Chapter summaries Badlands Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

Chapter 16: Academic Shadows and Evasive Histories

[Spoiler Warning: This page reveals key plot developments from Chapter 16 of Badlands. Stop reading now if you want to avoid spoilers.]

Summary

Nora Kelly and FBI agent Corrie Swanson visit the University of New Mexico to interview academics connected to the victim, Molly Vine. Their first stop is Dr. Ralph Lemmon, the slovenly professor who now holds the prestigious chair once occupied by Vine’s PhD advisor, Carlos Oskarbi. Lemmon paints an unflattering portrait of Oskarbi as a charismatic womanizer who drew a circle of devoted graduate student “groupies,” possibly including Molly. He describes annual summer field schools excavating Gallina culture sites in remote canyons, hinting at unprofessional conduct. He deflects further questions to Dr. Olivia Bellagamba.

Bellagamba, a polished and stylish contrast, presents a fiercely loyal view of Oskarbi, denying any impropriety and expressing visible offense at Corrie’s direct questions. She describes the Gallina as a mysterious, annihilated people, but when pressed for specific details about the excavation sites, student lists, or Oskarbi’s records, she becomes evasive and unhelpful, claiming ignorance and directing them to official channels. The interview yields few concrete facts but a strong impression of a closed circle protecting its—and its absent leader’s—secrets. The chapter ends with Corrie’s frustration at the stonewalling.

Key Events

  • Interview with Ralph Lemmon: Nora and Corrie meet the disheveled professor, who confirms Vine was part of Oskarbi’s inner circle and speculates about their relationship.
  • Revelation of Oskarbi’s “Groupies”: Lemmon describes a charismatic professor surrounded by devoted, mostly female graduate students who joined him on extended summer digs.
  • Oskarbi’s Abrupt Departure: The team learns Oskarbi left academia twelve years earlier to return to Mexico and his peyote-based spiritual pursuits, abandoning his students.
  • Introduction of the Gallina Mystery: The culture is described as distinct from surrounding Puebloans, mysteriously originating and then being brutally wiped out around 1200 CE.
  • Interview with Olivia Bellagamba: The team shifts their questioning to the polished Archaeology Center director, a former member of Oskarbi’s field group.
  • Bellagamba’s Evasion: She claims a poor memory for the details of the field schools, the location of Oskarbi’s notes, and the identity of the students, frustrating Corrie’s investigation.
  • Stonewalling on Key Evidence: Bellagamba is unable or unwilling to explain how Molly might have obtained the rare green prasiolite lightning stones found with her remains.

Character Development

  • Nora Kelly: Functions as the lead interviewer, leveraging her academic background. She is tired and on edge from a poor night’s sleep, haunted by the digitized wax-cylinder melody.
  • Corrie Swanson: She adopts a secondary role initially but sharpens her approach as the interviews progress, showing her FBI assertiveness. Her frustration with Bellagamba’s obstructionism is palpable as she shifts from polite inquiry to skeptical, pointed statements.
  • Ralph Lemmon: The disheveled, gossipy professor provides unvarnished, cynical opinions. His use of the word "creature" to describe Molly and his insinuations about Oskarbi reveal an unprofessional, somewhat envious character.
  • Olivia Bellagamba: A sleek and protective contrast to Lemmon. Her loyalty to “the professor” is absolute, and she actively obstructs the investigation with a frosty demeanor, controlled body language, and strategic memory lapses. Her defiance first appears when her mentor is questioned and solidifies when asked about Molly’s potential relationship with him.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

  • Secrets and Closed Circles: The tight-knit, insular nature of Oskarbi’s former students is a dominant motif. Both interviews reveal a group with shared experiences they are unwilling to fully disclose, creating a wall of silence around events from twelve to sixteen years ago.
  • Academic Personas and Hypocrisy: The chapter contrasts two academic archetypes: the slovenly, loose-lipped male professor and the elegant, fiercely protective female administrator. Both represent different, yet equally unhelpful, responses to institutional inquiry, highlighting hidden tensions within the university.
  • The Past’s Reach: The unresolved events of over a decade ago—Oskarbi’s departure, Molly’s ABD status, the unpublished excavations—directly fuel the present-day mystery. The haunting tune from the wax cylinder disturbs Nora’s sleep, symbolizing how the past is literally and figuratively a recurring nightmare.
  • The Mysterious Gallina: The description of the Gallina culture—a people who were completely and brutally annihilated, with no modern descendants claiming them—serves as a grim parallel to the isolated and unexplained fate of Molly Vine herself.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter shifts the investigation away from forensic pathology and into the murky waters of academic politics and past relationships. It identifies the primary suspects and witnesses not as strangers, but as a cabal of former graduate students with a shared, protected history. The interviews don’t provide answers; they reveal the depth of the resistance Nora and Corrie will face. Bellagamba’s overt obstruction and Lemmon’s salacious hints establish Oskarbi as a central, absent figure of immense importance, transforming the search for a killer into a hunt for a man who vanished into Mexico a decade ago. The mystery deepens as the crucial link between the remote Gallina excavation sites and the lightning stones becomes the new central puzzle.

Study Questions and Answers

  1. How do the contrasting physical descriptions and attitudes of Professors Lemmon and Bellagamba reflect their willingness to cooperate with the investigation?

    • Lemmon’s rumpled, cluttered appearance matches his gossipy, unguarded, and mildly unprofessional demeanor; he offers speculation freely but lacks hard facts. Bellagamba’s sleek, CEO-like polish mirrors her controlled, protective, and ultimately obstructive behavior. Her presentation is a suit of armor for the secrets of Oskarbi’s circle.

  2. What is the primary significance of the Gallina culture to the central mystery of Molly Vine’s death?

    • The Gallina culture provides the direct link between the victim, her mentor, and the physical evidence. Molly’s field work was exclusively on Gallina sites, and the two rare prasiolite stones found with her body are only otherwise known from Gallina contexts. This strongly suggests the key to her fate lies hidden in the unpublished results of those remote summer excavations.

  3. Why does Bellagamba become uncooperative when Corrie asks if Molly Vine had a romantic relationship with Professor Oskarbi?

    • The question violates a protected sanctum. Bellagamba’s immediate offense and “chilly” response show she perceives this as an attack on Oskarbi’s professional integrity and the group’s idealized memory of him. Her refusal to even entertain the possibility, despite Lemmon’s implications, betrays a deep, almost dogmatic loyalty that effectively ends her cooperation on all subsequent, critical questions about records and site locations.

Navigate: