Living with the Dead
Page 34

Robyn looked from Hope, shaking with fear, to Karl, covered in blood.
Oh God, what had she done? She should never have let them get involved. It didn't matter that they hadn't asked permission. She let them get involved.
She squared her shoulders, ready to march over there and say "no more." She was going to the police. They couldn't stop her.
She lifted one foot, replayed her speech and realized how it would sound – as if she wanted them to stop her. And when they did, she could tell herself she'd tried – if not very hard – to do the right thing.
Doing the right thing meant doing it, not talking about it.
Robyn backed away from the corner.
 
HOPE
 
Karl rubbed Hope's forearms as she shivered, caught up in the chaos still swirling around her brain.
"Ride it out," he said. "Stop fighting it."
"I have to get back to Robyn."
"You can't let her see you like this."
"I know," she said through gritted teeth. "That's why I'm trying – "
" – to fight it. And that's why I'm telling you not to. Robyn's in a public place, surrounded by people. Look after yourself first." He bent to her ear. "Enjoy it."
He was right, but that didn't make the advice any easier to take. She wanted to be able to say "sorry, bad timing,"
and move on.
Karl straightened, still rubbing her forearms as he looked around.
"Any sign of him?"
He opened his mouth to answer, then scowled and swiped at the blood dripping from his lip, drops spattering the wall beside them. The blow that split his lip was what had brought Hope running. She'd been talking to Robyn and seen the younger werewolf's fist connecting with Karl's jaw, blood spraying, Karl reeling back.
The vision came without any spark of pleasure, more like the blast of a warning alarm, shutting down common sense and sending her flying to his rescue even when she knew he didn't need it. She could only imagine what Robyn thought. Probably still sitting there, shaking her head.
Hope had followed that chaos burst to find Karl alone on this strip of land where he'd fought the werewolf, cursing as he'd tried to clean his bloodied face with a scrap of tissue, his fury and frustration like a beacon guiding her in.
Earlier, as they'd driven past the ice cream stand, it had taken him only one whiff to confirm his fear – that the werewolf he'd smelled earlier had tracked him back to the motel room. Karl had set out in pursuit while Hope went to watch over Robyn. He'd caught up with the other man – Grant Gilchrist, a younger werewolf he'd bumped into a few years before.
The blow to Karl's mouth had knocked him off balance just long enough for Gilchrist to take off. Karl had been about to follow when a security car had turned the corner. By the time Karl could cross, Gilchrist was running through a busy supermarket parking lot where, with his white shirt covered in blood, Karl couldn't follow. The last thing he'd seen was Gilchrist getting into a cab.
So Karl had retreated to clean up. The blood on his shirt and the wall came from Gilchrist. Karl's only injury was the split lip, which bothered him no more than a broken nail. Still, Hope pulled out napkins from the ice cream stand and wiped his injury for a better look, which he withstood with an exaggerated patience that said he really didn't mind being fussed over.
"That's the best I can do." She balled up the napkin. "And it's still not good enough for you to walk around in public.
I'll run back to Robyn, make sure she's okay, then grab a shirt at one of the stores. It won't be up to your standards..."
"I'll make an exception."
She nodded and jogged off. She didn't look back, but knew he was there, watching over her for as long as he could.
 
ADELE
 
Adele stood in the empty motel room and eyed Robyn's laptop as if it was a coiled snake ready to strike.
"What were you doing?" she whispered. "Checking your e-mail? Your stock portfolio? Your horoscope? Or something I should know about?"
Adele wasn't a computer whiz. She could use one for e-mail, banking, uploading her photos... A tool limited to what it could do for her, her interest extending no further.
The green light said it was turned on. The screen was dark, though, presumably to save power. Could she turn it back on without a password? If she tried, was there a way for Robyn to know she'd been on her computer?
Adele spent another minute eyeing the beast. There were other things she could search in Robyn's motel room. She hadn't done more than take a cursory look around, her attention snagged by the laptop, its promise making her heart race.
Bold moves, she reminded herself. She had to make the bold moves. Something on this computer had fascinated a fugitive, which was surely more important than anything she'd uncover rifling through drawers.
She touched the keyboard with a gloved finger. The screen lit up, colored lights flashing, and Adele stumbled back.
But it wasn't an alarm. Just a Web page advertising computer games.
She stared at it. Computer games? That's what Robyn had been doing?
While Adele could believe Robyn Peltier would calmly play a game, confident that her name would be cleared any moment, she wasn't about to walk away without a more thorough check.
She clicked the browser's back button and was taken to a site about celebrities. This page seemed to be about Portia Kane. She read a few badly spelled messages – she might be homeschooled, but she was a lot better educated than most of these people, she reflected with satisfaction. Most of the messages seemed to be badmouthing Portia, though, so maybe they weren't as dumb as they seemed.
She flipped through more sites Robyn had visited. Some were on Portia, others on Jasmine Wills, and all nothing more than mockery and rumors, people regurgitating and debating what they'd learned from that most unimpeachable news source – the tabloids.
Why was Robyn visiting sites about Portia and Jasmine?
Had she been checking whether there were any final rumors she needed to deal with before moving on to her next PR project? Compiling a final list of news agencies to contact later, and do her final duties, giving the tabloids something nice to say about the dearly departed, suggesting the best photos to use...
Photos...
Adele minimized the browser and popped open Robyn's e-mail. And there it was, still in her in-box, an e-mail sent from her cell phone to her computer with that damning photo attached.