diff --git a/processing/src/main/java/edu/harvard/hms/dbmi/avillach/hpds/processing/VariantService.java b/processing/src/main/java/edu/harvard/hms/dbmi/avillach/hpds/processing/VariantService.java
index c8f94850..8979882a 100644
--- a/processing/src/main/java/edu/harvard/hms/dbmi/avillach/hpds/processing/VariantService.java
+++ b/processing/src/main/java/edu/harvard/hms/dbmi/avillach/hpds/processing/VariantService.java
@@ -176,13 +176,11 @@ private void loadGenomicCacheFiles() throws FileNotFoundException, IOException,
                 ){
                     oos.writeObject(bucketIndex);
                     oos.flush();
-                    oos.close();
                 }
-            }else {
+            }else if (new File(BUCKET_INDEX_BY_SAMPLE_FILE).exists()) {
                 try (ObjectInputStream objectInputStream = new ObjectInputStream(new GZIPInputStream(new FileInputStream(BUCKET_INDEX_BY_SAMPLE_FILE)));){
                     log.info("loading " + BUCKET_INDEX_BY_SAMPLE_FILE);
                     bucketIndex = (BucketIndexBySample) objectInputStream.readObject();
-                    objectInputStream.close();
                 } catch (IOException | ClassNotFoundException e) {
                     log.error("an error occurred", e);
                 }