Bangkok. It was far away and yet it was George Camron’s hometown. Markey and the government would have a lot of trouble finding it. If they really tried, Riker could always have George destroy it.”
“Case solved.”
“I hope.”
“Do you think Riker knows you’re on to him?”
“I doubt it.”
“So calm down. We’re almost there.”
“You don’t understand.”
“What?”
Max leaned down and picked up the pencil. “Sara is alone with him.”
It was so cold.
Sara wrapped her arms around herself but it did no good. The frigid air cut through her skin to the bone. She looked down, coughing. Eric’s body was in a twisted fetal position. His eyes were closed, a bullet wound in his throat. She wondered how Michael had died. Had he been tortured or had it been quick and painless? She fought back tears and tried to think clearly. For the sake of their unborn child, she had to find a way out of this.
She tried the door, but it would not budge. Her cough had become relentless, racking her body with powerful jerks. She could feel the cold settle into the bottom of her lungs. She wondered if it was an infection. Her lips trembled. She felt weak, drained. She hunched her body into a small ball, her eyes darting about the small room. There were shelves filled with various codes. One test tube said 87m332. Another read 98k003. The beakers were labeled NaOH, SO2, H2SO4, H3PO4, HCl and CHCl3.
Michael. Her poor, beautiful Michael. Dead. How? Why?
The room was tiny. The walls and ceiling seemed to be closing in around her. Sara curled herself into a tighter ball, lowered her head, and sobbed gently. She had never known such loneliness, such despair. The cold grew unbearable. Her fingers became numb. She felt herself grow weaker and weaker. She tried to concentrate on a Blue Oyster Cult song in a bizarre attempt to keep herself awake.
But she felt herself slipping away.
But it was no good. Harvey was coming back soon and then it would be over. Her Michael was dead. He had joined the Reaper, and in the end, so would she.
Her eyes began to close.
25
Michael was still unconscious when they wheeled him into his room on the third floor. Dr. Sombat patiently filled Harvey in on everything that had happened.
“Your Lieutenant Bernstein is a brave man,” the Thai doctor said. “He saved Mr. Silverman’s life.”
“Did they capture the man who kidnapped Michael?” Harvey asked.
“Yes. He is in custody.”
“Has… has he said anything yet? Anything that might help solve this case?”
“I apologize, Dr. Riker, but I am not privy to that information.”
Harvey nodded. “Where is Lieutenant Bernstein now?”
“He had an emergency,” Dr. Sombat replied. “He drove off with Sergeant Monticelli. If there is nothing else, I have to get back to the airport.”
“No, nothing else. Thank you for all your help.”
“You are welcome. How can I get back to Kennedy Airport?”
“Ask the receptionist downstairs to call a taxi. Thanks again.”
They shook hands and Dr. Sombat departed, leaving Harvey alone with Michael in the quiet, dark room.
“Michael?”
No response. Harvey could see that Michael’s nose was broken. He had lost a considerable amount of weight.
“I’m sorry, Michael.”
Harvey stared down at his young friend lying helplessly in the bed. A tear ran down his cheek. He bent over and gently kissed Michael’s forehead. Then he turned to leave.
“Harv?”
He turned around. Michael looked up through the darkness with groggy eyes.
“I’m right here, Michael. You’re back now.”
His voice was barely a whisper. “Sara?”
“She left a few minutes before you got here,” he replied. “I left a message on the answering machine for her to call me.”
“Feel… feel weak.”
“I know. Try to get some rest. I’ll wake you when Sara gets here.”
Michael tried to nod. “Max got the Slasher.”
“I know,” Harvey replied, walking back toward the bed. He hugged his friend. “Go to sleep now, Michael. Everything is going to be okay. You want me to give you something?”
Michael shook his head and closed his eyes. Harvey quietly crept out of the room. Then he headed down the hallway, unlocked the door, and entered the laboratory.
“I’m sorry, Michael,” he said out loud. But there was no one to hear his words.
He took the gun out of his pocket and wrapped a towel around the barrel, using it as a makeshift silencer. No matter, really. The refrigeration room was soundproof once the door was closed. He had shot Eric in there and no one had heard a sound.
He crossed the lab. How was he going to get the bodies out? Harvey knew from firsthand experience how heavy deadweight could be. He would have to place the corpses in a plastic bag. Then he would instruct the nurses that he would take care of Michael for this evening on his own and that no one was to enter the third floor under any condition. That would give him the opportunity to drag the bodies to the elevator, head down to the basement, get them out through the tunnel George had used, and put them in the trunk of his car.
Then what?
He was not sure. Tie weights to their legs and dump them in the river. Wasn’t that what they always did in the movies? He would have to be careful. Wear gloves. Clean the lab from top to bottom.
He reached the door of the refrigeration room and leaned his ear against it. Cold. Well, what did he expect? And why did he put his ear against the door in the first place? What had he expected to hear through the thick door?
Idiot.
A world with no AIDS.
Harvey nodded to himself. He reached down and unlocked the padlock. Then he opened the door and pointed the gun at Sara.
Two floors below, Cassandra smiled at the security guard as she headed into the clinic. She tried to put a little bounce in her steps, tried to make her smile bigger, but it would not hold. In her right hand, she had a bag of Chinese takeout. Spare ribs, moo shu pork, General Tso’s chicken (Chinese generals cook?), and beef with broccoli, all packaged in those little white boxes Chinese restaurants use. The bottom of the bag no doubt had about 850 packets of duck sauce, soy sauce, and that mustard hot enough to remove paint. Then there were the usual fortune
