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When he did, he got the light in his eyes Flicker flicker flicker, and back he went to dreamland

I let hi around in the kitchen, I hurried downstairs "You’d better call a doctor," I said "My friend seems to have had a heart attack"

"Is it very bad?"

"I think he’s dead"

The doctor was an Armenian and an old friend of Sarkan’s He came in a hurry, rushed to our patient’s side, exae his heart That worried me – suppose it worked? But it didn’t, and he didn’t think to cut open Kotacek’s chest and try a fancier e He confirmed that Kotacek was dead, and wrote out a certificate of natural death which testified that Pedro Costa had died of coronary thro at the airlines They sent me to the proper officials and had me fill out the proper papers Mr Costa had died in Greece, and of course I would want to ship him back to Brazil for burial No, I explained; he was a Brazilian citizen, but had originally lived in Portugal and would want to be buried in his faed He would fly on the sa There would be no problee and the fee for shipping a corpse, which turned out to be considerably less costly With the difference I bought a sturdy pine box I had the box delivered to Sarkan’s house, where we loaded Kotacek into it I was a little worried about hoould travel If the luggage coet himself killed in there I wasn’t sure hoould work And, if the luggage was not secured soet badly knocked around

I called Lufthansa and asked theured They were understanding again There was no danger, they assured me The compartment in which he would travel was fully pressurized and quite co pets, dogs and cats and such, so it had to be safe

That helped It covered all the bases but one There was still the possibility that Kotacek would come to somewhere between Athens and Lisbon, in which case ere in worlds of difficulty No one would hear hiood possibility that he would suffocate

I waited as long as I could on the chance that he ht time He didn’t I nailed the lid on his coffin – not too tight, in case he did come to – and called an undertaker, who sent a hearse to convey the coffin to the airport At the Lufthansa flight desk his passport – stamped DECEASED – and his death certificate were attached to the coffin lid, along with several other official documents whose precise function I did not wholly understand I was sent into a waiting room, and the coffin was placed on a conveyor belt which would take it, presuht, not too crowded I had a vacant seat next to me, the one I’d previously reserved for Kotacek I leaned back and enjoyed the flight One of the stewardesses reht a tailwind and landed fifteen age at all by now, so that was no problem – and collected Kotacek from the appropriate depot They didn’t have a hearse handy, so I had to rent a whole liot there, the two of us carried hi rooone before I opened the coffin

He was just as I had left hiht, suppose he had awakened? He would have suffocated And, suffocated, he would look just as he looked noould never be able to tell the difference I could only wait and see what happened If he caan to spoil, he wasn’t

Chapter 16

By the middle of the second day in Lisbon I was fairly certain he was dead He had never been out quite this long before I had hiret having taken him out of the coffin I’d only have to stuff him back into it and call the undertaker

But I was sufficiently exhausted to appreciate the rest I spent al next to nothing I left once, to stock his kitchen with food, and one other tiht at a photo supply shop in don Lisbon The rest of the time I did as little as possible I listened to fado lorious baths in his tub, cooked and ate small meals in his kitchen, drank port wine and black coffee and Spanish brandy, and loafed around while my body unwound and my nerves came back to normal I hadn’t realized at the time what a strain the whole business had been I had been on the go twenty-four hours a day for too many days and I badly needed a chance to loosen up a little

When I wasn’t bathing or loafing or listening to records or eating or drinking, I searched his house His records, after all, hat I had coht as well have let hiht have been easier to find if I had known just what I was looking for I didn’t They could be anything froers to a spool of microfilm I went over the house from top to bottom I look up the carpet and looked under it I checked for loose bricks in and around the fireplace I moved pictures to search for hidden wall safes I did all of the things they do in theand a few ot nowhere

The fourth day, he ca around up there I went up to see hiun in his hand I’d coun in my search, a little22 caliber item in the bedside table Noas pointed at me

"Easy," I said "Take it easy"

"We are inhave we been here?"

"Just a few days"

"A few days" He looked at un He still had it pointed atto shoot it, but I wasn’t sure

"We were supposed to go to Cairo"

"It was impossible"