Free Four Warned (Quick Reads 2014) by Jeffrey Archer Page B

from the door knob. The minister banged
loudly on the door, but there was no response.
    ‘Open the door,’ he demanded. The concierge obeyed without hesitation. The minister marched into the room, followed by the manager and the concierge. Chenkov came to an abrupt halt
when he saw two still bodies lying in bed. The concierge didn’t need to be told to call for a doctor.
    *   *   *
    Sadly, the doctor had attended three such cases in the past month, but with a difference – they had all been locals. He studied his two patients for some time before he
passed a judgement.
    ‘The Siberian disease,’ he confirmed, almost in a whisper. He paused and, looking up at the minister, added, ‘The lady undoubtedly died during the night, whereas the gentleman
has passed away within the last hour.’
    The minister made no comment.
    ‘My initial conclusion,’ continued the doctor, ‘is that she probably caught the disease from drinking too much of the local water –’ he paused as he looked down at
Dick’s lifeless body–‘while her husband must have contracted the virus from his wife, probably during the night. Not an uncommon occurrence among married couples,’ he
added. ‘Like so many of our countrymen, he clearly wasn’t aware that –’ he hesitated before saying the word in front of the minister – ‘
Siberius
is one
of those rare diseases that is not only infectious but highly contagious.’
    ‘But I called him last night,’ protested the manager, ‘and asked if he’d like to see a doctor, and he said it wasn’t necessary, as his wife was on the mend and he
was confident that she would be fully recovered by the morning.’
    ‘How sad,’ said the doctor, before adding, ‘if only he’d said yes. It would have been too late to revive his wife, but I still might have saved him.’

 
Amy’s Diary
Maureen Lee
Beyond the Bounty
Tony Parsons
Bloody Valentine
James Patterson
Blackout
Emily Barr
Chickenfeed
Minette Walters
Cleanskin
Val McDermid
The Cleverness of Ladies
Alexander McCall Smith
Clouded Vision
Linwood Barclay
A Cool Head
Ian Rankin
A Cruel Fate
Lindsey Davis
The Dare
John Boyne
Doctor Who: Code of the Krillitanes
Justin Richards
Doctor Who: Made of Steel
Terranee Dicks
Doctor Who: Magic of the Angels
Jacqueline Rayner
Doctor Who: Revenge of the Judoon
Terranee Dicks
Doctor Who: The Silurian Gift
Mike Tucker
Doctor Who: The Sontaran Games
Jacqueline Rayner
A Dreadful Murder
Minette Walters
A Dream Come True
Maureen Lee
The Escape
Lynda La Plante
Follow Me
Sheila O’Flanagan
Four Warned
Jeffrey Archer
Full House
Maeve Binchy
Get the Life You Really Want
James Caan
The Grey Man
AndyMcNab
Hello Mum
Bernardine Evaristo
Hidden
Barbara Taylor Bradford
How to Change Your Life in 7 Steps
John Bird
Humble Pie
Gordon Ramsay
Jack and Jill
Lucy Cavendish
Kung Fu Trip
Benjamin Zephaniah
Last Night Another Soldier
Andy McNab
Life’s New Hurdles
Colin Jackson
Life’s Too Short
Val McDermid, Editor
Lily
Adèle Geras
The Little One
Lynda La Plante
Love is Blind
Kathy Lette
Men at Work
Mike Gayle
Money Magic
Alvin Hall
One Good Turn
Chris Ryan
The Perfect Holiday
Cathy Kelly
The Perfect Murder
Peter James
Quantum of Tweed: The Man with the Nissan Micra
Conn Iggulden
Raw Voices: True Stories of Hardship and Hope
Vanessa Feltz
Reading My Arse!
Ricky Tomlinson
Rules for Dating a Romantic Hero
Harriet Evans
A Sea Change
Veronica Henry
Star Sullivan
Maeve Binchy
Strangers on the 16:02
Priya Basil
Survive the Worst and Aim for the Best
Kerry Katona
The 10 Keys to Success
John Bird
Tackling Life
Charlie Oatway
Today Everything Changes
AndyMcNab
Traitors of the Tower
Alison Weir
Trouble on the Heath
Terry Jones
Twenty Tales from the War Zone
John Simpson
We Won the Lottery
Danny Buckland
Wrong Time, Wrong Place
Simon Kernick

Praise for Jeffrey Archer’s novels
     
    ‘If there was a Nobel prize for storytelling, Archer would win’
    Daily Telegraph
     
    ‘Probably the greatest storyteller of our