Eclipse Bay

about Thornley. An old acquaintance she thought she could trust.”
    Hannah looked down at the name written next to a license number. Stunned, she glanced quickly at the notes she had been making. The vehicle had left the reception shortly after midnight. It had returned at one-forty-seven A.M .
    “A journalist,” Rafe went on very quietly, “who might have known that Arizona Snow had a habit of hiding in the shadows to make notes about events at the institute. One who might have decided that even though no one in town ever paid any attention to A.Z.’s conspiracy theories, it would probably be a good idea to steal the log for that evening.”
    A chill of disbelief numbed Hannah. “You think Kaitlin tried to sell the tapes to Jed Steadman?”

    An hour later Hannah paused halfway across the sunroom to glare at Mitchell, Rafe, and Arizona. All three of them glowered back at her.
    “What the heck are we supposed to do now?” she demanded. “The big idea was to take the evidence to Jed Steadman and let him run with the story. Now it looks like he’s the chief suspect.”
    Arizona shook her head and made a tut-tut sound. “Should have guessed the local media were involved in covering up institute actions. Explains a hell of a lot, if you ask me. No wonder they’ve been able to maintain a cloak of secrecy over their activities up there.”
    “If we’re right, this has nothing to do with the institute,” Hannah said with a patience she did not feel. “It’s a simple case of blackmail and murder. It looks like Kaitlin called Jed that night. He went to meet her on the path above Hidden Cove. Maybe she offered to cut him in on the blackmail deal. Or maybe she simply wanted to sell the tapes to him outright. Either way, he saw a golden opportunity to cash in on the compromising videos.”
    “But he figured he’d better get rid of Kaitlin,” Mitchell said. “Probably didn’t trust her to keep her mouth shut. Or maybe he didn’t want to split the potential profits two ways.”
    Rafe massaged the back of his neck. “The bottom line here is that we don’t have any hard evidence for any of this.”
    “You got my logs,” Arizona reminded him.
    “No offense, A.Z., but we need more than that to take this to the police.”
    “We’ve still got the option of turning the story over to the media,” Hannah reminded him. “Not the Eclipse Bay Journal , obviously. But maybe one of the Portland papers will be interested.”
    “Maybe. Maybe not.” Rafe tapped his finger on the arm of the wicker chair. “I was counting on Jed going with the story and doing the basic legwork because it was a hometown scandal. He had the best reason to get excited about it.”
    “He’ll get fired up about it, all right,” Mitchell said morosely. “Probably sue us.”
    Hannah looked out over the bay. “I wish we had a little more to go on here. Rafe is right. We don’t have any hard evidence.”
    There was a short, stark silence behind her.
    “You know who you’re looking at now,” Mitchell said eventually. “If nothing else, you ought to be able to use what you’ve got to scare the hell out of Jed Steadman. Make sure he knows that if he makes one false move, a lot of folks will be watching. That should keep him in line.”
    Arizona grunted. “Why not call up the Thornley crowd and tell them we know who’s been blackmailing their candidate all these years? That would stir things up a mite.”
    “I’m not so sure Jed has been blackmailing Thornley,” Rafe said thoughtfully.
    Everyone looked at him.
    He sat forward and folded his arms on his knees. “When you get right down to it, there’s no evidence that Steadman has been living above his income. If he’s getting cash out of Thornley, where has the money been going?”
    Another silence greeted that observation.
    “Well, shoot and damn,” Mitchell muttered. “Why would he commit murder for the tapes and then sit on them for eight years?”
    A cunning light appeared in Arizona’s eyes. “Why waste time prying a few bucks out of a small-time state pol when you can hold your ammunition and use it on a genuine U.S. senator?”
    Hannah heard a collective intake of breath.
    “You know something, A.Z.?” Rafe’s smile held no humor. “For a professional conspiracy theorist, you sometimes make a lot of sense.”
    “She’s got a point, all right.” Mitchell whistled softly in admiration. “Everyone knew from the start that Thornley would probably go all the