Grand Passion

means to you. I don't like the sound of this fire. A little too coincidental.”
    “That's what Max said.”
    “Max is on his way to the cove now?”
    “Yes.”
    “Good. You stay put, Cleo. Don't step foot outside the inn until he gets back.”
    Cleo gave up trying to argue. “All right. I'll go downstairs and wake Sylvia. She and I and Sammy will circle the wagons and wait for the men to do their thing.”
    “I'll be there in another hour or so.” O'Reilly paused briefly. “Tell Sylvia I'm on my way, will you?”
    “She'll be waiting for you. We'll all be waiting.”
    “That's nice to know,” O'Reilly said. “Been a long time since I had anyone waiting for me. Listen, I've got to get off the phone now. I'm going to call your police chief. I want to let him know what's going on.”
    “We've only got a one-man force, O'Reilly. Harry will be out at Cosmic Harmony right now.”
    “Hell, that's the trouble with small towns. Okay, sit tight. Max and I will handle everything.”
    Cleo put down the phone.
    Her parents had been killed. Murdered. Shot by a cold-blooded hit man.
    But all she felt was relief.
    As horrible as the truth was, it was infinitely preferable to the explanation that the authorities had insisted upon all these years. Her father had not gone mad and killed her mother and himself. Her parents' love for each other had not been tainted by a foul sickness in her father's mind. The bond between them had been pure and clean, wholesome and steadfast. Just like her love for Max.
    In spite of the situation, Cleo felt as if a dark weight had been lifted from her soul.
    She rose slowly and started for the door. She wanted to talk to Sylvia.
    The flames in the distance caught her attention once more. She paused to glance out the window. It was impossible to tell if it was the main lodge that was on fire or one of the smaller buildings.
    The hall floorboard squeaked.
    Cleo went perfectly still.
    I have a reputation to maintain .
    Her own words to Sylvia a few hours earlier came back to her. Does it strike you that Max and Herbert T. Valence have something in common ?
    A reputation.
    A reputation .
    Cleo leaped for the door. It opened before she could lock it. Herbert T. Valence stepped into the room. He had a pistol in his hand. There was something odd about the shape of the barrel, Cleo realized. Perhaps that was what a silencer looked like.
    “Well, Ms. Robbins.” Valence smiled his thin, humorless little smile. “We meet properly at last. Allow me to introduce myself. My real name is Emile Wynn. Perhaps you've heard of me. Your father ruined me professionally.”
    Cleo tried to speak and realized that she could not find her voice. She took a deep breath, the same kind she took when she meditated. She had to say something, anything, in order to break the paralysis.
    “You bastard.” Her voice was only a squeak. But rage swept through her without warning, driving out the fear. “ You killed my parents .”
    Valence frowned as he closed the door behind himself. “I had no choice. Your father's testimony destroyed my reputation. I could not rest until he had paid for it. A man's reputation is everything, Ms. Robbins.”
    “My mother…,” Cleo began in a choked voice.
    “Had to go, too, I'm afraid. I plan my little dramas with exquisite care, and I had determined that a murder-suicide seemed most appropriate for that particular situation.”
    “You've come after me because you knew I'd find you sooner or later,” Cleo said.
    Valence looked at her with a strangely troubled gaze. “You hired a second-rate investigator last summer. He was a very unprofessional sort, Ms. Robbins. I realized almost immediately that he was nosing around, and I took appropriate steps. But I also knew then that I had to do something about you.”
    “In other words, you knew I might decide to hire someone else, and next time I might get my money's worth.” Cleo took a step back.
    Valence did not appear to know that O'Reilly had already learned who he was. Whatever happened here tonight, she must not betray O'Reilly or Max. Valence would surely go after them next.
    “Unfortunately it became clear that you were going to be a nuisance, Ms. Robbins.” Valence followed her movement with the pistol. “But I must confess that one thing puzzled me. If you had suspicions about your parents' death, why did you wait nearly four years before you hired an investigator?”
    “It took me all that time to recover to a point