Consigning Fate: Beginnings Series Book 23 Read online

“Exactly. I can see it,” Robbie said. “She can really get to know him. His purpose for being here. Frank …” Robbie paused. “Do you really think the clone has something to do with Dad’s death?”

  “Why are you asking?”

  Robbie shook his head. “Gut instinct. I don’t know. He just doesn’t strike me as a killer.”

  “Me, either.”

  “He plays a role somewhere in this, but how?” Robbie stated. “I mean, it doesn’t make sense.”

  “Plus, we have the unknown prints.”

  Robbie looked up suddenly. Perhaps it was his guilt of not being honest with Frank.

  “Any luck with them?”

  Robbie shook his head and thought about a gray wall. Just on the outside chance Frank was tapping into his thoughts.

  “The more I speak to the clone, the more I wonder if he came though the machine to warn Dad.”

  Robbie blinked. “Holy cow.”

  “What?”

  “I didn’t even think about that.”

  “Really? I did. It’s possible.”

  “Yeah. Yeah, it is.” Robbie nodded. “I mean, what if he went to the office to warn Dad. That would make total sense about what Darrell said.”

  “Which was?”

  “That Dean told Dad it was time.”

  “He could have warned him, left thinking Dad would get out of there and then the explosion happened early.”

  Robbie drifted into thought.

  “Robbie?” Frank snapped his finger.

  “Um … yeah, that actually might make sense. Who knows?” Robbie shrugged. “I’m heading to the trailer.”

  “Still gonna go through his things?”

  “Yeah, you never know what we might find aside from bad clothing.”

  Frank laughed.

  “See ya in a bit, big brother.” Robbie opened the door to the office and stepped outside. There he stood on the step thinking. Frank had given him more food for thought.

  “Did you get an invitation, too?”

  Ellen’s voice snapped Robbie out of it. “Huh?”

  “To meet Frank?” she asked.

  “No. Actually, I came for brownies.”

  “Leaving?”

  Robbie nodded. “Yep. Good luck.”

  “Do you know what he wants?”

  Robbie pointed to the door. “No but you can easily find out.”

  “What’s up with you?”

  “I’m sorry.” He kissed her on the cheek. “Just a ton on my mind.”

  “I understand.” After wishing Robbie a good day, Ellen knocked once and stepped inside.

  “Hey, babe.” Frank grinned and walked to her, giving Ellen a hug and kiss.

  “Frank.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “What the fuck is up with sending me an email to meet you here?”

  “You didn’t answer your phone.”

  “You didn’t call.”

  “Yes, I did.”

  Ellen sighed. “I didn’t get the call. Oh, well, I’ll check my voice mail. Anyhow, what’s going on? Are you just doing this to try to spend time with me?”

  “No.”

  “No?”

  “I mean … I’m sorry about not seeing you much.”

  “God, Frank, I never see you anymore. You used to stop and talk to me during the day. I … I’m sorry, but right now I’m pretty glad I have that understanding with Dean.”

  Frank’s eyes widened.

  “What? What is it?” she asked.

  “That’s what I want to talk to you about.”

  “The understanding?”

  “Dean.”

  “Shoot.” Ellen sipped her coffee.

  “Have you noticed anything different or unusual about him?”

  Nonchalantly, Ellen shook her head. “Nope.”

  “Nothing.”

  “Um ….” She closed her eyes in thought. “Nope.”

  “You don’t think it’s strange the way he is dancing and singing now.”

  “Nope.” She shook her head. “Actually, I know Dean well. I know he’s always wanted to dance and sing.”

  “Really.” Frank said with some disbelief.

  “Oh, yeah. Many times we danced in the lab. We used to practice all the time.”

  “Why didn’t I know that?”

  “He didn’t want you to make fun of him.”

  Frank folded his arms. “And nothing odd about the way he dresses?”

  “Not at all. He’s had those clothes for as long as I can remember.”

  “Weird.”

  “Why are you …?”

  “Personality. You haven’t noticed a change in his personality.”

  “Yes.”

  “Ah,OK. What?”

  Ellen took a breath. “He’s nicer. But I attribute that to the fact that the healing agent finally worked on the damage done to his frontal lobe.”

  “From the chip.”

  “Yep. Frank, why are you asking me this.”

  “I have to tell you something.”

  “Go on.”

  Frank leaned against the table. He hesitated for a while, inhaled a deep, loud breath, and stated. “It’s not Dean.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “The line dancing, karaoke guy with bad taste in clothing. That’s not Dean.”

  “What do you mean it’s not Dean?”

  “El. Exactly what I said. That isn’t Dean.”

  “Frank,” she said. “Why would you say that?”

  “Because I know.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because …. Because Dean is living in a house six miles outside of Bowman. We put him there to draw out the clone.”

  The deadened ‘thump’ rang out, followed by a grunt when Ellen’s travel mug sailed into Frank’s chest.

  “El! What the fuck!”

  “You moved Dean?”

  “Yes.”

  “You knew it was a clone. You knew and you moved Dean and didn’t tell me! You asshole!”

  “What the fuck?”

  “No, Frank. No what the fuck. Don’t you think I should have been told? Don’t you think I should have known? You should have told me.”

  “I’m telling you now!” Frank blasted.

  “You should have told me before!”

  “Before what!”

  “Before I slept with him.”

  Silence.

  A glare swept over Frank’s face, his veins bulged from his neck, and he raged to the door.

  “Where are you going?” Ellen asked.

  “I’m killing the clone.”

  “Frank.” She grabbed his arm. “I didn’t sleep with him.”

  “Why would you say that?”

  “To get you as pissed as I am right now.”

  “Well, you did it.”

  “Good.” Ellen folded her arms.

  A break in tension. They both took a moment to get calm.

  “El, I’m sorry, I should have to come to you about it.”

  “I pissed that you moved Dean away without telling me.”

  “You should be.”

  “And I am pissed that you didn’t trust me enough to tell me.”

  Frank nodded.

  “That you thought I was that stupid not to know I wasn’t working with Dean.”

  Frank’s expression changed. He gave a curious look. “You didn’t.”

  “You don’t think?”

  “You knew he was the clone.”

  “I knew the second he opened his mouth it wasn’t Dean. I have lived, loved, and worked with that man for eight years. You didn’t think I’d notice?”

  “No.”

  “You’re an asshole.” Ellen shook her head. “The second I saw him in the cryo lab. I knew something was up. It was clean. Then … he speaks differently, dresses differently, dances, sings. He looks younger than Dean; he doesn’t have that scar above his lip.”

  “Fuck.”

  “Yep. And … I knew something was up the moment he told me he invent
ed a viable artificial womb. Dean’s good, but we’ve been battling that womb for a while.”

  “Did you know he was a clone?”

  “I’ve been waiting on the Dean clone for a while.”

  Frank sat down. “Now, I’m getting pissed. What do you mean?”

  “Fort. He kept saying he was chasing a clone. He didn’t know the identity. But I knew the one and only clone we didn’t destroy was Dean.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “First, you never said anything about believing Fort about the clone. So how could I know you were looking for him? And the whole, Dean is the mutilator thing.” Ellen shook her head. “That told me it was the Dean clone. Joe thought the clone was Dean.”

  “He never told me.”

  “He told me, but I was scared to tell him we didn’t destroy Dean’s clone.” Ellen finally took a seat.

  “Why didn’t you come to me and tell me that Dean’s clone was being Dean.”

  “Because I wanted the clone to tell me he was the clone, and then I could find out what happened to the real Dean and why the clone was here.”

  “If you thought something happened to Dean, you should have come to me.”

  “Yeah well, you should have come to me, too.”

  Frank nodded.

  “When did you find out?” Ellen asked.

  “John Matoose found a video tape of the explosion at my dad’s office. Dean or rather, the clone left the office seconds before the explosion. Dean tracking showed Dean at the clinic.”

  “You think the clone killed Joe.”

  “We found the explosive device, and prints, but they weren’t the clone’s prints. So we don’t know why he was in the office and if he had anything to do with my dad’s death.”

  “He doesn’t seem like the killer type. He’s way too innocent.”

  “I know.” Frank rubbed his chin. “Which totally throws out our theory.”

  “Maybe he was here to warn Joe.”

  Frank pointed. “I’m starting to think that. But we won’t know until he opens up. If he was only here to warn my dad, why is he still here?”

  “Stuck.”

  “Possible.”

  “So, why are you finally telling me?” Ellen asked.

  “One, I figure if you didn’t know, you were going to know. Two …. If that clone is gonna get close to anyone and open up. It’s gonna be you.”

  “And you’ll need me to get all the info I can out of him.”

  Frank nodded. “Who he is, why he’s here. What he knows about my dad’s death.”

  “It’ll be easy. Opening up I mean. What he’ll tell me will depend. I don’t think he’ll tell me everything right away. But we’ll see.”

  “You really think he’ll open up to you?”

  “Without a doubt. And easily. He’s scared, Frank. He’s scared and confused.”

  “How did you know?”

  “Just a hunch.” Ellen stood up. “I better get back before he starts doing even more stuff in the lab.”

  “Go on. Thanks, El.”

  Ellen smiled peacefully.

  Frank stood, walked to her, and kissed her. “I’ll be home tonight.”

  “Promise?”

  Frank nodded and kissed her again.

  Ellen reached for the door. “Can you take me to see the real Dean?”

  “Yeah, I will. In a couple days.”

  “Thanks.” Ellen turned to the door.

  “Wait. One sec. You think it’ll be easy to get him to open up. How?”

  “Simple.” Ellen shrugged. “Show him my boobs.” After opening the door, she flashed a smile and left.

  With a grumble, Frank closed the door.

  <><><><>

  If there was one thing Dean and Frank had in common, it was nail biting when they were antsy.

  And Dean was antsy.

  He had waited all morning. Barely slept over the excitement. All he wanted to do was get to work on the case with the body. He wanted to view the pictures, look at the samples ... run the DNA.

  John Matoose showed up in the early afternoon with all his equipment, and Dean immediately began hooking it up. But he couldn’t start his work, because John was still there.

  Why was he hanging around?

  “So what did you do all day yesterday?” John asked.

  “Not much,” Dean said. Not that he minded John. OK, he did, but it wasn’t a social call, or was it.

  “So I have an hour,” John said. “What do you want to do? We can talk.”

  “Um ... sure.” Dean rolled his eyes, without John seeing and thought, ‘swell.’

  “I think Frank is coming out tonight. Yeah. He is.”

  ‘Great,’ Dean thought. ‘More time I can’t work.’

  “It has to get lonely out here.”

  “Actually, I haven’t been out here too long, John. Not long enough to get lonely.”

  “Well, hopefully, we’ll all stop that from happening,” John staid. “Hey, Dean, if it’s only you out here, why does this cage have a 'don’t stick your finger in the cage' sign?”

  “For Frank.”

  John laughed. “Frank sticks his finger in the cage?”

  “Yeah, did it yesterday three times and the Killer Fetus bit him,” Dean explained. “So I put the sign up.”

  “You think it’ll work.”

  Dean partially smiled. “Probably not. He’s convinced he’ll break him.”

  “What’s his name?”

  “Harry,” Dean replied with little enthusiasm.

  The hour dragged. John did most of the talking, and finally, Dean conceded that he wasn’t going to finish until after John left. He waded through the stories of Jenny and her fashion dilemma. He grew tired of hearing about how well he’s learning to ride a horse, and he certainly didn’t want to hear how much everyone in Beginnings loved the clone.

  The new Dean.

  Courtesy of the healing agent.

  “What!” Dean blasted.

  John shrugged. “Ellen is telling everyone that it’s the reason for your personality change. The chip caused damage; you took a healing agent, the healing agent work on your frontal lobe … that’s that.”

  “Then she has to know it’s the clone.”

  “As far as we know she didn’t,” John said. “But, last I heard Frank was telling her.”

  “Actually, that’s wise.”

  John snorted. “Yeah, especially since you two have the understanding. Ellen could very easily be intimate with the clone. Though I don’t know if he knows what to do.”

  “What?” Dean laughed.

  “Yeah, he’s pretty naive.”

  “That’s what I heard.”

  Idle talk.

  Finally, John left and Dean was able to get to his work.

  It was difficult to look at the pictures of the body. He had to remind himself that he didn’t think it was Joe. Focusing on the gray hair that covered his temples. He had pictures of everything.

  And since Joe was buried in only his underwear as he always requested, Dean got his first glimpse of the damage to the body.

  The hands were a sure sign.

  Joe wasn’t holding the explosive device when it went off.

  In fact, he was a distance from it. Close enough to crush his sternum and cause an immediate heart attack, but far enough away so as not to cause burns. Lars had cleaned the body before burial and did not for the exam.

  Lars’ autopsy report stated that Joe died of force blunt trauma to the chest which crushed his heart.

  Joe died instantly.

  Or at least the man whose body was in the tomb did.

  Dean was able to examine the body when he was there, and take the pictures. All to aid him in coming to a conclusion. However, there were several things that were confusing.

  Elements that lead to it being Joe, and elements that led to not being Joe.

  Dean would have to wait for the test results. Test results of DNA, and cultures that would give a metabol
ic break down.

  He would wait for those results and make a judgment based on those, the pictures, and his exam. Hopefully, Dean would come up with the correct conclusion.

  The entire thing grew more mysterious by the day. With the biggest mystery to Dean being, if the body in the tomb was not Joe, then where was Joe Slagel?

  <><><><>

  Imagination, sounds that were weird, spirits, and an old movie by Vincent Price, called ‘Last Man on Earth’, were all detailed in the report as reasons why the patrol guards did not go into the cemetery the night before.

  Even religious beliefs were mentioned.

  In short, Elliott knew the men were freaked out.

  That was confirmed when the line, ‘if we have killer babies, who is to say there are not zombies’.

  But they heard and saw suspicious activity at the mausoleum.

  They did investigate in the morning and found evidence that the tomb had been tampered with.

  They listed the reasons for believing it, and marked down they didn’t touch anything.

  Elliott decided that before he went to the Captain with the information he was going to see for himself.

  He arrived at the cemetery and walked to the mausoleum. It held an eerie, silent feel to it.

  As told by the patrol, the lid to the concrete tomb was slightly off. Elliott noted that, and with a slight shove of his body was able to replace it.

  What looked like a smudged and muddy fingerprint was found on the edge of the concrete tomb.

  Clearly, his patrol was correct in their assessment.

  The biggest lead and indicator was the floor.

  The patrol mentioned that the exterior ground was damp the night before and footprints were inside the mausoleum.

  Elliott found those. Two different shoe sizes. Two different style shoes and that told Elliott more than any report could. Even more so, the possible identity to one of the people.

  One foot print was that of a boot, the other was that of a tennis shoe. And not just any tennis shoe, the sole to a pair of Chuck Taylor, Converse All-Stars, and Elliott knew of only one person who wore those shoes.

  Or possible two people, since in an essence they were one in the same for the time being.

  As hard as it was, he took the information to Hal. How would he tell the captain that his father’s grave was ‘broken’ into?

  “More so than someone going into the Mausoleum,” Hal said as he read the report. “What baffles me is to why we have patrolman afraid of ghosts.”

  “That will be changed, Captain.”