my grandfather seemed to have been on the same track. Then there had been a fire, a mysterious disappearance, and now a likely murder. What were we so close to finding that we posed a threat to someone? What kind of threat could be so big it was worth killing for?
I shuddered as I remembered Louise, her last breaths, her warning about the black wolf. It was out there somewhere, and it may have snatched Lance Bowman after its escapades at the Manor. Another strand in the web, but I was no closer to finding the spider. And if I did find the spider, what would it do to me?
Chapter Eleven
I sat with the boxes in the study. Now I had five of them, one from my own destroyed laboratory and four from the storeroom downstairs. Television portrays research scientists with a certain glamour, as though the profession is all about sexy underwear under white lab coats, which are ready to come off at the end of a long day of making life-altering discoveries. In reality, there’s a lot of paper involved. That’s why most of us wear comfortable clothes and geeky glasses.
The door opened, and Lonna poked her head around.
“Can I come in?”
“Sure.” We looked at each other. I let her speak first.
“I don’t really know how to say this.”
“Okay.”
“This place is giving me nightmares. The first night I was fine, but I don’t know, I guess it’s all the talk of missing children and those awful screams in the woods.”
“Would you rather stay in town?”
She shivered. “No, because even though I’m not sleeping well here, I feel like I shouldn’t leave, like there’s something here I have to find.”
“A husband? Or someone else’s husband?”
“No, there’s something else.”
I could see the dark circles under her eyes, and a wisp of guilt curled from my stomach to my chest. “I’m sorry, that was out of turn.”
“I’m sorry too. I’ve been a bitch. It’s just that I came here to help you, and it seems you’re keeping me out of the loop.”
“Everything’s been happening really fast.”
“I understand. But would you please try to do better with including me?”
“I will if I can.”
She sat in one of the overstuffed leather armchairs by the reading table. “What’s all that stuff?”
“Things I found in the storeroom off the ballroom. I’m hoping they’ll give me some clue as to what my grandfather found and the direction his research was going in.”
“And the smoky one?”
“From the lab in Memphis. Somehow it got sent here. There must have been a mistake, but I’m keeping it.”
She raised an eyebrow. “What’s in it?”
“Medical records from kids with CLS. I’m looking to see if there’s something I missed. Hopefully there’s enough for my database to sift through.”
She came to stand by the computer and looked over my shoulder at my database. “Research through brute force, huh?”
“You got it, baby.”
“I was thinking about going to interview Louise’s family. They’ve lost a child and now a grandmother, so they may be more tied into this than anyone else. How about some research by charm and sympathy?”
“I could do that, but let’s wait ’til tomorrow. It’s already dinnertime, and I feel like I’m really, really close to figuring out something important.”
Lonna laughed. “I know that look. And that feeling. I’ll have Gabriel bring something in for you for dinner.”
“Thanks.” I squeezed her arm. “You’re a good friend.”
“You are too. Even if you’re a stubborn little thing.”
“You have no room to talk.”
But stubborn as I was, I couldn’t figure out what, exactly, I searched for in the data. Finally, a little after midnight, I gave up. The numbers and notations swam before my eyes, and I decided to go to sleep and let my brain work on the puzzle.
I woke to the sound of male voices in the front hallway. The clock said six-o-five, so I rolled out of bed and threw on my robe. Leo and Ron stood in the door, duffel bags in hand, both of them unshaven and with dark circles under their eyes. Gabriel physically blocked them from entering the house.
“What’s going on here?”
“Doctor Fisher. I didn’t intend for them to wake you.”
“That’s not what I asked, Gabriel.”
“We have a couple of strays here.” He pitched his voice low, almost a growl, all the amicability of the day before gone. “And they want to stay here. I knew if we fed them, they’d keep coming back.”
“At least be civilized and give them a cup of coffee, Gabriel, so we can find out what’s going on.”
He shot me a look but backed down and went through the den into the kitchen.
“Thanks, Joanie,” Ron said. “It’s been a rough night.”
“What happened?” I gestured for them to put their bags to the left of the door by the umbrella stand, not really a promise to let them stay, but a possibility.
Leo plopped down on the new sofa and ran his hands through his hair. “Well, we looked for clues in the woods between here and town, but we couldn’t find anything.”
“Why would you expect to find anything between here and there? What about the other side of the subdivision?”
“Because whatever’s happening seems to center around this place.” Leo looked up at me. “I know you probably don’t want to hear that, but it’s true.”
He was right. I didn’t. “Fine. Then what did you do?”
“We hung out in town for a while and asked people if they’d seen anything unusual the night before last.”
“They hadn’t,” added Ron.
“So we went back to Peter’s place. Marguerite was in bed with the help of a sedative, and Peter sat in the drawing room with a glass of Scotch. He looked like hell, I’ll give him that.”
“I bet.”
Gabriel came in with three steaming mugs of coffee and set them down on the table with cream, sugar and spoons. “Would you like anything to eat?” He only addressed me.
“Do you have any muffins ready?”
“Baked them this morning.”
“Would you bring those out, please? And three, no, four plates.” I heard someone moving around on the second floor.
Lonna came down the stairs, beautiful as always in her morning dishevelment. When the guys saw her, their nostrils flared for a moment. Her womanly scent, perhaps? She had showered last night. They exchanged a look, but Leo shook his head.
“What was all that about?” I asked. Leo gave me a “tell you later” look.
“Morning, guys,” Lonna chirped. “The muffins smell good, Gabriel.”
“I’ll bring out some in a moment, Madam. Would you like coffee?”
“Yes, thank you.”
