Falling Awake

it.”
    “Yeah, I sort of got that impression.”
    Farrell turned to face him. “Isabel has never led what most people would call a normal life but she’s never had the kind of problems she’s had lately. I find myself looking for some reasonable explanation. But all I come up with is you.”
    “I know.”
    “Who are you, Ellis Cutler, and why are you hanging around Isabel?”

    Ellis hesitated, but only for a few seconds. He had already made up his mind about how to deal with Farrell.
    “Got a pen?” he asked mildly.
    Farrell’s hand automatically went to the gold pen in his pocket. “Why?”
    “I’m going to give you a phone number. It’s the private line of a woman named Beth Mapstone. She operates a large private investigation business that has affiliates in several states, including here in California. You can verify her identity and credentials. She’ll answer your questions about me.”
    Farrell’s brow furrowed. “Are you some kind of investigator?”
    “Yes.” He leaned against a post and folded his arms. “Used to do it full-time but now I’m freelance. Mostly I’m a venture capitalist these days.”
    Farrell slowly took his pen out of his pocket. “You’re working on a case here in Roxanna Beach?”
    “Yes.”
    “What’s all this have to do with Isabel?”
    “She’s assisting me.”
    “Bullshit. Isabel doesn’t know anything about investigative work.”
    “Got news for you. Isabel has been consulting for me and other Mapstone Investigation agents for the past year, although this is her first field job.”
    “Jesus, Mary and Joseph.” Farrell rubbed his temples. “Not the dream analysis thing?”

    “Afraid so.”
    Farrell did not bother to conceal his incredulity. “Are you telling me that there are serious criminal investigators out there using this Level Five lucid dreaming crap to solve crimes?”
    “I know it’s a little hard to believe—”
    “I can believe some of it, all right,” Farrell interrupted roughly. “But not all of it. I’m not a complete idiot, Cutler. I’ve got a background in the corporate world. I know enough to follow the money, and I can see that there’s a lot of it tied up in this thing, starting with the center itself. I wondered how Martin Belvedere kept that place afloat. I never understood why he hired Isabel and paid her such a good salary when she’s got zero credentials in the field of sleep research. Now you’re telling me that you work for a criminal investigation firm that employs agents who use psychic dreaming as an investigative technique.”
    Ellis nodded. “Yeah.”
    Farrell glanced at the Maserati and then raked Ellis from head to toe, taking in the expensive dark green shirt, charcoal pants and leather shoes. “This firm pays its consultants enough money to enable them to drive high-end cars and wear hand-tailored shirts. Not the usual gumshoe attire, Cutler.”
    Ellis smiled. He was starting to like Farrell a lot.
    “And this Mapstone Investigations operation uses Isabel to analyze its agents’ dreams.”
    “You got it.”
    “Only one source I know of that would be likely to cough up enough money to finance a phony sleep research facility and paypeople big bucks to solve crimes in their dreams,” Farrell concluded dryly.
    “What can I say?” Ellis unfolded his arms and widened his hands. “Your tax dollars at work.”
    Before Farrell could respond, Leila’s voice rose from inside the house.
    “No insurance?” she wailed. “What do you mean you don’t have any insurance? There must have been thousands of dollars’ worth of furniture stored in that locker.”
    “I had to make some cutbacks after I lost my job at the center,” Isabel mumbled. “The gym membership, my insurance policy—”
    “How could you do something so idiotic?” Leila demanded.
    Ellis straightened away from the post, yanked open the front door and walked back into the house.
    In the living room, Isabel was clutching Sphinx very tightly as she confronted Tamsyn and Leila. The cat had his ears flattened against his skull, annoyed with the fresh wave of commotion.
    “I don’t believe this,” Tamsyn declared to anyone who would listen. “How could you be so foolish as to store a fortune in fine furniture in a self-storage locker and then drop your insurance?”
    “I told you, I couldn’t afford it.”
    Leila jumped to her feet. “Why on earth did you buy it in the first place?”
    “Yes,” Tamsyn demanded. “Why buy a lot