The devil doctor *Completed*

What to do?

*Bill*

Silence greets my pronouncement, which doesn't surprise me in the least. We had all played a role in Riverdale’s ‘death.’ I provided the charred remains of a corpse, identified as the Alpha only because it wore the Alpha’s rings. “Are you quite certain that he was sent to the penal colony in the far east?” I ask.

“I saw him dragged onto the prison hulk myself,” Claybourne says. He was the one who captured Riverdale, broke his jaw so he couldn’t speak, and delivered him into Swindler’s keeping. “Evangeline was with me. She can attest to it.”

Beside him, his Luna looks as though she might be ill. She conveyed the news to her dear friend that her mate had perished in a fire at Heatherwood. “We stayed until the ship left port.”

“Is it possible that he found a way to escape and return here?” I ask.

“Anything’s possible,” Swindler says. Working for The Alpha agency, he has access to the gaols and prisons. He found a fourteen-year-old lad sentenced to transportation to a prison colony. He substituted Riverdale for the boy.

“His sentence was for life, on the far side of the world,” Frannie points out. As a child, she’d been fascinated with letters and numbers, endlessly copying them until she could create any style, which made her an excellent forger. She altered the documents so the description of the person sentenced more closely resembled Riverdale. “How would he have managed to find his way back here?”

“He’s a bloody Alpha,” Jack reminds us. He provided employment and a safe haven for the boy they liberated when they tossed Riverdale into the gaol as his replacement. “Once he healed enough to speak coherently, he could offer a fortune to someone willing to help him. As I was not here when you all made the decision to go forward with this swindle, I can’t attest to how well thought out it might have been.”

“It was very well thought out,” Claybourne says. He turns his attention to me. “All this conjecture seems rather pointless. Why do you think he’s returned?”

“Because Wicky…” I stop, clears and clear my throat. “The luna of Riverdale believes she’s seen him.”

Evangeline gasps, placing her hand over her mouth. “No, it can’t be. He’ll kill her this time.”

Suddenly I’m concerned I’m raising the alarm a bit prematurely. It does seem unlikely that the man could escape and make his way back here. “She can’t be sure. She saw him at a distance, thought it was a ghost. But there are other things. Items being moved around. His scent wafting through the house. Things she can’t explain.”

“She’s told me none of this.” Evangeline mumbles.

I nod, “She feared she was going mad.”

“Perhaps she is,” Jack says. “If he did manage to return, I think he would march into his residence and announce that he had bloody well returned.”

“No,” Evangeline says quietly. “I think he would strive to take his revenge by driving her mad. At least for a time. He’s had three years to ponder retribution. He’s the sort who enjoys pulling wings off flies rather than smashing them.”

Claybourne places his hand over hers. “Do you want to tell the luna what we did?”

Slowly, Evangeline shakes her head. “She would never forgive me. As horrible as he was, she wept when I told her that he died. As for the rest of you, if she told anyone of any consequence, you would all be ruined, possibly imprisoned. No, we swore three years ago that we would bear the burden of it and it would remain our secret. We must keep to that vow. But how do we protect her if we don’t tell her that she’s in need of protection?”

“We could be getting ahead of ourselves here,” Swindler says. “First, we need to discover if he is in fact here. I would like to have a look through her house.”

“I’ve actually put something into play,” I say. I explain about the sapphires and the safe. “She won’t be surprised when I bring you ’round to examine the safe.”

“We’ll need more than that,” Claybourne says. “We’ll need you to spend more time with her.”

“Jack has brutes he can send over to keep watch on the residence,” I say.

“The outside of it, yes. But as it appears Riverdale may be lurking about inside, we need someone inside to watch and, if needed, to protect her. As the rest of us gents are married, I’m afraid it falls to you.”

Not precisely what I wanted to hear. As our earlier walk in the garden proved, my desire for her is on a weak tether. Her husband took atrocious advantage of her. I have no wish to put myself in the same league, but everything I’ve worked so hard to attain is at risk.

“Do we need to be concerned that he’ll hurt the boy?” Frannie asks.

“His heir?” Evangeline questions. “Not likely. He had two other mates before Wicky and neither produced a child, so I suspect he won’t risk Ethan. He never hurt him before. His preferred target seems to be she-wolves.”

“What happened to his other mates?” Swindler asks. I’m not surprised that he homed in on that particular aspect of Evangeline’s words. The man is a demon for justice.

“They died,” Evangeline says. “One took a tumble down the stairs, the other a fatal blow to the head when she fell from her bed.”

“Where was the bed?” Swindler asks. “On the roof?”

Evangeline gives a hint of a smile. “You understand now the depth of our concerns. If he is here, he will try to destroy us in his own manner… no matter how long it takes or what is required.”

While I am a man dedicated to saving lives, I can’t help but believe that we would all have been better served if Claybourne had simply killed Riverdale when presented with the opportunity. Now far too many people could suffer.

Wicky most of all.