Eye of the Beholder

on a drug conviction. There is no record of any connection to Dimensions until he moved to Avalon."
    "Drugs?" Alexa was flabbergasted. "When I think of all the tea I bought from that man. He was a drug dealer?"
    Trask said nothing.
    Guilt assailed her. Stewart's former career was of little interest to him at the moment. He had other things on his mind.
    She was not certain what to say. She stood and walked across the room to put her arms around his waist from behind. She leaned her head against his strong, warm back. His muscles were rigid. "I'm sorry, Trask."
    "I told myself that I could deal with the answer, even if it wasn't the one I wanted. But I was so damn sure that Dad's death hadn't been an accident."
    She tightened her arms around him. "You had no control over what happened."
    "Dad was so angry that night after we talked—"
    "Stop it." She dropped her arms, took hold of his shoulder, and turned him around so that he was forced to look at her.
    "Whatever you said that night, you did not cause your father to go off that cliff. He was a mature adult. If he was too angry and upset to drive safely, he should have known better than to get behind the wheel of a car."
    Trask just looked at her with an unblinking gaze.
    "Look at it this way," she said. "If you quarreled with your brother and then got into the Jeep and drove it into a ditch, who would you blame? Yourself or your brother?"
    He scowled. "It would be my own fault if I ended up in the ditch."
    "Because you're an adult, and part of being an adult is taking responsibility for your own actions. Right?"
    He hesitated. "Yeah. Look, I know where you're going here, but—"
    "The least you can do is show enough respect for the memory of your father to give him credit for being an adult who made his own decisions. Right or wrong, he made choices and they were his to make, not yours."
    Trask said nothing.
    She cradled his hard face between her palms. "You came back to Avalon for answers. You've got them. Now the only healthy thing you can do is let go of the past."
    He pulled her into his arms, wrapped her close, and buried his face in her hair. For a long time he did not speak, but Alexa felt the tension gradually ebb from him.
    She relaxed, too. It was going to be all right, she thought. Trask would deal with the answers he had gotten here in Avalon. He might not like them, but he could handle them.

    The shoppers who sauntered along the shady paths of Avalon Plaza that morning were oblivious to the dark cloud of gloom that hung over it. But Alexa could feel the weight of the shock and horrified dismay that had descended on all of the tenants, herself included.
    At the far end of the square Cafe Solstice brooded, its windows darkened, its doors locked. A bright yellow crime scene tape had been strung across the front door.
    Dylan Fenn put his head inside Elegant Relic shortly after opening time. "You want any tea, Alexa? I'm making a pot in my back room."
    "Thanks, I've had enough this morning." Alexa carried a fresh stack of illuminated manuscripts out of the stock room and began to arrange them on a display table.
    "I'm surprised any of us are even interested in tea today, given the news about Stewart. You'd think we'd all convert to coffee."
    "You can say that again." Dylan shook his head. "I still can't believe it. Incredible, isn't it? Lutton , of all people. A killer."
    "Goes to show you can't tell a psychopath when you see one."
    " Ain't that the truth. " Dylan glanced down the path toward the darkened cafe. "I was one of the first in line this morning to say those immortal words, He seemed like such a nice guy. "
    "Must have been crazy for years." Alexa adjusted one of the brightly decorated manuscripts. "Apparently he saw himself as some sort of defender of the Institute. Remember what he said the other day about how Dimensions had changed his life?"
    "I recall when he first came to town," Dylan mused. "He was a loner who looked like he had reached the end of the line. Then he got involved in Dimensions, and it was like he'd found an anchor in a storm. He got his act together and opened Caf é Solstice. Never would have guessed he'd go off the deep end the way he did."
    "He must have become obsessed with Dimensions."
    Dylan shook his platinum blond head. "Webster was right when he said that the opposing vortices were out of synch here in Avalon. Maybe now that this is all over, they'll start resonating properly again."
    "I certainly hope so." She