Read Online Beauty and the Beast by Laurel Cain Haws - Free Book Online Page B

that he had found Catherine too late. He had carried her back to her apartment, had stayed with her body until the dawn threatened to expose him, and then he had returned to the tunnels.
    It was with a very heavy heart that Father left Vincent alone with his grief to go answer Dr. Marx’s urgent summons. When he got back to his chamber, he quickly dressed, put on his lab coat, and grabbed the blanket and his medical bag with the requested medicines in it. He started to leave but then went quickly to his dresser, opened one of the drawers, took Catherine’s crystal wedding rings out, and put them into his pocket.
    When Father finally arrived at the coroner’s van, he found one of their Helpers, a cabby named Chuck Johnson, in the driver’s seat. Chuck was stocky with a round very friendly face. Chuck could be quite formidable, though, with a no-nonsense attitude when it was necessary. He looked relieved when he saw Father and said, “I am so glad to see you, Father. I’m not sure what’s going on here. All I know is that I got a frantic call from Dr. Marx telling me that I needed to come here immediately to drive his coroner’s van, that I was to keep it running and not ask any questions. Here I am, and the motor is running. All hell is breaking loose in that
    building! There are police, reporters, medical people, and tenants, all running around like chickens with their heads off!”
    Father got into the passenger seat with his bag and the blanket on his lap. “I guess all we can do is wait until David can explain what he needs from us. His note said that Vincent had called him to collect Catherine’s body. Vincent told me himself that he found her last night, but that it had been too late. I’m a little confused by what David asked me to bring.”
    Chuck stared at Father in shock with tears welling in his eyes. “Are you telling me that Cathy is dead?”
    Just then the back door of the van swung open, and they heard David Marx’s voice in an urgent tone, “She is not! We just have to make sure that no one else knows she’s not, because the murdering animal that did this to her is still at large, and no one knows who it is. Chuck, come around here quickly, and help me get her into the van. You wouldn’t believe what I had to do to ditch those two assistants of mine! They mustn’t show up and find us still here.” Dr. David Marx was solidly built, with thinning hair, and an imposing bearing. He wasn’t accustomed to socializing with the living and was usually rather testy with them. Father’s people were easier for him to relate to, and his guard always came down when he was with them. Father hurried to the back of the van to help pull the gurney in. The body bag she was in was zipped closed, and he felt a pang of anxiety over what he would
    see when they opened it. As soon as she was in, Dr. Marx turned to Chuck. “Make like a New York cabby, and get us out of here quick!” Then he climbed into the back of the van.
    Chuck exclaimed, “Yes Sir!” and slammed the back door closed. He raced around to the front, jumped in, put the van in gear, and took off out of the alley. “Where are we headed?”
    Dr. Marx answered as he was unzipping Catherine’s body bag, and covering her with the thermal blanket Father had brought. “I called Peter Wellington and told him to meet Father in the tunnels, at the back of the City Morgue refrigerated body unit that we always use. I told him that Catherine was in critical condition, and that he needed to bring an heated saline I.V. bag, with glucose and vitamins in it. We need to stop at the manhole cover in the alley two blocks from the hospital to send Father down to meet him. You know the one, don’t you, Chuck?”
    Chuck answered, “Yes, I do. Usually, we are sending deceased members of Father’s world the other direction through the morgue body refrigerator from the tunnels, to be embalmed or cremated, before being buried in the deep catacombs. This is a first, to