Flash

don't think Silas will see that hat as proof that there was someone besides me up here this morning. It could have been dropped on the floor days ago."
    Jasper glanced up. "Kind of a coincidence that it ended up beneath the casters on that platform truck."
    "Yes, it is."
    "Hey, down there," Silas yelled. "You folks about finished? I gotta get back to work."
    "We're through," Jasper called. "You can go downstairs now."
    "About time."
    The stairwell door opened and closed. Silence descended.
    Olivia's eyes widened. "I never got a chance to open Uncle Rollie's locker."
    "We'll do it now."
    "It's in the last aisle. Number four-ninety." Olivia looked down at her side. "Oh, damn."
    "What?"
    She whirled and dashed around the corner. "I just realized I dropped my purse and the pouch full of keys back there."
    Jasper went after her. He found her in the last aisle, bending over to pick up a shoulder bag and the key pouch. She straightened and turned toward him, a relieved expression on her face.
    "They're both still here."
    Jasper looked at the shiny padlock on locker four-ninety. "Doesn't look like it's been there very long."
    "I know. Maybe Uncle Rollie installed a new one before he left on his trip."
    In the end none of the keys in Olivia's pouch fit. Jasper went back downstairs to the Jeep and got his tools.
    It did not take long to cut off the small padlock on locker four-ninety.
    Olivia looked inside when the door swung open. Dismay replaced the anticipation that had gleamed in her eyes.
    "It's empty," she said.

    "I don't understand it." Olivia paced back across her living room, arms crossed, shoulders hunched. "Why keep an empty locker?"
    "Who knows?" Jasper lounged against the sofa and watched her pace. He could feel the cold anger moving through him. "Maybe Rollie cleaned it out before he left on vacation."
    She turned and started back across the room. "Why keep the locker, in that case?"
    "He may have planned to move something else into it when he returned. After all, he'd paid for a year's rent."
    Olivia threw up her hands. "It makes no sense."
    He looked at her. "You shouldn't have gone to the storage facility without me today."
    That brought her to an abrupt halt. She turned, frowning. "What on earth are you going on about that for?"
    "You had no business trying to get into that locker alone," he said very evenly.
    "What's the big deal?" She waved her hands. "My morning was clear, yours wasn't. Then my afternoon got crowded. I knew I wouldn't be able to get away later. It made perfect sense for me to run down to Pri-Con to take a quick look."
    "You call that an example of good sense?" Jasper got to his feet. He walked toward her. "What if that jerk who turned out the lights was doing more than playing games with you? What if you hadn't gotten lucky with the platform truck?"
    Her eyes narrowed. "You've got no right to lose your temper with me. I made a perfectly reasonable executive decision under the circumstances."
    "Reasonable?" He stopped directly in front of her and lowered his voice still further. "Who knows what that guy intended?"
    Olivia's head came up swiftly. "Don't you dare use that tone with me. Let me remind you that this blackmailer has targeted my family. When you get right down to it, this is my problem, not yours."
    "No."
    She gave him a ferocious glare. "What do you mean by that?"
    "I mean," he said very quietly, "that this is no longer just your problem."
    "What are you saying?"
    "I found a blackmail note waiting for me this morning on the front seat of my Jeep."
    For a few beats she did not seem to comprehend. Then understanding flashed in her eyes.
    "Oh, my God," she whispered. "But what—?"
    Jasper said nothing. He watched her intelligent face as she made the connections.
    "I see." She turned away and sank down slowly onto the tiled window seat. She pressed her knees together and clasped her hands on top of them.
    "There goes our theory that the blackmailer is using information from Uncle Rollie's files," she said eventually.
    "Not necessarily."
    She glanced sharply at him. "Why do you say that?"
    Jasper went to stand at the bank of windows that looked out over the Space Needle. "Rollie and I had similar approaches to business. I told you, I had him thoroughly checked out before I did the deal. He probably did some serious checking into my background before he signed that contract with me."
    "So?"
    "It's just barely possible," Jasper said, "that he stumbled across something."
    "Whatever it