by Lena Gregory
“I’ve already apologized for the other night.”
“Indeed.” Olivia clammed up, her lips pressed into a tight line.
Cass rolled the line of pencils back and forth, searching for calm. She needed to focus. She lifted another pencil. Green. The color of greed. And envy. “Green is the color of nature. It can be a color of healing and peace.”
Olivia leaned toward her and lowered her voice to a whisper. “So, what? I’m supposed to be at peace? What do I need to heal from? Convenient, if you ask me, that you should first cause me grief and then tell me I’m supposed to heal and be at peace. Is it also a color of forgiveness? Perhaps you think I should forgive you for humiliating me in public?”
Heat flared in Cass’s face, burned her cheeks. Sweat popped out on her forehead and chest. Darkness crept into her peripheral vision, narrowing her focus to just Olivia. “Look, I—”
“No, you look.” Olivia stood and rounded the table. She leaned over Cass’s shoulder and whispered in her ear, “You’re falling right into his master plan, following along like a puppet, as if you’d read the script. He’s right, you know? He does know you. He should have come back to Bay Island to deal with you long ago.”
Cass sucked hard to get air into her lungs, despite the crushing pressure. Come back? Who was she talking about? Malcolm? Jay? Bruce Brinkman? Darkness descended, slid across her vision, dark, oily, evil. “Be careful.”
“Of what?” Olivia laughed. “You?”
Cass didn’t know, and even if she did, she wouldn’t have been able to get the words out to warn her. She couldn’t get enough air. “I’m afraid you’re in danger.”
“Want a piece of advice?” She laughed, a cold, devious sound, meant to intimidate. “You’re the one who needs to be careful.”
Cass jerked to her feet, tipping the chair back.
Olivia caught it before it could hit the floor. She smiled, pulled a wad of bills from her purse, and threw a few on the table. Then she grabbed the paper Cass had colored on, folded it, and stuffed it into her purse. “Thanks for the reading.”
The click-clack of her high heels against the wood floor followed her to the door. The wind chimes tinkled as the door opened. “Why, thank you, handsome.”
“Any time, ma’am.”
Luke’s slow drawl ripped Cass from the trance, and she whirled around.
He crossed the shop, gripped both of her arms and gave her a quick peck on the cheek. “Hello, beautiful.”
“I . . . uh . . .” She had to get a grip.
Luke stared into her eyes and frowned. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, though she had no idea if she was. She resisted the urge to tell Luke to run after Olivia. What had she really done? Nothing illegal, for sure. She hadn’t made any outright threats. What could Luke do? He couldn’t arrest her. He might be able to detain her for questioning, but on what grounds?
What had she said? It’s all part of his master plan? Whose? Aiden’s? If so, it had been Cass’s own fault for embarrassing him. And her. But Aiden had never left Bay Island, as far as Cass knew. Who had come back? Malcolm King, who blamed her for his incarceration? Jay Callahan? Though it wasn’t her fault either of them had chosen a life of crime, they definitely blamed her for bringing it to the attention of the police. What about Bruce Brinkman, who by all accounts had come back to Bay Island before his father was killed? What grudge could he have against Cass?
Either way, the shadow that had crossed her vision had been real, and every other time a shadow had appeared during a reading, a death had soon followed. Someone close to Olivia Wells was going to die. Cass had to warn her. She’d tried, but she’d been caught too off-guard by the whole incident. She’d have to try harder. Later. When she and Bee went to the hotel, she’d ask Elaina to check and see if Ms. Wells was a guest. If she was, Cass would give it one more shot. She wouldn’t be able to live with the guilt if she didn’t and something happened to her or someone close to her.
“Cass?” Luke shook her gently, and she realized he was still holding her arms and staring at her. “Are you all right? You’re shaking and you look pale.”
Cass summoned a smile. She barely got to see Luke, she certainly wasn’t about to ruin their time together with this nonsense. “I’m sorry, just distracted.”
“Cass?” His tone held a note of warning.
“It’s fine, Luke. Can you give me a few minutes to take care of my customers?”
“Go ahead.” He released her and stepped back. “But don’t think this conversation is over.”
She grinned at him. “My dear, you sound suspiciously like Bee.”
Luke laughed out loud, a deep rich baritone that slid through Cass like warm honey.
“I’ll be right back.” She crossed the shop and approached the young couple. “I’m sorry for taking so long.”
“Oh, don’t worry about it,” the woman answered. “I love browsing in your shop. You have so many fun things.”
“Thank you.” She held out a hand and introduced herself properly.
“It’s nice to meet you, Cass. I’m Kyleigh, and this is my boyfriend, Wade.” She gestured toward her companion and giggled.
A new romance, still in the fireworks stage, not quite completely comfortable with each other yet.
“Nice to meet you both. How can I help you today?”
“I already chose a few things I just have to have and put them on the counter by the register. I hope that’s okay?”
“Of course.”
“Also, I was wondering . . .” She hesitated, and red blotches dotted her cheeks. “We are having a family reunion on Bay Island next weekend, and I was wondering if you do private group readings. I attended a couple of your group readings last year, and I’d love to do one for just my family.”
“Sure. I could do that.” She often did both small and large private groups. “How many people?”
She sucked in her top lip and closed her eyes for a minute. “I guess around fifty. And some of them are children. Is that okay? You know, to bring kids with us? We don’t know anyone on Bay Island who could babysit.”
“You can bring them if you’d like.” Jess Ryan, Sara’s daughter, was always looking for babysitting jobs, and she was amazing with kids. “If you’re comfortable, I know a girl who could watch them down here while we do the reading upstairs. That way, everyone can fully participate and the kids won’t be bored.”
“We could do that?”
“Sure.”
“That would be perfect. Can I schedule it now?”
“No problem.” Cass grabbed her appointment book from beneath the counter and scheduled the reading for the following weekend, grateful for the upstairs room. Without it, she’d never have been able to accommodate fifty people.
Luke helped himself to coffee and took a seat at the table while she rang up a couple of gift baskets for the couple.
“Thank you so much,” the woman gushed. “This is going to be so amazing. I can’t wait for everyone to get to see you in person. I’ve told them all so much about you and how accurate you are.”
“Thank you.” Apparently she’d made an impression on her, but try as she might, Cass couldn’t remember her. “I’m looking forward to it. And if you’d like to make a night of it, you are welcome to have it catered too. Bella’s on the Bay is amazing. They cater all of my group readings.”
“Oh, that would be perfect.”
Cass wrote the appointment time on the back of a business card and handed it to Kyleigh, along with one of Isabella Trapani’s catering cards. She always tried to support other Bay Island businesses, and Bella was also a friend. She walked Kyleigh and Wade to the door and said goodbye, feeling better than she had in days. Repeat customers who loved attending her readings always made her feel good, but today she’d really needed the boost. Smiling, she closed the door and turned, and ran smack into Luke’s broad chest.
He caught her arms and pulled her close. “I sure hope that smile’s for me.”
Her heart stuttered. Darn him. He always managed to send her pulse racing, even when she was determined not to melt into a puddle at his thick Southern drawl.
She laced her hands together behind his neck and kissed him. “I always have a smile for you, but I don’t think you came in for my smile, or for that kiss.”
“It was a very nice kiss.” He traced a finger along the side of her cheek, down her jaw.
“Mm-hmm . . .”
He stepped back and released her, to her disappointment. “But you’re right.”
“I usually am.”
He laughed. “Who sounds like Bee now?”
“Yikes!” That was all she needed. “So, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?”
“Can you sit for a few minutes?”
“Sure.” She led him to a small seating arrangement and sat beside him on the couch. When he rested his arm along the back of the couch behind her, she snuggled closer and laid her head against his shoulder, only for a minute. It would look totally unprofessional for a customer to walk in and find her snuggling with her boyfriend on the couch. If only they could find more time to sit together like this outside of work. After a moment or two of indulgence, she straightened and turned to face him. “What’s up?”
“I spoke to prison officials upstate first thing this morning, and according to them, Malcolm King was a model prisoner.”
“So that’s a dead end?”
“Not completely. According to their records, he used to have a regular visitor, said she was his sister and provided a New York State driver’s license as ID.”
“Why do I sense there’s more to that story?”
“The driver’s license turned out to be a well-done forgery, which they apparently didn’t realize until I called to question them. Ironically, once the DMV changed their driver’s licenses, the woman stopped coming.”
He stood and pulled a folded piece of paper out of his shirt pocket and handed it to her. “Does she look familiar?”
The woman’s dark hair hung long and limp in front of her shoulders, plastered close to her head. Something seemed vaguely familiar about her, but it could just be she had one of those faces people thought they recognized. She read the name on the copy of her driver’s license. “Connie Smith. Is that her real name?”
“I doubt it, but I just started searching, so we’ll see. There is no record of her that I’ve been able to find so far.”
Cass handed the picture back to him. “I don’t remember going to school with a Connie Smith, or any Connie, to be honest.”
“We’ve already requested records from several local agencies, but I’m not optimistic.”
“Is it still possible that’s her real name?”
He paced, only stopping long enough to grab his coffee mug from the table. “It could be, but it’s not likely, and I find it strange she’d stop coming once the licenses changed. Could be she wasn’t able to obtain a forgery of the newer, more secure document.”
“Or it’s possible something happened between them, a falling out maybe?”
He nodded and sipped his coffee while he paced. “She could have passed away too, or moved. We just don’t have enough information yet. On another note, when I looked into Malcolm’s original conviction, it turns out he had a partner in crime, a friend he swore was with him the night he robbed that mansion, though the friend denied being there, and no witnesses ever came forward to corroborate his testimony.”
“Oh?” Cass didn’t remember seeing anyone with Malcolm or anywhere else in the area that day, but the weather had been awful. It was very possible she’d missed someone. “Who was that?”
“Dirk Brinkman.”
Chapter Twenty
Cass reeled. Dirk had been friends with Malcolm? Had possibly gotten away with something Malcolm had gone to prison for? “Are you serious?”
He shrugged. “We can’t connect them in any way, other than Malcolm’s statement, so I have people trying to look into it. In the meantime, I paid Aiden Hargrove and his brother, Blake, a visit.”
“You talked to Aiden’s brother?” Cass had specifically told Luke she didn’t want to press charges for the incident in the shop. “You didn’t arrest him, did you?”
He rolled his eyes. “No, I didn’t. Not that I agree with your decision not to press charges, but I do respect your wishes.”
Cass already shouldered enough responsibility for the incident with Aiden, she didn’t need any more. She wasn’t about to ruin his brother’s life by saddling him with a permanent criminal record. “What did they have to say?”
Luke sat in one of the armchairs across from her, set his coffee mug on a coaster on the coffee table between them, and rested his elbows on his knees. “Tough guy wasn’t as intimidating once he was face-to-face with a detective.”
A small niggle of compassion for Hargrove tried to surface, but she tamped it down. She couldn’t blame Luke for being angry, and if Blake and his buddies showed up again, it would be a different story, but for now, Luke would have to understand. “Did he admit what he did?”
“Yeah, and he agreed to pay for the damage.” He stared at her, daring her to argue.
She simply nodded. “That sounds fair. And what about Aiden? You said you questioned him too?”
“Yeah. He says he didn’t know anything.”
That didn’t surprise her.
“He was lying.”
That surprised her even less. “Do you think he had anything to do with Dirk’s death?”
Luke raked a hand through his thick dark hair, leaving a small tuft sticking up on the side. “His brother gave him an alibi.”
“Do you believe it?”
“No reason not to, but I don’t know. Aiden says he was upset when he left here that night, got into a fight with his date, and went to his brother’s for a drink. Is it possible? Sure.”
“But also convenient.”
“It would have been better for him if they’d gone to one of the bars.”
The fact he had only one witness to his whereabouts, a witness who had gone to bat for him once already . . . Wait. Bat. Stephanie had said they’d found a bat, but Tank had told her that in confidence. “Do you know how Dirk was killed?”
A smile played at the corner of his mouth.
Maybe that hadn’t sounded as innocent as she’d hoped.
The hint of a smile quickly disappeared. “We found a baseball bat at the scene. It’s been confirmed as the murder weapon.”
If they could figure out who the bat belonged to, maybe Emmett would go free. “Do you know whose it is?”
“It belongs to Emmett, and his are the only fingerprints we found on it.”
Her stomach turned over, and acid bubbled up her throat. “What did Emmett say?”
Luke shrugged. “Says he uses it to hit balls for the dogs to chase when he’s not busy.”
That made sense. Emmett had been very athletic growing up, had played all kinds of sports, but his son Joey didn’t share his athletic ability or interest. “Do you believe him?”
He spread his hands wide then dropped them into his lap. “I don’t really know what to think, Cass. I’m trying to believe him, and he will remain innocent in my eyes until something definitive proves otherwise, but it’s not looking good.”
“Maybe I could—”
“No. I mean it, Cass, you have to stay out of this. I’m worried you’re in too deep as it is.”
“What do you mean?” She hadn’t even gone to the hotel yet.
“The victim was last seen by anyone other than Emmett and the killer, assuming they’re not one and the same, at a public event you hosted. By all accounts, he spent the evening heckling you. Your friend Emmett intervened and then Dirk went after him. Blake Hargrove targeted you specifically, and rumor has it his brother’s out for blood. Yours. And, to top it all off, you seem to think Emmett’s wife is trying to contact you from . . . wherever.”
Okay, when you put it all together like that, it did seem she
could be somewhat involved.
“I don’t want to have to worry about you while I’m trying to investigate this case.”
“I understand.” It was the best she could do since she wouldn’t lie to him, but she had no intention of backing off until Emmett was cleared. Whatever happened after that, she’d stay out of. Probably. As long as it didn’t involve any of her friends. “How is the art theft case going? Are you any closer to solving it?”
He stared at her a moment longer, then sighed. “Knowing Jay Callahan is back on Bay Island may have been the break we needed. We’re checking out his known contacts.”
“What about Ellie?” As long as Jay was around, Ellie could be in danger.
“We can’t justify protective custody, because he hasn’t made any threats, not that we know of . . .” He held eye contact, turbulence darkening his deep blue eyes.
“That you know of?”
“When we spoke to Ellie, it was clear she’s terrified, but she won’t say a word against him.”
And she never would, no matter what he did. She was too terrified of him to ever ask for help. “You can’t just leave her out there unprotected. She—”
“Don’t worry.” He held up his hands. “We’re keeping an eye on her, increasing patrols past her house and when she’s at work. At the first sign of Jay, we’ll put her under constant surveillance and try to get him.”
“I don’t like it.” Despite the great lengths Ellie had gone to to hide her bruises when they’d been together, everyone had known she was being abused. “I’m worried about her.”
“I know. I am too, but she’s tied our hands by refusing to cooperate.”
“Yeah, I know.” Cass still beat herself up just a little over saying anything when it was clear Ellie had shared Jay’s return in confidence, but her loyalty was to Ellie, and if it meant breaking her confidence to keep her safe, then so be it. She was no longer bound by doctor-patient confidentiality. “But I don’t have to like it.”
Luke looked at his watch, then stood. “I’m sorry, I have to run, but do you have plans for tonight?”
Go home and fall flat on my face in bed. “Not yet.”
