Without another word, the two men quickly skirted the stainless steel table on opposite sides and approached the door. Dmitry pulled it open, stepping to the side as he did so. A cold, dense mist that completely filled the cooler’s interior from floor to ceiling began to waft out, swirling around their legs and layering itself over the autopsy room’s tiled floor. A moment later, with gathering clarity, two antique-style gurneys began to emerge within the cooler. Lying on the one on the left was Ethan Jameson’s remarkedly pale, supine, and naked corpse. To the Russians’ discomfiture his eyes were open, staring up into infinity. The other corpse was at least covered with a sheet.
“Well,” Dmitry said after a moment of silence. Both men were taken aback by the reality of having to deal directly with the dead body of someone they knew. “Let’s look on the bright side. At least we found him.”
“Yeah, lucky us,” Alexei responded. “Why are his eyes open? And why didn’t they at least cover him up?”
“We can worry about all that later,” Dmitry said. “Right now, we have to concentrate on getting him back to the Bennet Estate and into the lake. Let’s use the wagon he’s on to wheel him out to the freight dock rather than trying to carry him, which is going to be awkward to say the least. Then we can pull the truck around.”
“It’s called a gurney, not a wagon,” Alexei said.
“Who the hell cares,” Dmitry said with wave of dismissal. Stepping into the cooler, he reached out and tried to shut Ethan’s eyes, but the lids resisted. He then tried to raise one of Ethan’s hands but the whole arm moved instead. “He’s as stiff as a board.”
“It’s called rigor mortis,” Alexei said. “It will make it easier to handle him.”
“Wonderful,” Dmitry said sarcastically. “Let’s get this over with. I’ll push and you guide from your end.” He pocketed his flashlight and then squeezed between the two gurneys to position himself at the head of Ethan’s.
Grasping the gurney with one hand and holding his flashlight in the other, Alexei followed Dmitry’s suggestion and guided the gurney out into the room, avoiding the dissecting table. But then he held up when Dmitry called out to him to do so.
“Let me close the door to the cooler,” Dmitry said. A moment later he was back in position and recommenced pushing. “Since we didn’t have to break anything like a door or window to get inside the building, let’s make an effort to leave everything the way wefound it, including putting this gurney back into the cooler. That way the body won’t be discovered to be missing until they’re ready to do the autopsy. It will provide an element of confusion instead of immediately thinking they’ve been robbed.”
Alexei surprised himself by being able to laugh at Dmitry’s suggestion. He imagined that they would be causing Dr. Bob and his visiting pathologists a lot of confusion in the morning when they tried to do the autopsy.
The rest of the body snatch went smoothly, although it took longer than they had anticipated because it necessitated leaving the body in the receiving bay while they got the truck. Then, after getting the body into the truck’s flatbed, they’d followed Dmitry’s suggestion to return everything to how they had found it, meaning taking the time to put the empty gurney back in the cooler, closing all interior doors they had opened, and exiting back out through the same window they’d used to enter. It was with great relief when they were done and able to drive out of town.
During the four-mile drive out to the Bennet Estate, they were able to relax to the point of joking about how tense they’d been during the episode. They even spent some time voicing anger over having to suffer through the ordeal while Viktor and Nikolai were probably relaxing in the ornate library with after-dinner vodkas.
“When we get back, I’m going to insist they help getting Ethan Jameson out of the truck’s cargo bed and into the lake,” Alexei said toward the end of the drive. “I want to let them know I’m sick and tired of you and me having to do all the work.”
“I’m not sure that’s in your best interest,” Dmitry cautioned. On the way back it was his turn to drive with Alexei in the passenger seat. “I’m not sure you should poke the bear because you’re the onewho precipitated all this trouble in the first place by using Novichok, especially without their approval.”
Alexei hesitated for a moment thinking about what Dmitry said before admitting he was probably correct. Then as Dmitry turned in to the Bennet Estate’s lengthy driveway, he added: “All right, how should we handle this last part to make it as easy as possible on us?”
“I’m thinking I’ll drive directly out onto the lawn in front of the house and back up to the dock, so we won’t have far to carry the bastard. Then I’ll get a cinder block from the back of the house if you get a length of rope from the barn. Together we’ll rig the anchor, attach it to the body, then we’ll let him take his final dive off the diving board. It’s plenty deep there.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Alexei said. He was looking forward to putting this mini-complication caused by his use of Novichok behind him.
Five minutes later, they’d backed up within just a few feet of the dock before turning off the truck’s lights and engine. The moon was a bit lower in the sky than it had been earlier but it provided more than adequate light. It was a gorgeous summer night with a cool breeze. Across the lake, lights could be seen in the Hiram House.
Getting out of their respective sides, Alexei and Dmitry met at the back of the truck and lowered the tailgate. At this point there was no conversation. They’d put Ethan Jameson’s body onto the truck’s flatbed without bothering to cover it because they didn’t have a blanket. It was now at a very different angle than they’d left it, suggesting that it had been bouncing around.
Trying not to look at Ethan’s face, they slid the body out to the very edge of the tailgate before lifting it out and putting it on the ground. Then with Alexei at the head and Dmitry at the feet, theycarried it out to the end of the dock where they placed it at the base of the steps leading up onto the diving board. Returning to land, they wordlessly went their separate ways, Alexei heading to the barn and Dmitry taking the path up to the house.
Twenty minutes later, and after a significant amount of effort and jockeying the corpse, they’d succeeded in getting the rope looped through one of the holes in the cinder block and firmly tied around Jameson’s ankles. Dmitry supported the corpse upright at the very end of the diving board, which wouldn’t have been possible without the rigor mortis. Alexei squatted behind him, holding the cinder block.
“Okay, on three,” Alexei said, a bit out of breath from exertion. He then began to count. The moment he saidthree,Dmitry let go of Ethan Jameson while Alexei tossed the block as far out as he could. A sizable double splash resulted, but the sound quickly vanished into the night air and the moment it did, it was replaced by muted applause.
With surprise, both Alexei and Dmitry turned to see Viktor and Nikolai standing on the dock at the base of diving board’s stairs.
“Well done!” Viktor called out, flashing a thumbs-up. “After you boys get the truck back to the parking area, come into the library for a vodka. You both have earned it.”
Alexei and Dmitry afforded each other a surreptitious, disgusted look.
Chapter 14
Thursday, July 24, 9:05a.m.
Essex Falls, New York
From Jack and Laurie’s perspective, it had already been a marvelous day. Exhausted after returning home from the Nielsons’ dinner party relatively early the night before, they’d turned in around eleven and then had awakened before sunrise. Eager to begin their first full day in paradise, they’d bounded out of bed immediately and despite the morning chill had enjoyed a quick dip in the lake as the sun rose. They had then taken advantage of Bob’s thoughtfulness of stocking the refrigerator by making and devouring a full breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, toasted English muffins, and coffee, something they never did at home even on weekends. Following breakfast Laurie spent time doing a series of stretches outside on the porch, taking in the view while trying to iron out the kinks resulting from the previous afternoon’s overzealous Pilates. For his part Jack floated the canoe and went for a short paddle on the mirror smooth lake, amazed at the clarity of the water and the size of the trout feasting on insects along the shoreline.
