Copper Beach
the desk and flipped the switch on the lamp.
“Not much in the way of lighting,” she said. She switched off the flashlight. “I think of labs as being sterile, brightly lit places, like the Coppersmith Black Box.”
“They often turn off the lights in the Box. Paranormal energy is more vivid to the senses in darkness.”
“Yes.”
She walked slowly toward him, gazing into the cases that she passed. He felt energy shimmer in the atmosphere and knew that she had heightened her talent. He would know her aura anywhere and in any light, he thought.
“What do you see when you look at these stones?” she asked.
He looked at her, not the gems and crystals that surrounded them. She dazzled his senses more than any of the rare stones in the room.
“Fireworks, rainbows and a thousand shades of lightning,” he said.
“I can sense that they’re hot. Anyone with a scrap of talent could figure that out.” She stopped a short distance away. “But I don’t see fireworks, rainbows and lightning.”
“That’s because you’re not looking at what I’m looking at.”
“What are you looking at?”
“You.”
She took a step closer, and then another, until she was only a foot away. She raised her hand and brushed her fingertips across the phoenix tattoo that covered his shoulder.
“Why couldn’t you sleep?” she asked.
“A dream woke me.”
“A bad one,” she said. It was not a question.
“A recurring one.”
“Was it about the woman you were dating? The one who was killed here in this room?”
“Cassidy Lawrence. Good guess.”
“Not a guess,” Abby said. “Intuition. What really happened that night?”
“Damned if I know.” He exhaled slowly. “I was on an assignment with that private contractor I told you about. I finished the job early and got the feeling that I needed to get back here to the Copper Beach house as soon as possible. I arrived sometime after midnight. Knew something was wrong immediately.”
“Bad energy?”
“There was definitely some of that, but the really big clue was that the alarm system had been turned off.”
“By Cassidy?”
“I don’t know. I never gave her the code. Maybe she had some good hacking skills. But my theory is that it was the killer who deactivated the system. I entered the house. Nothing appeared to be disturbed, but I could feel the psychic residue that murder always leaves. Same thing I sensed today at Webber’s house. Death leaves a calling card. I found Cassidy’s body in here. There was no obvious sign of violence. The authorities and everyone else concluded that she had taken an overdose of some exotic club drugs.”
“Suicide?”
“No. I’m sure of it. Trust me, Cassidy was not the type.”
“But you never found the killer.”
“No.”
“What do you think happened that night?” Abby asked.
“I’ve gone over and over all possible scenarios, and I keep coming back to the only one that works. It was a setup right from the beginning.”
“What do you mean?”
“Cassidy must have helped engineer the whole thing. I don’t want to believe it, because it makes me look so damned stupid, but there’s no other explanation that fits. Serves me right for breaking the rules.”
“What rules?”
“Never date the employees.”
“Where did you meet her?”
“At a gem-and-mineral show in Arizona. I hit most of the big events each year, because you never know what might show up. Once in a while, there’s a hot stone. At that show, one of the dealers had a very interesting chunk of psi-infused quartz. It was obvious that he didn’t realize what he had. In fact, the only other person in the vicinity who clearly recognized the nature of the quartz was the spectacular-looking woman standing next to me.”
“Cassidy.”
“Right. One thing led to another. She was smart, gorgeous and talented. And she was as obsessed with hot rocks as I am. She wanted a job with Coppersmith. I introduced her to the director of the Black Box. Frye hired her immediately. Talent like hers is hard to come by.”
“But the two of you continued to date,” Abby said.
“I started bringing her here on weekends. But she wasn’t supposed to be on the island the night she died.”
“Why was she here? Did you ever figure it out?”
“The only logical explanation is that she came here with her partner to steal the Phoenix stones.”
“I don’t understand,” Abby said. “Why would she think
Weitere Kostenlose Bücher