The answer made Mary frown. “I’m surprised, because the male is farther gone than the female. I would have guessed that he’d shifted first.”
“No, it was definitely Rosemary. But . . . she was unconscious longer. For the first day, from Saturday evening right through until yesterday, Rosemary was completely out. Could not being awake have made a difference?”
“Maybe. I wish I could say for certain, but I just don’t know. This doesn’t happen all that often, so I’m hardly an expert.”
Josie tried to conceal her disappointment. She swallowed a sigh. “Well, I do appreciate what you were able to tell me. At least now we know it’s not a curse. Which leads us back to my pet theory. It’s got to be some kind of infection.”
She could see a flicker of hesitation in the witch’s expression. And she jumped on it.
“Are you saying it’s not an infection?” Josie demanded. “Can you see things like that? Can you tell if they’re sick?”
“Of course they’re sick. Even if they don’t have some exotic virus, it’s obvious that something that compromised the wellness of their minds, at least.” Mary sidestepped. “It’s just—”
“Just what?” Josie had sensed that the other woman was holding something back, and she went after it with the determination of a terrier.
“It’s just that there’s something very deliberate about it. About that malevolence,” the witch finally admitted. “Something about the negative energy that surrounds them doesn’t feel like it came upon them by chance. When I looked at them, I got the impression that this was something that had been done to them. The impression seemed especially strong for the female. To me, that doesn’t jive with an illness. Illness is random; a creature randomly encounters a germ, the germ causes the illness. That’s just not the feeling I get from the Lupines.”
Frustration nearly made Josie howl like one of the Lupines in question. “Can you be any more specific?”
Mary shook her head and looked sincerely regretful. “I’m sorry. I’ve told you everything. They are hard to read because so much of them is animal now, and the impressions I did get seemed lightly removed from them. Distant. It’s probably because they can no longer think in the same way that you and I do.”
And she would have to content herself with that, Josie told herself as she escorted her guest out of the clinic a few minutes later. The witch couldn’t tell her what she didn’t know.
Unfortunately, no one else seemed to know, either.
Exp. 10-1017.03
Log 03-00137
Stage 4 product goes into the field tonight. The one brief in vivo laboratory trial demonstrated rapid uptake, successful loading, and desired end point. Will consider a complete success.
NOTE: Laboratory test subject did demonstrate violent tendencies and unpredictable behavior with infliction of both internal and external damage. In a sustainable population this might be seen as a weakness and an undesirable trait in the product, but I believe that this will only enhance the end goal of the experiment—a final solution to the single greatest problem currently facing mankind.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The meeting with Mary Applewhite continued to nag at Josie all through the afternoon and into the next few days. She had shared everything she could remember with Eli that very night as soon as he’d gotten off his shift. He had listened intently, asked a few deliberate questions, then expressed his own frustration. The problem was that while Josie stayed frustrated well into the weekend, Eli put the emotion behind him after approximately fifteen seconds and demonstrated that he thought the best way to put the problem out of their minds was for them to screw each other senseless.
And while that plan worked very well in the short term, as soon as her breathing returned to normal, Josie’s mind went right back to the problem at hand.
She stayed busy on Thursday and Friday with a full schedule of appointments, but she found it hard to concentrate. Her mind kept wandering back to what Mary had said, turning it over and over as if the words represented the colored blocks on a Rubik’s Cube, and if she just kept moving them around, eventually they would fall into place and show her the solution to the puzzle.
Saturday turned out to be the worst. The hours until the clinic closed seemed to drag by, and no matter how many problems she diagnosed, cures she dispensed, or ears she scratched, Josie felt helpless every time she so much as thought about the Lupines. Worse, she felt useless. After all, Mary had said she didn’t think they had much time left, and Josie couldn’t even figure out what the heck was wrong with them.
She tried to assuage her feelings of impotence by experimenting with different sedatives in the hope of rendering Bill and Rosemary unconscious again. Unfortunately, so far none of them had proved effective. But that didn’t keep her from thinking that maybe her theory about Rosemary’s progress being slower because she’d been unconscious longer had some merit. If that was the case, then finding a way to tranquilize the pair again might help to slow their deterioration and give them more time to find a cure.
Of course, first it would help to know what it was that they were trying to cure.
When she locked the clinic doors on Saturday afternoon, she rounded on Eli with a muffled scream of frustration. “I thought you said your friend Steve was going to take a look at our samples as soon as he got them.”
Eli blinked at the sudden attack. “He did.”
“And we sent the samples by overnight express on Tuesday, right?”
“Yes . . .” He drew the word out like he thought it might be a trick question.
Josie ignored him. “So that means they were delivered to him on Wednesday morning, correct?” When he opened his mouth, she held up a hand to silence him. “That was a rhetorical question; I already know the answer. And do you know how I know? Because the delivery company offers this handy little service that allows customers to go online to track the status of their packages. So I know for a fact that our package was delivered at nine fifty-two on Wednesday morning. And do you know what else? That same handy little service tells me that the package was signed for by Mr. Stephen himself. So there’s no need to wonder whether or not someone accepted the package for him and then forgot to hand it to him. Or set it on his desk where it got buried under an avalanche of paper. Or whether it fell off the back of the truck and was consumed by a wandering Gila monster. He has the samples, Eli! When the hell is he going to take a look at them?”
She finished her rant on a near screech and stood panting up at him, her eyes blazing, her hands fisted, and every muscle in her body tensed for a fight. Eli just crossed his arms over his chest, quirked a dark eyebrow, and waited.
And waited.
After several tense seconds of silence, he finally asked, “Am I supposed to answer that question? Because you seemed to be handling both sides of that conversation just fine on your own. I thought you might like to finish up the same way.”
Damn it, the man couldn’t even have the decency to fight with her when clearly she was spoiling for one. How was she supposed to deal with something like that, huh? Didn’t she already have enough on her plate?
Deflated, Josie slumped against the clinic’s front door and wondered if maybe she should just try one of those sedatives she’d been experimenting with on herself.
“I’m sorry,” she muttered and grimaced. “I’m acting like this is somehow your fault when I know perfectly well that it isn’t, but sitting around waiting like this is driving me crazy. I’m a doctor. My job is to solve problems, not wait around for other people to solve them for me. I’m not equipped to deal with this.”
Eli crossed the floor and pulled her into his arms, cradling her against his chest. “You’re equipped just fine,” he murmured against her hair. “You’re just frustrated. Believe me when I tell you, so am I. But Steve is doing this as a favor to me and on his own time. I can’t ask him to prioritize that over his work. That wouldn’t be fair or realistic.”
“I know.”
“I know.”
“And in the meantime, you are not doing nothing, so don’t let me catch you saying that again. You work harder than anyone I’ve ever met. You put ridiculous hours into your practice, and when you’re not working you’re running a series of experiments that would put your average university research lab to shame. How many different drugs have you tried on Bill and Rosemary now?”
“Seven.”
“Seven. In the last three and a half days. In between running your practice, tending to your patients, and pretending to have a social life.”
“I haven’t been pretending,” she muttered against his shirt. “It’s been real every single time.”
Eli chuckled. “I appreciate you telling me that, but I’m being serious, Josie. You’re too hard on yourself. You push yourself too hard. You need to cut yourself some slack.”
“You know, you might find this surprising, but I’ve heard this speech once or twice before during my life.”
“I imagine you had it memorized by the time you graduated from college.”
“High school.” She tilted her head back and smiled wryly up at him. “But that doesn’t mean I didn’t need to hear it again. Thanks.”
He kissed her. “You’re welcome.”
They stood in the silence of the waiting room for several minutes, wrapped in each other’s arms and perfectly content to be there. Finally, Josie pulled away and sighed. “I had another idea for a sedative. I suppose I could give that a try now. It’s either that or twiddle my thumbs while I wait for the phone to ring. For your phone to ring, I mean.”
Eli shook his head. “No way. You’re going to drive yourself crazy. What you need is a break. A real break. You need to get away from the clinic, away from your apartment, away from Stone Creek. What do you say that you and I run away together?”
“Run away.” Josie snickered. “And do what? Join the circus?”
He smacked her behind and guided her toward the back room. “No, smart-ass. Run away and do something fun. Just the two of us. We could go into Portland for dinner. Or maybe drive out to the shore and walk on the beach. The clinic is closed tomorrow, and I’m off duty. We could even drive up to Seattle and spend the night.”
“You’re trying to distract me with sex.”
“Is it working?”
She laughed.
“Sex was actually only part of the plan. I’m serious about getting out of town. I think it would do both of us some good.”
“But we can’t leave Bill and Rosemary all alone.”
“You have a whole staff here who are almost as well equipped as you are to keep an eye on those two. At this point, we can’t do much for them except keep them fed and in that pen, right?”
Josie frowned. She supposed that was true, but she didn’t exactly relish hearing him give voice to the powerlessness she kept fighting not to feel.
“Maybe, but . . .”
“But what? You think if you don’t stay within fifteen feet of them for the rest of your life, you’ll miss the song-and-dance number where they reveal the secret to curing them?”
She made a face. “Very funny.”
“Come on,” he urged. “You need to take a break before you run yourself completely ragged.”
“I don’t know . . .”
Eli tugged her back into his arms and pursed his lips. “Well, I did have one other idea . . .”
“Which is?”
“We could go back to my place and have sex.”
He grinned at her and wriggled his eyebrows like a silent-film villain.
Josie laughed, then tilted her head to the side and frowned. “Actually, do you know that I have no idea where you live?”
“That’s because you lured me to your web of seduction and kept me a prisoner in your wicked lair.”
She thumped him on the shoulder. “I’m serious. I don’t know where you live. I’ve let you see me naked, and I couldn’t even tell you your address.”
“As I recall, when you got naked, you let me do a whole lot more than look.”
“I know. I’m such a slut.”
“And I thank my lucky stars every day and night.”
“Yes, but now that it’s been brought to my attention, I don’t know if I’ll be able to bring myself to sleep with you again unless I’ve at least seen your . . . house? Apartment? Cave? What?”
He chuckled. “Would you believe cabin? I like having privacy. When I took the job as sheriff, I bought a cabin out in the woods behind Douglas Park.”
Josie eyed him for several seconds. “Now, when you say ‘cabin,’ do you mean as in ‘a little cabin in Aspen we keep for the ski season’? Or do you mean ‘that old miner’s cabin where the out house overflowed back in ’67’?”
“Strictly indoor plumbing. I promise.”
She decided to trust him. “Okay, let’s do that then. But we’re stopping at the grocery store on the way. If you’re whisking me off into the woods to have your wicked way with me, you’re going to have to feed me, too.”
“Deal.”
They did stop at the grocery store—the only one in Stone Creek—to pick up provisions of French bread, Brie cheese, thin-sliced prosciutto, and crisp local pears before setting off in Eli’s big black SUV. Bruce’s initial reluctance to abandon his spot on Josie’s sofa was quickly overcome by a slice of prosciutto, and he grudgingly consented to ride in the backseat, provided that Eli rolled his window down until he could hang his entire floppy head out and let his flews flap in the breeze.
Josie, having never had the opportunity to ride in a “cop car” before, spent most of the short trip enthralled by the police scanner, official computer, lights, sirens, and other bells and whistles that set the vehicle apart from others in its class. She literally had to sit on her hands to keep from pushing any of the fascinating buttons.
When the Jeep slowed, she did manage to look up just in time to see Eli guide it to a halt in front of a small but snug-looking clapboard cabin with a wide, welcoming porch and a front door painted a welcoming shade of blue.
“Relieved?” Eli teased, turning off the ignition and pocketing the keys.
“I’m reserving judgment until I see the inside. And the plumbing.”
He was laughing when he rounded the trunk and opened both passenger-side doors, having grabbed the single grocery bag from the cargo area on his way past. “I’ll give you the grand tour. Before I rip your clothes off, even.”
Unlocking the door, he pushed it open and stepped back, inviting her to precede him. Josie did so eagerly, pleased but not entirely surprised to find the front room spare, but neat. He might be a bachelor, but Eli had never struck her as the kind of man who would be content to live like a pig. Still, she couldn’t resist teasing him.
“Did you clean up in the hope of luring me into your clutches?”
“Why? My clutches seemed to work just fine at your apartment.”
She humphed and ran her fingers over the timber mantel above a snug fieldstone fireplace. The wood was old, smooth as silk, and stained a dark cocoa brown. “Looks like whoever built this place did a pretty good job.”
“I like it.”
He left her to admire the decor, which consisted mainly of a deep, inviting leather sofa—on which Bruce immediately made himself at home—and a club chair in a shade that matched the mantel almost perfectly. A low cocktail table in weathered gray wood squatted in front of the sofa, and when Josie bent for a closer look, she saw that it wasn’t a table but an old carpenter’s truck, obviously antique, with traces of green paint still clinging to the corners. At each end, heavy metal D-rings had served as handles. She fell instantly in lust with the piece and wondered if she could seduce Eli into letting her have it.
The room boasted little else, except for a couple of lamps, a tall one in the corner between the sofa and the chair and a short table lamp on a tiny magazine table at the other end of the sofa,
near the fireplace. She noticed sheets of newspaper stuffed into the bottom where the magazines would go and guessed he used them to get his fires going.
Turning away from the fireplace, Josie moved to the doorway on the right where Eli had disappeared and found herself looking into a surprisingly spacious kitchen with old-fashioned checkerboard tiling on the floor in blue and white. The cabinets had been painted white, the appliances chosen to match, and the counters, instead of the laminate she’d been expecting, were topped with wooden butcher’s block.
Eli stood at the counter, emptying the groceries into the refrigerator, which contained a lot more than beer and leftover Chinese food containers, she noticed—sheesh, it looked like the man usually ate healthier than she did! At the front end of the kitchen, a snug round table for four sat beneath the curtained window.
“This is really nice,” Josie commented, giving in to the urge to touch him, even if it was just a hand on his broad back. As she approached the counter, she noticed a low hum and a faint flicker of static in the background. She tilted her head. “What’s that noise?”
Eli reached up and tapped a rectangular black box mounted to the underside of the upper cabinet. “Scanner. Sheriff is always on call, especially since our force is so small. I need to be reachable in case of an emergency.”
Josie made a face and pulled her pager out of her pocket. “The local vet is always on call, too. But for me, it’s just this and my cell phone. I don’t get the fancy super-secret cop toys. Admit it, you just like seeing all this manly equipment scattered here and there, don’t you?”
He bumped the refrigerator door closed with a hip, spun around, and hauled her against him. “Wanna see my nightstick, baby?”
“You mean that wasn’t what you showed me this morning?” She laughed up at the mock scowl on his face.
He growled and kissed her ferociously and thoroughly. She emerged several seconds later feeling flushed, rumpled, and aroused. She figured she probably looked that way, too.
“Come on,” he said, taking her hand and tugging her back toward the living room. “There are still one and a half rooms left in this grand tour, and one of them is my favorite. I’ll let you guess which one it is.”
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