Free Honour Among Thieves by Jeffrey Archer Page A

several different teams working with him during the seven hours in the
operating theatre. He’d told them he needed fresh help whenever he began to
tire. No one ever questioned T. Hamilton McKenzie inside the hospital, and only
he had seen the final result. He had kept his side of the bargain.
    She
parked the Ford Taurus – America’s most popular car – a hundred yards from the
house, but not before she’d swung it round to face the direction in which she
would be leaving.
    She
changed her shoes in the car. The only time she had nearly been caught was when
some mud had stuck to the soles of her shoes and the FBI had traced it to
within yards of a spot she had visited a few days before.
    She
swung her bag over her shoulder and stepped out onto the road. She began to
walk slowly towards the house.
    They
had chosen the location well. The farmhouse was several miles from the nearest
building – and that was an empty barn – at the end of a track that even
desperate lovers would have thought twice about.
    There
was no sign of anyone being in the house, but she knew they were there,
waiting, watching her every move. She opened the door without knocking and
immediately saw one of them in the hall.
    ‘Upstairs,’
he said, pointing. She did not reply as she walked past him and began to climb
the stairs.
    She
went straight into the bedroom and found the young girl sitting on the end of
the bed reading. Sally turned and smiled at the slim woman in the green Laura
Ashley dress, hoping that she had brought another book with her.
    The
woman placed a hand in her bag and smiled shyly, before pulling out a paperback
and passing it over to the young girl.
    ‘Thank
you,’ said Sally, who took the book, checked the cover and then quickly turned
it over to study the plot summary.
    While
Sally became engrossed by the promised story, the woman unclipped the long
plaited rope that was attached to the two sides of her shopping bag.
    Sally
opened the book at the first chapter, having already decided she would have to
read every page very slowly. After all, she couldn’t be sure when the next
offering might come.
    The
movement was so fast that she didn’t even feel the rope go round her neck.
Sally’s head jerked back and with one flick her vertebra was broken. Her chin
slumped onto her chest.
    Blood
began to trickle out of her mouth, down her chin and onto the cover of A Time
to Love and a Time to...
    The
driver of the limousine was surprised to be flagged down by a traffic cop just
as he was about to take the exit ramp onto the freeway. He felt sure he hadn’t
broken the speed limit. Then he spotted the ambulance in his rear-view mirror,
and wondered if they simply wanted to pass him. He looked to the front again to
see the motorcycle cop was firmly waving him onto the hard shoulder.
    He
immediately obeyed the order and brought the car to a standstill, puzzled as to
what was going on. The ambulance drew in and stopped behind him. The cop
dismounted from his motorcycle, walked up to the driver’s door and tapped on
the window. The chauffeur touched a button in the armrest and the window slid
silently down.
    ‘Is
there a problem, officer?’
    ‘Yes,
sir, we have an emergency on our hands,’ the policeman said without raising his
visor. ‘Your patient has to return to the Ohio State University Hospital
immediately. There have been unforeseen complications. You’re to transfer him
to the ambulance and I will escort them back into the city.’
    The
wide-eyed driver agreed with a series of consenting nods. ‘Should I go back to
the hospital as well?’ he asked.
    ‘No,
sir, you’re to continue to Cincinnati and report to your office.’
    The
driver turned his head to see two paramedics dressed in white overalls standing
by the side of the car. The policeman nodded and one of them opened the back
door while the other released the seatbelt so that he could help the patient
out.
    The
driver glanced in the rear-view mirror and watched