Death hits the fan Read Free

looked quickly back at our reader. But I could see Shayla's face flush in Yvette's periphery. Shayla let out a small cough and her eyelids began to droop as Yvette went back to her reading. Was Shayla actually falling asleep?
    " 'I hoped our client had money,'" Yvette continued. " 'It was hard to tell from the way she was dressed
    Yeah, I answered myself, Shayla was falling asleep. And sure enough, S.X. Greenfree's whole upper body pitched forward onto the authors' table as Yvette read on.

    The gray-bearded man in front of us jerked up in his seat, clearly startled by Shayla's sudden drop. But the younger, African-American man beside him put a hand on his shoulder.
    "She's probably asleep," he whispered gently. "This happens sometimes when Yvette gets going."
    Or feigning sleep, I thought. Damn, that was rude. Suddenly, I wasn't so fond of the great S.X. "Shayla" Greenfree. The most I could have said for her was that she had the grace not to snore.
    After what had to be a good twenty minutes more of Yvette's reading, however, I was coming to understand Shayla's reaction. And suppressing a yawn myself.
    "End of chapter Three," Yvette finally finished.
    I roused myself to join in the small hand of applause, more out of relief than anything else.
    Yvette turned to the fallen author next to her.
    "It's your turn now, Shayla," she said, her ringing tones surprisingly good-natured. "But I'll try not to sleep through your reading."
    That got a laugh, followed by an even bigger laugh when PMP added, "Stoo-pid bird, shut up, scree-scraw"
    But Shayla, S.X. Greenfree, didn't move.
    Yvette tapped her colleague's shoulder, a look of concern on her narrow face now.
    The man with the gray beard got out of his chair hesitantly.
    "Shayla?" he asked.
    Then more urgently, "Shayla?"
    As the man started for the authors' table, Ted Brown shook Shayla's shoulder, then pulled her by that shoulder straight up in her chair.
    Shayla's face was tinted a delicate shade of blue. Perfectly matched to the flowing silk that draped her inert body.

    Jhayla!"
    Now the gray-bearded man screamed her name, the syllables pelting the silence inside as loudly as the rain was pelting the small bookstore outside.
    "Shayla, oh Shayla!" he kept on as he rushed toward the authors' table.
    My brain felt sodden. The elegant and prolific S.X. Greenfree was tinted blue and unblinking in her seat, Ted Brown's hand frozen on her shoulder. The whole store was stone-still. Only the gray-bearded man seemed to be in motion.
    And then the black man leapt up to join him. And finally, Ted Brown stepped back to collapse into his chair as the other two men rushed around the table to pull S.X. Green-free away from her seat, away from the table with all of her books, and stretch her out in the small space left open on the floor. Kneeling, each man felt for her pulse, one at her neck and one at her wrist. The bearded man put his ear over

    Shayla's mouth, then lifted his head to stare down at her. The younger man pushed past him and put his own mouth over Shayla's as he pinched her nostrils, breathing slowly into her mouth. But even I wondered if the effort was futile. Could someone that color be alive?
    The bearded man seemed to agree with my unspoken opinion. He watched for a few more moments, shaking his head, then rose unsteadily to his feet, shuffling backwards until he bumped into the end of a bookshelf.
    "Dear God," he murmured. "Dear Lord." He didn't seem to know the rest of us were in the room. Maybe he didn't even know he was still in the room. He put his head into his hands for a moment, then pulled on a chain around his neck and freed the jade stone that had been hidden under his shirt. "What will I tell Scott?" he asked no one in particular as he held the green stone.
    There was a clatter a seat down from Wayne as the moonfaced woman in the oversized glasses sprang into action. She jumped from her seat and ran to the bearded man, averting her eyes as she detoured around the