I can hardly repeat what Elizabeth told me….
Does she realise I’ve not repeated it?
Charlotte looks between James and Michael, then her eyelids lower. “I thought I was in trouble then, that they were going to gang-rape me. They knocked me about a bit.… That’s where I got some of the bruises.… But Klempner said he had a buyer for me. For Beth too….”
Elizabeth beside me, is reacting to Charlotte’s words. Sitting close to her, her breathing grows ragged. She’s perspiring, and she doesn’t smell so sweet as she normally does. Taking her fingers once more, I rub my thumb over her palm.
“…. though I’m not sure he wanted to sell her after what I’d told him about who she is. At any rate, I don’t think they wanted to leave too many visible marks on me if the buyer was going to be seeing me….” Charlotte knocks back half her remaining wine in a single swallow.
Is this too much for her?
But she ploughs on. “Anyway, Klempner’s phone rang. It was weird. He listened for a minute to whoever was on the other end, then he looked like he’d seen a ghost. He hit me across the face, knocked me down, and told me he knew about the tracers…”
My mind is racing. Clearly, this is why Charlotte sent the message not to let anyone outside our immediate group know she was returning.
Treason from within?
Within the police?
Someone close to Will?
Will himself?
“…. He told the others to find some different clothes for me ‘cause the ones I was wearing had to go. He took the locket that had one of the tracers…. and my rings…. Then he…. He told me to…. um… empty my body cavities... Or he would do it for me….”
I try to keep the smile from my face. “You had a tracer…. inside you?”
Michael looks unamused, but James is also fighting a smile, and Elizabeth looks anywhere but at me.
“Mmm. Yes, inside a condom to keep it dry… Um…. it’s a bit embarrassing, now I tell someone else….” With an air of huge relief, she shifts the subject…. “Actually, the whole changing clothes thing solved my biggest problem…”
“Which was?”
to run to escape, and there was no way she could run in those. But when they gave me
finger rubbing his forehead. “And by then you’d already planted
to run when they took us out of the building. If we could get out into the open, so the tracer on her could operate properly, you’d be able to find us again. I told her to behave very meek and mild, so that they’d let their guard down and we’d have
Elizabeth is nodding agreement.
need to know more about this traitor
phone call to
only have been from someone in the police. Or someone getting the
unpleasant thought. Will Stanton is my friend of years. “Who indeed?” I
giving orders to have this building watched. That’s why I didn’t want any of you coming out for me, and why I came in
Michael’s face hardens again….
she made the
damaged that she took that
Instead of
wrong with
A warrior….
…
is
implications of that. “What happened after you and Beth
magic on Charlotte. She’s relaxing by the
talking about Klempner
town. I wanted to contact you. That’s when I went into that electrical store. I needed
You planned it….
You planned it all….
Right from the beginning….
did you do that? What route
sewers first to get onto the old