Hidden Talents

with a thundering clatter. The crash of metal and glass seemed to go on forever before a stark silence fell on the black-and-white room.
    Serenity looked at Firebrace's motionless body for a shocked instant. She whirled and ran toward Caleb. He opened his arms and caught her close.
    “I was right,” she whispered against his jacket. “You did have Webster's rock in your pocket.”
    “You mean I had Webster's unique, one-of-a-kind, hand-selected, genuine Witt's End paperweight in my pocket,” Caleb said. “Remind me to make room for his innovative new product in the catalog. No home should be without one.”
    Serenity made an odd sound and clung even more tightly to Caleb. “Webster will be thrilled.”
    Firebrace groaned.
    Caleb released Serenity and walked across the room to where the photographer lay on the floor. Firebrace's lashes fluttered and then opened. He looked up with a dazed expression.
    “You'd better find a phone and call 911,” Caleb said to Serenity.
    “I think I saw a phone out on the counter.” She started toward the swinging door. “This is going to be a real mess to explain to the cops.”
    “I'll take care of it.”
    “Yes, I know,” Serenity said softly. “You're good at that kind of thing.” She went through the door.
    “It wasn't supposed to end like this,” Firebrace muttered thickly. He gazed up at the picture of Crystal Brooke on the ceiling. “She wasn't supposed to be in the car.”
    A chill went through Caleb. He went down on one knee beside Firebrace. “Who wasn't supposed to be in the car?”
    “Crystal.” Firebrace stared blindly at the huge photo of Crystal's face. “I loved her. I didn't want her to die. Only Ventress was supposed to be in the car when the brakes failed. Only Ventress and the baby.”
    “You son of a bitch,” Caleb whispered. “You killed them both, didn't you?”
    “Cost me a thousand dollars to bribe the mechanic. But it didn't work. She died, too.” Firebrace's eyes filled with tears as he gazed up at Crystal Brooke's face. “Why doesn't anything ever go right for me?”

    Caleb waited until much later that evening to make the call to Franklin.
    “Just tell me one thing.” Caleb tightened his grip around the hotel room phone. “Why did you do it?”
    “You don't understand,” Franklin said in a defeated voice. “Gordon always got the best of everything. He even got Patricia. But she didn't love him. She never loved him. She married him for his money. Her family insisted on it. The Clarewood fortune had all but disappeared because of a series of bad investments.”
    “So she married my father?”
    “She called him a rude, unsophisticated cowboy,” Franklin said. “She told me she couldn't stand to get into the same bed with him. She hated his hands on her. She hated Ventress Valley just as much as she hated Gordon.”
    “She turned to you for consolation, didn't she?” Caleb leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. He was aware of Serenity watching him quietly from the other side of the room. “And you encouraged her.”
    “I loved her,” Franklin said fiercely. “I admit that at first I wanted her just because she belonged to Gordon. But I fell in love with her. I thought, after the scandal broke, that we would marry.”
    “Instead, she went back to Boston.”
    “It was Gordon's fault,” Franklin whispered. “Everything was his fault. Patricia had to leave after he died. She said that if she married me, Roland would turn on me. She said he would blame me for seducing her. Accuse me of causing problems in her marriage. She said he would cut me off from the Ventress money.”
    “And you knew that was probably exactly what would have happened, didn't you?”
    “Roland went a little crazy after Gordon died. He would have vented his rage on any available target. We knew that. Patricia didn't want me to suffer, she said. Said it would be better if we never saw each other again.”
    “You kept quiet about your affair with Patricia and she left town.”
    “Patricia was right. It was for the best. There's no telling what Roland would have done if he'd discovered our affair. But I did love her. You've got to understand that.”
    “Not enough to risk my grandfather's anger.”
    “For God's sake, I couldn't. There was too much money involved. And the family name. Gordon had already done enough damage. I had a duty to avoid any more scandal.”
    “You did your duty, is that it? You stayed in Ventress Valley,