Immortal Secrets (13 page)

I gasped. “What happened?”

Corporal Romos gave me a blank stare. “Well, Mr. Robison says he left the club to help a young woman with a flat tire. Then, according to him, about six guys jumped him in the parking lot.”

“Wow, six guys. That must have been horrible. I hope you catch every single one of them
,”
Jenny said.

“See, here’s the problem. I’ve seen a bunch of guys who have been jumped by multiple assailants. They usually have bruises all over the place. Mr. Robison was not jumped by a group. Whoever did this was most likely a lone attacker and knew exactly what he was doing
,”
Corporal Romos said.

Jenny nodded. “I see why you might want to talk to Jeff.”

I looked at her like she was stupid. “Excuse me?”

“Miss Wilson, there aren’t very many people who have both the training to do what was done to Mr. Robison and an axe to grind
,”
Corporal Romos said.

This was crazy. “Jeff didn’t do this!”

Corporal Romos stood up. “Listen, the Robison’s are important people in this town. So, the detectives need you to come downtown and make a formal statement. You know, so it looks good.”

“You mean so they can interrogate her
,”
Jenny said.

Romos glared at her. “Look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. Lady, you don’t want to interfere with an active police investigation.”

Jenny looked at him for a long second. “Corporal, I am going to reach down into my back pocket and remove my credentials, so don’t freak out and think I am reaching for a weapon.”

He looked puzzled while she removed her identification. “What credentials are you talking about?”

Jenny flipping open her black ID holder, revealing her badge and picture ID. “Corporal Ramos, I have been trying to do things the easy way. But since you want to take Lisa downtown, where the media has undoubtedly been tipped off, I have no choice but to officially notify you that I am a Deputy United States Marshal. Lisa isn’t my niece but rather an extremely high value witness and under my authority.”

He didn’t look like he was sure what to do. “We still have questions about last night.”

Jenny stood up. “Lisa is under surveillance anytime she sets foot outside this house. The marshal’s office can and will provide sworn statements that
neither Lisa nor
Jeff were anywhere near Mr. Robison last night.”

Corporal Romos left
a
little bit more dejected than he had planned to, I’m sure. He was on quite a roll, reading us the riot act. Too bad Jenny rained all over his parade by informing him that she was a marshal and he could just buzz off. Really, it was kind of awesome to watch. I had never seen a cop get told off before.

Chapter Eleven

I thought that after the police had been dealt with that I would see or hear from Jeff. That wasn’t the case all weekend. He didn’t come by and he didn’t call. I did try to call him, but his phone went straight to voicemail. I couldn’t get hold of Allison either. I wasn’t surprised that she didn’t contact me by conventional means but there was no trace of her in my head either. I wondered if there was some sort of range she had to be in to communicate with her mind.

Monday morning rolled around and I still had no idea what had really happened to Brenda’s husband and if it had anything to do with me. Jenny and I really hadn’t discussed what had happened with Corporal Romos. Still, I could tell that it bothered her that the police were now alerted to my presence in Lubbock. I had been around the mafia long enough to know that
more people that knew something,
the easier it was to find someone who would talk about it for money.

So, when I walked into my History class, I really wasn’t surprised that Jeff and Allison were both absent. I think I might be lying low too if I knew the police might want to talk to me. As soon as I took my seat, Dr. Greene walked by my desk and handed me a note. I didn’t want to open it with people around me. I tucked it into the back pocket of my jeans and tried to concentrate on class. Dr. Greene announced that our first test was next week but there would be a review session that night at his house. I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to go to anything without Jeff. I waited for Dr. Greene to give me some sort of signal that he wanted to speak to me about something. I assumed the note in my back pocket must have been the only sign I was going to get.

Once class was over, I started walking toward my English class. I opened up the note.

Please come see me during office hours today. My office hours are from 2-3 PM.

-Dr. Greene

Okay, so Dr. Greene did have something to talk to me about. I was becoming aware of the fact that I was devolving into a world where I was not only hiding from the mob, I was also hiding things from the marshals. For better or worse, I was committed to Jeff. I hoped that I wasn’t quickly approaching a point where I had to choose between the protection that Jenny provided and what I now realized was the love of my life.

I made it to English and was met with yet another surprise. Carl was sitting in his usual spot but I almost didn’t recognize him. The glasses were gone, he had perfect hair, and he was wearing dress slacks and an open collar dress shirt. It was like he was completely made over. Now, he even looked cute. He still wasn’t in Jeff’s league, but I had gone out with worse looking guys.

Since class was about to start, I didn’t have a chance to talk to Carl at length. I leaned over and whispered to him, “Wow.”

We handed in our essays and listened to a boring lecture on paragraph transition. I just couldn’t get over
how
much better Carl looked. I knew from what Carl had told me about his parents not having a lot of money, that he probably couldn’t have afforded his new look on his own. There was no doubt in my mind that Allison was involved.

I made a point to grab Carl as soon as class was over. “Wow, you’re looking good this morning.”

He was almost blushing. “All this stuff is Allison’s idea.”

“Really? Then I guess you two must have done more than just spend the weekend writing essays.”

“Actually, the essay was easier than I thought. It was like the words just popped into my head and I knew exactly what to do with them.”

I imagined that the words did just pop into his head, courtesy of Allison. “So where are your glasses?”

“Oh, Allison bought me some contacts when we were in Dallas.”

“Wait a second, you took Allison to Dallas?”

“No she took me to Dallas. We left right after we had lunch with you on Friday. Man, is her car sweet.”

“I thought she was just going to help you with your essay. I mean, you hardly even know her.”

“I know her a lot better now.”

“You know, I didn’t see her in my History class this morning. Do you know where she is?”

“No, she dropped me off at my dorm last night and I haven’t seen her since.”

I couldn’t help but wonder what the sleeping arrangements had been in Dallas. “Well, when you see her, tell her that I was trying to get a hold of her.”

I called Jenny to let her know that I was staying on campus for a while since I had a meeting with my History professor. I wanted to grab a bite to eat, but I had already decided against asking Carl to go. I didn’t want to give Allison any reason to think that I was messing with her boy toy.

I found an empty table in the food court and started eating my burger and fries in silence. I tried to think about what Dr. Greene wanted to see me about. I bet he knew where Jeff and Allison were. I was lost in thought and never ever heard Tina walk up. All of sudden she was just there.

Tina dropped her tray softly on the table. “Hey, girl.”

I looked up, surprised to see her standing there. “Tina, hey, sit down.”

She sat down across from me. “So, I haven’t seen you since that day at the hospital.”

“Yeah, I haven’t been up there much. My aunt is being all weird about me going up there.”

“That’s okay; Brenda’s not really seeing anyone anyway. She has pretty much shut everyone out. I think the Robison family is putting a lot of pressure on her to be quiet about everything that has happened.”

“Yeah, I guess they have a lot of power in this town. Hey, did you hear about Brenda’s husband?”

“I did hear about that. I can’t say that I’m sorry. I think he had it coming after what he did to Brenda.”

“So do I, but I probably shouldn’t say that. The police have already been around to question me about it. They thought that me and my boyfriend Jeff had something to do with it.”

“Are you serious?”

“Serious as a heart attack. So anyway, that’s why I really haven’t been visiting her.”

“It probably doesn’t matter, since she’s pretty much shut everyone out. I think she just wants to take the Robison’s money and move on.”

“So, you heard about the money too?”

“Rumors about it are flying everywhere. Why else would she let that creep off the hook?”

“So what’s she going to do once she gets better and feels well enough to leave the hospital?”

“She says she wants to move. She wants to live someplace where no one cares about the Robisons or their influence.”

Tina and I tried to make idle conversation about something other than Brenda but it just seemed forced. The truth is that Brenda was the only thing we really had in common. Besides, Tina was a nice girl. She was probably too nice a girl to survive in my world of immortals, gangsters, and federal agents. As we finished lunch and promised to do it again soon, I think we both knew that there would be no next time. We would both get on with our lives and ignore each other in the future.

I arrived at Dr. Greene’s office at two o’clock sharp. I could barely contain my curiosity about where Jeff was and why he hadn’t been returning my phone calls. As soon as Dr. Greene saw me outside his office, he waved me into his office.

I walked in, closing the door behind me. “Dr. Greene, you wanted to see me?”

He stood up and motioned to a chair in front of his desk. “Please, sit down. There are some things I wanted to discuss with you.”

“I hope this doesn’t mean I’m in trouble
,”
I said coyly.

“Of course you aren’t. Actually, I had been meaning to speak to you ever since we were at the hospital togethe
r. Unfortunately, my cover as
an aloof History professor hasn’t really helped in that regard.”

“I really wasn’t sure if you liked me. I mean after the first day of class, I sort of though
t
you were kind of mean.”

He chuckled. “Yes, well that is what I wanted most of my students to think. It cuts down on the questions that students ask.”

“So, if you’re not the grumpy old professor, who are you?”

“I am a simple man who enjoys solving puzzles”, he said.

“I guess it makes sense that the leader of your little group would be the sort of man who likes figuring everything out.”

“My dear, I’m not the leader of ‘our little group’, as you like to call it. Allison and I both take our instructions from Jeff.”

“But you’re a professor and you’re older than Jeff.”

“First of all, it’s not about who is older, it’s about who is the most capable leader. Secondly, Jeff is actually older than I am.”

“Wait, you certainly look like you’re a few years older than Jeff.”

“Lisa, it’s okay to say that I look a few decades older than Jeff. Not all of us were called at the same time. The process took decades and Jeff was one of the first to be selected. I was one of the last.”

“So, how does that work? You guys all look like you did when you turned immortal?”

“Well, we do, for the most part. There is what we call the chameleon affect.”

“What is the chameleon affect?”

“Essentially, we each have the ability to appear a few years younger or older than we were when we became immortal. We can slightly alter our skin pigmentation.”

“That is totally cool. Why didn’t anyone mention this before?”

“Well, I suppose because it seems rather minor to us. In fact, I have rarely even used that ability.”

“Speaking of minor details, do you know where Jeff is? He hasn’t been returning my calls.”

“Well, I’m afraid the incident with Mr. Robison has caused some problems.”

“When you say problems, you mean the police, right?”

“Yes, that is exactly the type of complication we try to avoid. Between this latest incident and you being told about Jeff’s gift at the hospital, Allison is on very thin ice with Jeff.”

“But Carl told me that Allison was in Dallas at the time. Isn’t Dallas over three hundred miles from here?”

“Come to the review session tonight. Jeff will be there and Allison should be as well. Perhaps she can tell all of us exactly what she did. In any event wait for the actual review session to break up and the other students to leave. Then the four of us can get down to what happened.”