Chapter Seventeen

Jenna trembled slightly as she handed the earpiece back to Luke. There was a tightness in her chest, and she rubbed the back of her neck to ease the tension. “What a total waste of time.”

“Not necessarily. Come on, we’ll get some lunch and maybe, given time, the professor will decide he remembers something.”

Luke tucked the earpiece in his pocket and led her off the university grounds and along the river. It was a glorious day, the sky clear and the trees along the riverbank were just changing color.

They found a small restaurant with views over the river and chose a table by the window. Luke ordered drinks while Jenna studied the menu. She glanced up to find him watching her.

“How do you feel?” he asked.

“Actually, fine.” It was true. The pain in her hand had faded to a dull ache. Her head was clear.

Sitting here, sipping a glass of cold mineral water, everything seemed so normal. It was hard to remember the horror of the night before.

There was an unspoken decision between them that they wouldn’t discuss Merrick until after they’d finished eating. Luke seemed to take on another persona—a suave, witty companion—and she allowed him to do so. They ordered salmon and strawberries and talked of nothing important while they ate.

He was very good at not giving anything away. And afterward, she sat back, filled with an urge to find out more about him, how his mind worked. “Tell me how you got involved in all this. I mean, I know you’re after David’s killers, but how did you get into the security business?”

“Perhaps one day I’ll tell you. But not right now—it’s not suitable conversation over lunch. Tell me about you and David instead.”

“We were friends, that’s all.”

“But he wanted to be more?”

“David was a nice guy, too nice, and he was looking for something more serious than I’m willing to give.”

“Why? You’re a beautiful woman.”

Jenna glanced at Luke before she answered. She hated to talk about her illness, but maybe he needed to know the situation. “I have a genetic illness.”

“So?”

“I don’t do relationships.”

“Neither do I.”

They were both loners, it seemed. While she knew and understood her reasons, she couldn’t help but wonder what had made Luke the man he was. She studied him as the waiter cleared their plates and brought coffee, but his face gave nothing away. Jenna stirred her coffee and gazed out the window. They had to plan their next move, though she was reluctant to bring up the professor again.

“So, what did you make of Merrick?”

“He was lying.”

His words confirmed what she had thought as well. “But why?”

Luke raised an eyebrow. “Maybe he’s aware that anyone who mentions Descartes ends up dead.”

It was a stupid question, when you considered what had happened in the last few days, but she couldn’t believe her father would have deliberately put her in danger. She swallowed the last of her coffee and slammed the cup down. The action jolted her finger, and she winced as pain shot up her arm. “Perhaps we should go back and torture him. Break a few fingers.”

“I was considering it.”

Even studying his face, she couldn’t tell whether he was joking or not.

“You don’t mean that?” She hated the fact that it was a question, but what did she really know about this man?

“No, we won’t go back and torture him. We’ll give him a little time to come to his senses.” A flicker of amusement flashed across his face as he finished the last of his coffee. “And if he doesn’t—then we’ll torture him.”

“So how will we know if he comes to his senses?”

“He’ll call and tell you he’s remembered something. Or there’s always the bug I had someone place in his office. Chances are he’s sitting in his big leather chair right now burning up with the need to talk to someone about Descartes.”

“What if he emails instead of phones?”

“I have someone tapping into his IP address. And I called Callum. We’ll have a tail on the professor the moment he leaves.”

Jenna stared at him in disbelief. Somehow she’d wandered into a world that had previously existed only in movies and TV. How often had she wished for a little more excitement in her life? Now she wasn’t so sure.

“And if we don’t hear from him,” Luke continued, “we’ll pay him a visit together. See if we can’t persuade him to see the error of his ways.”

Either way, it appeared she hadn’t seen the last of Merrick. Stretching her legs beneath the table, Jenna tried to ease the ache of restlessness, the twitching of her nerves. The feeling was a familiar one; she needed to run or work out at the gym but had no idea when she would get the chance.

Luke’s cell phone rang, interrupting her thoughts. He listened for a minute without speaking, his brows drawing together in a frown, and then he disconnected and put the cell on the table between them.

“Merrick’s on the move, and he’s made a stop. He’s using a public phone. Either he’s calling you, or calling someone else, and he doesn’t want to be overheard. He’s cleverer than we thought.”

“Well, he is a professor at the best university in the country, so we should have thought he was pretty clever.”

Luke drummed his fingers on the table and a minute later, Jenna’s cell phone rang, and he grinned.

“Hello?” she said.

“It’s Merrick. Meet me at my house at seven p.m. tonight. I may have something for you.”

Luke slowed the car to a crawl. “We should be nearly there.”

They were driving along a narrow road a few miles outside the city of Cambridge. The sun was close to setting, tinting the sky with crimson. The road was overhung with trees, but between the occasional breaks, flat fields spread out for miles.

Merrick had refused to say anything further over the phone except that he’d remembered something about a former project, and he might have information of use to her.

Jenna turned from studying the road to look at Luke’s profile in the fading light. As usual, his expression gave away nothing. He appeared as fresh as when she had first seen him that morning, while she felt wrecked. She knew it was likely a combination of delayed shock and the painkillers, but she was an hour past the time she normally took her medication, and worry niggled at the back of her mind.

She had no medication left to take.

Yesterday’s had been the last, and tonight would be the first night in her memory when she didn’t take the pill. Unless Merrick miraculously had something for her, although she doubted that was going to happen.

Today she’d missed her appointment at the clinic, but tomorrow, she would spend some time researching her illness. She would find a specialist and get things moving. She lifted her hand in front of her face. One of the first symptoms was a fine tremor in the limbs, but her hand held steady.

Luke glanced from the road to her. “Is your finger bothering you?”

“No. I was just—” She dropped her hand onto her lap. “It’s fine. I can’t even feel it, but I’ve always been a fast healer.”

She pushed the worries to the back of her mind and focused on the coming meeting. Her illness was trivial compared to everything else that was going on. Callum had called in earlier, saying Merrick had arrived home, and his tail was watching the house to make sure he stayed there.

“Why do you think Merrick wanted to meet me here, rather than back at his office?” she asked.

“I don’t know for sure, but if he was cautious enough to leave his office and use a public phone, he obviously suspects someone might be watching him.”

“Wouldn’t they be watching his house, as well?”

“Probably, but if he keeps his records here, maybe he had no choice.”

Jenna shivered and pulled her jacket tighter around her.

“That’s the address,” she said, pointing to a set of double iron gates that stood open, leading into a long gravel drive. A dark SUV was parked just down the road. Luke raised a hand as they passed but otherwise ignored the vehicle and turned the car into the drive.

“Well, he’s obviously not too concerned about security if he leaves his gate open.”

Through the trees, she caught sight of the house, a large, graceful, Georgian building. Luke pulled up in front of the steps and sat for a moment, his hands resting on the wheel.

Lights blazed from the downstairs windows. It looked like the professor was home—or at least someone was.

“Is he married?” she asked.

“No. He’s homosexual but not in a relationship right now.”

“How do you know all this stuff?”

“It’s easy to get information on people these days. Easier than it’s ever been. I had a report run on him yesterday.”

Something occurred to her. “Did you have a report run on me, as well?”

“Would it bother you?”

“Yes.” The thought of someone delving into her secrets made her twitch uncomfortably; she’d always kept to herself.

“We did a preliminary report as soon as your name came up.” A frown formed between his brows as he studied her in the dim light. “It didn’t tell us much—age, profession. There was a photo, but for someone today it was strangely deficient. For instance, it never mentioned your illness.”

“David told me I had no medical records at the surgery, so Dad must have kept them to himself.”

Luke’s frown deepened. He picked up his cell phone and punched in the speed dial. “Callum, run a report on Dr. Jonathon Young. The last known address is the house where we picked up Jenna last night.”

He listened for a moment.

“Go back as far as you can. Merrick mentioned twenty-five years this morning.”

“You’re going to investigate my father?” Jenna asked as he ended the call.

“I can’t believe I didn’t do it sooner. It’s obvious he was involved with Descartes a long time ago.”

She scowled. “Investigate him if you want to. I’m sure he had nothing to hide.”

But as she spoke, doubt nudged at her mind. Her father had always been so secretive about the past, but the puzzling laboratory notes she’d found while going through his papers were a clue there was more to him than he’d ever told her.

He had no family, or none he had ever owned up to. She knew nothing about her mother other than the name on her birth certificate—Sandra Leavsey. Jenna had presumed he’d been bitter about her abandoning them, but could there be something more sinister?

“Then there will be nothing to find,” Luke said. “Come on, let’s go see what Merrick has to say.”

He climbed out of the car and Jenna followed. A dark, expensive-looking sports car was parked at the side of the house, otherwise the gravel drive was empty. The place appeared prosperous and well cared for. Merrick was obviously conscious of his image. She walked beside Luke up the stone staircase at the front of the house. They came to a halt in front of the impressive double doors and Luke pressed the bell.

Nothing happened.

Though he pressed the bell again, Jenna knew there would be no response.

Dread unfurled inside her. A lump formed in her stomach, and she edged closer to Luke.

He glanced down at her. “Do you want to wait in the car?”

“No.” She inched even closer to him. She wasn’t letting him out of her sight.

He nodded and pushed the door. It didn’t open, and he turned the handle. It didn’t budge. “Come on.”

…

Luke glanced over at Jenna as he made his way down the stone steps. In the light from the house he could see her face was pale, her features set. He had a bad feeling about this, and it was obvious Jenna was picking up the same vibes.

That was definitely the professor’s car parked at the side of the house, so he was home. But not answering his door.

Luke made his way around the side of the house with Jenna close behind him. Halting beside a French window, he peered inside. The room was in darkness. He rattled the handle but wasn’t surprised to find it locked.

He raised his foot and kicked the center of the door. The glass shattered, and the door sprang open.

Beside him, Jenna jumped at the noise. “What—”

He shook his head. Pushing the door fully open, he stepped through and into the room.

The faint light from the open door allowed him to see the furnishings, two large sofas facing each other. He crossed the room and opened the door opposite that led into a hallway. Stepping through, he paused as his nostrils picked up the faint, unpleasant smell that permeated the air.

“Fuck.”

He thought about telling Jenna to wait for him, but he doubted she would listen.

Her strength impressed him. Many people would have collapsed under the strain of what she had gone through over the last few days. Instead, she’d remained determined to continue, but he suspected this might send her over the edge. He was pretty sure he knew what they were going to find and cursed himself for not taking Merrick in—for his own safety and to protect their source of information. The truth was he hadn’t taken the professor seriously, had believed a connection twenty-five years in the past too distant, and Merrick a harmless, aging man.

Down the hall, a light shone from an open doorway. He stepped toward it and peered into the room. It was a study, a large oak desk and bookcases along each wall, empty of people, no sign of the professor.

Behind him, Jenna screamed, the sound quickly cut off. Luke whirled around to find her standing with her hand slapped across her mouth, her wide eyes fixed on something above her head.