Hidden Talents

married, and raised a family. And prospered. And nursed your grudge. And then one day you got a phone call telling you that history was about to repeat itself.”
    “I did what I had to do. It was my duty to prevent you from humiliating all of us the way your father had. I did it for the sake of the family.”
    “I don't think that was why you did it at all, Franklin.” Caleb met Serenity's gentle, sympathetic eyes. “I think you did it because you wanted plain, old-fashioned revenge.”
    “What the hell do you mean by that?”
    “I wasn't Gordon, the cousin you had resented all of your life, but I was his son. That was close enough, wasn't it? You transferred your resentment of my father to me. And when you got the call telling you that there were nude photos of a woman with whom I was having an affair, you jumped at the opportunity to avenge yourself on me.”
    “No, it wasn't like that.”
    “I think it was exactly like that,” Caleb said wearily. “You wanted to make certain that I didn't find what my father found for a while, what you yourself had never found.”
    “What was that, damn you?”
    “Happiness.”

19

    I ' VE BEEN THINKING ,” S ERENITY SAID THE FOLLOWING EVE ning as she went about preparing dinner. “That man Zone thought she saw in the fog the night Ambrose died must have been Firebrace. We assumed it was Royce Kincaid come to terrorize her, but Kincaid himself said he'd only appeared once at her window.”
    “You're right.” Caleb concentrated on the bottle of wine he was in the process of opening. “It was probably Firebrace. Based on what he told the cops, the timing fits. And the car that Blade heard driving down the road shortly after midnight must have been his.”
    “Jessie told us she had left around eleven.” Serenity selected a knife from the kitchen drawer and went to work on a pile of vegetables for the curry dish she had planned. She only bothered with the elaborate dish, which required a wide variety of exotic spices, on occasions when she was expecting company.
    The rice was cooking in the steamer, and a row of small condiment bowls containing chopped peanuts, raisins, chutney, chives, candied ginger, and coconut sat ready on the counter. She had made Caleb stop at a wine shop to select a couple of bottles of expensive chardonnay before they drove back to Witt's End this morning. They had spent the night in Seattle because the interview with the police took most of the afternoon.
    Serenity surreptitiously glanced at the clock for the fifth time in the past twenty minutes. Dinner would be ready in half an hour, and there was still no sign of Roland Ventress. She was trying to maintain an outwardly calm facade, but her insides were starting to twist themselves into knots. She had been so certain he would come.
    Caleb was in his full stoic mode, acting as if nothing at all was out of the ordinary. He was calm, cool, and in control, as usual. He was not sneaking glances at his watch, as far as Serenity could tell. He hadn't mentioned the possibility of his grandfather arriving for dinner. It was as if he didn't even recall that the invitation had been issued.
    But then, Caleb's expectations had been much lower from the start, Serenity reminded herself. Close to zero, most likely. He had never believed that his grandfather would come.
    She, however, had convinced herself that Roland would take advantage of the excuse she'd provided him to salvage his relationship with his grandson. She was counting on Roland being too smart to repeat the errors of the past.
    The table had not yet been set. Serenity dreaded doing so because then she would be forced to make the decision regarding the number of plates. She could not bring herself to put out only two plates tonight. But she also knew that it would be far worse to set the table for three and have one place setting remain unused. It would be like having a ghost for dinner.
    “Are you going to tell your grandfather about what really happened to your parents?” Serenity asked as she attacked a potato with her knife.
    “Most of it. He deserves to know the truth.”
    Serenity looked up as Caleb poured the wine into two glasses. His face was carved in stone, his eyes unreadable. He was waiting, too, she suddenly realized—listening for the sound of a car in the drive; wondering if there would be a knock on the door.
    Waiting, but expecting nothing. He was good at this kind of thing, she thought. But then, he'd had a lot of