Hot Blooded

you like a hawk all the day long."
    "I know."
    "Don't you worry. We gave him the slip, all right. Whooeee, but how he jump
when that ice water hit his man parts!" She smiled from ear to ear.
    Jenny grinned, too, but wiped the smile away as she returned to her seat at
the table and continued with her meal.
    At 7:30, she was in her room getting ready to go, when someone tapped on her
door. Fearing it was Dr. Hinkle, she almost didn't answer, then decided she had
no choice. When she opened the door, she found Carrie standing there.
    "Finished with all that research already?" Jenny asked.
    "Um… no. I just… I wanted you to know something."
    Frowning, Jenny let her in. Carrie closed the door, looking nervous. "What is
it, Carrie?"
    The girl cleared her throat. "When you went into the kitchen, tonight, with
Mamma Louisa, Toby left the table."
    "Where did he go?"
    "I can't be sure," Carrie said. "But he might have gone to the kitchen, too.
I started to go for another towel, to mop up the water that was still in Dr.
Hinkle's chair. And it looked as if… as if he was listening at the door. But
like I said, I can't be sure. He saw me and hurried off toward the living room,
and I went back to the table."
    Jenny closed her eyes. This wasn't good.
    "Where is he now?"
    "Downstairs, working on his computer."
    "And Dr. Hinkle?"
    Carrie shrugged. "He went out a few minutes ago. I didn't dare come to you
until he left, the way he's been hovering over you all day."
    "And now he's suddenly stopped hovering."
    "That occurred to me, too," Carrie said. "I think Toby told him whatever he
overheard in the kitchen. I saw them talking awhile ago, huddled in a corner,
keeping their voices low. Are you in any kind of trouble, Professor Rose? Cause
if I can help…"
    Jenny glanced at her watch. "Keep the twins busy. Downstairs, for the next
ten minutes. Can you do that?"
    Carrie nodded hard. "Can you tell me what's going on?"
    "No. I'm sorry, but it's not my secret to tell."
    "Is it… the werewolf?"
    Jenny smiled and smoothed a hand over Carrie's hair as if she were a small
child. "Don't be silly, hon. There are no such things as werewolves."
    Carrie looked puzzled but rushed away to do as Jenny asked. Jenny took the
back stairs up to the third floor and knocked on Mamma Louisa's door.
    When the woman opened it, she said, "Ready to go, then?"
    "Not quite. I need to take a look in Dr. Hinkle's room before we leave. But
we'll have to be fast."
    "I never like that man anyway." Mamma Louisa dipped into a pocket and pulled
out a jangling ring of keys. "Let's go see what secrets that man be keepin'."

----
Chapter 10
    Â« ^ »
    JENNY felt as if every hair on her body were standing on end as she crept
through Dr. Hinkle's suite of rooms. Mamma Louisa stood just outside the door,
in the ornate hallway, keeping watch. Not that it was going to be much help,
should the good doctor return. There wasn't any other way out of the rooms, just
that one door. But at least she'd have some warning.
    She went to the desk that was set up in a window-lined alcove, glanced
through the papers that were spread over it but found nothing. She flipped open
the laptop computer and checked for the most recently opened files, but again,
found only the most mundane reports on the project.
    She tried the desk drawer and found it locked.
    Turning toward the door, she whisper-shouted for Mamma Louisa, who poked her
head into the room, eyebrows raised.
    "The keys to this desk. Do you have them?"
    "No, missy. The doctor, he make sure he have the only set."
    That nailed it, then. If Hinkle had anything he wanted to hide, the desk had
to be where it was. Mamma Louisa came the rest of the way into the room, eyes on
the desk drawer, lips moving to form soundless words as she reached a hand out.
She leaned over, blew on the drawer's handle and tugged it open.
    "How the hell—"
    "You were mistaken,
chère
. The draw' wasn't locked at all." Turning,
she hurried back to her post in the hallway.
    Jenny swallowed down the rising sense of disorientation. She'd seen so many
things since coming here—things her practical mind and her education told her
didn't exist—
couldn't
exist. And yet, she couldn't deny her own senses.
She'd
seen
Samuel's face and body twisting into something else. And she
knew this drawer had been locked tight moments ago.
    Now, she was staring into it, at a leather-bound volume. Beside it