Immortal (51 page)

Enrico Zamora thought for a moment.

‘The iron kept the tissues alive?’ he asked.

‘It stopped the tissue samples from decaying,’ Ethan said. ‘So by comparing the bacteria in the living tissue and the raw bacteria from the cave, Lillian may have been able to
understand how to develop a method to genetically modify the bacteria to survive indefinitely within a human body. The perfect elixir.’

Ethan had finally realized what had been happening all along, perhaps even before he and Lopez had arrived in New Mexico the previous week.

‘Lillian hasn’t been abducted – there’s just no need for her to hang around anymore. She’s taken everything she’s got now that Ellison and his men are dead,
and has probably sold it off to the highest bidder.’

Lopez shook her head thoughtfully.

‘No way,’ she said. ‘Lillian may have taken off with whatever she’s gotten from that cave, but I don’t believe she would have done that, not after Ellison gave his
life so we could escape from the caves.’

‘I wouldn’t be so sure of that,’ Enrico Zamora said. ‘We got the autopsy reports back this morning for Tyler Willis. It turns out that he died not from a beating or at
the hands of Jeb Oppenheimer. He died from blood loss caused by the severing of an artery in his left thigh, a tiny cut that was almost missed by the coroner.’

‘Oppenheimer had him killed though,’ Lopez said. ‘He was holding Willis hostage.’

‘Yes,’ Zamora agreed, ‘but Willis died when Oppenheimer was nowhere near him. Claire Montgomery, his assistant, confirmed that for us, and despite her earlier indiscretions she
has no reason to lie now that Oppenheimer’s dead. The only person in the room with Willis with the skill and knowledge to make an incision like that was Lillian Cruz, and Willis would never
have known as she’d just hit him with shots of morphine after Oppenheimer had finished torturing him.’

‘Let me guess,’ Lopez said. ‘The morphine shot went into his leg.’

‘He bled out right there and then,’ Zamora nodded. ‘Never knew a thing about it.’

‘As don’t you,’ Ethan said. ‘You stick to the nondisclosure policy from this point on, okay? I don’t want the DIA hounding you out of a job down here or
something.’

‘I ain’t got nothing to say,’ Zamora replied. ‘Been a pleasure, in a weird kind of way.’

Ethan shook Zamora’s hand, and Lopez gave the cop a hug before he turned and walked back into the facility.

Ethan turned for their car, knowing deep inside that wherever Lillian had gone it was highly unlikely they would ever see her again.

‘Well, whatever happens, I hope she knows what she’s doing. It’s likely the last time that anyone will ever hold the fountain of youth in their hands again.’

Ethan climbed into the car, Lopez joining him in the passenger seat. They sat for a long moment in silence before he looked across at her.

‘You ready to go home?’

Lopez stared into the middle distance for a long moment before replying.

‘I’m not sure where home is right now.’

Ethan glanced south toward the Pecos and the endless deserts beyond that led to the border with Mexico and her distant hometown, Guanajuato.

‘Can I ask you something?’ Ethan said finally.

‘Shoot.’

‘Do you trust me?’

Lopez looked at him but did not respond immediately, and Ethan realized that she was thinking seriously about it.

‘Yeah, I do,’ she said finally.

‘Then why not confide in me?’

Lopez held his gaze for a long beat before turning away again. One hand played idly with her long black hair.

‘Because I don’t want to go through what happened to my last partner again,’ she said finally. ‘Ever.’

‘Lucas Tyrell,’ Ethan said, recalling Lopez’s detective partner from Washington DC who had died the previous year.

‘He was a good man,’ Lopez said, ‘who didn’t deserve to die the way he did.’

Ethan leaned back in his seat. Fact was, he also had avoided close relationships since losing Joanna. The fear they both carried, veiled just beneath a thin veneer of normality, was that anybody
could lose anyone at any time and never see them again. Be it by a bullet, or accident, or just plain stupidity, people died all the time. Only those left behind grieved for their loss, and all too
often were unable to let go.

‘I take it you got all of the money that you swindled out of Jeb Oppenheimer,’ Ethan said. ‘And that now he’s dead, there’ll be no comeback.’

‘No sense in crying over spilt milk,’ she said with a brief smile.

‘Doug and the DIA won’t have missed something like that,’ Ethan warned. ‘They’ll know what you’ve pulled.’

‘Let them,’ Lopez said. ‘Every last dime’s been taxed. There’s nothing they can do about it. You’re welcome to half, seeing as we’re
partners.’

Ethan shook his head. He couldn’t resist a wry sense of admiration for Lopez’s sheer audacity, but it was that same recklessness that had almost gotten them both killed.

‘I can’t do this, Nicola,’ he said, ‘unless I know for sure that you’ve got my back.’

Lopez nodded.

‘I know.’

‘Then make your call. Are you in, or are you out?’ he asked.

‘Of what?’

‘Of this, of Warner/ Lopez Incorporated, bail bonds and investigations. Where’s home, Nicola? It’s your call, you can do anything you want. Do you want to head north back to
Chicago with me, or south for Mexico?’

‘What would you do if I went back over the border?’ she asked.

‘I’d carry on,’ he replied without hesitation. ‘Probably get more work done without you in the way, and Warner Inc. rolls off the tongue nicely anyway.’

Lopez smiled faintly.

‘I just need time to figure everything out,’ she said. ‘It’s only been a year since I left the police and we started this little venture. You lost Joanna four years ago,
and you’re still not quite who you were before, are you?’

Ethan couldn’t bring himself to meet her gaze, but he shook his head briefly.

‘Then let’s just take this one step at a time, okay?’ she suggested.

Ethan sighed again, knowing he could hardly pressure Lopez when he was barely over Joanna himself. Lopez and Tyrell hadn’t, as far as he knew, been an item, but they’d been partners
and sometimes that bond could be just as strong. Ethan had experienced just such camaraderie in the Marine Corps: men who had faced death together tended to face life together as well, a
brotherhood forged in shared hardship that felt as though it could last for an eternity.

‘Okay,’ he agreed finally. ‘I just don’t want to be wearing dentures before I know I can rely on you.’

Lopez smiled brightly.

‘Maybe we should have saved some of that elixir for your wrinkled old ass.’

‘Like hell,’ Ethan shot back as he started the car’s engine. ‘Every crease has been earned.’

He sat for a moment, thinking about Saffron Oppenheimer, and then looked across at Lopez again.

Lopez stared out to the south, toward the shimmering mountains and the hard blue skies, and then back at Ethan.

‘I want to go home,’ she said. ‘North.’

Once again I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to my brilliant literary agent Luigi Bonomi, who upon our first ever meeting suggested that I should pen a story based upon the
search for immortality. He felt that nobody had ever attempted to concoct a potentially viable method by which eternal youth could be achieved. If he’s still representing authors in the year
2176 we’ll know he had an ulterior motive. My heartfelt thanks go to my editors Maxine Hitchcock, Emma Lowth and the team at Simon & Schuster, who never fail to impress me and whom I
count myself lucky to work with, and to everyone at LBA. I’d also like to thank so many of my friends who have been incredibly supportive and enthusiastic since the launch of my debut novel
Covenant - you all know who you are. Finally, as ever I owe my parents Terry and Carolyn everything, for without them I would not have such a love of the written word nor such an example in life to
live up to.