge my penis or show me girls gone wild. Are there ways to filter that stuff out, keep kids from seeing it?”
    She made a face. “In theory. We’ve tried both CyberPatrol and Net Nanny, which promise to block that kind of stuff. But the reality is, even if they’re ninety-nine percent effective, which they’re not, even one percent of what’s out there is an enormous amount of smut. Hell, you know me, Bill; I’m a free-speech advocate, I give to Planned Parenthood and the ACLU, and I opposed the death penalty until I started to hear about the kinds of people whose handiwork you end up dealing with. But I swear, bleeding-heart liberal though I am, the parent in me thinks we need to get a whole lot more restrictive about what’s on the Internet.”
    “I agree,” I said. “But meanwhile, what do you do to protect Tyler and Walker?”
    “We don’t let them go into chat rooms. We don’t let them download files—if they come across some reference to something they need, Jeff or I will download it for them. We only let them e-mail with a very limited group of friends—we’ve created a list of approved contacts, and the computer blocks anything to or from anybody who’s not on that list. Mostly, though, we try to keep a pretty close eye on what they’re doing—that’s why neither one of them will ever have a computer in their bedroom. Not till they’re in college, anyhow.”
    “Sounds like you’re being super careful.”
    “We are,” she said, “but we can’t be with them all the time. They have computer access at school, at the library, at friends’ houses. We do our best to make sure those places are pretty strict, too, but sooner or later they’re bound to get curious and get into stuff I wish they wouldn’t. All we can do is hope and pray that by that time, they’re pretty well grounded.”
    CHAPTER 6
    I HEARD A SHARP rap at my front door, but before I could get there, the door rattled open and Jess Carter’s voice rang out, “Bill? I’m here and I’m hungry. Where are you? Or where’s the food?”
    “Back here in the kitchen,” I called. “Straight back.” Her boots clomped on the slate floor of the entryway. I realize it’s just a function of the materials used to make the heels, but I’ve always found it fascinating that women’s shoes tend to announce themselves so much more loudly than men’s. The designers’ strategy, if that’s what it is, works well, at least on me.
    She appeared in the kitchen doorway holding a cloth shopping bag in each hand. She set them down on the granite counter. “You still a teetotaler?” I nodded. “As I suspected. I came prepared.” She reached into one of the bags, pulling out a fifth of vodka and a bottle of cranberry juice cocktail.
    “What’s in the other bag? After-dinner cigars?”
    She made a face. “Yuck, no. Something much tastier. You mentioned steak and asparagus and potatoes, but you didn’t promise dessert.” She fished a low, wide box out of the other bag. The picture showed a golden brown fruit pie, which the label proclaimed as “Razzleberry.”
    “What kind of berry’s a razzleberry?” I asked. “Never heard of it.”
    “Them,” she said. “Two kinds, raspberry and blackberry. Good on their own, fabulous together. The perfect couple, you might say. Much like us.” She faced