Eye of the Beholder

pattern."
    "I see what you mean," Alexa said slowly. " Radstone may qualify as someone else who was a financial threat to the Institute."
    Trask took two miniature bottles out of the cabinet, broke the seals, and emptied the contents into two snifters. "Like I said, it fits."
    "Did you tell Strood that Radstone tried to say something about a guardian?"
    "I told him." He handed her one of the snifters. "He didn't pay too much attention. Thinks Radstone was trying to say guard, not guardian."
    Alexa inhaled the brandy fumes in her glass, "Theoretically, all we have to do now is wait for Foster to recover and hope that he'll be able to tell us the identity of the person who tried to kill him."
    Trask stopped and looked at her. "He may not know who he is. The guy was masked. Even if Radstone can identify him, he may have no interest in doing so."
    "Why not?"
    "Because in the process he'd probably have to admit that he was trying to bilk the Dimensions Trust. Radstone is guilty of something. I got the impression that his first assumption was that the jester would be open to a payoff. He acted like a man who had been threatened with blackmail."
    Alexa winced. "It does sound like you're right about his being a con man."
    "Something tells me that when Foster recovers, he'll fade away into the sunset. He'll figure that if he decamps, he'll be safe. Hell, he may be right. After all, if he takes himself out of the picture, he'll no longer be a financial threat to the Institute."
    "And threats to the Institute seem to be the main focus of whoever is behind all this." Alexa paused. "That still leaves Joanna. Maybe she'll tell us something when she recovers."
    Trask swallowed brandy and looked grim. "I'm not too sure that we can depend on her to help us get to the bottom of this. She's gone out of her way to try to keep the past buried."
    "If her close call with the gas was not an accident, she may be at risk again when she gets out of the hospital." Alexa sighed. "How are we going to convince her that she may be in danger?"
    "If she's trying to protect someone, there may not be anything we can do," Trask said quietly.
    Alexa sat up very straight in the chair and wrapped her fingers around the glass. "The only person she would go that far out of her way to protect is her brother, and I still can't see Webster as a murderer."
    "We all have our little biases," Trask said dryly. "But there's something else we need to consider. If Radstone survives, and if Joanna's accident wasn't an accident, it will mean that between us, we screwed up the shooter's plans at least twice in the past few days."
    Alexa shuddered. "Yes."
    Trask carried his glass to the open French doors and looked out over the darkened desert. "Whoever he is, he's probably not a real happy camper right now. In fact, I have a hunch he'll be getting desperate. Which means he's more dangerous than ever. "
    "We don't even know if the killer is a he. Could be a she."
    Trask hesitated, thinking about the frantic grappling at the window of Radstone's office. Reluctantly he nodded. "Could be a she, but I don't think so."
    "Why not?"
    "This is going to sound a little primitive, but the fact is, he didn't smell like a woman."
    "You mean no perfume? I don't think you can depend on something that vague ..."
    Trask shook his head. "It's a little more basic than that. Women smell different than men. At least, they do to a man. This guy was sweating and he smelled like a guy. For all the good it does. Still not much to go on."
    Alexa shivered in the warm night air. "You said he wore a Dimensions bracelet. Could be some crazy out at the Institute."
    "Half the town wears those bracelets."
    A knock on the door interrupted Alexa's bleak thoughts.
    "That'll be room service," Trask said. "I'll get it." He turned and went back into the suite to open the door.
    Alexa watched a young man in Avalon hotel livery roll a cart into the suite. China and silver clinked gently.
    When the server finished setting up the tray, he looked expectantly at Trask. "Will there be anything else, sir?"
    "No," Trask said. "That's it."
    "Shall I pour the tea, sir?"
    Alexa stared at the teapot. A vision of the empty mug and the nearly full package of loose tea in Joanna's kitchen flashed in her mind.
    "Good grief," she whispered.
    The server looked as if he had just glimpsed his own doom. "Something wrong, ma'am?"
    "No." She gave him a reassuring smile. "No, nothing's wrong. Just hungry, that's all."
    The server left