“First,” Herb answered, sounding curious.
“The other call must have been Bastien, then,” Thomas muttered.
“Inez didn’t find Marguerite at the park, did she?” Herb asked.
“No, I don’t think so,” Thomas said, though he wasn’t sure at this point that she hadn’t.
“Do you want me to check her location again and—?”
“No,” Thomas said quickly. He had no intention of leaving Inez alone to go looking for his aunt. At least, not until he was sure she was all right. It seemed obvious to him that someone had taken control of Inez. But why?
“No,” he repeated. “We’ll try again in the morning, at sunrise if that’s all right with you?”
“That’s fine,” Herb assured him.
“Good. Thanks, Herb. I’ll talk to you in the morning, then.”
Thomas hung up quickly, eager to return to Inez to be sure she was all right, but he’d barely taken a step away from the phone before it began to ring again. Knowing it would be Bastien, and that he’d have to tell him what happened, Thomas grimaced as he picked up the phone and said hello.
“Thomas.” Bastien sounded relieved and Thomas supposed he’d tried both cell phones before resorting to the hotel phone and—like Herb—had worried when he wasn’t able to reach them. “Was she there at the last spot?”
Thomas hesitated, and then admitted, “I don’t know if she was or not.”
“What do you mean you don’t know?” Bastien asked with confusion. “Either she was or she wasn’t.”
“I don’t know,” Thomas repeated and then explained the night’s events to his cousin, ending with, “Inez was blank-faced when she came in and all she said was she was very tired and had to go to bed now, and then she started to strip right there in front of me, her expression still blank.”
“Someone took control of her,” Bastien said sounding grim.
“That would be my guess,” Thomas agreed.
“You don’t think Mother would have…?” He didn’t finish the question.
“I don’t know, Bastien. I don’t know what the hell is going on. Why isn’t Aunt Marguerite answering her phone? She obviously has it on her. It isn’t walking around Amsterdam on its own.”
His older cousin was silent for a minute and then said, “I don’t know, I’m too tired to even think right now.”
“You should go to bed and get some rest,” Thomas said quietly. “You haven’t slept since I left Canada, have you?”
“No, but—”
“I don’t want to leave Inez alone right now. Not until I’m sure that coming in and going right to bed is the only order whoever controlled her put in her mind.”
“I wish you could read her memory to see what happened,” Bastien muttered.
“If she has any memory of what happened,” Thomas said quietly. “It may have been tampered with too. In fact, it probably was.”
“Yes,” Bastien agreed on a sigh. “Okay, I guess I’ll go to bed, then, but call me as soon as you find out anything.”
“I will,” Thomas assured him and the two men said good night and both hung up.
Thomas finally slapped the fourth bag of blood to his teeth, and then a fifth. The bad news was he’d lost a lot of blood from the wound to his back. The good news was he’d lost a lot of blood from the wound to his back. Thomas was pretty sure the worst of the S.E.C. was out of his system. He certainly wasn’t feeling horny right now, or if he was feeling a little, it was easily overcome by his worry for Inez.
Pulling the last bag from his teeth, he closed the cooler, and then quickly cleaned up the mess in the room, removing the knife and bloody towels. He’d have to toss the towels to prevent upsetting housekeeping, Thomas supposed. He retrieved the small clear garbage bag from the garbage can in his bathroom, put the towels and empty blood bags in, and then put his cooler on the upper shelf in his closet. Once assured that there was nothing left lying around to upset housekeeping, he went through the suite, locking all three doors leading out into the hall, the one in his room, the living room door, and finally hers.
Thomas then moved to the side of the bed to peer down at Inez. She was sleeping peacefully and he peered at her for the longest time, his eyes just drifting over her face; from her closed eyes, to her sweet nose, to her full lips, and back, and then he eased onto the bed beside her, settling himself on top of the blankets next to where she slept under them. Thomas really wasn’t comfortable leaving her alone knowing that someone had taken control of her mind. He wanted to stay near to make sure it didn’t happen again, and also to be close by in case she needed him.