Half a Mind TO Murder (Dr. Alexandra Gladstone Mysteries Book 3) (17 page)

“
She must have brought the disease to the pigs as well,” Nicholas said. “Why?”

“
Again, I don’t know. It may have been accidental. It may have been meant only for men.”

“
Interesting. But how do you suppose Polly was able to contaminate her victims without contaminating herself? Had she developed an immunity herself?”

“
It’s possible,” Alexandra said, “but I think it’s more likely she’d learned how to avoid contamination when she worked in the laboratory.”

“
Still, it’s difficult to see how she could have caused her victims to come in contact with the germ.”

“
I’m not quite sure how she did it, but she’s rather bright, you know. She could devise something cunning, I’m certain.” Alexandra stood and moved away from the table and the microscope. “I suggest we leave now, Mr. Forsythe. The sooner we’re out of here, the more likely we are to avoid contamination.”

“
Don’t you think we should have another look around first?” Nicholas asked.

Alexandra was surprised at his reluctance to leave.
“Of course not. Constable Snow asked me to examine those specimens, and, given what I found, that’s quite enough reason to leave.”

“
But it’s not enough to charge her with murder,” Nicholas said, looking around as he moved away from her.

Impatience burned Alexandra. She felt an
uncontrollable urge to do something to find Nancy, Zack, and the boys. “Mr. Forsythe, you may stay here if you like, but I’m not—”

“
Just a moment,” Nicholas said, holding up a hand. “I just want to have a look at this shelf of books and then see what’s on the other side of that door over there, and I strongly suggest you don’t leave without me.”

“
There is no reason why I should require your presence, Mr.…” She stopped speaking, realizing how foolish her statement was. Perhaps there was good reason not be alone, given the fact that Nancy and the others had disappeared. In spite of what Nicholas had said earlier, it was obvious to her that it was no longer only middle-aged men who were in danger. “Oh for heaven’s sake.” she said, as angry with herself as she was at Nicholas. She stormed to the door Nicholas had indicated and jerked it open. “I’ll have a look in here if it will satisfy you enough so we can…” No further sound would come from her throat. She could only stare in horror.

In front of her, placed in
neat rows on shelves and supported by strings from the ceiling, were the skeletons of seven cats.

Chapter
Sixteen

“
Dr. Gladstone, is it?”

Alexandra recognized Polly
’s voice and whirled around to face her. Their eyes met, and Alexandra felt as if she’d been swallowed whole by cold fear itself. Her heart refused to beat until she felt Nicholas beside her, and then it seemed that her heart pumped too wildly.

“
I must say I’m surprised to see that you’re so rude and inconsiderate,” Polly said, moving closer to the two of them. “I certainly never entered your house uninvited, did I? Nor did I presume to rifle through your personal belongings.” She assumed a dour expression. “I’m not only surprised, I’m disappointed in you, as well.” She shook her head in false distress. “What did I do to deserve this? Didn’t I give you help when you needed it? Didn’t I take care of poor Nancy as long as I could?”

“
Where is Nancy?”

Alexandra was surprised to hear that it was Nicholas
’s voice asking that question and not her own.

Polly turned her attention to him.
“Who are you? And what are you doing here?” There was a menacing note to her voice.

“
We are here at the request of Constable Snow,” Nicholas said before Alexandra could speak.

“
Indeed!” Polly turned her gaze again to Alexandra. “And did you find what you were looking for?”

“
You must know, Polly, how dangerous it is to have these anthrax specimens in your possession,” Alexandra said.

“
Anthrax?” For a moment it appeared as if she wanted to play innocent, but she seemed to change her mind. “I am well trained in how to keep it from contaminating me, and it comes in touch only with those I choose.” She laughed. “Well, perhaps those pigs weren’t intentional, but that wasn’t entirely my fault. I stole one of the old sows who was about to die anyway to test the potency of my specimen. I didn’t expect Lucas to find her and return her to the pens. That boy has a problem, you know. I may have to harvest him early. He saw me bury the first heart, I’m sure. And when he dug it up, that’s when the trouble started.”

Alexandra stared at her, astonished.
“But the men…? How did you…?”

“
Men can be so vain. All I had to do when they came into the apothecary was suggest a bit of gel to soothe roughness of their skin and then apply a little with a spatula. Even Harry fell for it.”

“
And when Ben Milligan didn’t die of anthrax…what have you done with Nancy and the others?” Alexandra’s fear was suddenly multiplied.

“
Nancy?” Without taking her eyes off Alexandra, Polly took another step toward the two of them. Alexandra saw a bit of light signaling from the folds of Polly’s skirt, and it was only then that she realized she was holding a scalpel. “There’s no need to worry about poor little Nancy anymore,” Polly continued. “You’ll be joining her soon enough.”

“
Where is she?” Nicholas demanded.

Once again Polly stopped her slow, deliberate advance and turned her attention to him, her eyes now wild and blazing.
“You’re annoying me.” she said and at the same time slashed at him with the scalpel. Alexandra saw Nicholas raise his hands to fend off the attack and in almost the same instant saw his hands covered with blood. He backed away, and Polly slashed at him again. Nicholas cried out, bending at the waist, hitting his head on the table that held the microscope. He slumped to the floor as Polly kicked him.

Alexandra lunged toward him, but Polly was suddenly in front of her, close and looming. Instead of the slash Alexandra had expec
ted, though, Polly lunged at her, not with her weapon, but with her body. In a sudden movement she pulled Alexandra’s body close to hers and held the scalpel at her throat. Alexandra sensed Polly’s breath, hot and sweet, on her face as she spoke.

“
I didn’t want to have to do this, Dr. Gladstone. Neither to you nor to Nancy. In time I could have made you both understand, but you both got to be too suspicious, and I no longer have time.”

Alexandra caught a glimpse of movement on the floor where Nicholas lay s
lumped, but she couldn’t tell whether it was a sign of life or the throes of death that precipitated the movement. There was blood on his gloved hand and seeping from his midsection, staining his shirt. Polly was still talking, her lips moving very close to Alexandra’s.

“
You don’t have families, you and Nancy, and I thought that would make you understand what I had to do. You must know, don’t you, that families are not supposed to be the way they are. We have to protect the children from them, don’t we? Like little Alice. She’s a sweet child, and we all love her. I love her. That’s why we must protect her. Her papa’s not ripe for harvesting, but he will be in time, won’t he?”

When Alexandra didn
’t answer, Polly pushed the scalpel deeper into the skin of her neck, very near a scar where an old would had healed. “Don’t ignore me.” Polly shouted, spewing her spittle into Alexandra’s mouth as she spoke. “I’ll carve your pretty neck with another scar to match the one you already have. And ignoring me will not stop me from doing what I have to do. You must understand. It’s what I must do because that’s the only way I can control them. I have to kill them to stop them from hurting others the way he hurt me. The way he hurt my mum. It made me sick the way she never tried to stop him when he came at her, not even when he came at me. It made me sick the way she gave up control.”

“
Polly, please,” Alexandra whispered. “You must—”

“
Don’t tell me what I must do. I know! God has entered me, and now I have become His flesh and His mind. That’s how I knew what I had to do when everyone blamed that poor idiot and his mother. I’m sorry he found the heart. I didn’t mean for him to, and I did a poor job on the second one’s heart because I had to hurry, but I couldn’t let everyone go on thinking it was someone other than God ridding the world of those men, those manufacturers of the devil’s sperm. God is love. I am love, and vengeance is mine. Love cannot thrive until the evil is rooted out.”

Alexandra felt the tip of the scalpel agai
n, but in the same moment, there was a tangle at her feet, and Polly lost her balance. When she fell, her body toppled over a crouched and bleeding Nicholas and landed facedown. The scalpel clattered to the floor only a few inches away from the arm she had thrust out to break her fall. In less than a second, Nicholas had straddled her and leaned forward to pin her arms, splayed over her head, to the floor.

He wasn
’t quick enough. She had already grasped the scalpel in her left hand, and in one surprisingly strong bucking motion, she forced Nicholas off her just enough to allow her to turn on her back. Facing him now, she swung the scalpel toward his chest in a stabbing motion, but he caught her wrist before the sharp tip hit its mark. It slashed the side of his face.

Alexandra watched the struggle, seeing the blood from Nicholas
’s hand and face stain the front of Polly’s dress, her face, and arms. She quickly assessed that the wound on the side of his face was as superficial as her own neck wound, and, judging from his quick movements, Nicholas’s abdomen wound must be equally minor. It must have been the blow on his head when he fell that had rendered him temporarily unconscious.

But Polly still held the scalpel, and the danger wasn
’t over. Alexandra moved toward the two of them as they struggled on the floor. She felt helpless. What should she do?

It was then she heard a familiar sound and turned her attention toward the door that led out to the hallway of the inn. She heard it again. Closer.

A bark.

Zack
’s bark.

The door flew open, and Zack plunged into the room. He took only a fraction of a second to assess the circumstances then ran to Alexandra and tried to nudge her toward the door while he growled low in his throat. In the same moment, Rob and Artie rushe
d into the room behind him, followed by Constable Snow. Both Rob and Snow ran to Nicholas and Polly, but it was Rob who arrived first. With a swift thrust of his foot, he kicked the scalpel from Polly’s hand. Snow then jerked her to her feet.

“
You’re under arrest, Miss Cobbe.” He restrained her with one of her arms twisted sharply behind her as he held her facing away from him. She struggled very little. Instead, she stared straight ahead at something invisible to everyone else, her mouth opened slightly with a strange small smile.

Alexandra cried out in a frightened voice.
“Where is Nancy?”

Polly turned to her with her burning eyes, still wearing her secret smile, but she didn
’t speak. She only continued to stare at her for what, to Alexandra, seemed a frightening and unnerving eternity.

“
Zack can lead us to her,” Artie cried.

Rob shook his head.
“Zack doesn’t understand how to—”

“
I was going to bury her. With the pigs. But I never got around to finishing it.” Polly’s voice was oddly calm, almost pleasant.

“
Bury her?” Alexandra’s voice trembled. “Is she—?”

Polly suddenly jerked her body in a movement similar to the one she used to turn herself over under Nicholas
’s restraint. Snow lost his grip on her arm, and she might have freed herself completely had not Nicholas moved swiftly to force her arms to her sides, stopping her.

Alexandra saw the constable give a nod to Rob, and for the first time she noticed the coiled rope Rob was wearing, thrown over one shoulder and across his chest. He removed the rope
quickly, but before he could hand it to Snow, Nicholas grabbed it and secured Polly’s hands behind her back.

Nicholas gave the knot one last pull.
“There! You’ll not escape from that.”

Polly held her eyes on him as Snow led her across the room to the door.
“Oh, I’ll escape, sir,” she said, still smiling. “And I’ll be back. Mind you stay out of my way.”

She let Snow lead her away, offering no resistance until he opened the door. With a sudden jerk, she turned and lunged at him, but before he could push her a
way or anyone could reach them, she sank her teeth into his lip. A fountain of blood spewed from where their mouths joined. Nicholas reached him first and forced Polly away from Snow while he kept a firm grip on her arms. She smiled at him, while the constable’s blood dripped from the corners of her mouth.

Nicholas ignored her and turned to Snow.
“Are you all right, Constable?”

Snow nodded while he dabbed his swelling lip,
his blood turning his once white handkerchief the color of slaughter.

“
I’ll go with you,” Nicholas said. He turned to Alexandra. “Stay here until I return, then I’ll—”

Alexandra was already on her way to the door.
“I’m going to find Nancy,” she said, removing her gloves and tossing them aside.

“
But where—”

“
Seth Blackburn’s pigs,” she called over her shoulder as she hurried down the hall, Zack, Artie, and Rob following close behind.

“
Did she mean Nancy’s buried?” Artie asked, breathing hard from his efforts to keep up with the others.

“
She’s insane,” Rob said. “We don’t know what she meant.”

Zack, caught up in the excitement of everyone racing through the streets of Newton-Upon-Sea, barked constantly as they ran and kept barking as they reached the edge of the village and the short
distance into the rocky countryside where Seth’s cottage and his pigpens stood.

Alexandra
’s lungs burned and her side ached, but she kept running until her feet were bogged in the muck surrounding the pens. The stench seared her nostrils and throat when she stopped, looking around wildly for any clue for where Nancy or her body could be. Rob was by her side offering a steadying hand when she stumbled. Zack kept up his barking and didn’t stop even after Artie caught up. The three of them stood together, gasping for breath, their eyes anxiously searching the surroundings. The few pigs left, alarmed by Zack’s noise, crowded together against the side of the pen and squealed with anger and annoyance, or perhaps with pain, as they pushed together tighter and tighter, trampling one another.

Seth
’s wife and two small boys stepped outside the cottage to investigate the racket. “What do you want?” Helen Blackburn asked, holding the baby and pulling Peter, the three-year-old, closer to her side. Her voice sounded frightened, and then, recognizing Alexandra, called out, “Dr. Gladstone? Is that you?”

“
Helen!” Alexandra called. “We’re looking for Nancy. Have you seen Nancy?”

Helen hurried toward Alexandra, still carrying the baby and holding Peter
’s hand. “You’re looking for Nancy? Why do you think she’s here?”

“
Polly Cobbe told us she was—”

“
Polly? The girl from the apothecary shop? Why would she think she was…?” Helen stopped and glanced toward a small area of brush and trees. “I heard something earlier. Out there. I thought ’twas only the idjet boy, Lucas. He comes around sometimes. Likes to play with the pigs. Poor idjet. Don’t know better.”