“Not necessarily, elf-girl.” The words brought me back to seeing them that night on the lawn with the deer, and I remembered that I was dealing with a predator whose animal brain was now in full gear.
“Gotcha. And don’t call me elf-girl.”
“What?” Lonna looked from me to the blanketed lump in the backseat. “I didn’t call you elf-girl.”
“No, but he did.” My heart skipped a beat. “What did you hear?”
“Just a woof or something.”
“So I can understand them and you can’t.” Just like I had understood my brother from the cradle. I remembered my father yelling at him, telling him to speak like a human boy. I had tried to protect Andrew because his speech sounded muffled, but I could still make out what he said.
I didn’t breathe easily until we got out of the Crystal Pines gates and on the road. Even then, I felt uneasy about our passenger and the trip in general, especially with this new revelation. Did that mean I was genetically predisposed? Or did I have some other, more sinister talent?
Chapter Fifteen
Grief has a funny way of sneaking up on you. It’s like one day you’re out getting groceries or something, and then
It’s a good thing Lonna was driving when it happened to me. Leo snoozed in the backseat, still in his lupine form. I was watching the road signs as I used to when I was little, looking at the towns we passed, their posted populations, and trying to remember which had been the smallest when I had been a lot smaller. For a moment, I was back there with my mother, her perfectly manicured hands tight on the wheel, her knuckles white, and her teeth clenched with the desire to be away from “that godforsaken place”. It seemed like every town, no matter how small, put a new obstacle between me and Wolfsbane Manor, the only place where I felt loved and protected.
I snapped back to the present when Lonna asked if I needed a bathroom or coffee break.
“You looked like you were in another world there.”
“I think I was.”
“What were you thinking about?”
“Nothing.” But the images crowded my mind, and the words caught in my throat in their rush to be the first ones out. Would I tell her about the pretend balls we held, when we would go down into the ballroom and dance with our candles, which would cast weird shadows on the ceiling and make the eyes of the painted woodland animals glow? Or should I tell her about the long hikes we’d take down to the river and the stories he’d tell me about the trees and bugs? What about his patience for my hundreds of questions? It had always taken me a few days to wind down and get used to being quiet after my visits up there.
“We’ll be going back soon,” she promised me with a pat on my arm.
I nodded, too choked up to say anything. Leo gazed up at me with expressive canine eyes, his losses echoing my own. It seemed that we had all lost something up there. Or had maybe found something but hadn’t been able to hold on to it. The only question would be what Lonna would have to sacrifice.
Lonna dropped me off at Galbraith’s office at five minutes until two, then drove off to take Leo to her apartment, where he could transform back to human and dress. Then she’d drive him to UAMS and go to her office, which was right down the street from the hospital complex.
The air inside Galbraith’s foyer was stuffy, and I wondered if the air-conditioning was broken. If so, that would motivate me to get this meeting over with quickly. I hesitated at the door, all too mindful of what had happened the last time I was early. Leo seemed to be a different person every time I saw him, which made dealing with him unpredictable and oh-so-exciting. I was happy to hear that the relationship between him and Kyra Ellison was one-sided, as much of a bitch as that made me.
Galbraith opened the door himself. “Doctor Fisher, there’s no need to stand outside in the heat. Why don’t you come in?”
“Um, thanks.”
“I apologize. The air is broken in the foyer. I’ve called the maintenance crew, but there’s no telling when they’ll be here.”
“Typical.”
“There’s someone who’s been wanting to meet you.”
“Actually, it’s to see her again,” said a voice I hadn’t heard in years.
“Iain?”
A tall figure emerged from the gloom in the back of Galbraith’s office, where three chairs sat around a low, round table with an antique coffee service. Iain McPherson. I hadn’t seen him since the International Behavioral Genetics Society meeting in London a few years ago.
“Joanna, you still haven’t managed to hit five-two have you?” he taunted as he enveloped me in a bony hug. Between us, we may have had enough body fat for one normal skinny person. He’d always reminded me of a greyhound with his lanky build and long nose.
“Iain, you’re as obnoxiously British as ever.”
“That’s Scottish, young lady.”
“Uh-huh. Technicality. You’re still part of Great Britain.”
He rolled his eyes. He had a few more wrinkles around them and a little more gray, but he had hardly changed at all. He was still the same old Iain, whom I’d joked was my conference husband even though he didn’t share his bed with women.
“What are you doing here?” I asked as we sat down. Galbraith passed me a white porcelain cup and poured coffee out of a silver pot.
“Your grandfather and I had been corresponding. He said he was close to a breakthrough and would let me know how it shaped up soon, but then I heard nothing from him.”
“He’s, ah, deceased, we think.”
“I’m so dreadfully sorry to hear about that.” He leaned over and squeezed my hand. “Galbraith had seen the letters I sent Charles and had contacted me to that effect. Of course I had to come and see if he had left anything, if I could pick up where he stopped.”
“Right. That’s what I’m trying to do as well.”
“You’re no longer with Cabal?”
“They got bought. There was a fire. Just bad timing all around. I got laid off.”
“Why would a company that has so much to gain with the new gene therapies lay off their most promising epidemiologic specialist in CLS?”
I looked away. “I don’t know. I don’t really want to talk about it.”
“What about that chap you were working with, Robert?”
“He’s still there.” I didn’t say anything else and hoped that he would get the hint. He had known there was something going on between the two of us, but I didn’t want to discuss that in front of Galbraith.
“I see.”
Galbraith cleared his throat. “So you had some questions for me?”
“Would you like me to step outside?” asked Iain.
“No, that’s okay. I think I may need your help with this matter soon.” I took a deep breath. “I know that the circumstances surrounding my grandfather’s death are somewhat suspicious.”
Galbraith inclined his head.
“I was wondering if he’d actually made arrangements recently. Did he seem to think he was in danger?”
“He essentially told me that he was going into the field and would likely encounter peril there. He wanted it to be expressly stated that he wanted you to have the bulk of the estate. I had the impression he counted on you to continue his work.”
“Were there any safe-deposit boxes or anywhere else he might have left papers or notes for me?”
Galbraith frowned. “Not that I can recall, but I will look through the documents again to see if, in my dotage,
