Chameleon (37 page)

'You mad bastard!' whispered Jamieson. 'You crazy mad bastard!'

'You don't understand,' insisted Evans. 'She's evil. They're all evil. You've just been blinded to it by her looks. She'll destroy you in the end.'

Jamieson shook his head in disbelief at the deranged man he saw before him. 'All these deaths because of one nut case,' he murmured. 'Ye gods.'

Jamieson risked a quick glance at Sue and was so alarmed at the colour of her complexion, which was becoming blue through asphyxiation, that his concentration was broken. The excitement and panic brought on by watching the fight between Evans and her husband had made the rag in her mouth move backwards into her throat.

Evans took full advantage of Jamieson's lapse. He picked up the Ultra-Violet lamp that had been sitting on his work bench and threw it at Jamieson. It caught Jamieson high on the temple and sent him crashing to the floor in a haze of pain.

Jamieson was aware of Evans coming towards him. He groped desperately for anything near him on the floor that could be used as a weapon to defend himself against the madman. His hand closed round a long shard of glass that had fallen from the window frame.

At the very moment that Evans threw himself at him, Jamieson brought the jagged shard round in front of him and held it firmly upright using both fists. The full weight of Evansº body came down on it and a look of stunned surprise appeared on Evans' face. His body went completely rigid for a moment and then slowly relaxed into death.

Jamieson was pinned to the floor by the weight of Evans' body. He was utterly desperate to get to Sue but it took an eternity to free himself from the sprawling corpse lying on top of him. With a final desperate shove he managed it and got to his feet to stagger to Sue's assistance. She was unconscious and badly cyanosed when he cut away the handkerchief and pulled the gag out of her mouth. He felt for a pulse and failed to find one. In desperation he started to blow air gently down into her lungs. There was no response.

Jamieson was still continuing with mouth to mouth resuscitation when the police arrived and Ryan entered the flat. Ryan took in the situation at a glance and radioed for an ambulance before doing anything else. He approached the table and stood quietly at Jamieson's side. 'The ambulance is on its way. How is she?' he asked quietly. Jamieson shook his head as if to dismiss the question and continued as if he were in another world. In the background a policeman threw up as he opened the fridge.

Sue coughed and Jamieson paused, thinking it the most beautiful sound he had ever heard. He exchanged glances with Ryan and his cheek muscles started to quiver as he watched Sue begin to breathe again on her own. After a few more minutes she opened her eyes. She appeared to look at Jamieson but then closed them again. Ryan knew as well as Jamieson that there was a question of brain damage, depending on how long Sue had been without oxygen.

'It's over my darling,' Jamieson whispered. 'You're safe now. No one is ever going to hurt you again.'

There was an agonising pause before Sue said, 'I seem to have heard that somewhere before.'

Jamieson let out his breath in a long sigh and Ryan smiled at him. Sue was going to be all right.

'It is my darling,' said Jamieson. 'We're going home.

Two days later, Jamieson and Sue left Kerr Memorial for the last time. Maybe it was the fact that the sun was shining, but it seemed to both of them that the hospital had become a friendlier place. Phillip Morton was the last to come down and say good-bye to them and with him he brought the news that the four remaining
Proteus
patients were responding well to one of the antibiotics sent up by the Sci-Med labs. They were expected to make a full recovery.

As they drove out through the gates, neither Sue nor Jamieson felt inclined to look back. Sue clicked on the car radio in time to hear a government spokesman assure his interviewer that screening procedures for hospital staff were entirely adequate and there was no cause for public alarm. Jamieson reached out and switched it off again.

THE END

Other Titles by Ken McClure

The Steven Dunbar Series

LOST CAUSES

DUST TO DUST

WHITE DEATH

THE LAZARUS STRAIN

EYE OF THE RAVEN

THE GULF CONSPIRACY

WILDCARD

DECEPTION

DONOR

Other Novels

HYPOCRITES’ ISLE

PAST LIVES

TANGLED WEB

RESURRECTION

PANDORA'S HELIX

TRAUMA

CRISIS

REQUIEM

PESTILENCE

FENTON'S WINTER

THE SCORPION'S ADVANCE

THE TROJAN BOY

THE ANVIL

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

KEN McCLURE is an award-winning medical scientist as well as a global selling author. He was born and brought up in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he studied medical sciences and cultivated a career that has seen him become a prize-winning researcher in his field. Using this strong background to base his thrillers in the world of science and medicine, he is currently the author of twenty-four novels and his work is available across the globe in over twenty languages. He has visited and stayed in many countries in the course of his research but now lives in the county of East Lothian, just outside Edinburgh.

Table of Contents

PROLOGUE

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

FOURTEEN

FIFTEEN

THE END

Other Titles by Ken McClure

ABOUT THE AUTHOR