Eye of the Beholder

that it was close. The natural rise of the land in front of Alexa's patio hid
Cliff Drive
    from view, but he could hear the occasional sound of a car engine in the distance.
    The screen door slid open behind him. Alexa's sandals scraped lightly on the paving stones.
    "Dinner will be ready in a few minutes." She handed him a beer. "Hope you like Southwest fusion cuisine."
    He caught the faint tang of freshly cut lime when he took the bottle from her. "Is that anything like Pacific Rim fusion cuisine?"
    "I wouldn't be surprised. Except we probably use more tortillas and chilies." She looked out over the red canyons. "You want to tell me who gave you your warnings today?"
    He took a swallow of the cold beer and considered for a moment. "One of them came from Joanna Bell."
    "No kidding?" She looked briefly startled. "I got one from her brother."
    That gave him pause. He turned his head to look at her. "You got a warning from Webster Bell, himself?"
    "Uh-huh." Alexa made a face. "Of course, I also got one from Edward Vale and Dylan Fenn , who owns the bookshop at Avalon Plaza , and another from the guy who runs the cafe there, Stewart Lutton ."
    "What did they all tell you?"
    "It pretty much came down to the same thing. Everyone thought it would be a really swell idea if I stayed dear of you."
    He studied the Mexican label on the beer bottle. "Joanna didn't like the concept of me dating you, either. But she went a little farther with her warning."
    "How much farther?"
    "She told me that I should not stir up the past."
    "Well, well, well." Alexa took a sip of the wine that she had poured for herself. "Did she give you a specific reason?"
    "She implied that innocent people might get hurt."
    Alexa groaned. "I suppose her warning made you all the more certain that there are great mysteries and dire conspiracies to be uncovered in Avalon, just as you suspected."
    "If what happened twelve years ago was just an accident," he said softly, "why the hell would my asking questions hurt anyone or even make someone nervous?"
    Alexa met his eyes. "Did it occur to you that Joanna was afraid that you might be the one who would be hurt? Everyone says she loved your father. Perhaps she's just trying to protect you."
    "From what? Finding out that Dad was responsible for his own business problems? That he was so caught up in his private fantasy that he lost his perspective? That he would have dragged Guthrie and Kenyon into a financial quagmire if he wasn't forced to sell out?" Trask tightened his grip on the beer bottle. "I already know all that."
    Alexa gazed pensively out at the desert. "Yes, I guess you do."
    Silence fell. Darkness settled around them. Trask saw lights come on in some of the windows of the neighboring homes scattered lightly across the landscape. Alexa made no move to go back indoors to check on her dinner preparations. He sensed the tension in her.
    He realized he was waiting, but he was not sure why. "Am I missing something here?"
    She looked down at her wine. "I hesitate to mention this because I don't want to add any more fuel to your theories."
    "They're already stoked."
    "I found out today that Webster Bell may have been seriously opposed to the idea of Joanna marrying your father."
    Trask swung around so sharply that Alexa gave a small, startled squeak and stepped back.
    He searched her face. In the deepening shadows it was impossible to read her eyes. "Are you certain of that?"
    "No," she said quickly. "It was just gossip. I got it from Dylan Fenn and Stewart Lutton , the two shop owners I mentioned earlier."
    "Did they say why Bell didn't want Joanna to marry Dad?"
    Alexa hesitated. "Apparently Webster was afraid that your father would have siphoned off a substantial portion of Joanna's inheritance in order to build his new resort."
    His jaw tightened. "I can't blame Bell for worrying about that possibility. In Dad's defense, all I can say is that he wouldn't have seen it as using Joanna's money. He would have called it an investment."
    "Yes, well, I guess Webster considered your father a financial risk."
    Trask swallowed more beer. "He was right."
    There was another short silence from Alexa.
    "I got one other bit of old gossip out of my pals today," she said eventually.
    "You're a regular gold mine of information this evening, aren't you?"
    "I'm rationalizing it by telling myself that it's in my own best interests to help you get your questions answered as quickly as possible."
    "Meaning that the sooner I'm