Diana Racine 02 - Goddess of the Moon

recovering from your ordeal with that psychopath,” Sophia Reyes said. “I followed the whole thing. I can’t imagine going through something like that and keep my sanity . ”
    “I’m not sure I have,” Diana said. The room grew quiet , then they all chuckled , figuring in unison she was joking .
    Fernando Reyes sat forward. “And Lieutenant ― ”
    “Call me Ernie.”
    “Okay, Ernie, how did you ever track that man down?”
    “Good teamwork.”
    As Lucier fielded questions about the capture of the man who wanted Diana dead , she studied the people in the room. All the women were extraordinarily beautiful and at least twenty years younger than their husbands, except for Cybele Crane, who had to be sixty but looked a couple of decades younger. She was an older version of her daughter but no less beautiful, with fine features the very rich seemed to inherit with their money. If she ’d undergone cosmetic surgery, it was deftly done. Even the delicately etched lines on her face enhanced her beauty. Diana assumed the May/December couples were second m arriages, as was the Comptons ’ .
    Maia Compton appeared to be in her late-twenties or early thirties and seemed reserved, as opposed to her younger , more-outgoing sister, Dione. They complimented Diana’s act, which they saw opening night during her last engagement. Interacting politely , if unenthusiastically, with the rest of the guests, Maia and Dione eventually settled into conversation with each other.
    “ … and Silas reported your reading was quite on ta rget,” Jeremy Haynesworth said.
    Diana, caught in her observances, barely heard the address. “I’m sorry, I guess my mind was somewhere else.”
    “I was just mentioning Silas’s evaluation of his reading.”
    “ W hat did he say about it?”
    “ That y ou told him things no one could possibly know.”
    Diana turned to Compton. “Did I? I don’t recall. In fact, much of the afternoon is a blur. I intended to ask you about it.”
    “That’s odd,” Compton said. “You acted fine when you were here.”
    “Yes, I thought so, too,” Selene said.
    “I have little recollection after getting into the limo until I woke up th is morning.” A quick visual exchange among the couples added a moment of tenseness.
    Selene glanced at her husband. “I hate to bring this up as a possible reason, but you had a few drinks before and after the reading. Scotch, wasn’t it, Silas?”
    “Yes, scotch,” Compton said. “I fixed them myself. Quite a few, in fact.”
    “Three or four, and you downed them as if you the world was end ing , and this would be your last chance for a drink. I remarked to Silas after you left that you possessed an amazing tolerance for such a tiny person.”
    Selene’s account of yesterday left Diana breathless, and she strug gled to maintain her composure.
    Liar .
    She wanted to defend herself but chose not to give anything away. Yet. “Well then, that must have been what happened. After my near catastrophe a while back , I drank a little too much, then quit until I was sure I had a handle on it . I guess I started back too soon.”
    “You blacked out,” Phillip Crane said. “I remember a few of those from my yo unger days, don’t you, Cybele?”
    “I’m loath to confirm that,” Cybele said. “I finally made him cut down.” A chorus went up among the men admitting to those wild days when they were young .
    “Now , at my age,” Crane said, “I have two drinks, and that’s quite enough.”
    Diana debated pursuing the line the conversation had taken and decided to forge ahead. “I did have a rather unusual dream, however, and when I awoke, I became rather ill. Result of the scotch, I imagine.”
    “ Tell us about the dream,” Sophia Reyes said .
    Diana caught a warning eye from Lucier but acted once more like she didn’t see him. “It was very strange. Either the room was going around or I lay on a revolving platform, naked. The room was bathed in red light and people congregated around me, staring, touching me. I couldn’t see their faces because they wore masks.” She watched the couples fidget as she spoke. Martin Easley looked especially uncomfortable, focusing his attention on Lucier. Sweat beaded on his upper lip, and he wiped it away with a handkerchief. Edward Slater ’s slow shake of his head sent a warning , but she ignored him too.
    Everyone in the room reacted. How many sets of eyes leered down on me? Ten? Twelve?
    “What an odd dream, ”