Final Epidemic Read Online Free PDF

laughing.”
    The door opened and Andi Wheelwright entered. In her hand was a sheaf of what looked like photos, which she laid in front of Krewell.
    “You know, you should consider a cleaning service,” she said to Beck, her impassive expression leavened by the hint of humor in her tone. “Your apartment is rather a mess, even for a bachelor.”
    Krewell glanced at the top photo—actually, afine-detailed laser printout, a vast improvement over the fax images it had replaced. It showed a small kitchen table that evidently doubled as a desk; paper Starbucks cups and opened take-out containers with Chinese characters badly printed in red shared the tabletop with textbooks butterflied open. Krewell flipped through the printouts rapidly, pausing only at a picture of a bedside table in the middle of the stack.
    A head shot of a smiling girl in her early teens filled the right side of a hinged photo frame; the left side was conspicuously empty.
    “How is Katie, by the way?” Krewell asked, still looking at the photo. “She’s what now—fifteen?”
    “Fifteen, going on thirty,” Beck said. “She spent two weeks in Chicago with me last month—most of it, I think, on the phone talking to her girlfriends back in Virginia. Mainly about boys, from what I could overhear.”
    Krewell grinned. “Daughters are God’s way of punishing fathers for the sins of their youth. At least she’s not driving yet.”
    “Driver’s ed starts in September,” Beck replied. “Katie already has her learner’s permit, courtesy of the Commonwealth of Virginia.”
    “Wait till she asks for a car.”
    “Already asked and answered.” Beck shook his head. “No way, even if I had the money. So we compromised—I taught her how to drive a stick shift. By the time she went back home, my Beetle needed a new clutch.”
    “Back home.” Krewell nodded, making it sound casual. “How’s everybody adjusting? To the divorce, I mean.”
    “Katie’s fine.”
    “Good to hear. And Deborah? Is she fine, too?”
    There was no answer. When Krewell looked up to repeat, he saw Beck staring at him, unblinking. Krewell held Beck’s eye for a moment, then tossed the photos on the desk as if they had no significance.
    “Well, I hope you’re getting a break on the rent,” he toldBeck. “Looks like a bomb went off in your bedroom—and this was taken before our people searched the place.”
    Andi chuckled.
    “You work in public information, you say?” Beck said to her, eyebrows raised in polite inquiry.
    “Yes,” Andi said. “Except my job is usually to prevent information from becoming public.”
    “Find anything interesting?” Beck asked. “In my wallet or my place?”
    “Well, I for one find it interesting that your bank balance can be so low without knocking your credit rating all to hell,” Krewell volunteered.
    He smiled at the expression on Beck’s face and shrugged in a way meant to convey good humor. “Oh, grow up. You know how the game is played. Of course we looked at your finances. Heck, ol’ buddy, we turned your life inside out—did a pretty good job, given the time limitations.”
    “Behave, gentlemen,” Andi said. “We didn’t find anything incriminating or even mildly suspicious.” She tried to look apologetic, and failed utterly. “Sorry. You never know until you check, and there wasn’t time to go by the rule book.”
    “Andi is our security director here, Beck,” said a grinning Krewell. “And since yesterday afternoon, it has been her people that you didn’t see following you around. C’mon. Admit it, ol’ buddy. It’ll only hurt for a minute.”
    “I may be out of practice,” Beck conceded. “A little.” He twisted to address Andi. “Congratulations. Your guys are pretty good at the bump and lift. Dog and cat team at the airport gate. Right?”
    Andi nodded. To Beck, she looked more than a little smug.
    “Mario Andretti couldn’t have beat your time getting out here, so I assume the dip handed off my