As Lie The Dead by Kelly Meding Read Free Book Online Page A

coming, or what?”
    As he approached, I tossed a pair of Alex’s shoes in his general direction. Wyatt caught and slipped them on quickly, cinching the laces tight. He looked a little odd in too-large shoes and pants belted tightly around his waist, but he’d survive the indignity. I peered around him, just able to see Phin as he leaned over the counter to watch us.
    “Keep them here,” I said. “We’ll be back as soon as we’re able.” Leaving Joseph and Aurora behind in an unprotected apartment wasn’t how I envisioned my first act as their guardian, but I just didn’t see another choice. Dragging a very pregnant were-bird around the city while I tended to old business was not an option.
    “You won’t forget your promise,” Phin said. It wasn’t a question.
    “I gave you my word.”
    He nodded and returned to cooking breakfast. Something in his voice and the cool way he reacted to our sudden departure was unsettling. There was taking it in stride, and there was complete lack of surprise. As Wyatt and I walked down the corridor to theelevator, I couldn’t decide which I’d seen in Phineas. And that unsettled me even more.
    Our bus trip was brief, just long enough to eat the too-sweet toaster pastries, and ended two blocks over the Black River. The constant stop ’n’ start was seriously slowing us down. Besides, Mercy’s Lot was good for catching a cab in daytime, which we did with little issue, and continued our trek across downtown to the city’s largest and oldest hospital.
    St. Eustachius sat on the west bank of the Anjean River, about a mile north of where it connected to the Black River. The oldest part of the complex was a faded brick building that mostly housed the administrative offices. Half a dozen other, newer structures had sprung up around it over the years, giving it the look of a university campus rather than a large working hospital.
    The taxi dropped us off at the front entrance. Impressive glass doors mirrored the morning sunlight and hid the internal activity. I took two steps up the concrete sidewalk and froze. The hair on the back of my neck stood at attention.
    “What is it?” Wyatt asked, shoulder to shoulder with me.
    “It just occurred to me,” I said, blinking at my reflection in those shiny doors. “The last time I was here, I was running from the morgue in oversized sweats and then stole a doctor’s car.”
    “You stole a car?”
    Had I left that out? Probably. Figures it was the one thing he’d focus on. “More important than that,Wyatt, at least two of the doctors here saw me as a cold, frozen corpse, and then as a walking, talking, living person.”
    “Then we’ll steer clear of the morgue.”
    “Easier said than done if one of those doctors decides to take a stroll.”
    “Evy, this is the biggest, busiest hospital in thirty miles, with hundreds of people coming and going. The odds of running into two M.E.s in the middle of all that is minuscule.”
    I groaned. “Not now that you’ve jinxed us by saying it.”
    He nudged my elbow. “Let’s go. We’re wasting time.”
    My guard never let down as we navigated our way through the lobby, toward a bank of elevators. The strong odor of disinfectant followed us everywhere, mingling occasionally with someone’s aftershave or body odor. We joined another young couple at the elevators, each clutching the other nervously. An elderly woman approached and used a gnarled finger to punch the already-lit button. The scent of whiskey wafted from her.
    The elevator arrived and spilled out half a dozen passengers. We stepped on and moved toward the back so the others could load. Wyatt hit the button for 4, the young couple for 5. The whiskey matron just stood there, slightly hunched. As the doors started to shut, a voice from the lobby shouted, “Hold it!”
    The young man hit the Open button, and the doors retreated. A blur of blue scrubs and red hair skidded to a stop near the old woman, a stack of medical charts