Free Immortal by Bill Clem Page A

ruins their family life."
    "No, I'm afraid it's worse," Marty said. "He's still happily married. Unfortunately, he had a five-year-old daughter who drowned, two years ago. Staff at the hospital told me it hit him really hard, as you can imagine. He hasn't been the same since. The odd thing is no one at the hospital who was close to him was ever invited to a funeral or any kind of memorial for the child. Seems kind of strange."
    "Maybe he just wanted his privacy."
    "Something tells me there's more to it."
    "There goes the journalist in you again."
    * * *
    After she left Josh's house, Marty arrived at her office. She placed her laptop and mail on the desk, then shrugged out of her jacket. It was a warm late-March morning, and yellow light streamed in the window, making a horizontal bar of gold light across the spines of the reference books housed on the wall next to her. She settled at her desk to open her mail when a knock sounded on her door.
    "Come in," Marty said.
    John Weeks, her managing editor had a sullen look on his face as he entered.
    "Marty, I'm afraid I have some bad news."
    Marty straightened herself a little. "Oh?"
    "I just talked to the police. Terry Brooks was found murdered."
    Marty threw her hand to her mouth and felt bile in her throat. "Oh, God."

Chapter 32
    Josh Logan stood in his kitchen, picked up the files he'd taken and opened the top folder. The first file contained a mixture of photocopies and lined yellow pages filled with Hench's tight, flawless script. The copied pages, Josh thought, were probably routine procedures or portions of the process that had been used repeatedly, perhaps with the patients he'd seen at Ford. The handwritten notes probably represented something unique about that particular patient.
    Josh was already familiar with much of the scientific procedure contained in the files, having immersed himself in every article he could find on Aurora Life Extension and cryogenics as a whole. Hench, however, had taken the science to a whole new level, albeit a deadly one, and Josh was looking for any clue that would substantiate his suspicions. His mind went back to the file Marty had showed him. Another piece of the puzzle. Don't jump to conclusions, Josh warned himself, wait until you have all the proof.
    The number of patients transferred to Aurora in the last twelve months was staggering for a company whose science was barely noted outside its own circle of believers. According to the files, there had been twenty transfers to the facility in the last four months alone.
    Behind the first set of pages, Josh found another set, which were neatly stapled together and attached to the left side of the file with a two-pronged clip. This second set contained patient diagnosis, length of stay at Ford, cause of death and date of transfer agreement. Fastened to these was the actual agreement from Aurora Life Extension authorizing transfer. Skimming down the list of patients, Josh came upon the name he was looking for: Cynthia Harwell. Her cause of death was listed as Cerebral Infarct secondary to complications from surgery. There was no mention of a drug reaction. Next, Josh studied the agreement that Cynthia Harwell had signed. He set down the folder and reached behind him, pulling another file from the counter. This one was the O.R agreement Harwell had signed on her admission. Comparing the signatures, it was obvious to Josh; this was not the same person signing. Going back to the Aurora file, he noticed something even more significant. Cynthia Harwell's agreement for cryo-transfer was signed on March 1 st . There was only one problem with that.
    Cynthia Harwell was in a deep coma on that date.
    Someone had obviously forged her signature.

Chapter 33Arthur Hench took the call in stunned silence. Never before had a patient's family threatened him with a lawsuit. Ford's reputation, being what it was, had always precluded that. But here was Sarah Davis on the other end of the line, screaming in his