Dead Asleep by Jamie Freveletti Read Free Book Online Page B

handed Johnson a pen. While she read the paper on the clipboard, the man looked at Emma. “You don’t mess with a bokor. They bad. That skull means the evil one comes to get you.”
    â€œI don’t believe in voodoo,” Emma said. The man held her gaze with his dull eyes and emotionless face.
    â€œVoodoo bokor gonna kill you,” he said.
    â€œThat’s enough!” Johnson snapped out the command. “I’ll have no such talk around me.” The man shifted his look to her.
    â€œSorry, ma’am,” he said. He flashed Emma a sour look, turned and sauntered away. Emma watched the truck reverse down the driveway and disappear out the gate. Johnson frowned.
    â€œWhat an unpleasant man,” she said. She folded the yellow contract copy that he’d given her. “I’m not sure that I believe in voodoo either, but I do believe that humans have an almost unlimited drive to destroy each other when they want something that someone else has.”
    â€œInteresting choice of words. What do you think they want to take from me?”
    â€œI think they want to stop you from collecting the plants.”
    Emma thought so, too. It was the only logical explanation for both the man’s destruction in the garage and the skull in her bedroom.
    â€œIt’s not going to work. The contract I have requires that I collect them, analyze them, and deliver my results in record time. I’m not giving up. My company needs this contract. After breakfast I’m going to pay a visit to Security. Find out who is currently on the island.”
    Half an hour later she returned to the garage. She started the car and shifted it into reverse.
    â€œDon’t you leave that awful thing in here! Take it with you,” Johnson called to her from the driveway’s edge. Emma nodded.
    â€œCould you hand it to me?”
    Johnson shook her head. “Oh no, I’m not touching it.”
    Emma sighed before putting the car back into park. She returned to the skull, put the socks back on her hands, and placed it down into the foot well. Then she reversed out of the driveway and headed to the airport.
    Terra Cay was only twenty miles long and four miles wide. The mangrove swamp sat on the farthest end and the airport ran along the length. The short landing strip created a challenge for pilots, because it ended at the base of one of the hills. A mistake in landing could mean smashing into a wall of rock and dirt. Inclement weather only increased the risk. Several planes had crashed over the years, killing three pilots and four passengers. Extending the strip was not an option, because the other end managed to butt up against a bog. The area was chosen for the landing strip precisely because it was unsuitable for any other use.
    Island Security was located in a small clapboard ranch house a quarter mile up the hill from the landing strip. It had the advantage of being close to the airport and in full view of arriving airplanes. This was also its disadvantage. Emma winced at the noise of an incoming plane. She parked in front of the building and lifted the skull out of the foot well. She closed the door with her foot and headed up the stairs to the front porch of the house. The door opened before she knocked.
    â€œLatisha told me you were on your way,” Moore said. He looked down at the skull in her hands. “Bring it in. We’d like a look at it.”
    Emma moved through a narrow hallway and into the main room on her right, which was large and airy. Potted ferns and soft yellow walls made the room inviting, as opposed to imposing. Most of the island kept this image of tropical living without a care in the world. Several desks placed in rows held computers and phones. In the back there was another, rectangular office that ran along the width of the room. It had a picture window through which Emma could see two large flat screen televisions. One was set to the Weather Channel and the