Flash

around.
    "This has gone far enough," Jasper said quietly. "You're drunk, Haggard. It's time you left the party."
    Dixon's enraged eyes widened in the darkness. "You stupid sonofabitch. I figured you were screwing Olivia because you intended to screw her out of Glow, Inc. But I had it backward, didn't I?"
    "I'm warning you, Haggard."
    Dixon uttered a shrill bark of laughter. "She's the one screwing you, isn't she? That's what this is all about. She's setting you up the same way she set up Logan Dane. Be careful you don't get a sudden urge to run with the bulls in Pamplona. Or maybe take a dive off a tall building?"
    Jasper slammed Dixon up against the wall with enough force to make the boards shudder. He pinned him there and lowered his voice to a whisper.
    "One more word out of you, Haggard, and I will throw you off the edge of this balcony. It's not a real tall building, and you're drunk, which means you'll probably land softly. I bet you'll only break a leg or two."
    Dixon scowled, eyes bleary with alcohol and rage. "Let me go. I'll have you arrested."
    Jasper smiled slowly. "That will look great in the papers, won't it? I can see it now. LANCASTER CAMPAIGN MANAGER IN DRUNKEN BRAWL."
    Dixon blinked rapidly and seemed to sag. Jasper drought he saw a flicker of common sense surface somewhere in the blurred gaze. Or was it fear?
    Olivia appeared in the doorway. The light in the hallway behind her enveloped her in an ethereal blue glow. But there was nothing otherworldly about the expression that snapped in her eyes.
    Jasper wondered what had brought her out onto the veranda. Unerring instincts for avoiding potential disaster at Light Fantastic productions, no doubt.
    She glanced at Todd and then peered into the shadows where Jasper still held Dixon against the wall.
    "Is there a problem?" she asked crisply.
    "No, ma'am." Jasper gave her a bland smile and took a firm grip on Dixon. "Haggard, here, was just leaving. Had a little too much champagne. Todd and I are going to help him into a cab. Isn't that right, Todd?"
    "Right" Todd moved with gratifying speed. He took Dixon's other arm and gave Jasper a knowing, appreciative, man-to-man look.
    Jasper wondered if he and Todd had suddenly developed one of those male bonds he'd heard about.
    Together they got the silent, subdued Dixon down the back stairs and out to the sweeping drive, where a line of cabs waited.
    Haggard did not protest when they stuffed him into a taxi. Jasper slammed the door and stepped back. He stood with Todd and watched the vehicle's taillights disappear down the driveway.
    "I think, in his own weird way, he loves her," Todd said eventually.
    Jasper looked at him. "What about you? Did you love her?"
    "I guess not. I can't say I'm really torn up or anything. Mostly what I feel is a sense of relief, if you want to know the truth. Hell, I should have gotten out weeks ago."
    "You mean when Olivia first warned you not to get personally involved with Lancaster?"
    "No." Todd frowned in surprise. "When Uncle Rollie told me that I ought to steer clear of the Lancaster campaign."
    Jasper went cold. "Rollie told you to stay away from the Lancaster campaign?"
    "It was the last piece of advice he ever gave me. The very next day he and Wilbur left on that photo safari."
    Jasper could have sworn that somewhere in the distance he could hear the ominous grinding sound of a steel trap closing.
    "Damn," he said very softly. "I should have thought of that."

24
    « ^ »
    O livia waited until the elevator door closed behind Jasper and Silas. When they were safely on their way to the fourth floor of the storage facility to check out Jasper's phony complaint about a water leak near locker four-ninety, she went into action.
    She slipped into the small office and hurried to the rotary file that contained the names of people who had rented lockers at Pri-Con Self-Storage. She flipped through the cards until she hit the
G's
.
    Melwood Gill had to be in the file, she thought. If she could not find a locker registered in his name, the search was at a dead end.
    It was only five minutes after eight. Her car was the only one parked in the tiny lot. She was still surprised by how swiftly Jasper had agreed to the scheme she had concocted to search Silas's files. She had expected him to argue that it was too risky.
    It was another measure of the heightened urgency she sensed in him, she thought. She had first noticed it after the Camelot Blue event had ended. It was as if whatever