Geno Lucaino's Arc

Chapter 2 of 4

The second day passed slowly. Geno checked the cat's stitches twice and changed the blanket once. He kept the clinic door open so the animal could hear the birds outside, and he watched the road more than he meant to. But on the afternoon of the second day, the woman came back early. She appeared at the gate without warning, breathing hard like she'd been running. This time she carried no blood on her clothes and no injured animal in her arms. She carried a folded letter sealed with something dark and waxy that looked like dried blood, marked with a single letter pressed into the seal. Geno met her at the door and she pushed the letter into his hands before he could ask about the cat. "Someone's been asking about you," she said. Her voice came out quiet but sharp. "A man in a dark coat. He's been standing near the old beacon tower past the grove, watching your clinic. He asked me yesterday if I knew a veterinarian named Geno Lucaino." She glanced back toward the road. "I told him I didn't know anyone by that name. But he's still there. And there's a black stone tower on the east side of town where he goes at night. I followed him once." Geno turned the letter over in his hands but didn't open it. His other hand moved to his vest pocket, fingers brushing the outline of his grandmother's watch. He pulled his hand back. "Why are you telling me this?" he asked. The woman looked at him for a long moment, then at the cat sleeping on the table behind him. "Because you helped me when I needed it," she said. "And because whoever that man is, he's not here for anything good." She stepped back from the doorway. "Don't go looking for him. Just know he's watching." Then she turned and walked back through the gate, faster than she'd come. Geno stood in the doorway holding the sealed letter, and for the first time since opening his clinic, he closed and locked the door in the middle of the day.