As Amos rises he feels a pull. Someone is calling to him…He realizes it is Beverly He is worried as he flies in her direction because he remembers that he came too close with her… does she crave his bite to the point of recklessness?
He finds her sitting in the room that Danny has begun to fix.. "I want to leave that place" she said "they tried to kill me"
"Who?"
"I do not know. One of them Dinah, or Louis, or both. I am not safe here."
"But why?"
"Because I know that they tried to kill Leonore…they did kill that guy, Victor, but Leonore was the intended victim"
"But…"
"I never took any sleeping pills And yet almost died of it."
"They called the ambulance on you"
"To cover their asses. But they took their time.. they expected me to die… I am not safe here, Amos."
'Let me check on them. They will have to tell me the truth."
"Can I stay overnight at your place? It is the only place where I will feel safe from them."
"Safe? You know what I am and what I need."
"You have fed on me before, and I trust you I do not trust your family."
-0-
"I stayed at his place. It was really roughing it, but it was safety. And Amos did get to talk to them."
-0-
"Dinah, I got Charlie to tell me how you gave him the idea to put laxatives in Beverly's drink. Can you explain how those laxatives turned out to be sleeping pills?"
Dinah tried to come up with an explanation, but fell to Amos' hypnotic eyes. Amos fed on her getting control of her. And made her tell him EVERYTHING."
"God, what a family. Lawson is right. I seem to be the normal one here."
He took control of Louis too, noting the strong alcohol content of the blood. "I do not know if you really meant to kill Beverly or not. But it has to stop. Maybe you could release her from her contrac.t Send Charlie to be treated as you wanted."
"We cannot. "Dinah interjected. "Mother made sure of it with her lawyer. Charlie cannot be sent away without his signature, and he will not give it. Beverly will have to stay."
"Well, you'll have to negotiate with her, then… and no more killings please. We used to be a respectable family."
-0-
Heather did not know what to look for in the specimen shelves that Midler kept meticulously… some things that he did not want people to know about… even her, even knowing the hold he had on her, he still kept some things from her..
She asked herself again why had she let him seduce her with notions of cutting edge research or glory of advancement of science or being a pioneer… and in the end.
She shook her head as she read the labels of the flasks…Old stories… samples of terminated experiments… experiments that she had helped to terminate…
And then the label "Vampire heart".
…So that's what had happened to Claire…
She had to find a way to break free of him.
-0-
"I did enjoy the spectacle of Louis and Dinah negotiating with me."
-0-
"We can set up wages more to your liking. And we will not monitor what Charlie learns or does not learn. What we want is to keep him occupied."
"And no more murder attempts?"
"No. We cannot. Amos made sure of that… Seems that we are not respectable enough for the local vampire" Louis said sarcastically. "So we will try to get along."
"With mother gone things would be easier for all of us" Dinah said "We would not have tried the things we did because we were desperate. I will not excuse it."
"I hope you don't try."
"You can continue your research and publish it. We do have some contacts." Louis said. "From the times when I thought I could strike out on my own… when I had dreams… I can put in a word for you."
"And I will get access to any records you may have?"
"Yes. I am not like my sister who worries about our good name. I would rather have some notorious rascal among my ancestors."
Beverly looked as if she was considering it – though she had made her decision… Because more than papers, Amos was too valuable a resource to waste.
"Make it 200 more a month and I will stay."
-0-
Lawson's worries came to a point. The young girl he was seeing was trying to explain that no matter what her family said, she was not being hysterical about the death of her uncle at the mental institution where he had lived for the last couple of years.
"They told me that he was getting the best of care… and it was very kind of Dr. Midler to treat him for a nominal fee… because we could not afford it otherwise…. But I talked to him. He was afraid. He said that they were using him… experimenting on him… and when I talked to my parents about this they shrugged 'it is his disease talking"
"It is an easy enough explanation"
"They sent me to get some sedatives off you. And ask me to forget it… it is sad that he is dead…but that's life. We did the best we could."
Lawson felt a cold knife being pressed inside of him… Marjorie was right. But he had no proof. And he could not ask for an autopsy of the body without the family's consent.
There was only one thing left to do.