Eye of the Beholder

home and find out that you're involved in a flaming affair."
    Alexa's eyes widened and then instantly narrowed. "I am not involved in an affair, flaming or otherwise. I think that what we had could more properly be classified as a one-night stand."
    So much for his own lousy ability to tap into the positive energy vortices around here. He wondered if it would help to take one of the Dimensions Institute classes.
    "I suppose it depends on your definition of a one-night stand," he said carefully.
    "It happened once. That makes it a one-night stand."
    "All right, you've made your point." He hesitated. "So, did you?"
    "Did I what?"
    "Meet people and develop a social life when you took the class at the Institute?"
    Her face was serenely unreadable in the shadows. "I met some people."
    He thought about the day he had found her having tea at Cafe Solstice with Foster Radstone . "Yeah, I guess you did. What happened between you and Radstone , anyway?"
    She blinked and then frowned in what appeared to be genuine bafflement. "How did you know that Foster and I dated for a while?"
    "The guy was leaning in a little too close." How did you explain that kind of thing to a woman? It was something another man would have understood intuitively. "You know, like he thought he had a right or something."
    "Hmm." She did not look pleased. "Well, whatever we had, it didn't last long. I met him when I took a class he taught at the Institute. When I dropped out, he called me up for a date. We saw each other a few times, but that was the end of it."
    "Another example of your, uh, inability to commit?"
    "Not exactly." Alexa flashed him an unexpected grin. "Foster's idea of scintillating dinner conversation was to explain to me how I could benefit from classes at the Institute."
    "Why did you drop out of the one you did take?"
    She rested her chin on the heel of her hand and regarded him with an enigmatic expression. "It wasn't my kind of thing. Besides, I was too busy with another, much more interesting project that was chewing up all of my free time."
    "What project was that?"
    "Selecting early-twentieth-century art and antiques for your resort."
    "Yeah?"
    "Trust me, it was a full-time job. And I already had a full-time job running Elegant Relic. The combination did not leave me much time for meditation seminars or dates."
    He nodded. "So, in a way, you could say that I was the reason you haven't had much of a social life for the past year."
    "Yes, you could say that. Now, if we might return to the subject at hand?"
    "Sure. Why not?"
    "What do we do now? Sit back and wait until we get more data from your investigator?"
    "No."
    "No?" Curiosity flickered in her intelligent eyes. "Just what do you think you can do that a professional investigator can't?"
    "I'm not sure yet. I'm still thinking about it."
    "I was afraid of that."
    "I've got a couple of ideas." He met her eyes across the table. "But the first priority is to make sure you're safe."
    She stared at him. "I beg your pardon?"
    "If I'm right about Bell being behind this, he wants you out of the picture, but he probably doesn't want to take the risk of doing something too drastic."
    "I don't know about that. What happened this morning at Liz's house seemed pretty drastic. "
    "I think the son-of-a-bitch may have sent someone to frighten you."
    "Why do you say that?"
    Trask hesitated. She'd been through enough today. He did not want to add to her anxiety level. On the other hand, she was as involved in this as himself . She needed to look at the whole picture. He decided to lay it on the table.
    " Bell 's not stupid. Killing you is not only unnecessary, it would be an extremely risky move. Two violent deaths in one week in a town the size of Avalon would probably make even Chief Strood start asking questions."
    She gave him a knowing look. "Especially after you leaned on him a little?"
    "I'd have done some leaning, all right." He helped himself to one of the leftover chocolate mints. He munched without tasting anything. It would probably make Alexa nervous if she knew that he would do more than lean on Strood if anything happened to her. He would tear Avalon apart.
    "If your reasoning is right," Alexa said, "then we can conclude that the last thing whoever is behind this wants is a serious criminal investigation. That means I'm probably safe."
    "I'm not making any assumptions."
    "What do you mean?"
    "Even though Bell probably doesn't want to do anything more than scare you into staying out