Her gaze riveted on the mud tracked across the floor. Then she looked at him. “Um, would you stay until I finish showering? I need to lock up the garage, the house.”
“I’ll stay as long as you need me,” he said. “I can lock up while you shower.”
“Okay. Leave the generator running. I’ll need power until I go. You can pull the garage door down withthe cord. There are bolts on the big door that slide into the wall.”
“I’ll take care of it.” Primitive mechanical devices couldn’t be too hard to figure out. No one needed instructions on what to do with ahammer. “After you shower, would it be okay if I took one?” In holding Lauren, the male human’s blood and odor had transferred to him. He stank, too.
“Of course.” She started to move away but then stopped. “Did you bring that? Is that your bag?” She pointed.
He followed her gaze to the mottled silver pack on the floor next to a chair. “It is mine—but I didn’t bring it. I lost it when I got shot.” He narrowed his eyes at Laurel’s dead attacker. “He must have been the one who shot me.”
“I would guess so.”
Grav retrieved his bag. It stank like the man. He opened it and dumped out the contents onto a low padded table to see what might have been taken. “My vaporizer! My comm device!” he exclaimed, relieved to have both in his possession again. His clothing was gone though, and nothing else in the bag belonged to him.
But Laurel recognized the stuff. “These are from the hospital!” She pointed out small vials of pills. “Oxycodone, hydrocodone, fentanyl, morphine, dilaudid—he picked out all the good stuff.”
“What do they do?” he asked.
“They’re for pain, but addicts take them to get high.” She picked up a handgun and checked it. “Not loaded—and I don’t see any ammo.” She looked up at him. “Maybe he used his last bullet on you. He stole my gun from the bathroom while I was in the shower. I came out of the bathroom, and he pointed the gun at my head.”
“Where’s your weapon now?”
“In the hall somewhere. I knocked it out of his hand.” She dashed into the hall, returning with her handgun and an armload of clothes. She set the clothing on the sofa. “I’ll have to dispose of his body.”
“I’ll take care of it.” He pointed his vaporizer at the body and fired.
Poof! It disappeared, leaving only the hole in the wall where the body had hit. Blood splatters had vanished, too.
“How…effective,” she said. Her grim expression caused him to regret his hasty attempt to fix matters.I should have thought it through.Instead, he’d reminded her what his people had done.
“I’m going to take a shower.”
“I’ll lock up and then stand guard.”
She twisted her hands. “Um, if you want to leave, it’s probably okay as long as the house is locked. I’ll be all right. I doubt anyone else is out there. He obviously came alone.”
“I’m staying,” he said, and her entire body relaxed with relief.
“Thank you.”
“I can clean up out here while you’re bathing, if you like.” Blood and gray bits of brain matter mixed with the thick dust on the floor. A clean spot marked the area where the attacker had pinned Laurel to the floor.
“You don’t have to do that.”
“If it will help you, I want to,” he said.
“You’re going to use your vaporizer, aren’t you?”
He hesitated. “Unless you know of a better way.”
“It won’t vaporize the furniture or the hardwood floors, will it?”
He stifled a small smile. “No.”
“Okay, thank you.” She disappeared into a passage off the main room. Moments later, he heard a door close and a lock slide into place.
Confident she was safe and secure, he went out to the garage to close and bolt the sliding big door then reentered the house. After locking the door behind him, he checked all other points of egress. He found a side entry unsecured and locked it.
