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LadySharkey1 rocks my world by being the most amazing, kick-ass beta I could ever imagine.
Belmont Island, Maine
Saturday, March 17, 1951
3 PM
"Is she…?" Edward didn't have to finish his question, the horrible meaning all too clear as Bella pressed her finger to the pulse point in Esme's neck.
"She's still alive." Bella breathed a sigh of relief, brushing a few dampened strands of hair away from Esme's forehead. "But barely." She sighed, her eyes taking in the scene of utter chaos around her. "I think she made herself sick…that's what must have saved her."
Edward nodded, his eyes zeroing in on the lunch tray that sat on the bed. The plates of sandwiches remained untouched but the two bowls of soup had obviously been disturbed. "Someone must have poisoned their food then," he mused, thinking out loud.
"It makes sense." Bella nodded, as she added up the bits and pieces of information they could find around the room. "She would have helped Carlisle eat first before touching her own plate."
"And by the time she did, Carlisle must have showed the first signs of poisoning. Poor man!" Edward finished. "That means we're looking at someone who has access to the food."
"Angela," Bella answered, her anger building as she thought about the way in which Alice's maid had tried to insert herself into their group. "She was bringing in the lunch tray right when I was leaving."
"Or the cook," Edward added. "Something tells me we can't rule her out just yet, either." Grabbing the gun, he added. "We should warn Jasper; if anything just to get his help in carrying Esme downstairs."
Bella nodded, shielding her ears as Edward released the trigger and a deafening gunshot rang out through the room.
Only a few seconds passed before Jasper stormed in; gun drawn and eyes wild as he scanned the room. "Well, shit!" he gasped, his eyes taking in the scene that Bella and Edward had entered into only moments before.
"Esme's still alive," Bella was quick to fill him in. "We need to get her downstairs to give her what help we can."
"Do you know…"Jasper's eyes did another scan of the room as he came closer, assisting Edward as he lifted Esme's unconscious body in his arms.
She groaned, obviously in pain, as her head fell back; the strain of keeping herself alive almost proving to be too much of a challenge for the very sick woman. Bella wondered how long they would be able to keep her breathing. It was clear that Esme needed a doctor…medicine. There might be something in the house they could give her but would it really be enough to help fight whatever it was that was killing her?
"Poison," Edward answered. "It was the food."
A dark look passed between the two gentlemen. "We'd better get back downstairs, then," Jasper muttered. "I left Rose in the sitting room with the bulk of our provisions but Angela and Mrs. Cope had just gathered the last of the stuff we needed and I told them to go ahead and bring it in."
"Quick then," Edward nodded, handing his gun to Bella as he followed Jasper out of the room.
The cool metal against her hand made Bella shiver. On the one hand, the presence of the gun gave her a sense of security. After all, with a killer running around the house, every means to defend herself and her friends would be welcomed with open arms. On the other hand, though, the feeling of the cold, heavy object in her hand gave her the creeps. Bella had never been one for guns and danger. Once, when she'd been a little girl, her uncle had taken her on a hunting trip. Bella couldn't remember a time when she'd cried as hard as when the first deer had been shot somewhere in the far distance.
It put her off violence for the rest of her life…and off meat for some considerable time, as well.
And then, of course, it was that same violence that had taken the life of her husband, far away on some godforsaken beach in Europe.
No, there had been times in her life where Bella wished she was brave—right then being one of them—but when she was honest with herself, she could admit that it wasn't one her character could brag about. She was the kind of person who tried to blend into the background as she quietly bore whatever hand fate had dealt her. Not the one who actively stood up for herself or met the dangers on her path head on.
It had shaped her fate.
Rushing down the stairs, nothing seemed out of the ordinary as they made their way back to the safe haven of the sitting room, at first. As they entered, however, it didn't take them long to realize that everything was not okay.
Rose was lying face down in the middle of the room, a small stain of blood marring her long, golden tresses. As Bella rushed forward, Jasper was quick to secure the room while Edward gently placed Esme on one of the sofas before joining Bella on the floor.
"Is she…?" he asked for the second time in only hours.
Much to his relief, Bella shook her head. "She's just unconscious, though judging by the wound, she got knocked on the head pretty hard."
"Don't worry," Jasper mused wryly. "It would take one hell of a job to crack that stubborn head of hers. There's no getting through that skull, even with a sledgehammer!"
Bella could only force a smile at Jasper's attempt at humor, her worries too great for any joke to slip through their stifling hold. "It has to be Angela or Mrs. Cope, then."
Edward nodded. "Yeah. I somehow doubt Rose would do this to herself."
"And ruin her pretty face?" Jasper snorted. "Never!"
"But what are we going to do now?" Bella asked, shivering as she thought about what was taking place somewhere around the property at that very moment. "Both of them are gone and if one of them is guilty…that means the other is innocent...trapped. And…" Bella's voice trailed off, tears forming in the corners of her eyes as she thought about the anguish one innocent woman must have been feeling at that moment.
"You're forgetting the gardener," Jasper mused. "Just because they said he'd gone to the mainland, doesn't mean he actually did. What if he's been hiding out here, killing us off one by one?"
"Either way," Bella stated softly. "There's at least one person out there, at the mercy of a killer."
"We'd better get moving, then." Jasper sighed, his appetite to go out there and face the rampant murderer that was hiding in God only knew which corner of the house was as appealing to him as eating life snakes, but he knew he had to do it.
An innocent woman's life was at stake and, even if he didn't really know that woman, his mama had instilled enough of the behavior of a gentleman in him to keep his behavior in check. As a man, he felt duty bound to protect those who were unable to protect themselves. It was that thought that had made him volunteer to go to war and fight for all those people in Europe that had been left all but defenseless against the nazi-evil that surrounded them, and it was that same notion that steeled his resolve again.
Something had to be done.
"So how are we going to do this?" Edward asked, getting impatient with the whole 'doing nothing' thing. Like Jasper, the thought of facing a rampant murderer didn't exactly tickle his fancy but sitting back and doing nothing drove him nuts. Rationally, he knew that Jasper needed some time to devise a plan; a scheme that allowed them to go in there, save the day and return home alive and kicking. Unlike Jasper, though, he was more of a man of action. Where Jasper had earned his glory in the war by sheer, tactical genius (watching and waiting until he was certain of success before sending his team in to do as much damage with as minimal loss to their own unit), Edward had been lauded for leading his men into bold, dangerous attacks that hardly anyone else dared to execute.
"Bella will stay here with Rose and Esme," Jasper started, his eyes keenly scanning the room for dangers and possibilities. "Before we leave, we'll help her barricade all entryways except the one we're leaving through." Turning to Bella, he was quick to add, "You'll put something heavy in front of that one when we're gone and only open the door when you're certain it's one of us on the other side."
"How do I know you're not under duress?" Bella asked, her mind quick to catch up now that it had something to do. And with the fog of constant fear and worry finally starting to lift, she was quite eager to do as much as she could to help them all make it through their ordeal.
"Smart thinking!" Jasper nodded. "We need to think of something that won't attract attention. How about a code word?" Jasper's smile widened as the plan started to take shape in his mind. "If either one of us knocks on the door, you ask for a password. We need to think of two responses: one to let you know it's safe to open the door and one to let you know the killer has us."
"Okay." Bella tapped her lips as she tried to think of something.
"How about 'Antonio' and 'Shylock'?" Edward chimed in. "They shouldn't be too hard to remember?"
"Too obvious," Jasper argued. "Even with the killer not being one of us, the chance that they know Shylock's the bad guy is too big of a risk. The minute they are on to something, they'll kill us and our chance will be lost."
"Okay…" Edward's voice trailed off as he tried to think of a better scheme. "How about we use our stage names in case of danger and our own to indicate it's safe? There's no way any killer's going to know which way we use them."
Even Jasper couldn't see any fault in that plan. "So we're all agreed, then?"
Bella nodded. "Then I guess we're going to need to move some furniture."
Much to their relief, they found that all doors and windows could be easily barricaded, even though they didn't have the keys to lock the internal doors. After a couple of heavy oak dressers and a bunch of side tables were moved, they felt sure that Bella would be able to manipulate the sofa on her own after the men had gone.
"Be safe," Bella whispered, her throat constricted and her eyes wet with tears as she and Edward said their goodbyes. "I don't know what I'd do with myself if…"
"Don't think about that," Edward insisted. "I've spent years trying to find my way back to you and now that I'm on the brink of succeeding, I'm not going to let something as stupid as a serial killer stand in my way. I will return to you."
"I'll hold you to that promise!" Bella sniffed, before pressing her lips to his in a smoldering kiss.
Their second first kiss.
A kiss that promised to be the first of many.
That was…if he managed to come back alive.
"Now I'm really coming back!" Edward joked, tenderly caressing her cheek before taking a step back. Sharing a look of understanding with Jasper, he grabbed hold of his gun a little tighter as he nodded. "Let's go then."
A final look was shared between Edward and Bella as they stepped back out into the main hall before she closed and locked the door. The men stayed, listening as she pushed the sofa in front of it. It was only when they were sure she was safely behind those doors with Rose and Esme that they left.
Bella's heart hammered in time with their receding footsteps as she kept her ear to the wooden door. Even barricaded in as she was, she felt as far from protected as she ever had.
As long as there was a killer out there, nobody was safe.
Thoughts?