by T L Blake
“Get the others.” James commanded Sanger and he rushed from the room without hesitation.
‘The others’ could only mean Derek Ellis, but Robyn was more concerned with what was unfolding before her eyes.
“How long?”
“We didn’t know, not for a long time. It’s only in the last twenty years that genetic research has been public enough for us to work it out. It was Sanger who gave us the definitive diagnosis.”
“But why do you still hide if you know you can get treatment?”
It was Jane who snorted. “If you know so bloody much, then you should have worked that out already.”
Robyn shook her head.
“You’re not as smart as you like to think are you?” She moved away from Andrew and stood in front of Robyn instead. “Would you want it known that there were a lot of murderers in your past? Would you want people digging into your, not so pleasant, family history?”
Robyn stiffened.
“No, I shouldn’t think you would if you knew what they’d find. Everyone in this community has an ancestor that killed, murdered, to survive. None of us would be here if we hadn’t. Can you imagine what would be said about us, done to us, if the world found out?”
“You aren’t to blame for the past.”
Jane laughed. “Of course we aren’t, but the media can be vicious and what a story they’d have. You can imagine the headlines, can’t you, Robyn. ‘Porthmollek, A Town full of Vampires.’ They’d have a field day. They’d destroy us and everything we’ve built here.”
James moved to stand beside Jane. “We made a decision long ago to continue as we were. If medical science discovers a better treatment than we already have then things will change, but as long as what we have is at least as good as what we can otherwise receive we would rather remain a quiet, peaceful little community.”
“And not forgetting how lucrative this is for you.” Andrew seethed.
“Don’t judge me. How do you think I paid for all the private schooling, the trips, the house you live in?” James turned to lean over Andrew. “They pay for the blood that keeps them alive and for the tablets that Dr Sanger manages to get without going through the system. The house, the money, everything is tied to this town and its secret.”
Of course, Robyn thought, the gravestones. The Truscott family headstones had been steadily increasing in grandeur in the graveyard since the late 1800s, indicating that the wealth of the family had been increasing over that same period.
“My ancestors have always owned this land, but they fell on hard times and struggled to make it pay. When Edward Truscott, my direct ancestor first discovered that pigs could be used to treat us just as well as humans, he did this community a favour. The killing stopped almost overnight. He filled his fields with animals. Those same fields still provide both the treatment for the disease and an economy for the town. Why shouldn’t the Truscott’s get rich off of it?”
Andrew must have realised that there was indeed some truth in that statement. The gravestones depicted a gruesome scene. The sick people of Porthmollek had killed people, couples and sometimes entire families in order to keep themselves alive. The town’s history was bathed in blood.
“You can lie to yourself all you want, but to make money off of the misfortunes of others is immoral and you know it.” Andrew was clearly disgusted.
“I’m not ready to give this up, Andrew. Not for you or anyone. I owe it to my ancestors to see that this family keeps thriving.”
“Don’t even try to convince me that you care about your ancestors. You’re doing this for yourself and you know it. It’s always been about money and power.”
Robyn could feel the tension building between the two and she worried that Andrew would once again lunge and be Tasered. Her thoughts were stopped as the door opened.
David Rowe entered, followed by a huge man, rippling with muscle and taller than even Andrew. Sanger followed.
“David, please come and see what your choice of staff member has discovered about us.” James narrowed his eyes. “I thought I gave you specific instructions to keeps an eye on her?”
The Head Teacher cleared his throat. “She’s done nothing in the last couple of weeks that would concern me, I assure you.”
“Then how do you explain her knowing everything?”
David gulped and Sanger smiled.
“I did tell you not to appoint a Biochemist with her background. She was bound to put it together eventually.”
David turned on Sanger. “Will you stop trying to make yourself look better. I had little choice in the matter and you know it. She was the best I could get on short notice and she fit the criteria.”
The larger man had walked behind Andrew whilst this exchange was occurring and now he had his heavy hands on Andrew’s shoulders.
“What criteria did I meet?” She had a terrible suspicion but hoped she was wrong.
It was Jane who answered. “Why? That you had no family of course.”
Blood began to drain to Robyn’s feet.
“They chose you, because you could disappear without anyone asking questions.” Andrew spoke Robyn’s fear. Both she and Kat had no-one that would come for them.
“But, you tried to make me leave, the visitors, the things left at the house.”
“We are usually very persuasive. But there’s always some who need a firmer push.” Jane smiled mirthlessly.
“Is that where Derek fits into all of this? Is he your persuader?”
James looked at her curiously while Jane giggled. “You really want to know everything, don’t you?”
“Robyn, we run this town and keep its secret. David and Jane watch the children closely to catch the early signs of the disease, George here,” he nodded to the brute behind Andrew, “owns the abattoir, and Douglas is paid very well for the tablets that he has shipped in under the radar.”
“And for poking into private medical files.” It had to be Sanger who had alerted them to her prior depression and suicidal thoughts.
Sanger merely smiled. “You’ve got it all worked out, haven’t you?”
James looked to Andrew ignoring Sanger. “Our elixir is most beneficial, but it cannot undo the organ damage that our particular complaint causes, but we are working on that now.”
“And you all get free treatments I bet.” She couldn’t mask her scorn.
“Except for Douglas of course.”
“Except Douglas?”
“Yes,” James said as Douglas laughed. “Douglas does not share our affliction; we found him, accidentally, shall we say.”
Robyn looked at the doctor “You don’t have sideroblastic anaemia?”
“No.”
“Then why would you be involved in such a conspiracy, you’re a doctor, you took the hypocratic oath, you’re meant to help people.”
“James made me an offer that I literally couldn’t refuse. And besides, I am helping people.”
“Money, that’s all it took?” Robyn was disgusted.
“No. I didn’t want the money, I don’t need it. James offered me more than money. He offered me a chance to indulge in my passions.”
A knot tightened in her gut. The way Douglas said ‘indulge in my passions’ sounded so sickeningly psychotic that she knew she did not want to know what he meant.
“And so you keep your secret, a secret that you will do anything to keep.” Andrew sighed.
“Yes, Andrew, now you’re getting it, anything.” James took a step towards him. He bent forwards and spoke directly to Andrew, their faces only inches apart, “You know a little about secrets don’t you?”
The look between the two of them was intense.
“How many?” Andrew spat the question and Robyn realised with horror what he was asking. She’d known, in fact, she’d known for a long time, but now she was certain.
“Over the years? A lot. Recently? One.”
Robyn buckled.
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
A grotesquely sicke
ning smile lingered on Sanger’s face as he spoke. Robyn watched his thin, colourless lips draw back over discoloured stalactite teeth. She didn’t want to listen, but he had her attention, willingly or not.
“She was wonderful wasn’t she? So vibrant. You’ve been watched from the very beginning and I must say, for my part, it was a pleasure, but she became a liability the minute she ran out of that line of trees that night. She wasn’t supposed to see anyone at the abattoir.”
“She didn’t know anything.” Tears streamed down Robyn’s face and the words were but a sob.
“We didn’t know that, and when she went to the train station the next day, we had to act. We couldn’t risk her getting away, telling someone outside of town.”
Robyn froze, her tears halfway down her cheek.
“Rowan was following you that day and he had to think fast. He got on the train with her, intending to bring her straight back to Porthmollek for questioning. And didn’t she make it easy.” Sanger paused, smiled and stepped closer, leaning down to face her. “Did you know that she got off the train at the very next stop to go to a hotel with him? It seems Rowan had quite an afternoon before he called me. She was drugged and unconscious when I got there to pick them up.”
Robyn felt like her body was closing down. She stared at Sanger, but she no longer saw him. Sanger closed in further and breathed his stench over her face but she was moving far away now. She was drifting to somewhere where Kat lived.
Cold fingers grabbed her jaw and lifted her head but she didn’t fight. She couldn’t feel the pain of his touch from her safe place.
“Oh no, I’m not letting you hide away from this.” A distant voice uttered. “Shock will not save you from feeling every touch. I will have you fully conscious before I have my fun. It’s better that way. Your friend was a fighter, she never gave up.” Sanger gripped her hander, his nails digging into her flesh. “Katherine fought till the end.”
The mention of Kat’s name drew Robyn back. Pain accompanied her move to consciousness and anger replaced her fear.
“Don’t speak her name.” She stared at Sanger and spat her words.
“Ah, there she is. I was so afraid that you were going to disappoint me. There’s no fun if the patient is catatonic.” Sanger grinned.
“Doctor, stop toying with her.” James Truscott’s voice boomed.
Robyn couldn’t see him, eyes locked as they were on the psychotic mad man in front of her.
“Ah, but James, a heavy dose of fear makes the harvest so much more. . . . potent.” The sickly, nausea inducing breath clouded over her face as Dr Sanger spoke. “You want to get the absolute best out of this one don’t you? I mean, the last little bitch gave a fantastic batch after all.”
Robyn heard Andrew draw in a deep breath as she realised the meaning of the words that had left Sangers lips.
“You. . . harvested. . . . Kat?” her voice dripped with rage but was tinged with horror.
“Of course I did,” Sanger replied, smiling, “That little bitch fought like hell. Kicking, spitting. She even knocked down George here at one point. I thought that I was actually going to have to sedate her.”
“You didn’t sedate her?” Oh God, oh God, her brain repeated over and over as she said the words, not really wanting to hear the response.
“No, like I said, it’s better when they are frightened, makes a better batch, more potent somehow. Besides, that’s the fun part. It’s not like anyone can hear the screams,” he sneered, inches from her face. She couldn’t look away. She looked into the beady little eyes and saw no trace of remorse, no realisation of the horror that he was inflicting unnecessarily. He thoroughly enjoyed what he did.
“The church crypt,” her voice was steady but detached.
Sanger’s head tilted but it was Jane who spoke, “Jesus, is there anything she doesn’t know?”
Sanger grinned, exposing his long teeth and Robyn tried to pull away, but he dug his thin fingers into her jaw and drew her closer instead. Unable to look anywhere but into the magnified beady, grey eyes, she sat mesmerised as he told her what he had done.
“That little bitch tried to escape. Do you know what would have happened if she had managed? The trouble she could have caused? It was blind luck that we caught her running across the bank. A total fluke that the sea was calm enough for George to hear the glass smash as he pulled the boat up the beach. She was running around trying to make a call when we grabbed her.” Sanger gave a small laugh at the memory. “God knows where she’d stashed that phone but her efforts were futile. Silly girl, there’s no mobile phone signal anywhere near that beach. She soon gave up when I punched the wind out of her.”
Robyn’s breathing was ragged. Her body shook as anger fought with fear and devastation. “No.” She shook her head from side to side, refusing to believe what she was hearing.
“After causing that trouble, I wasn’t going to waste anaesthetic on her. After all, thanks to that great bank, no-one can hear anything from the church crypt.”
“Waste anaesthetic?” Andrew repeated, as if confirming the awful truth to himself.
“Yes. It was exhilarating when her screams echoed off the walls. She struggled like mad against the straps.” Sanger’s eyes didn’t leave Robyn’s. They fixed intently on her, watching for every nuance, every emotion. “Have you been in the crypt, Robyn? Did you notice the rings in the floor? Did you see where we tie them, face down, on the stone sarcophagus, with the old leather straps?”
“Leather straps?” the words came as a barely audible murmur, “Rings?” She’d tripped over something in the floor but her focus had been taken by the harvesting needle and she’d forgotten to look for what she had tripped over.
Robyn looked up at Sanger, who had a gleeful smile and glint in his eye. He was using his right hand to rub himself through his trousers.
“I had fun for hours with her there, lying naked on that cold stone. It wasn’t just the harvesting needle I stuck into her. It won’t be just the harvesting needle that I stick into you either.” His hand pushed roughly up her leg as she wretched. He pulled her knees apart.
“No,” Andrew cried but was quickly silenced.
Robyn had no choice but to look directly at Sanger as his fingers gouged her skin, but as she watched, she raged. Robyn let her anger boil and she stilled under Sanger’s intruding touch.
His smile wavered for just a second before Robyn spat in his face.
“You sick bastard.”
Sanger smiled tauntingly. “No, not sick, Robyn. I am free. I am Libertine.”
“Enough Douglas, you can have your fun, later,” James boomed. “Step away.”
“And such fun it will be,” Sanger said before stepping back and releasing her. She looked across see Andrew held firmly in his chair by George’s large hands and Jane’s stun gun.
“I just thought that she should know,” Sanger shrugged unapologetically. “I thought she should know what I did. I thought she should know that Katherine forced our hand by getting on that train. That had she not gone on that journey we would have had time to figure out that she knew nothing, that perhaps we wouldn’t be here now.”
The faint beat from Robyn’s forlorn heart disappeared, the last little pump ebbed into non-existence and she was left with an empty chasm inside her chest. A wail let loose in the room. Robyn’s cry was so anguished and tortured that even Jane flinched when she heard it.
Robyn could hide from the truth no longer. Kat left because of her. Without the spat that they had had over Andrew, Kat would never have gone. Robyn knew that. Kat got on that train because of her. She was dead because of her. Kat was dead because Robyn wanted Andrew and Robyn hadn’t been able to keep away from him. Grief took over.
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
They’d taken him and Robyn hated that she knew why. Andrew had been dragged out of the room by the four men with Jane holding the threat of the stun gun over him as they went. Whatever it was that James wanted from Andrew, whatever he had agre
ed to give him weeks ago, he would be getting it soon. Robyn only hoped that they didn’t hurt him in the process.
Left alone, the room was strangely quiet. The fire had been left to burn down to glowing embers, but light now came from outside as thin slivers of sunlight fought to get through the thick curtains.
Robyn didn’t struggle with her bonds. She knew that it was futile and she had lost the will to try. Resigned, she awaited the inevitable.
When the door drifted open and James Truscott walked in, Robyn didn’t turn to him.
He held a glass under her nose. “Drink something, Robyn.”
“Do your manners help you to live with being a murderer?”
“I don’t see it as murder. I see it as helping others.” He walked to the fire and put the glass on the mantel.
“Helping? Helping who? Helping you to retain power? Helping you to make money? I don’t think that’s a good enough reason to kill.”
“We’re not harvesting you for that. We’re, disposing of you because you know too much, that is true. But your death can mean something. We need your bone marrow, Robyn. We need human bone marrow.”
She couldn’t believe that he was trying to make her feel that her sacrifice, Kat’s sacrifice, Andrew’s sacrifice, was for the greater good.
“We looked at the old papers and journals that I have locked away when we first suspected a genetic disease. We were trying to look at family links, prove our theory correct but we found something much more interesting, Robyn. Our ancestors were much stronger than us, they didn’t appear to suffer the same amount of lethargy or side effects of the iron build up as we do.”
She didn’t want to hear this, but there would always be that scientist part of her that was hungry for answers. She looked up. “They were healthier?”
“They were happier.” James stared back at her and paused. “It was only when they converted to pig’s marrow that their health deteriorated. We realised that human bone marrow was the key.”
“It shouldn’t work at all, either of them.” Robyn muttered. The cells should not be able to survive digestion, let alone manage to find their way into the bloodstream whole. Yet, Dr Jenkins had said that bone marrow was full of stem cells. Robyn frowned.
