“All right!” Dmitry said as he positioned himself to see if he could push open the chest-high window by using the tips of his fingers against the sash’s horizontal muntins. “This is the defining moment. Are you ready?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Alexei said after a final glance around the area.
Dmitry pushed, and to his surprise, the window slid open with comparative ease. He immediately withdrew his hands and both men held their breaths, listening intently. Several seconds passed and then a full minute. Silence reigned.
“I think we are in the clear,” Dmitry ventured.
“Seems that way,” Alexei responded. “All right let’s do it.” Cupping his hands, he positioned himself to give Dmitry a leg up. A moment later Dmitry, who’d disappeared headfirst into the darkened room with Alexei’s help, reappeared. He in turn helped Alexei come in also headfirst through the window by grabbing his belt and pulling.
“So far so good,” Alexei said as he and Dmitry took out their flashlights and turned them on, covering the beams with their free hands. They quickly surveyed the room, which was a storeroom with cabinets on one side and open shelves on the other.
Believing they’d be leaving through one of the building’s main entrances, Dmitry shut the window before Alexei opened the doorto the hallway. The view was down a long dark corridor with what appeared to be the front double doors at the very end. The interior of the building was deathly quiet.
“How should we do this?” Alexei questioned. “This place is too big to search haphazardly. We could be here all night.”
“Agreed. Let’s start at the front and work our way back.”
Moving quickly and silently down the central corridor while being careful to cover their flashlights, they eventually found themselves in Dr. Bob’s waiting room in the only occupied office suite in the building. As they were about to check out the connected examination rooms, they heard tires crunching gravel in the parking area outside while car headlights briefly flashed through the window, sweeping around the waiting room before disappearing.
Nervously both men immediately switched off their flashlights, quickly flattened themselves against the wall on either side of the window, and then carefully looked out. To their distress, an Essex Falls police car had come into the parking area and pulled to a stop. As they watched holding their breaths, a uniformed officer opened the driver side door and stepped out leaving the door ajar, the car’s headlights on, and the engine idling.
“Do you think there was a silent alarm?” Alexei questioned in a terrified whisper.
“No idea,” Dmitry responded in an equivalent fashion.
“What should we do?”
“No idea.”
“I think we should dash back to the storeroom where we came in.”
“Hold up a second,” Dmitry said. “The doors are locked. I can’t imagine the police have a key. We might be safer in here than out there.”
In the next few seconds, they heard the front doors rattle as if the officer had grasped the handles and shook them. But then it stopped almost immediately. In the next instant, the officer reappeared and then walked past the window, heading east along the side of the building before again disappearing from view.
“Maybe it’s just a routine check,” Dmitry whispered hopefully.
In the next instant they could hear distantly the overhead door on the freight dock rattle as if someone was checking to make sure it, too, was secured. A moment later the police officer reappeared and climbed back into his squad car, pulling the door closed behind him. He then could be seen making an entry into his computer. A few seconds later the car made a rapid, sharp U-turn and disappeared from view.
Neither Alexei nor Dmitry moved or said a word. It was Dmitry who finally broke the silence. “Getting this damn body is going to be the death of me,” he managed, still whispering. “I’m in a cold sweat. I’m thinking we should just give up. It would be far easier to cause the damn forensic pathologists to disappear.”
“Without a doubt,” Alexei agreed, allowing himself to speak using a near normal volume but under the stress his voice cracked. After clearing his throat, he continued: “But, as I said earlier, the result of two highly regarded pathologists disappearing in this small, isolated town could very well be nearly the same as if Novichok is identified. We’d undoubtedly come under suspicion as the only other people staying on such an isolated lake.”
“All right. You’re right. Let’s get on with this. Should we split up or stay together?”
“Stay together in case the police car returns,” Alexei said. “What we need to do is find out where the autopsies are done.”
“I agree. Let’s do it!”
With renewed vigor, they rapidly passed through the clinical areas of Dr. Bob’s office, with quick glances into the various examination rooms, and then into a larger procedure room. Beyond the procedure room, they found themselves in the building’s receiving area with its closed and locked overhead door. Just beyond the receiving area they felt encouraged.
“This has to be where the autopsies are done,” Alexei said. They’d entered a good-sized, totally blue tiled room. Since there were no windows, they allowed their flashlights to shine unimpeded. The aged stainless steel dissecting table stood out dramatically in the center casting weird shadows on the opposite wall.
“Without doubt,” Dmitry said. He literally shivered. “I don’t like to imagine what has gone on in here. Morozit po kozhe!”
“Let’s not lapse into Russian,” Alexei warned. “But it chills my skin as well. More important, do you see what I see?” He pointed his flashlight beam to the wall behind the dissecting table, illuminating what was obviously an insulated door.
“I do indeed,” Dmitry said. “Let’s hope we’ve struck gold!” He briefly motioned as if he was praying.
