Kaiser put the Suburban in park and got out. 'Stay here, Alex.'
She slammed the dashboard with her hand as Kaiser ran back to the house. Then she counted to five, got out, and sprinted after him.
CHAPTER 51
Alex stood outside Chris's room, wiping her eyes with Kleenex given to her by a nurse. She had been trying for five minutes to summon the courage to walk in and tell Chris that his wife was dead, but for some reason, she couldn't manage it. The irony was unbelievable. She had butted into Chris Shepard's life because she'd believed that his wife was trying to kill him. Now his wife lay on a table with a pathologist cutting a Y-incision into her chest.
When Alex crept into Andrew Rusk's garage behind John Kaiser, she hadn't had the slightest inkling that she would find a body there. Lethal biological agents, maybe, or bags of gold coins-anything but Thora Shepard. The woman Alex had always seen wearing only the finest clothes had been rolled in a paint-stained drop cloth and folded into the rear compartment of an SUV.
'May I help you, ma'am?' asked a passing nurse.
'No, thank you.' Alex stuffed the Kleenex into her pocket and walked into Chris's room.
When she saw him shivering in the bed, she told herself that this was the wrong time to tell him about Thora. What good could it possibly do? It would surely harm his chances of winning his battle against an unknown illness. Dr. Clarke had warned her that Chris might be suffering. At the suggestion of Peter Connolly, Clarke had administered yet another antiviral drug-this one experimental-and Chris's reaction had been yet another fever.
'Alex?' he whispered. 'Come closer. I don't think I'm contagious.'
She walked over to his bed, took his shaking hands in hers, and kissed him on the cheek. 'I know.'
He responded with a weak smile. 'Sympathy kiss?'
'Maybe.'
He jerked his hands away and hugged himself during a particularly violent bout of shivering. 'Sorry.'
'You don't have to talk now.'
He gritted his teeth, then gave his hands back to her.
She wanted to distract him, but she didn't know how. 'So Ben is at Dr. Cage's house?'
'Yeah. Tom's wife is great, but Ben's really scared. I wish I was in good enough shape to have him here.'
'What about the chemotherapy option? You still haven't taken any chemo drugs?'
'No. After what I've learned about the Virus Cancer Program-and Tarver's primate lab-I'm more convinced than ever that he injected me with some sort of retrovirus. No virus can induce cancer in a matter of days, so the way to attack it right now is with antiviral drugs.' Chris struggled to shift on the bed. 'I don't want to risk getting leukemia or lymphoma by taking melphalan or something else just as dangerous.'
Alex squeezed his hands. 'I think you just don't want to lose your hair.'
He closed his eyes, but the ghost of a smile touched his lips.
'Are we friends, Chris?' she asked softly.
His eyes opened, questioning her without words. 'Of course we are. I owe you my life. If I live through this, that is.'
'I've got to tell you something else about Thora.'
'Oh, God,' he said wearily. 'What has she done?' Sudden fear flashed in his eyes. 'She hasn't taken Ben, has she?'
Alex shook her head. 'No.'
He stared up from the pillow without changing expression. His eyes seemed the same, but she knew that inside, the tenuous hold that he had on reality was tearing loose. After studying her face for a few moments, he saw that she had spoken the truth. 'How?' he whispered.
'Somebody killed her. We're not sure who yet. Probably Rusk or Tarver.'
Chris blinked once. 'Killed her how?'
'She was beaten to death with a blunt instrument. Probably a claw hammer.'
Alex saw despair in his eyes, and then he rolled over to face the wall.
'I didn't want to tell you,' she said helplessly, 'but the idea of someone else telling you was worse.'
The back of his head was shaking, as though in denial of the news. But she knew he had believed her. 'Where's Thora now?' he asked.
'They're doing a postmortem on her.'
She heard a sharp exhalation. Chris knew too well what that meant in medical terms.
'Ben doesn't know, does he?'
'No, no.'
'Could he hear it on TV or anything like that?'
'No.'
'I need to see him.'
Alex had already taken care of this. 'He's on his way.' She glanced at her watch. 'He should be here any minute, actually. I called Tom Cage as soon as we-as soon as I knew. Tom went to check Ben out of school, and he promised to have him here as fast as possible.'
Chris sighed heavily. 'Thank you for doing that. Tom deals with death every day. He'll know how to handle Ben.'
'Will you look at me, Chris?'
After nearly a minute, he rolled over and looked at her with red-rimmed eyes. She was about to speak when he said, 'Help me up.'
'What? You shouldn't-'
'Come on.' Pulling against her hands, he managed to bring himself into a sitting position. He was still shivering and panting, but his eyes held only determination. 'You can go now.'
'I'm fine right here.'
Chris's eyes narrowed. 'Fine? Why aren't you out trying to find Tarver?'
'They won't let me. They've turned me into a goddamn bystander.'
'So? You never waited for permission before. And the only way you're going to save Jamie-or me-is by nailing Tarver. Only he can convict your brother-in-law now. And only he can tell the doctors what he shot into me. Without that knowledge, it won't matter that I have Ben. I'll die before he grows out of Little League.'
Alex was stunned by the anger in Chris's voice and eyes. She was trying to think of some reassuring reply when her cell phone vibrated in her pocket. It was Kaiser. She pressed SEND and held the phone to her ear.
'Tell me something good, John.'
'Solve this puzzle, and I'll give you the best news you ever had.'
'What are you talking about?'
'I'm sitting with your alleged friend Neville Byrd. He's recanted his statements about you and admitted that he was hired by Eldon Tarver.'
Alex closed her eyes in relief. 'How did you manage that?'
While Kaiser answered, Alex clicked her cell phone's speaker function, so that Chris could listen in.
'When Mr. Byrd and his attorney heard the words
