And Then You Die by Iris Johansen Read Free Book Online

wasn't pretty.” Kaldak stood beside her, his hand on her waist supporting her. “If you'd listened to me, you wouldn't have had––”
    “Shut up.”
    “Was it your sister?”
    She shook her head. “Rico.”
    “The guide.”
    “I sent him to the nearest town to call the public health department. I thought when the trucks came that he'd reached–– I never dreamed anything had happened to him. He wasn't ill when he left Tenajo.” She whirled on him. “What happened to him? Did you––”
    “I didn't touch him. I didn't even know he'd been intercepted.”
    “He wasn't sick, I tell you,” she said fiercely. “Not any more than I was.”
    “It's been two days. If he took ill after he left Tenajo, he could have died within six hours after he manifested symptoms.”
    “That soon?” she whispered.
    “Quicker if he wasn't strong and healthy.”
    He had been strong. Young and strong and full of life. She shuddered as she remembered the Rico she had seen in that drawer. “I don't know if I believe you.”
    “I don't care if you do or not,” he said flatly. “But he probably died of the disease. Otherwise there wouldn't have been any reason to perform an autopsy.” He turned away. “Wash your face. I want you looking normal when we drive through the gates.”
    She automatically turned on the water and started splashing water in her face.
    “Open the door.” Kaldak was dragging the guard from outside through the autopsy room.
    “What are you doing?”
    “I don't want him found right away.” He shouldered the door open himself and pulled the guard toward the refrigerated drawers.
    “Is he dead?”
    Kaldak nodded.
    “Did you have to kill him?”
    “No, but it was surer.” He pulled out the empty drawer, fitted the guard inside and slammed it shut. “Dead men don't get in the way.”
    Cold, calm, without expression or feeling. “What about the morgue attendant?”
    “He's alive. I tied him up and put him in the broom closet down the hall.”
    “Why didn't you kill him too?”
    He shrugged. “He's only a scared rabbit. No threat.” He took a towel from beside the sink. “Stand still.”
    “What are––” He was rubbing her left cheek with the towel. She knocked his hand aside and stepped back. “Stop that.”
    He tossed her the towel. “Do the other cheek. You need color. You're too pale.”
    And everything must look normal, everything must go smoothly. Never mind that dead body stuffed in the drawer. Never mind Rico, whose life had been snuffed out.
    “Do it. We have to get out of here. I left your Josie in the jeep and there's a chance she might wake up and start howling.”
    Josie. Yes, she had to think of Josie.
    She scrubbed her right cheek with the towel, then threw it on the counter.
    He picked it up and hung it neatly on the rack. “Let's go.”
    Within a few minutes they had climbed into the jeep and reached the guard post at the high gate surrounding the facility.
    “Keep your mouth shut.” Kaldak leaned forward so that the light fell full on his face as the guard came out of the booth. “Open the gates.”
    The guard hesitated.
    “What are you waiting for? You know me,” Kaldak said. “Open the gates.”
    The guard peered uneasily past him at Bess and then at the canvas bag at her feet. “I've no instructions about a woman leaving the facility.”
    “I'm giving them to you now. Open the gates.” He smiled. “Or better still, let's call Esteban. Of course, waking him up will make him very angry. Almost as angry as this delay is making me.”
    The guard hurriedly stepped back and pushed the lever to open the gates.
    Kaldak pressed the accelerator, and the jeep leaped forward. The gates closed behind them.
    “Will he call Esteban?” she asked as she reached down for the bag. She unzipped it and lifted Josie into her arms. She was still sleeping deeply.
    “Maybe.” He pressed the accelerator harder. “Although Esteban wouldn't be surprised that I took you away from