A Dangerous Liaison With Detective Lewis by Jillian Stone Read Free Book Online Page A

the pistol.
    Rafe exhaled, ducking his head to look out the window. “Excellent, we’ve arrived at the Hall.” Gently, he pried her fingers off the handle and trigger, pocketing the weapon. “I promise you: before we part company, you will have ample opportunity to exact revenge upon me.”
    “Please make sure of it.” Accepting his hand, she stepped down from the carriage onto the University grounds. Skirting McEwan Hall, they wound their way through a nearly deserted campus. It was already late afternoon and few students were about. The laboratory was housed between a hodgepodge of buildings on the third floor.
    Fanny stepped inside. “Professor?” Floorboards creaked underfoot and there was the faint hiss of Bunsen burners and bubbling liquids in glass beakers. Late afternoon light filtered through windows veiled by dust. A row of workbenches ran the length of the cramped narrow space.
    Rafe moved ahead, shielding her with his body. “Mr. Poole?”
    Fanny surveyed the contents of the tables, each piled with odd-looking instruments. They came across an open ledger and a cup of tea beside it.
    Rafe laid his hand on a chipped teapot close by. “Still warm.”
    Fanny craned her neck to peer into a dark corner of the lab. “Professor, please answer!”
    Rafe reached inside his jacket and got out his torch. “Glad I brought this.” He toggled the switch back and forth. “Bollocks.”
    “What is that?”
    Rafe grabbed hold of her hand. “An electrical torch powered by dry cell batteries.”
    How was it that Rafe held a device she knew nothing about? Having been raised by an avid inventor and industrialist, Fanny was privy to all the latest inventions—sometimes many years before they were known to the general public. “That’s impossible. I would have heard about such an appliance!”
    “Experimental. On loan to Scotland Yard for field-testing.” Rafe grinned. “No need to be snarlish.” He banged the brass object in the palm of his hand. “As you can see, it’s not the most reliable of gadgets.”
    Something crawled along the floor. “Rafe?” Fanny nodded toward the dark end of the lab. A cloud of gaseous material billowed down a few steps and swirled toward them.
    The light from the torch sprang to life, causing them both to jump.
    Stepping gingerly through the low blanket of mist, they approached the end of the room. Rafe swept the beam of light across a giant metal cylinder topped by a hatch wheel. Clouds of white vapor billowed out fromunder a dome-shaped lid and down the sides of the chamber. A number of tubes coiled about the unit were covered with frost.
    “Have you any idea what this could be?”
    Fanny shook her head. “It appears to be a refrigeration unit of some kind.” She squinted at the apparatus. “I suppose the professor could be making liquid nitrogen.”
    Rafe blinked. “Liquid what?”
    “If you compress the gases in the air enough, you end up with nitrogen, which at extremely cold temperatures turns to liquid.”
    Rafe stared. “For what purpose?”
    “A myriad of industrial uses, including shrink welding, Detective Lewis.”
    She and Rafe spun around at the same time. “Mr. Lazar!” Fanny coughed as she introduced Rafe to Professor Poole’s research partner.
    “We have an appointment with Professor Poole. Might you—” A fit of coughing interrupted Rafe’s speech.
    “Step back, both of you.” Lazar ducked around them. “As liquid nitrogen evaporates, it reduces the amount of oxygen in the air—in confined spaces it can act as an asphyxiant.”
    Fanny’s gaze darted along a counter filled with lab equipment. One after another, Bunsen burner flames flickered and died. Rafe continued to cough as he pulled her away.
    Lazar climbed a low ladder beside the tank and turned the hatch wheel. “Either the seals have failed, or someone has tampered—”
    The hatch burst open in an explosion of frozen vapor. The sudden blast and displaced air knocked Rafe and Fanny to the