A Time for Dying Read Online Free Page B

funds were deposited into your account. It was everything we had, by the way. We’re flat broke now. You drive a hard bargain, Mr. Lockhart.”
    I laughed. “Well, old Billy boy is going to have plenty of time to chase some more ambulances now, though, isn’t he? The two of you will be living it up while I’m rotting in my grave.”
    “He’s dead.”
    “Pardon me?”
    “My husband’s dead. His time expired this morning. He bought the hour for me. I was the client he told you about.”
    I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “He bought it for you?” I said.
    “My husband and I were born twelve hours apart. He was scheduled to die at eleven-thirty this morning, and I was scheduled to die at eleven-thirty tonight. Bill had quite a few political connections, and when he heard about Chairman L’s Valentine’s Day gift to the world, he knew there might be a chance for me. It was his last gesture as a human being, and he did it selflessly. He did it with love.”
    “Well, excuse me, lady, but I’m not quite feeling the love over here, if you know what I mean. In ten minutes, the microchip in my wrist is going to squirt poison into my bloodstream, and my heart is going to stop beating. Instantly. Just like that. If your dear departed husband hadn’t sent me that letter, I would be home in bed with my wife right now, looking forward to the birth of our daughter.”
    “Your wife is pregnant?”
    “Yeah. My little girl is going to have to grow up without her daddy, all because of you and the lowlife con artist you married. So how do you feel about that?”
    “Terrible, actually, but there’s nothing I can do about it. At least your wife and daughter won’t have to worry about money.”
    “Come off it,” I said. “You’re not broke. What about the house?”
    “Mortgaged to the hilt. I’ll be lucky to break even on it.”
    “The boat?”
    “This? We’ve been leasing it. It’s paid through the end of the month, and then I’ll be on the street. Bill told me he would do whatever it took to make sure I got in on the twenty-five-year bonus, and he kept his word. He liquidated everything, sold most of our furniture at bargain basement prices. Everything is gone, Mr. Lockhart. Bill wasn’t a con artist. He was a good man, and a loving husband.”
    “But I’m going to die.”
    As the words left my mouth, something suddenly occurred to me. Something I should have thought of sooner.
    “Yes,” Mrs. Rutherford said. “You’re going to die. But you were going to die anyway. Look, I really wish there was a way—”
    “Maybe there is,” I said. “We have five minutes. Is there a phone on the boat?”
    “Yes, but I don’t understand. Surely you’re not suggesting that I reverse the transaction.”
    “I’ll give you five million dollars for half an hour,” I said. “That’ll put us both at twelve o’clock.”
    “But that would mean—”
    “Exactly. Either we both live, or we both die. We won’t know until the stroke of midnight. It’s a gamble, but it’ll give you some of your money back, which you desperately need, and it’ll give me a chance to watch my daughter grow up.”
    She hesitated. “I don’t know. I need time to think about it.”
    “There’s no time to think about it, Mrs. Rutherford. It’s eleven twenty-six. In four minutes, I’ll be dead. The money in my bank account will go to my wife, and in two weeks you’ll be homeless. Just make the call. Please.”
    With tears rolling down her cheeks, she stood and walked toward the galley. I heard her making the call and punching in the account numbers. When she came back, she used my survival knife to cut the duct tape off my wrists.
    “We might as well be friends now,” she said. “Either now, or twenty-five years from now, we’re going to die at exactly the same time.”
    I reset the countdown on my watch to midnight. Barbara made me a drink and one for herself, and she spent the next thirty minutes talking about everything