Free Second Opinion by Michael Palmer Page A

may just get better if you stay away from hot liquids like coffee. And alcohol, too.'
    'That's it?'
    'Well actually, no. Most doctors who know about rosacea, and I'm one of those, feel that stress is causative as well. Merriman and Bla-lock published a paper in 2004—April, I think, in the Journal of
    Dermatology —where they applied a stress scale to rosacea patients and pretty well proved it. So, since you've got to be under stress from your change in jobs from the police force to here, that could be contributing to your outbreak. Maybe a nice dinner will be just what the doctor ordered, so to speak. Do you still want to go?'
    'Of course I do.'
    Thea sensed from Dan's expression that she might have said something wrong, but he still wanted to have dinner with her, so it couldn't have been that wrong.
    'Great,' she said.
    'You seem very… serious.'
    'Lots of people think that at first because I don't really try and hide the fact that I know a lot of things. But the people I work with think I'm very funny. Smart but funny. My brother Dimitri tells me I'm one of the funniest people he's ever met. Speaking of Dimitri, there's a favor you could do for me.'
    Thea didn't come close to picking up on the astonishment in the man's eyes.
    'Name it,' he said. 'I owe you for the medical consultation.'
    'This involves putting on your policeman's hat—I mean your former policeman's hat.' 
    'Go on.'
    'Our father was the victim of a hit-and-run driver.'
    'I heard that.'
    'Well, my brother Dimitri is very bright—smarter than me. He has a theory that whoever hit Father did it on purpose. He's made some computer animations that seem to prove his point. But apparently no one, including our twin brother and sister, seems interested in what they show. Could you come by sometime soon and look at the animation and talk about Dimitri's theory with him?'
    'If you want. I suppose I could do that.'
    Why would I ask you to do something unless I wanted you to do it? Thea wondered.
    Just as quickly, she answered her own question. 'If you want' was sort of a figure of speech—a polite confirmation that Dan Cotton respected her and would be happy to do what she asked.
    Dr. Carpenter would be pleased.

CHAPTER 10

    'Please take off your clothes in that tent, sir, and throw them outside the door. Then put on the wet suit we have left for you. The suit should fit you, but snugly. Then, once we are certain you have no wires and no weapons, we'll be ready to go. It's not as if Mr. Rose doesn't trust you in particular, it's that he doesn't trust anyone.'
    'I understand,' Gerald Prevoir said.
    And he did.
    Throughout his life, Prevoir had survived and supported himself by following directions to the letter. As a Marine in Afghanistan over most of a decade he had learned to kill and to enjoy it. Then he had dropped his honorable discharge, Purple Heart, and Bronze Star medal into the bottom drawer of his bureau and had signed on as a mercenary in Kazakhstan and later in central Africa.
    It was five years ago that he came under his current employ. He was between jobs, spending time with his latest girlfriend at his beach house in the Keys when he saw the ad in Soldier of Fortune.
    WANTED: JACK-OF-ALL-TRADES WILLING TO GET IT AND GO, AND EXPERIENCED IN SAME. MUST BE ABLE TO FOLLOW DIRECTIONS TO THE LETTER, NO QUESTIONS ASKED. SALARY NEGOTIABLE.
    'Willing to get it and go,' in Soldier of fortune terms, meant willing to kill. That had never been a deal breaker for him, so he responded to the magazine box number listed. He never met his employer, nor had he to this day. An initial interview took place before a camera in a motel room in Kittery, Maine, during which he was questioned by a man—or woman—whose voice was electronically distorted.
    After he was hired, his instructions arrived via cell phone or a CD sent to a post office box, and he responded the same way. The pay, deposited in Prevoir's blind account in a Cayman Islands bank, was excellent, and the