Smoke in Mirrors

mathematics?”
    “That algorithm made Kern wealthy. Maybe she tried to blackmail him.”
    “Huh.” Thomas slowed a little to compensate for the heavy rain and the gathering darkness. “Okay, I can see her trying a little blackmail and getting killed for her trouble. But that still doesn’t explain Alex Rhodes’s connection to this thing. Or the rumors of drugs.”
    Leonora fell silent.
    They were on Cliff Drive now. Thomas slowed somemore to compensate for the poor visibility. Down below the bluffs the cold, deep waters of the Sound swirled in the darkness.
    Lights glared suddenly in the rearview mirror. A car, coming up fast from behind. The lights disappeared when Thomas went into the next curve.
    “You know, Rhodes has been in town for about a year,” Thomas said. “Who knows what information he might have picked up from one of his clients? Margaret Lewis and Andrew Grayson can’t be the only two people who had some suspicions about the Eubanks murder.”
    “Are you thinking that Alex figured out that Kern murdered Eubanks?” She considered that. “If he did, he might be blackmailing Kern. Maybe he killed Bethany and Meredith when they got too close to the truth to protect his investment.”
    “There’s a certain logic to that scenario.”
    The lights hit the mirror again, this time with dazzling intensity. He adjusted the glass to deflect the undimmed glare. It didn’t do much good. The big vehicle was closing the distance.
    He was getting that weird, hair-lifting-on-the-back-of-his-neck feeling again. He wondered if he was starting to get paranoid.
    “What a mess,” Leonora said. “We’ll never be able to prove anything.”
    “I don’t know about that.” He checked the mirror again. The car behind him was definitely closer. “Might be some possibilities. Blackmail payments are nothing more than simple financial transactions when you get right down to it. And money always leaves a trail.”
    “But how would we find it?”
    “Remember that laptop we saw on Rhodes’s desk the day we did our little B and E job at his place? Deke might be able to coax something useful out of that sucker.”

    “You’re going to go back inside Alex’s house?” Alarm sharpened her voice. “Thomas, no. My instincts tell me that is not a good idea. Not now. This is getting much too dangerous. We need to talk to Ed Stovall—”
    Lights struck the side mirror. Thomas stopped listening to Leonora.
    The vehicle that had been closing the distance from behind was pulling out to pass.
    “Shit,” Thomas said softly.
    Leonora broke off abruptly and whipped around in her seat. “Oh, my God. No one but a drunk or a homicidal maniac would attempt to pass here, especially in this rain.”
    “Personally,” Thomas said, “I’m going with homicidal maniac.”
    She looked at him. “What?”
    He did not respond. They were heading into the very short stretch of straight pavement that ran along the highest point of Cliff Drive.
    If it was going to happen, it would happen here, he thought.
    The lights in the rearview mirror were as bright as the noonday sun. He did not look at them, but out of the corner of his eye he could detect the bulk of the vehicle coming up on his left.
    “Check your seat belt. Make sure it’s tight.”
    He did not wait to see if Leonora obeyed. Time had run out. He hit the brakes, feeling for that magical place between a controlled stop and a disastrous skid that would send them over the side.
    The dark vehicle on the left swerved violently toward the SUV’s fender, a metal shark swooping out of the night seeking a single, fatal bite.
    The sudden deceleration of its prey caught it by surprise. The snapping jaws missed by a heartbeat. Itswerved. For an instant Thomas thought the vehicle might go through the guardrail. It fishtailed wildly. But at the last possible instant the driver managed to recover control.
    Thomas caught a glimpse of a black SUV. He watched the taillights disappear around the next curve.
    For a few time-warped seconds that felt like an eternity, neither he nor Leonora said a word. They both looked straight ahead to the point where the other car had vanished.
    Eventually Leonora turned to him.
    “Is this the place?” she whispered.
    “Yes.” He accelerated deliberately. “This is the place where Bethany jumped.”

    Two hours later , Thomas sat in the front seat with Deke. They were parked in the trees behind the abandoned cottage, not far from Alex Rhodes’s