Page 29 of Frost and Venom

Raine had indicated that was a very viable possibility. “I don’t understand why her doctors aren’t giving her access to a computer so she can do the research she needs to make her decisions. Raine needs that reassurance. She needs to feel as if she has all the information possible before she comes to conclusions,” Harlow said.

Now she was really worried about Raine. She would feel like a prisoner. When Raine was trapped, her brain was far too active to keep her down. She would work on finding a way out.

Shabina looked around the room one more time and pitched forward to be heard better when she whispered, “Rainier’s medical center is closed to everyone because it is believed that someone important is there. They’re hiding his identity because he was nearly killed, and they believe he’s still being hunted. No one knows who is friendly and who isn’t.”

Harlow slipped on her professional mask. She might not have a poker face around Wilder, but she had been a nurse long enough to be able to keep her composure under pressure. She knew the man the medical facility was supposedly hiding was Wilder. Rainier and the others were giving Blom and everyone else the illusion that he was there under heavy guard.

“Did Rainier say who it is?” Stella asked. “Does Sam know?”

Shabina shook her head. “I don’t have any other information. Rainier didn’t want me to think anything terrible was happening to Raine. I told him she would never betray a confidence and to let her have the computer, but he said at the moment they were being extremely careful.”

Zahra rubbed the palm of her hand over her mouth several times, her gaze shifting far too speculatively to Harlow. She knew. Zahra was shrewd and extremely intelligent. The woman she presented to the world wasn’t anything like the brain that she was. She had escaped her childhood by appearing unassuming. By being underestimated. She kept that persona, always looking timid and ultrafeminine. Anyone who was aware of the fact that she was in good shape, could run miles, held a powerhouse position at the hospital and ran extremely lucrative fundraisers should know who they were dealing with. But Zahra was good at her role, and most people believed her persona.

Harlow gave a slight shake of her head, and Zahra turned her attention to the scones in front of her. They had a past together, one that tied them into this sisterhood, although, at times, Harlow was horribly embarrassed about the things Zahra knew firsthand about Harlow’s parents. There were days Harlow found it difficult to be around Zahra. It wasn’t Zahra’s fault. Harlow could readily admit Zahra never once had thrown the past in her face. She’d never told a single soul. She’d acted grateful that Harlow had come to her aid. But that didn’t stop the guilt or humiliation from knowing about—seeing—her father’s attack on her friend.

“Harlow, before we got distracted worrying about Raine,” Zahra said as she broke off a small piece of an orange-cranberry scone, “you were about to tell us what you thought may have killed Helen.”

Harlow let her breath out, relieved. That was so Zahra, making certain everyone else was sidetracked so they wouldn’t put two and two together as she had.

“You have a theory?” Stella prompted.

“It isn’t really a theory,” Harlow denied. “It’s just that Helen isn’t the first person in Knightly to die under some mysterious circumstance. I know infectious disease is looking hard at the victims. After Raine was bitten by a rattlesnake, I saw evidence of an unusual number of snakes on the property where we were climbing.”

She rubbed at an invisible speck on the table. “I think the deaths are connected. Meaning, whatever killed Helen killed Lawyer. Giselle Gentry died a couple of months before Lawyer.”

“But Giselle hit her head,” Zahra said, distress in her voice. “I read the report and that was what officially killed her.”

“Martha, the ME, questioned what caused her fall,” Harlow said. “In the report it stated she’d gone into anaphylactic shock, which is what caused her to fall and hit her head. Something bit her. Just like something bit Lawyer and now Helen.”

“If it was a rattlesnake, wouldn’t Martha know?” Vienna asked. “That’s very specific. All of us have seen a rattlesnake bite, and very few people actually die from it. We have antivenom, but even without it, most people survive.”

“Suppose it’s a hybrid? I know rattlesnakes don’t breed with other nonvenomous snakes. That’s a myth,” Harlow ventured. “But they can breed with other species of rattlesnake. What if that has somehow changed? Or if they have developed with another rattlesnake into an aggressive new breed, which isn’t probable, but who knows? I don’t think it’s a new infectious disease. I think all three of them were bitten by something.”

“You do read about that kind of evolution every now and then,” Stella said. “Or that some asinine idiot playing God decided he wanted to create the ultimate weapon. It could be something like that.”

“We need Raine to do in-depth research,” Vienna said. “She can find the most obscure data. If experiments were going on with rattlesnakes, she’d find them. If anyone, anywhere, reported a hybrid snake and it checked out, she would know.”

“Raine is magic on a computer,” Shabina declared.

The others nodded in agreement.

“I want to go back to Helen’s place and look around,” Harlow said.

Zahra shook her head. “That place is guarded better than Fort Knox. People are still collecting evidence.”

“What happened to all of her animals?” Shabina asked, a note of worry in her voice.

Harlow knew Shabina had such a kind, compassionate heart with both people and animals that Rainier—and all of her friends—did their best to shield her.

“They were rounded up, and one of the farms close to Helen’s will take them. At the moment, the dogs are with the vet,” Harlow said. “Gwen is slowly improving. Whatever bit Helen, bit her.”

“Why is Gwen still alive, when Helen died?” Vienna asked. “That makes no sense. The dog was big, but I think Helen weighed more.”

“No, Gwen is a very large dog. Maybe one hundred forty or fifty pounds. Helen was tall, but she was very thin,” Zahra corrected. “All that running up mountains. She had a runner’s body.”

“That’s true,” Vienna agreed. “She was very thin, but had lots of muscle. I always thought of her as being super healthy.”

“Sometimes it depends on where someone is bitten,” Harlow reminded. “How close to the heart and how much venom was actually injected.”