“She died in your house?”
“She knew my grandfather, was helping him at the house. I guess she knew how to get there from the village. It’s not like it’s a difficult path, just straight up the hill.”
He arched an eyebrow, his expression serious. “Then maybe I need to get as far away from you as possible.”
“That’s not nice, Iain.”
“Oh, forgive me, Doctor Fisher.” He stood up and shoved his hands in his pockets as he paced back and forth. “If you may recall, I just survived an explosion, one which you also witnessed. I lost my favorite luggage set, my rental car, and likely a few years off my life! I don’t know if I’m in the mood to be nice.”
Lonna opened her mouth, but I held my hand up. “If you’re not in the mood to be nice, then I’m not in the mood to deal with you. I suggest you call a cab and go find a hotel for the night. Then you can skedaddle right on back to Stirling tomorrow.”
“Skedaddle?” He frowned, then the corner of his mouth twitched. “I don’t think that a Scotsman would skedaddle.”
“Whatever. You can leave whenever you want to.”
He sat back down. “You know I can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
“Because that bastard Robert should be here to protect you, not me. He’s the real reason you’re in this mess. If he’d stood up for you at Cabal, none of this would have happened.”
“And what do you know about that?”
He looked down at the wineglass cradled in his hands. “Robert didn’t want to fire you, but he said he was under a lot of pressure from his bosses—who were getting heat, if you’ll forgive the pun—from the bigwigs at the pharmaceutical company that bought Cabal.”
“Wait a second. Cabal was bought by a pharmaceutical company? I thought it was another research organization.”
“It was the research arm of one of the big ones, I forget which one. I think it only has one word in the name. The information should be online.” He opened his laptop and waited for it to boot up.
“Lonna, did you have any luck figuring out where those vaccines came from?”
“I’d almost forgotten. Yes, I talked to Jasmin, who looked in the state database. I could only get an idea of which ones were distributed in the region. The only company that had both the flu vaccine and the Tdap vaccine came from…”
“Hippocrates Pharmaceuticals,” she and Iain said at the same time.
I wish I could say that everything became clear at that point, but I felt as though I had been punched in the stomach. My foe—and the threat to me and my friends—had just gotten a lot bigger. I also knew with certainty that I was going to have to talk to Robert and find out what this “pressure” was and how my projects had changed since I had been “terminated”.
I didn’t think I would be able to sleep that night considering the events of the day, so I was surprised when the ringing of my cell phone woke me up.
“Doctor, is everything okay?”
I rolled over and looked at the clock. Midnight.
“Yes, Gabriel, everything’s fine.”
“I was just checking the news online and saw the piece about the explosion in the Local/Arkansas section. Your name was mentioned.” He didn’t say anything about Iain’s, although surely his must have been as well. “Were you injured?”
“Only my left wrist again. You weren’t there to save me this time.” I couldn’t keep the resentment out of my voice.
“That is something I will always regret.”
The genuine sorrow in his voice tugged at my heart, particularly since I had meant to tweak him, but then the conversation with Galbraith and Iain popped into my head.
“You knew Iain McPherson? He said you were on his research team and left, then you showed up when my grandfather started looking for domestic help.”
“You sound suspicious.”
“Something doesn’t quite add up.”
“Did Doctor McPherson also tell you I had collected everything I could find on your work? That I was your ‘biggest fan’, so to speak?”
“He mentioned that you were very interested in it.”
“What would you say if I told you I took the position for the chance to be near you?”
“I would say that that’s creepy, almost stalker-ish. How do I know you weren’t trying to use me for my knowledge? Or my grandfather? Leo said you were a lab rat.”
Silence. I could tell that I’d really hurt him. Gads, I hated how those late-night conversations could strip away the facades we put up. But he had kept information from me, and right now I couldn’t trust anyone, not even Lonna, whom I heard moving around in the living room. At least I thought it was Lonna. Maybe it was Iain because whoever it was didn’t sound like they knew where everything was. I held my breath and listened hard.
“Doctor Fisher? Is everything okay?” My heart broke at the formality in his tone, the new wall between us.
“Someone’s in the apartment.”
“Just stay where you are. I’m calling the police.”
“No, don’t do that yet. I’ll keep you on the phone. Let me just peek my head out and see if it’s Lonna or Iain bumping around.”
“Is that wise?” Aha! Still that note of concern.
“I promise, you’ll hear everything I do.”
I opened the door just wide enough to squeeze through, and cell phone in hand, I crept down the hallway to the living room. The front door stood wide open, and something lay crumpled in a pile in front of it. I knelt down and saw Lonna’s crimson Razorback T-shirt and boxers—the ones she had gone to bed in.
“Gabriel, I’m not sure what to make of this,” I whispered into the phone.
“Of what?”
“Lonna seems to have left the apartment.”
“She lives there, doesn’t she?”
“Yes, but I think she left naked. Her clothes are by the door.”
Gabriel sighed. “I had a suspicion, but there was no way for me to know with certainty. I would have told you had I been sure.”
All the pieces to that puzzle fell into place. Lonna’s moodiness, her strange illness, and the way the male werewolves had reacted to her. “There’s something you haven’t been telling me, isn’t there? Something else.”
“I don’t think I need to tell you, do I?”
“No.” My best friend had become one of them. “I have to go.”
“Be careful. A new werewolf can be difficult to control.”
“I’ll wake Iain.”
A pause. “That’s probably a good idea. But good luck getting him to believe you. He never accepted CLS as more than a mental illness.”
“He’s going to have to. At least I’ve got compelling evidence.”
“You and I can have a long conversation when you get back. I promise to explain everything to your satisfaction.”
“I hope so. I think he’s coming with me.”
Another pause. “I’ll prepare a room.”
“Gabriel?”
“Yes?”
“Thanks. Whatever tonight and the next few days bring, I’m really glad you’ve got my back. Even if you’re a creepy stalker Scot.”
“You’re welcome, I think.”
Chapter Sixteen
The door creaked on its hinges as the wind picked up, and I moved to shut it. With the door closed, in the silence, I could almost believe I was in a waking dream—that it would be over when I went back to bed and shut my eyes. But then my feet found the discarded garments. What had Gabriel said? That a new werewolf was hard to control. It had never been possible to control Lonna. Just look at the mess she’d made with Peter Bowman. This wasn’t going to be easy. I closed my eyes and wished for Leo to return.
A footstep startled me, and I ducked the wine bottle that came swinging toward my head.
“What the hell—”