Beastly Beautiful Page 18

  “Sure, sure, I know it,” the waitress interrupted with an impatient glance toward her other customers. “Dr. Mortimer Green,” she put a sarcastic inflection on the doctor part, “owns the Glintwood property, and he’s a legendary nut job in these parts. Grab a pen, though, honey, ’cause this ain’t gonna be short.”

  Teagan dug a pen from her purse and snatched up one of the napkins scattered across the table. “Go ahead, please.”

  * * * *

  The diner had a payphone in the back and a battered old phone book Teagan used to look up the small town’s single taxi service. A car of her own would’ve made things so much simpler. After making the call, she returned to her table and sat a few more minutes sipping coffee from her steaming mug. For a short while, she allowed her mind to wander to Sir and exactly what he planned to do to make this Dr. Mortimer Green right his wrong. Could the man provide a cure for Sir’s condition? Would he be willing to? And most worrisome of all, what would Sir do if he refused?

  With thoughts like these, it was a relief when her ride arrived. She had to get to Glintwood Options and find Dr. Green before Sir did.

  Chapter 32

  Long before the taxi dropped her off in front of the tall chain link fence surrounding the Glintwood property, Teagan began to question her resolve. The road here had been a long and rutted dirt path, twisting snakelike, through a thick forest of pines. It was a wild, lonely looking place, abounding in wildlife, but with little sign of human habitation save in the crude, endless road that wound through its heart.

  Now her last link with civilization was driving off in a trail of exhaust, leaving her standing alone with the looming forest at her back. The prospect before her looked no more inviting. There was something formidable about the sprawling eight foot fence she faced and the multitude of padlocks all over its closed entrance. It was far from impassible. In fact, with only one or two attempts, she managed to leap up and grab the edge of the fence. After that, it was simple enough to clamber over the top and drop to the ground on the other side. Nevertheless, the idea that whoever owned this property was very eager to keep visitors out wasn’t lost on her.

  Now that the barrier of the fence was behind her, Teagan looked around to see what she had gotten herself into. Before her spread a vast, empty space, dotted with more pines. The long fence didn’t end the forest, but merely interrupted it, cutting straight through the trees, so that the area encircled by the chain link appeared nearly as wild as that outside. The dirt driveway led up to the only manmade structure in sight: a large warehouse-like building made of sheet metal and random scraps of construction material. Not quite what she’d expected of Glintwood Options.

  A careful survey of the premises revealed no sign of anyone stirring in the open. If Dr. Mortimer Green was around, he was keeping to himself inside the building. Then again, who was to say he lived here? Just because he ran his laboratory, or whatever it was, from in there, didn’t mean he hung out here all the time. She wished she’d thought to ask that waitress about his home address. Ah well, it was no use worrying about it now. Surely if she poked around a little on the property she could find something of use.

  Her initial plan as she crossed the distance to the warehouse wasn’t to try and find a means of secret entrance. Merely to explore the property and to see what she could make of it from close range. Once she rounded the corner of the building, however, any such cautious ideas were instantly cast aside. For there, parked at back of the warehouse, was a long shiny blue car.

  There was nothing to say it wasn’t Dr. Green’s car, of course, she rushed to assure herself. After all, the man had to get way out here somehow. And then she saw the license plate bore the name of a rental company. And it wasn’t a Vermont plate. No, like it or not, Dr. Green had a visitor, and she had a pretty good idea of who it was. So much for beating Sir to the punch.

  Clamping down on the emotions inside her threatening to stir out of control, Teagan forced herself to think coolly, rationally. Even if it was Sir in there with the doctor, it didn’t mean anything violent had happened, or would happen. Sir was a reasonable man, and surely this Dr. Green would be open to negotiations. He must see how wrong what he had done to Sir was.

  And yet in the back of Teagan’s mind loomed another face. She couldn’t forget the crazy glint in the eye of the gunman who had threatened her only two nights ago. She had seen insanity before, had been close enough to madness to recognize there were people in the world who were unbalanced, and dangerously so. Was Dr. Green one of those? She hoped not, for his own sake. There had been enough violence already. Please let him give Sir what he needs and just let him go, she prayed.

  But even as the thoughts passed through her mind, she was creeping in closer to the warehouse. She had no intention of risking all she had come to hold dear on Dr. Mortimer Green’s sanity—which had already proved questionable. Sane people didn’t usually go around affixing needles to surprise packages.

  She clung to the dark tree line until she was near enough to the car parked in back of the building to make a break into the open. It was only a short sprint across open ground before she was ducking down in the shadow of the vehicle, and yet by the time she got there, her heart was thudding against her ribs. She wasn’t used to this kind of thing.

  Keeping low, she raised herself just enough to peer in through the car windows. The backseat was empty. But lying in the passenger seat was a full-length dark coat—one she instantly recognized as belonging to Sir. He had been wearing that coat on the night they first met. So. It was settled. She peered around the car toward the silent warehouse. The moment she knew Sir had gone into that place, she also knew that she couldn’t allow him to face whatever lay ahead alone. This Dr. Green seemed a dangerous man.

  One way or another, she had to get inside. Announcing her presence was out of the question. If Sir was in trouble in there, it wouldn’t do him any good for her to come barging into the middle of it. She had to think clearly. Had to form a plan. And yet every second that ticked by as she crouched here thinking was another second Sir’s life could be in danger.

  She glanced overhead. How much time had she wasted already? The sun was nothing more than a fiery blaze on the horizon now. Stars dotted the darkening sky here and there, and a pale sliver of moon was suspended among them. Not a full moon, she noted with relief. At least they didn’t have that to add to their worries.

  Returning her attention to the problem at hand, something about the warehouse caught her attention. Why hadn’t she noticed it before? There was a heavy tin door, something like a garage door, in the back of the building, and this was cracked about a foot above the ground. Why would the garage door be left open?

  Almost without thinking about it, she found herself inching forward, abandoning the shield of the car to cross open space once more. It seemed an eternity but could really have been only a matter of seconds before she left the open ground behind her and pressed herself up flat against the side of the warehouse. Dropping cautiously to one knee, she lowered her face down to the crack at the bottom of the door. The darkness inside afforded her a limited view of a patch of concrete floor. Nothing else.

  It seemed too easy. Nevertheless, it was the only secret entrance that offered itself. She’d be a fool to pass it by. Lowering herself to the ground, she slithered silently on her belly beneath the edge of the door. There was barely clearance enough for her to make it, her back scraping lightly against the tin above.

  The concrete floor was icy cold, but she didn’t scramble immediately to her feet once inside. It was as dark as a moonless night in here and she had no idea what sort of place she had just entered. She had to proceed with caution. And so, she lay motionless for some minutes, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the dimness.

  Gradually she began to pick out shapes in the dark. Looming towers lined one wall—she quickly recognized them to be tool chests. Other odd shapes hung suspended from the ceiling. An old bicycle, a pair of skis. A tire was propped a
gainst the near wall alongside an exercise bike with a missing seat. This room seemed pretty much like any other garage she had ever seen the inside of. Dr. Green apparently made this warehouse his home then, or at least his shed for storing junk.

  A soft rustle, coming from somewhere very near captured Teagan’s attention. She stiffened. Rats? But no, in the dimness, she could vaguely make out one more shape resting a handbreadth away. And then she knew why the door had been left cracked. Curled up, bare inches from her, was the most immense Rottweiler Teagan had ever seen, a vicious looking creature of black hide and bulky muscle. And she had awakened him.

  Staring into the blazing yellow eyes glowing back at her, Teagan froze.

  Chapter 33

  Even as Teagan’s mind raced to find a way out of her predicament, she wondered why the animal simply lay motionless, staring at her. Why didn’t it attack already? Or raise an alarm? Any second now, she should hear a low, threatening growl begin rumbling in the back of its throat.

  But the dog was strangely silent. If anything, its large eyes were questioning. Why, it seemed to be asking, was this stupid stranger crawling across the floor like a cockroach?

  “Easy, puppy,” Teagan crooned, moistening her lips. “That’s a nice, big fellow. You wouldn’t hurt me, would you?”

  The dog cocked its massive head to one side. A strange thumping sound broke the stillness and it took Teagan a moment to understand it wasn’t the thud of her heart, but the sound of the dog’s tail wagging against the floor. Relief washed over her. This watchdog was a teddy bear.

  “That’s right,” she whispered reassuringly, “I’m nobody bad. You don’t eat me, and I won’t eat you. How’s that?”

  For answer, the dog stretched out its neck and lowered its heavy head.

  “What, you want your ears scratched?” she asked, tentatively obliging. It felt a little like petting a huge bear, but the dog seemed gentle enough. Once she was satisfied she wasn’t in immediate danger of being devoured, she took another look around at her surroundings. There had to be a way into the main building from here. And then she saw it—a narrow doorway at the far side of the room.

  Slowly, she crawled to her feet. She needn’t have worried on the dog’s account. Already satisfied with her brief stroking, he laid his nose down between his paws again and let her go.

  It wasn’t easy, working her way in the dark around the piles of junk that stood between her and the door. When she reached it, she tried the knob and the door opened easily. Teagan released the breath she’d been holding. If it had been locked, she didn’t know what her next step would have been. Carefully, she pressed one eye up against the cracked door.

  Her limited view afforded her a glimpse of the interior of the warehouse. The florescent lighting high in the ceiling was dim, but at least it was there. Beneath its flickering light, Teagan made out a vast space of concrete floor, cluttered by stacks of crates and various debris that looked like trash to her. Having seen the warehouse from the outside, Teagan knew it to be even larger than this, but apparently parts of it were sectioned off into separate rooms.

  The wooden rafters overhead stored still more boards, boxes, and long sheets of metal, resting long-ways across the ceiling beams. The overall affect was one of an immense open space that had been crowded with so much debris there was scarcely walking space between the piles. At least, Teagan thought, this might simplify her attempts to avoid notice.

  When her preliminary search revealed no one else in the room, she inched the door open just far enough to squeeze out. Then she made a stealthy rush to duck behind the nearest stack of wooden boxes. Once she was out of the open, she relaxed a little. From her hiding place, crouched behind the pile of crates, she peered around the room. If anyone else were here, they too must be hiding as she did. She wasn’t sure if that was a comforting thought or not. Meeting up with Sir would be all right; she wanted to intercept him anyway. On the other hand, running into the mysterious Dr. Green in this eerie atmosphere would probably give her a heart attack.

  Straining her ears, she tried to catch the slightest sound to hint that another person lingered nearby. From somewhere, she picked up the small, scratching sound of an insect skittering across the bare floor. Much louder was the occasional creak of the tin roof overhead as it groaned in the wind.

  What was that? Teagan pricked up her ears. Was it her overeager imagination, or had she heard the drone of men’s voices in the distance? As silently as possible, she moved closer to the direction the sound emanated from. This meant abandoning her temporary shelter behind the crates, but she hardly missed it. There was such a litter of debris scattered around her, she was well screened from view in any direction.

  Unfortunately, that also meant she couldn’t see who was doing the talking. And there was talking. The voices, once a soft buzz, were growing more distinct as she approached. But there was an annoying muffled quality to the deep tones that prevented her from making out the words. She realized the speakers were in another room, talking from behind one of these tin walls.

  Finally, she could see the doorway letting into the other room. The door was open slightly, but from her present vantage point, she couldn’t see in. If she could get at it from another angle… Cautiously, she crept nearer, moving from one shielding hill of debris to the next, until finally she was hiding in the shadows just outside the door. Her view was still limited to one corner of the room.

  Here she could see a metal work desk, laden with test tubes and all sorts of other instruments she didn’t know the uses of, shoved up against the far wall. Beside it was a cracked, dusty window overlooking the dark pine forest outside. She could see nothing of the room’s inhabitants, save their shadows stretched across the floor.

  “I didn’t come to bribe you.” Teagan’s heart leapt in recognition as Sir’s voice rang out angrily from the next room. “I won’t pay you to undo what should never have been done in the first place.”

  “Do you think I want money?” The voice that answered was oddly steady, in light of the fact that an argument seemed to be underway between the two. If the speaker returned any of Sir’s anger, his soft tone didn’t reveal it. He continued, “No, my days of relying on you and your bank for support are over, my self-important friend. Do you want to know why? Shall I let you in on my little secret?”

  He suddenly appeared into view, this other man, moving to the desk in the corner. His back was toward the door, so Teagan could make out nothing more of his features than a short, stocky frame and a balding head with a fringe of gray hair. He didn’t look dangerous, this Dr. Mortimer Green. His voice and easy manner lacked the signs of madness Teagan had come to expect. Everything about him seemed ordinary.

  He reached into one of the desk’s drawers and withdrew something. “Look here,” he said, conversationally. “The serum for a certain experiment. Already tested, already proved.” He held the object, a syringe, up for viewing before replacing it in the drawer. “And what’s this?” he continued, selecting another syringe. “The antidote. Also quite positively proved. But it’s not for you, no.” He laid the second syringe atop the desk where it lay temptingly in full view.

  As he turned back to Sir, his face came into view. It was the round, pink-cheeked face of a middle-aged man who, aside from his black-rimmed glasses, bore no remarkable features. He looked like a gentle sort of man, somebody who collected butterflies and went on nature walks. He moved slightly and was no longer visible from Teagan’s vantage point.

  Reluctantly abandoning her shadowy hiding place, Teagan crawled stealthily across the floor, planning to press her face full against the door. Despite her careful movements, however, one boot scraped sharply against the concrete floor as she shifted. The resulting squeak echoed around the big warehouse. Teagan froze.

  Inside the little room, both men turned at the sound. Caught in plain sight and clearly visible through the cracked door, Teagan could do nothing but observe the varied expressions crossing their faces. Sir’s l
ook was one of shock, swiftly replaced by anger. Beside him, Dr. Green scarcely even looked surprised.

  “Teagan!” Sir exclaimed sharply. “What are you doing? How did you get in here?”

  Shrugging sheepishly, she climbed to her feet. Now that she had been caught like a kid with her hand in a jar of sweets, it seemed silly to stay crouching on the cold floor. She crept abashedly through the doorway and into the smaller room.

  “Why did you come?” Sir demanded. “I specifically told you in my note not to follow me!”

  “I just wanted to help,” Teagan offered. “I was afraid if I didn’t come to stop things you might do something…hasty.” Sir didn’t look placated.

  Dr. Green chose that moment to break into the conversation. “Teagan,” he repeated thoughtfully. “I know that name.”

  Teagan’s insides turned to ice. She’d hoped to avoid this. Why had she ever signed her real name to those letters? She shot the doctor a pleading glance but he didn’t seem to get the message in her eyes. He continued speaking.

  “You’re the young lady who contacted me. The one who agreed to share our friend Mr. Rotham’s secrets in exchange for the favorite reward of betrayers. Money.” He offered a light chuckle.

  “Teagan, what’s he talking about?” Sir’s voice was cool, neither accusing nor reproachful, merely requesting the truth. He would wait to learn it before he judged.

  Teagan couldn’t look at him. He deserved the truth. “I, um, sort of had this deal with Dr. Green where he was going to pay me a little bit to, er, spy on you. But I regretted the deal almost as soon as I agreed to it,” she rushed on. “I was at the point of breaking it off and confessing everything to you many times, only—”