Midnight Jewels

You'll do as I say. Follow my lead. We'll sort it all out later." He released her as the sheriff's boot sounded on the step outside. "Get hold of yourself and stop looking as though you've just seen a ghost."
    Mercy could have cheerfully used the nearest lamp on his arrogant head, but it was too late to attempt anything so satisfying. The sheriff was walking through the office door and Croft was turning to face him.
    Mercy watched Croft move toward the other man and decided resentfully that she had every right to look as though she'd just seen a ghost. The fathomless cold that lay beneath the surface of Croft's eyes surely had its origin in some spectral dimension.
    Mercy sat stiffly on the edge of her motel room bed and watched Croft as he came through the door with the wrapped volume of
Valley of Secret Jewels
. The sheriff had departed a few minutes earlier and the still unconscious clerk had been taken off in an ambulance.
    "All right," Mercy began aggressively as Croft shut her door, "so you do have
Valley
safe and sound. That only opens up more questions than it answers." She reached imperiously for the book.
    He handed the package to her, raising his eyebrows in a faintly quizzical rebuke as she snatched it from him and tore open the tape on one end to check the contents. "Thank you for letting me handle the sheriff."
    "Ha. Don't thank me. You terrorized me into cooperating with you." She slid
Valley
far enough out of its wrapper to be certain it was the right book and then began to carefully reseal the package. "You should be ashamed of yourself. You have no right to traumatize innocent people that way."
    "I didn't terrorize you."
    "Yes, you did. And I won't stand for it again, is that perfectly clear, Croft?" She gave him a vengeful look from between narrowed eyes.
    For the first time that evening a slight smile touched his mourn. "If you'd been totally traumatized an hour and a half ago you wouldn't be sitting there ranting and raving at me now."
    "I am not ranting and raving."
    "You're not exactly cringing."
    "Of course I'm not cringing. I'm furious."
    "Then whatever terrorizing effect I had on you must have been short-lived."
    "I have decided," Mercy told him with fine hauteur, "to give you a chance to explain yourself in private."
    "Thank you."
    "Don't try to sound humble. It doesn't work. Now tell me the exact truth. I don't want the Mickey Mouse version you gave the sheriff."
    Croft glowered at her. "What I told the sheriff was the truth. I went down to the motel office a few hours ago and got
Valley
out of the safe. I didn't trust the desk clerk not to get bored enough or curious enough not to try to see what was inside the package."
    "Tell me honestly, Croft, is the desk clerk going to remember any of this?"
    "No. He'd been through a whole bottle by the time I knocked on the door. He won't remember a thing. If the amount of booze he'd consumed hadn't wiped out his memory, the concussion he got later would have done the trick. Just as I told the sheriff."
    "Apparently he was functioning well enough to give you the combination to the safe and let you open it yourself," Mercy pointed out. "At least, that's what you implied to the sheriff."
    "It's close enough to the truth." Croft shrugged.
    Mercy's eyes widened. "The clerk didn't give you the combination?"
    "Let's just say he conveniently left it lying around."
    "Damn it, Croft, I want the whole truth."
    "All right. The man was already passed out on the cot by the time I got there. Dead to the world. I tried to shake him awake and couldn't. I found the combination in a desk drawer in the office. You'd be amazed how many people keep computer access codes, safe combinations and important phone numbers taped conveniently at hand. I opened the safe myself and removed
Valley
. I took it back to my room and went to bed. End of tale."
    "Why do I always find myself believing you even when you tell me the most incredible stories?"
    Croft lowered himself into the single chair in the room. "Beats me. Must be my natural charm."
    "I can think of another name for it," she murmured, remembering the frightening willpower that had poured out of him when he had been attempting to force her cooperation. "Why were you so intent on convincing the sheriff that the thief wasn't after
Valley
?"
    "I didn't have to work very hard at that. The sheriff came to that conclusion on his own. After all, whoever opened the safe a second time also broke into the coffee shop, lifted a