by Kent, Julia
"Then where are you going to put the body?" Thad asked.
"Put it in the Porsche. I'll leave it in the trunk and park in my private parking until we're ready.” You park a few blocks away and walk to my place.”
“Sure, sure,” Thad said.
“Thad, listen."
Robb grabbed the old vampire by the shirt and pulled him close. His breath smelled like death. Like hunger.
"We can't be seen together in London. We can't be seen together anywhere. Got it?"
"Yeah. Got it." Thad's voice was seething, but Robb didn't care. He was doing Thad a favor.
“Okay. Move the body into my trunk.”
“Aren’t you going to help?”
“Your body,” Robb said. “You deal with it.”
He slid behind the wheel of his Porsche and popped the trunk. In the rearview mirror he saw Thad carrying the body over. He heard a dull thud as the corpse hit the floor of the trunk.
A dead body in the trunk. Great. That was exactly what he needed right now.
An engine roared, and Robb looked over to see Thad peeling out into the road in the rental car.
"Idiot," he muttered. He started his car and pulled onto the road after Thad, leaving a distance between them. He didn't need to. Thad was already zooming away, and Robb would be doing exactly the speed limit until he was parked safely in his garage.
He pulled out his phone and called Vasin, who assured him that he would come over right away to the apartment. Well, that was one thing taken care of. Now for the more important matter.
He dialed Liz. No answer. He desperately wanted to talk to her. He would be able to tell just by hearing her voice whether or not he was safe. Or whether he had to see her as a threat. He hoped that he would be able to talk with her more, to convince her that everything would be okay if she forgot about everything she had seen.
The phone kept ringing, then went to Liz's voicemail. Robb tossed his phone down on the car seat.
"Come on," he said, tapping the steering wheel with his fingers. "Can't something go right for once today?"
Looking at the exit signs off of the highway, Robb decided that there was enough time to swing by the university. Before he could change his mind, he had already taken the exit and was tooling down a road towards the student housing.
"I don't know where she is," Jenny said, opening the door to their apartment only a crack. "What's going on with you two?"
"What did she tell you about...about what was going on with us?" Robb asked.
"She texted me last night saying she was fine, that she was staying at your place."
"My place?" Robb frowned. That was strange.
"Did she not go over to your place last night?"
"No, she did. She did."
"But she didn't stay there?" The blond girl creased her brow with worry. "Should I call the cops?"
"No need for that," Robb said, affecting a casual manner at odds with the tenseness in his chest. "She left early, to run some tests. You know Liz, always working."
"So she's at the lab? Did you check there?"
"I stopped here first on a whim. Wanted to give her some flowers."
"Where are they?" Jenny's eyes narrowed.
"Where are what?"
"The flowers."
"Oh. Right. They're down...they're in the car. You know, I'll go by the lab, she's probably there already."
"Yeah," Jenny said. She had a strange expression on her face as she closed the door. Robb fairly ran down the steps to the car, dialing Liz's number once more. This time it went straight to voicemail.
"All my fault," Robb said, grumbling as he pulled into the parking lot of the university. He couldn't very well leave the car parked on the university lawn, not with a dead body inside of it, but something inside of him told him that he had to get to Liz. He locked the car and sprinted through the campus to the chemistry lab. Students turned their heads to watch him, a grown man flying down the sidewalk in expensive dress clothes.
So much for being inconspicuous.
He threw the doors to the lab open.
"Liz! Liz?"
The lights were on, but as he made his way to the back of the laboratory he realized that Liz wasn't there. There was a sheet of paper on the table. He picked it up.
Dear Dr. Chatham,
I apologize for such late notice, but a family emergency requires me to take a sabbatical from my research at the university. I am leaving to return to America...
Robb's eyes scanned the page quickly. There was nothing in the note that would incriminate him in any way. Nothing about their date. Nothing about his secret, or what she had seen. He would have expected something, blackmail or begging, something. But the note was dry and academic. All it said was that Liz was leaving.
Leaving.
He picked up his phone and dialed her number again, but of course she didn't answer. Robb slumped down onto a lab stool, the letter in his hand. He needed to get home, back to Thad. He needed to deal with all of his other problems. Liz was one mistake he should be happy to be rid of.
And that was true, wasn't it? If he really cared about his reputation, he should have been ecstatic. Liz leaving would fix all of his problems, provided that she kept quiet. God, she was heading to another country—this was perfect for him to keep all of his secrets locked tightly away. It was exactly what he needed.
Then why did he feel as though everything had just gone utterly wrong?
Chapter Twenty
Liz opened the apartment door quietly, but Jenny was waiting to ambush her.
"I've been calling you for the past ten minutes straight!" Jenny said.
"I know," Liz said. "Sorry." It hadn't been only Jenny calling—her roommate and Robb seemed to be competing to see who could call her phone the most.
"Guess who was just here?" Jenny asked.
"Who?"
"Robert Chatham."
Liz, in the middle of setting her purse down, put on a neutral expression.
"Oh? What did he want?"
"What did he want? He wanted to know where the hell you were. And I do too. You didn't come home last night. I was about to call the police—"
"I was at the lab," Liz said quickly.
"Well, you should call and let him know you're not dead," Jenny said. "And you should have called me."
"Sorry," Liz said. She brushed by her roommate and went into her room. She hadn't even unpacked half of her things. That was good. That meant she didn't have to do much packing. She dragged a suitcase out from under her bed and flung it open.
"What are you doing?" Jenny asked. She was leaning against the door, her beautiful blond hair tossed back elegantly over her shoulder.
"Packing," Liz said. Something nagged at her mind, a thought that she couldn't piece together. She went to her closet and gathered the armful of clothes on hangers. Without folding them, she tossed the whole mess into her suitcase and went back for more.
"Packing. Right. I can see that. Why are you packing?"
"I have to leave," Liz said. As she said the words, a pang of regret bit into her heart. Robb didn't want her to go. Perhaps she should stay. Figure out exactly what he was. If he was telling the truth—if he didn't have cancer, if he had some other genetic condition that caused him to do...whatever it was he had done to her...
No. Robb would be fine. He would have his other women, like that one she'd seen in his apartment when she'd gone to his lab. He didn't need her. And she didn't need him. All she'd wanted to do was her work. The thought came back, an itch that she couldn't find to scratch. She pulled out her sock drawer and emptied it into the suitcase.
"You can't leave! What do you mean, leave? Leave London? Leave the university?"
"I can't stay. It's an emergency. I have to go back home. For a year. At least. I might be back."
"For heaven's sake, Liz, why?"
Jenny trailed her to the bathroom, where Liz plucked her toothbrush from its holder. Everything else she could leave he
re.
"I'm sorry, Jenny. I'll pay my half of the rent for this month, until you find another roommate."
Liz went back to her room, but when she turned to put another armful of clothes in her suitcase, she found Jenny sitting on top of it.
"Liz. Stop."
"Jenny, what are you doing?"
"What am I doing? What are you doing?" Jenny sat cross-legged inside of her suitcase, daring her to pack. Liz sighed and tossed her clothes next to her roommate on the bed. "You can't just pick up and leave without telling me why. I'm your roommate. I'm your lab partner. We are in the middle of a project—"
"Oh, shit," Liz said.
The thought that had been pricking at her mind suddenly tore through to the front.
"What?" Jenny asked.
"My project notebook."
"Notebook?" Jenny looked completely confused.
"I left my lab project notebook at Robb's place. Shit." Her mind raced. It had all of the most important data recorded in there. Including the data on Robb's cell culture. She didn't want to leave the only clue she had behind. "I have to get it. All of the results—I haven't transferred them over to the hard drive."
"So?"
"Can you go get it for me?"
"What? Me? Go to Robert Chatham's home?"
"His lab. He has a private lab..." Liz trailed off. How much could she tell Jenny without giving away his secret? "Jenny, I need that notebook."
"Then go get it yourself."
"I can't. You have to go get it for me. Please."
"No. You won't even tell me what this is about." Jenny crossed her arms.
"You don't want to know," Liz said. And you'd never believe it.
"Is this about Robb Chatham? Did he reject you or something?"
"No!" Liz cried.
"So he loves you?"
"No! Yes! I don't— I don't— " Liz was so flustered that she almost answered with the first thought that popped into her head: I hope so.
"Which is it, Liz?" Jenny said, standing up and facing Liz.
"I don't know. I can't—"
"Do you love him?"
"Yes!"
Liz shut her mouth abruptly. She hadn't even known it herself until she said it. The man she knew was a monster. The man who had hurt her. The man who had given her so much pleasure, who had been gentle and passionate in equal measure.
She loved him. That was the strange feeling that had made her heart ache to think of never seeing him again.
"That's why you're leaving?" Jenny continued. "You're just going to go running away because you're scared of your feelings? Liz, I don't get why you're making this such a big deal. He's a professor. Not even! He's just a lab director."
And a vampire.
"No," Liz said, shaking her head.
"You can't imagine anything that doesn't fit into your perfect little world," Jenny said. Her face turned dark. "You're going to up and leave after one little messup."
"That's not it," Liz protested.
"Life is messy. Love is messy. You can't just shove things into neat little slots."
"You don't understand!"
"I think I understand more than you do," Jenny said. She walked over to the bedroom door and looked back. Hurt and disappointment were written all over her face. "But hey, go. Take a year off. Maybe you'll meet a hottie somewhere else."
"I'm sorry, Jenny." Liz wanted to stay. She wanted to stay so badly. But she couldn't, not knowing Robb's secret. "Will you get the notebook for me?"
"No! I'm not going to let you walk away without facing him."
"But—"
"No. You two should talk things out. I'm going out."
"Now?"
"I need a drink." Jenny's voice was flat, and Liz longed to hug her, tell her that everything was all right. Things weren't alright, though, and no amount of talking would fix the underlying facts. Jenny turned away, and all Liz could do was listen as her former roommate and lab partner slammed the apartment door behind her.
Liz threw the armful of clothes she had into the suitcase. She felt numb. All of her work was over. Her life as she knew it was gone. She would go back to America, empty-handed, and start again. For all of her effort, all of her work, to end up with nothing. Nothing...
She had to get her notebook back.
Chapter Twenty-One
Robb had already forgotten about the body in his trunk when the police lights flashed in his rearview mirror. He was so close to his apartment! He kept driving, hoping to make it to his street. Then the sirens came on.
"Shit." He pulled over, his heart beginning to race. He'd been distracted, thinking about Liz and ignoring all of Thad's phone calls. He was so close to home—he could see his apartment down the street! Could he make it to the garage?
Robb looked up in his mirror. The officer was already getting out of his car.
"Shit. Shit. Shit." He grabbed his phone and dialed the first number on his autodial. Gerry answered right away.
"Yes, sir?"
"Gerry, I'm on the street outside. A cop just pulled me over. Can you come down?"
"Yes, sir. Your friend is here, sir."
"Great. I need you here before I say something stupid."
"I'll—ah—I'll be down in a second." Gerry's voice registered no surprise.
Should he have told him there was a dead body in the car he was driving? Too late now, he supposed. The police officer was knocking on his car window. He rolled the window down.
"Would you mind stepping out of the car?" the officer said, a stern look on his face. Robb had never done well with authority, and he felt his anger and frustration bubbling up to the surface. He tamped it down. Not the time for this, Robb.
"Lucky for you, this is my stop, officer," Robb said brightly. "I'm sorry I was speeding. I was in a hurry to get home to my dying mother."
"You weren't speeding. You ran a red light," the officer said. "And then you didn't pull over immediately."
"I pulled over as soon as I heard you, officer," Robb said, biting down on the inside of his cheek.
Gerry was already crossing the street and heading toward them. Robb said a silent prayer of thanks. His butler was an expert at getting him out of messes.
"Apologies, sir," Gerry said.
"Who are you?" the officer said.
"I'm his caretaker."
"Caretaker?"
"I can take care of any traffic violations."
"No, I need to talk to him," the officer said, pointing his pen in Robb's face. "License, please."
"You're going to pretend you don't know who I am?" Robb said.
The man leered at Robb, and Robb dug into his pocket, pulling out his wallet and handing it to the cop.
"Keep the change," he said. The police officer eyed the bills inside and Gerry pressed his lips together. Was that not how you were supposed to bribe the police?
"Would you mind opening your trunk?" the officer asked, closing the wallet. His voice was hard, demanding, and Robb immediately reacted.
"I'd rather not."
"Why's that? What have you got in there?"
"You mean apart from the sixty pounds of opiates I smuggled in from Manchester?" Robb said.
"Excuse me?" He held out the wallet back to Robb, but Robb didn't take it.
"Sir Chatham is such a jokester," Gerry said, stepping in between Robb and the officer and plucking the wallet out of the officer's hand. "Please, let's get this situation taken care of."
"Ah—erm, yes. Let's," the officer said. He looked strangely at Robb, or, rather, at Sir Chatham.
"Thank you, Gerry," Robb said, and slouched against the side of the Porsche.
"The commissioner is a personal friend of Sir Chatham's, after all," Gerry continued. "And I would hate for him to hear that his friend had behaved so ingraciously toward a member of our fine police force."
"Not at all!" The police officer closed his book, evidently at a loss for what to say. He glanced at Robb, then at the Porsche. "But, but—"
"Oh! I mean, oh. Yes."
Gerry was counting out the bills slyly, his back turned to the police car's dash camera. He shook the officer's hand and the officer's eyes lit up as he realized the transaction.
"I trust that this will take care of things. I'm sure that our relations with London's service officers can continue to be fruitful, and I hope that this incident will soon be forgotten by both sides," Gerry said.
The officer looked down at the few bills.
"Is this—ah—all it takes to forget?" His eyes twinkled greedily.
Gerry glanced over at Robb, who nodded again. He had to get out of this somehow, and a few hundred pounds wasn't going to break him. The butler handed the police officer the rest of the wad of bills.
"Thank you very much, sirs," the officer said, bobbing his head excitedly. He drove away in the police car.
Robb handed his butler the keys. He didn't want to drive that car for another second.
"Gerry, would you park this for me?"
"Sir?"
"There's a body in the trunk."
Gerry's eyes widened only slightly.
"Very well, sir. Indoor parking, then. Shall I bring it up?"
"I'll be down to help," Robb said. "Just don't want to be in that damned car any more." Lord, he hated the police.
By the time Robb and Gerry had hauled the body upstairs, Vasin had already arrived. He helped them lift the body up onto the lab table and began to prepare his medical equipment.
The lab was brightly lit, white and pristine. Robb regretted having to dirty it. Especially for such a friend as Thad.
Thaddeus came strolling in the door from the foyer.
“I parked in the downstairs parking,” he said.
“I thought I told you to park far away,” Robb said, his jaw clenched.
“Not a lot of parking this side of London,” Thad said. “Posh place you have here, eh?”
“What did you tell the guard?”
"That I was visiting you. Why is he here?" Thad pointed at Gerry. Gerry politely said nothing. "I thought he was the doctor."