Текст книги "Deception Cove"
Автор книги: Jayne Krentz
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Текущая страница: 10 (всего у книги 18 страниц)
Chapter 21
DRAKE FELT ALICE SLIDE OUT FROM UNDER HIS ARM AND get to her feet. Energy shivered in the air. He knew that she had jacked up her senses a little.
“Hang on, I’ll light the lantern for you,” he said.
“It’s okay. I’ve got some paranormal night vision thanks to my talent.”
He put on his glasses and hit the lantern button, anyway. A soft glow illuminated the room.
“Thanks,” Alice said.
She disappeared into the bathroom. He heard water run in the sink. The toilet flushed. Alice reappeared wearing a towel wrapped around her body.
He folded one arm behind his head and admired the view of Alice lit with paranormal energy. The towel was not an oversized luxury spa bath sheet. It was a cheap little towel and it did not cover much. That was a good thing, he thought. He immediately got hard.
She scrambled back under the covers. In the process she lost her grip on the front of the towel. It slipped off altogether. When she finally got the sheet pulled up to her chin, she glared at him.
“Don’t you dare laugh at me,” she warned.
“I’m not laughing.”
“You’re smiling.”
“Okay, I may be smiling,” he conceded.
“Hah. I knew it.” She was quiet for a moment. “I hope Houdini is all right.”
“He’ll be fine.” Drake shoved aside the covers, swung his legs over the side of the bed, and got to his feet. “You’re pretty shy for someone who spent the past year on the stage.”
“I don’t go on stage naked.” She fluffed up her thin pillow. “And for your information, I’ve got a right to be shy at this particular moment. I barely know you and here I am in bed with you.”
He was surprised by the flash of irritation that zapped through him.
“Here you are married to me,” he corrected.
“That, too. Boy, this has turned into one strange road trip. My life is starting to remind me of that children’s story Alice in Amberland. You know, the one where the heroine falls down a dust bunny hole and winds up in a sort of alternate universe where everything is weird.”
“You think this situation, you and me here together, is weird? Looks pretty damn straightforward and normal to me. We’re married. We had excellent sex. At least it was excellent from my standpoint.”
To his surprise and further irritation, she gave that some close thought.
“Yes, it was,” she finally agreed, sounding somewhat astonished. “That’s the first time I’ve had an orgasm without the assistance of a small personal appliance.”
“Yeah?”
“You know, you’re right,” she said.
“I am?”
“I’m overreacting. A man and a woman are thrown together in stressful circumstances. They are attracted to each other and they wind up in bed together. It happens.”
“Right,” he growled. “It happens. But you left out the part about the man and the woman getting married.”
He stalked into the bathroom.
When he came back out, he settled down on his side of the bed, very aware of the distance between himself and Alice. He turned off the lantern and took off his glasses.
“Don’t,” he said.
She turned her head on the pillow to look at him. “Don’t what?”
“Don’t try to blame what happened between us on stress.”
There was a small silence.
“I would think that a facts-on-the-ground guy would want explanations for everything,” she said after a moment.
“Some things don’t need explaining.”
“Okay.”
“Some facts are just facts,” he said.
“Right.”
“You said it yourself, the sex was pretty fantastic. That’s a simple, straightforward fact. It doesn’t need any further analysis.”
She put her fingertip on his chest and drew an invisible line straight down to his serious erection. She encircled him with her fingers.
“No more analysis,” she promised.
She started to kiss him, her wet, warm mouth following the path that she had traced with her fingertip.
“Alice,” he whispered. He reached down and tangled his fingers through her hair. “Alice.”
Chapter 22
THE SCRATCHING AT THE DOOR AND A SOFT, MUFFLED chortle brought Drake out of a dream that involved an endless hallway lined with doors. Each time he opened a door he was blinded by a blazing sun. Somewhere in the hall, Zara Tucker laughed.
“Houdini,” Alice mumbled into the pillow. “About time he got home.”
“I’ll let him in,” Drake said.
“Thanks.”
Dawn was approaching. Drake groped for his sunglasses and got them on before he opened his eyes.
He climbed out of bed and opened the door. A single amber lantern glowed at one end of the hall near the stairs. Houdini bustled into the room, chortling a cheerful greeting. He hopped up onto the bed.
“Hey there, pal.” Alice stirred and reached out to pat him. “I was getting worried.”
Houdini submitted briefly to a few pats and then stretched out on his back at the foot of the bed, all six paws in the air. He closed his baby blue eyes.
Drake took off his glasses and went back to the bed. He stood there for a moment, studying the sleeping Houdini.
“What are you thinking?” Alice asked.
Drake got back under the covers and folded his arms behind his head. “I’m thinking that you don’t know where Houdini goes when he disappears, but he always knows how to find you.”
“So?”
“The same is true of Zara Tucker. We don’t know where she’s hiding, but she knows where Shadow Bay is located. If she can move about inside the Preserve, she can probably get here, or more likely send someone here, assuming she’s still got that one security guard left.”
Alice sat up, alarmed. “Why would she do that?”
“One thing I know about Zara: she hates me. She also knows I’m the one person on the island who might be able to help her retrieve those two Keys. When she finds out I’m in Shadow Bay, she’ll make a move. She won’t be able to help herself.”
“How will she find out you’re here? From the sound of things, she’s as cut off as we are.”
“According to Karen Rosser, Zara always seems to know what is going on here in town. She’s probably using the flutes to navigate the Preserve.”
“Wouldn’t someone in Shadow Bay notice if a gorgeous mad scientist showed up on occasion?”
He thought about Zara’s uncanny ability to charm the male species. “Not if she’s using some man in town as her spy.”
Alice regarded him with a somber expression. “If you’re right, her spy could be any man in Shadow Bay. Officer Willis, the cook in the tavern tonight, one of the men we saw in the restaurant. And then there are the folks staying at the B-and-Bs.”
“True. But we aren’t without our own resources. Harry says Rachel has a talent for aura reading. And Charlotte’s a high-level talent. Her intuition is probably way above average. Both of them are well acquainted with the locals. They’d know if someone was acting out of character. We’ve also got Fletcher Kane and Jasper Gilbert. They’re former hunters, according to Harry. He trusts them. And they know the locals, too.”
“Yes, but they are men. According to you, they’d be vulnerable to Zara’s charm.”
Drake smiled. “I think they’re safe. From what I’ve witnessed, Zara’s talent for seduction is based on opposite-sex attraction. Kane and Gilbert are married.”
Understanding brightened Alice’s expression. “You think the fact that they’re gay makes them immune to her?”
“Yes. Trust me, I’ve had good reason to delve into Zara Tucker’s background. I found no record of her using women or gay men for her purposes.”
“So your plan is to alert Charlotte, Rachel, Fletcher, and Jasper to the possibility that there’s a spy here in our midst and ask them to vet every hetero male left in town.”
“Not much of a plan, is it?”
“Actually, it sounds brilliant.” Alice hugged her knees. “We’ve got the perfect locked-room mystery setup, except that our locked room is a small town. Same principle, though. All the suspects are gathered together in one convenient place. What’s more, we’ve got a motive. Our spy is the victim of a calculated seduction. He thinks he’s in love, or at least in lust. The task now is to start working through the list of straight men in town to see which one is acting like a man who is bewitched.”
“Don’t forget the ticking-clock angle,” Drake said. “That always adds to the drama. If there’s one thing we know for sure, Rainshadow is a bomb waiting to explode.”
Chapter 23
“DRAKE SEBASTIAN MARRIED HER.” OUTRAGE SHIVERED in Ethel Whitcomb’s refined, private-school voice. “I can’t believe it. The woman is a witch, I tell you. Alice North is nothing but a cheap little gold digger with nothing to recommend her. No family, no social connections, not a dime to her name. She’s not even beautiful. Just an ordinary-looking woman who one wouldn’t glance at twice on the street. How does she manage to attract the attention of men like my son and Drake Sebastian?”
“You said the marriage is only an MC, according to the investigator.” Aldwin Hampstead struggled to keep his tone calm and soothing. It wasn’t easy. He was seething inside with something akin to panic. But his task now was to keep Ethel under control. “We both know that a Marriage of Convenience is nothing more than an affair that’s been given a sham of respectability. It won’t last long.”
He had to be careful, he reminded himself. Judging by the last message he had received from Rainshadow, the situation on the island was shaping up to be a disaster. He knew now that would be the best possible outcome for him. He wanted nothing more than to cut his losses.
It had all seemed so brilliant at the start. Zara Tucker had dazzled him with the promise of riches and power beyond his wildest imaginings. But in the past few days the scales had fallen from his eyes. He had awakened that morning with the sure and certain knowledge that he had been a fool. The best thing that could happen would be for the whole damn island to explode in flames and take the bitch with it.
But the immediate crisis was Ethel Whitcomb. She was obsessed with the death of her son, but obsession did not equate with stupidity. He must not forget that, not for an instant. Everything depended on Ethel. She was the matriarch of the Whitcomb family. She controlled a fortune, and now that things were falling apart on Rainshadow, he needed access to the money more than ever.
They were sitting in the living room of Ethel’s home in an exclusive gated community on Emerald Sunset Drive. The front windows had a panoramic view of the Old Quarter of Resonance City. The ethereal green towers of the Alien ruins were clearly visible, sparkling in the sunlight. But the interior of the Whitcomb mansion was shrouded in gloom.
When he had arrived a short time ago, he had been shown into Ethel’s study. The room was decorated in an elegantly neutral mix of off-white and cream with discreet touches of rich, dark amber for counterpoint. The space had been designed to showcase a few pieces from Ethel’s rare collection of Old World antiquities and First Generation art.
Ethel was a formidable woman, straight-shouldered, tall, arrogant, and regal. She wore her graying hair in a refined chignon. Her black silk trousers and pale blue silk blouse had been hand-tailored. She’d had a little work done on her patrician face, very good work. She could afford a fortune in jewels but she always kept her jewelry to a tasteful minimum. Today that amounted to a pair of gold and amber studs in her ears and a gold necklace.
She had been widowed for several years but she still wore her wedding band. Ethel had never remarried. Aldwin was quite sure that was because she enjoyed having full control of the Whitcomb money. And she handled it brilliantly. In the years since her husband’s death, she had become something of a legend in the business world. While Whitcomb Industries could not match the Sebastian, Inc. empire in size, scope, and power, it was certainly a force to be reckoned with here in Resonance City.
Aldwin had been a little unnerved at first by Ethel’s obsession with the murder of her son. It was not as if she didn’t have four other offspring, he thought. The Whitcombs were a prolific family. In any event, it was a known fact that Fulton Whitcomb had been the Whitcomb family screwup. That was, of course, what had made it so easy to manipulate him. Fulton’s obsession in life had been to prove to himself and his mother that he could be a smashing success.
Ethel’s fixation on Fulton’s death and her unwavering conviction that he had been murdered in spite of the lack of evidence struck Aldwin as over the top. But then, he did not really get the whole heavy-duty family-bond thing. Hell, his own mother probably wouldn’t have noticed if he’d gone missing. She had spent most of her time lost in an alcohol-and-drug-induced haze until the crap had finally killed her.
Family,he thought. Gotta love ’em. It was that attitude, of course, that had helped cement the bond between Zara Tucker and himself at the start of their association. They both saw family ties as sentimental weaknesses to be exploited. They had done exactly that, first with Fulton and then with Alice North.
It was not that he did not have his own passions, Aldwin thought. He was only human, after all. But those passions were centered on one objective—making a place for himself in the rarefied social circles in which Ethel and her family moved. He had a right to enter that world. His father had come from that world—a realm where money and connections could buy a reckless young man out of any problem, including those that resulted from a one-night stand with a cheap, drug-addicted whore.
No doubt about it, his unknown father was his true, if unwitting, inspiration, Aldwin thought. He wanted nothing more than to follow in the footsteps of dear old dad. His talent had already brought him a long way. He had started out as a low-rent drug dealer from the Old Quarter slums and today he was the curator of the most exclusive private museum in the city.
But he had allowed himself to get suckered into the doomed project on Rainshadow, and now he was engaged in some serious damage control. He could not afford to lose Ethel Whitcomb’s patronage, not now that his own fantasy of a brilliant future was about to crash and burn.
He had to maintain his connection with Ethel, and that meant he had to nurture her obsession with avenging her son’s death. Ethel had vowed to make Alice North’s life a living hell and she had spent a great deal of money to do that.
Ethel was the ultimate stalker, Aldwin thought—a head full of obsessive revenge fantasies and all the money in the world to make those fantasies come true.
He suppressed a sigh. Just because you were rich, connected, and powerful didn’t mean you weren’t a whacko.
“When I discovered that Fulton was in an MC contract with Alice North, I told myself it wasn’t important,” Ethel said. She rose from her chair and went to stand at the window. “He certainly was not the first man of his class to use an MC to placate a mistress. When I confronted him, he assured me that it was just a short-term fling. He said she had insisted on the arrangement and he saw no harm in it. The MC was supposed to be a trinket, like a nice piece of jewelry, to satisfy her. But she wanted more.”
“I understand,” Aldwin said. Surreptitiously he checked his watch. He had heard the story many times.
Ethel clenched one hand into a fist. “Alice North wanted a full Covenant Marriage. As if a Whitcomb would marry a woman of her sort. When she realized that she was not going to become Fulton’s CM wife, she murdered him. Why couldn’t the police see that she killed him?”
Because there was no evidence,Aldwin thought. Thanks to a useful item of Alien technology that killed without a trace. But he didn’t say it out loud. He and Ethel had been over this territory a thousand times in the past year. Ethel had run up against one thing her money had been unable to buy—the criminal justice system. Which was actually rather astonishing, in Aldwin’s opinion. A year ago he would have bet good money that with Ethel Whitcomb pushing for an arrest, the system would have obliged. It had come as a bit of a shock when Alice North had walked free. Evidently not everything was for sale down there at the Resonance City PD. He would have to keep that in mind.
“I just cannot comprehend Drake Sebastian entering into an MC with that woman,” Ethel said. “Everyone knows the Sebastian men don’t do MCs with their mistresses.”
Aldwin cleared his throat. “The family standards may be slipping. There was that divorce a while back. The Sebastians tried to keep it hushed up, but everyone in their circle knew about it.”
“Yes, I know,” Ethel said. “But this tacky MC coming on the heels of that dreadful scandal just makes it all so much worse. Drake’s mother, Samantha, must be furious. I can’t even imagine what Drake’s grandfather is thinking. And as for Drake, it’s no secret he is set to take over the business next year. Why would he embarrass his family like this?”
Aldwin was quite certain he knew the answer to Ethel’s questions. There was only one logical reason why Drake Sebastian would have gotten himself involved in an MC with Alice North. It was the same reason that Fulton had married the woman. The Sebastians had concluded that they needed Alice’s assistance to find the crystals. The fact that Drake had whisked her off to Rainshadow immediately after the ceremony said it all. Not like the island is any woman’s dream of a honeymoon paradise,he thought.
He did not want to contemplate what would happen if Drake was successful. If the Sebastians found the two crystals, they would also find the Dream Chamber and the bitch, Zara Tucker. That could not be allowed to happen. Aldwin knew that Zara would take him down with her in a heartbeat.
It was all falling apart. Aldwin was now in survival mode. He hoped that Rainshadow blew sky-high and soon, taking Zara Tucker with it. The biggest mystery in this whole mess was why he had allowed Tucker to drag him into the project in the first place.
The panicky feeling was getting worse. He was not claustrophobic, but Ethel’s study seemed to be closing in around him. It was getting hard to breathe.
“You’ve got other things on your mind, Mrs. Whitcomb,” he said gently. “We can discuss the plans for the new wing of the museum some other time.”
“Yes,” she said, bleak and bitter. “Some other time.”
“I’ll see myself out,” he said.
Ethel did not respond. Aldwin left her standing at the window as she gazed out at the spectacular view.
Chapter 24
“THE FIRST STEP IS TO MAKE A LIST OF MEN WHO MIGHT be vulnerable to Zara’s talent,” Drake said.
“That shouldn’t be difficult,” Fletcher said. “Not that many people left here in town, and between the four of us we know them all.”
They were gathered in Looking Glass Antiques. It was early morning but the sky was once again dark and heavy. Alice knew there would be no sun that day. The lights were still off, leaving the shop steeped in shadows. The place was crammed with antiques, and all of them had a paranormal provenance. The combined currents that emanated from the objects infused the atmosphere with a faint, hair-lifting buzz.
Alice stood quietly, lounging against a counter with Houdini tucked under one arm. Drake laid out his plans to Charlotte, Rachel, Jasper, and Fletcher. She was glumly aware that she had nothing to contribute to the strategy. Her brief moment of feeling like a member of the group had dissipated. She could not assist with the task of winnowing down the list of suspects because she was not well acquainted with anyone on the island. She had no talent for aura reading, like Rachel. And she had only arrived yesterday, so she could not determine various timelines and alibis. The best she could do in a pinch was bend a little light and vanish. She was just the magician’s assistant.
Drake was the magician in this situation. He had taken charge with the ease of a natural leader. No one had even blinked when he had announced that he had a strategy and he wanted help implementing it. Alice had the distinct impression that the others were relieved that someone had a plan. There was nothing worse than sitting around waiting for disaster to strike.
“Are you sure you don’t want to bring Officer Willis in on this?” Rachel asked.
“I wish we could,” Drake said, “but I don’t think we should take the chance. Unfortunately, for now he’s on the list of suspects. He’s an ideal target for Tucker—young, single, male, and well positioned to know what is going on here in Shadow Bay.”
“What about Myrna Reed?” Charlotte asked. “I know that Slade trusts her. She’s been a police officer here on Rainshadow for years. She knows all kinds of secrets.”
“Her input would be valuable,” Drake said. “But informing her of this project would put her in a difficult situation with Kirk Willis. In addition, because of her close ties to the community, we can’t be sure where her loyalties lie. She might feel bound to protect some of the people on the list. For now, this stays with the six of us.”
“Understood,” Jasper said.
“I agree,” Fletcher added. “We’ll get started on the list immediately.”
Charlotte looked at Drake with a speculative expression. “What happens if we come up with a likely suspect?”
“I’ll have a short conversation with him,” Drake said.
Jasper raised his bushy brows. “And if he isn’t feeling chatty?”
“He’ll tell me what I want to know,” Drake said without inflection. “I’m sure of it.”
Jasper nodded, satisfied. “You need any help with that conversation, feel free to call on Fletch and me.”
In that moment, Alice glimpsed a few of the hard edges under the surfaces of the two retired ghost hunters. They might be an artist and a gallery owner now, but they had survived for years in the underground catacombs. It was tough, dangerous work and it had left its mark on both men.
Drake smiled. “Count on it, you will be in on that conversation.”
“That’s it, then,” Charlotte said. “We’re all on the clock here, not that any of the clocks in town are working. Let’s get started on our list. Rachel and I can supply the names of all the men staying at the B-and-Bs.”
Houdini chose that moment to wriggle free of Alice’s grasp. He made it up onto the counter and started examining a display of marbles.
“While you’re working on that,” Drake said to the group, “I’m going to start a few rumors in town.”
Rachel raised her brows. “Rumors about what?”
“I want to get the word out that, thanks to Alice, I’ve got some old North family records that describe a method of de-escalating the unstable frequencies generated by the crystal Keys.”
Jasper nodded. “Trying to build a fire under whoever is behind this?”
“No harm in giving our man an incentive to move quickly,” Drake said.
Charlotte shot him a thoughtful look. “You’re making yourself a target.”
Drake’s smile was cold. “One I’m hoping Zara Tucker won’t be able to resist.”
Fletcher smiled. “This is a pincer-move. Between us narrowing down a list of suspects and you setting yourself up as a target, we’re going to force someone’s hand.”
“That’s the idea,” Drake said.
There was a short silence. Alice heard a small noise behind her. She whirled around in time to see five colorful glass marbles roll across the counter.
“Houdini, no,” she yelped.
She dove for the marbles and managed to snag two. The other three sailed off the edge of the counter and landed with three loud, sharp cracks on the wooden floor.
Houdini chortled euphorically.
Alice looked at Charlotte. “I’m sorry. Are they, uh, very valuable antiques?”
Charlotte smiled. “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure the marbles will be fine.”
“If they aren’t, send the bill to the Foundation,” Drake said.
Charlotte laughed. “Deal.”
Alice whisked up Houdini and started toward the door. “If you’ll excuse us, I have to get to work.”
Everyone, including Drake, looked at her with varying degrees of surprise.
Drake frowned. “Where are you off to?”
“You could say that I’m engaged in some behind-the-scenes work,” Alice said.
