The Cradle Will Fall Read Online Free PDF Page B

Flustered,
    she replied, "Why, nobody, sir. I just heard this minute."
    "You did not discuss Mrs. Lewis with Mrs. Volmer or with the
    detective on the phone?"

     
    "No, sir."

     
    "Edna, tomorrow when the police come, you and I will tell
    them everything we know about Mrs. Lewis' frame of mind. But
    listen to me now." He pointed his finger at her and leaned forward.
    "I don't want Mrs. Lewis' name mentioned by you to anyone—
    anyone, do you hear? Her suicide reflects very badly on our
    hospital. How do you think it's going to look if it comes out that
    she was a patient of mine? If I hear you have so much as mentioned
    the Lewis case, you're finished here. Is that clear?"

     
    "Yes, sir."
    "Are you going out with friends tonight? You know how you
    get when you drink."

     
    Edna was close to tears. "I'm going home tonight. I want to have
    my wits about me tomorrow when the police talk to me. Poor
    little Cinderella." Tears came to her eyes, but then she saw the
    expression on his face. Angry. Disgusted.

     
    Edna straightened up, dabbed at her eyes. "I'll send Mrs. Volmer
    in, Doctor. And you don't have to worry," she added with dignity.
    "I value our hospital. I know how much your work means to you
    and to our patients. I'm not going to say one single word."

     
    The afternoon was busy. She managed to push the thought of
    Vangie to the back of her mind. Finally at five o'clock she could
    leave. Warmly wrapped in a leopard-spotted fake fur coat, she
    drove home to her apartment in Edgeriver, six miles away.

     

CHAPTER FOUR

     
    IN THE autopsy room of the Valley County Morgue, Richard Carroll
    gently removed the fetus from the corpse of Vangie Lewis.
    It was a boy, and he judged that it weighed about two and a half
    pounds. He noted that the amniotic fluid had begun to leak. Vangie
    Lewis could not have carried this baby much longer; she had been
    in an advanced state of toxemia. It was incredible that any doctor
    had allowed her to progress so far in this condition.

     
    Richard had no doubt that it was the cyanide that had killed
    the woman. She'd swallowed a huge gulp of it, and her throat
    and mouth were badly burned. The burns on the outside of her
    mouth? Richard tried to visualize the moment she'd drunk the
    poison. She'd started to swallow, felt the burning, changed her
    mind, tried to spit it out. It had run over her lips and chin.

     
    To him it didn't make sense.

     
    There were fine white fibers clinging to her black coat. They
    looked as though they'd come from a blanket. He was having
    them analyzed, but, of course, they might have been picked up
    at any time.

     
    Her body had become so bloated that it looked as though she
    had just put on any clothes she could find that would cover her.

     
    Except for the shoes. They were an incongruous note. They were
    well cut, expensive and looked quite new. It was unlikely that
    Vangie could have been outdoors on Monday in those shoes. There
    were no water spots on them, even though the ankles of her panty
    hose were spattered. Which suggested that she must have been
    out, come in, decided to leave again, changed her shoes and then
    committed suicide. That didn't make sense either.

     
    Another thing. Those shoes were awfully tight. Particularly on
    the right foot. Considering the way she was dressed, why bother
    to put on shoes that will kill you?

     
    Richard straightened up. He was just about finished. Once
    more he turned to study the fetus. Suddenly something struck him.
    Was it possible? It was a hunch he had to check out. Dave Broad
    was the man for him. Dave was in charge of prenatal research at

     
     
    Mount Sinai. He'd send this fetus to him and ask for an opinion.
    If what he believed was true, there was a good reason why Chris
    Lewis would have been upset about his wife's pregnancy.
    Maybe upset enough to kill her!

     
    SCOTT Myerson, the Valley County prosecutor, had scheduled
    a five-o'clock meeting in his office for Katie, Richard and the