The Dark Atonement by Sarah Hamaker

Author:Sarah Hamaker [Hamaker, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781958375013
Publisher: Sarah Hamaker

Chapter

Twenty-Four

Tatiana leveled her gaze at the man prowling her home office. He had been waiting for her when she’d arrived home after another long, frustrating day in the lab. She’d known someone was in the house the moment she stepped inside. For one, brief glorious moment, her heart quickened. Tom couldn’t stay away. He’d come back to apologize and to resume their life together. Rushing down the hallway, she’d glanced in rooms on her way to the kitchen. No Tom. Now her pulse beat faster, not in anticipation of a reconciliation with her husband, but with a fissure of fear.

“Dr. Dern, why don’t you join me?”

At the familiar male voice coming from the study, the fear resolved into relief. She had been expecting him to contact her by phone but should have known he’d try to keep her off balance with a surprise in-person visit.

He leaned against the desk, the lamp behind him casting his face in shadows. “Sorry to disappoint you that I wasn’t your husband returning to the nest.”

“Why are you here?” Despite her resolve to not give the man the satisfaction of seeing her rattled, his remark stung. So he knew about her marriage troubles. The Butzemann—what she privately called the man since he’d never revealed his real name—gave her a smile that despite its joyful appearance struck fear in her heart. Maybe calling him the German boogeyman of her childhood had been more apt than she realized.

“You know I wouldn’t be here unless it was important.”

Or unless you wanted to insure I wasn’t going rogue on you. She merely crossed her arms across her chest, trying to project an air of impatient indifference.

Amusement danced in his dark eyes. “Hoffman has managed to stay one step ahead, but I’m confident we’ll run him to ground soon. However, he did contact Dr. Shamblin, as we had suspected he might.”

Tatiana stayed silent, knowing from previous experience with the Butzemann that he liked to dole out information as if he were dealing cards in a casino—slow and steady.

“You were right to be concerned about Hoffman. He instructed Shamblin to reveal all should his granddaughter call.”

Vindication for being correct in her assessment of Hoffman’s change of heart overrode her intention to play it cool. “I was right.”

“And yet you still haven’t been able to duplicate Hoffman’s success, even with his notebooks.”

The taunting tone broke her resolve to keep her frustration out of sight. “He wrote them in some kind of personal shorthand. We need Dr. Hoffman himself to interpret them.”

The Butzemann’s impassive eyes never left hers. “If you can’t get the job done…” The implication hung in the air between them.

Gathering the tattered remains of her control, she refocused on what the Butzemann had said about Hoffman. “How would his granddaughter know to call Shamblin?”

The Butzemann pushed himself to a standing position and rebuttoned his wool coat. “My guess is Hoffman sent another cryptic postcard.”

A chink in his armor she could explore. “You didn’t find such a postcard when you were in her apartment?” Tatiana cocked her head.

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