“You were a friend of Leslie’s,” he said. “You must have some idea. I know it’s a man who was attracted to her—and felt betrayed by her.”
“A lot of men were attracted to her—and were betrayed by her.” Cassandra shrugged. “She was my friend, but I hated the way she behaved. I couldn’t save her.”
He heard the guilt in her voice. Is that why she’d come back to Moriah’s Landing? To help Kat? He started to turn away, but she grabbed his wrist.
“You can stop him,” she whispered. “But only if you stop fighting who you are, what you are. It is your birthright. Otherwise, you will die and so will this woman you have fallen in love with.”
Chapter Thirteen
Kat stopped at Doug’s Garage and Towing on her way to her office. She found Doug under the rack looking up under her car.
“Did you figure out what was wrong with it?” she asked, stepping under the car with him.
Doug squinted over at her from behind dirty safety glasses. He had gone to work with his dad at the garage right out of high school and was several years older than Kat.
“No mystery there,” he said. “The line was cut clean as a whistle.”
Jonah had been right.
“The power-steering fluid container has a puncture in it and the emergency-brake cable has been cut as well,” Doug said, looking at her from behind the goggles, his eyes huge. “I also think they fooled with your clutch cable. Someone vandalized the hell out of your car.”
“But I had some brakes last night. I used the emergency brake to stop. It couldn’t have been cut all the way through.”
Doug frowned. “Sorry, but both lines were cut all the way through. I’m not sure how you got stopped but it wasn’t with the emergency brake, I can tell you that much.”
She stared at him, feeling as if he’d just sucker punched her. If she hadn’t had any brakes, then how had she avoided hitting Jonah?
CASSANDRA DIDN’T APPEAR in the least surprised to look up and find Kat standing in front of her booth. In fact, if Kat had believed in such things, she would have said the seer had been waiting for her to show up. But Kat hadn’t even known she was coming here until her feet stopped outside the booth.
Cassandra nodded in greeting, motioning for her to come inside. In the back was a room that was small and warm, sweetly scented with candles and incense. Posters of the zodiacs leaped out from the brightly painted walls, each wall a different color. Books lined one wall, the titles covering everything from astrology to numerology. All for sale.
“You have come to have your cards read,” Cassandra said, her dark gaze daring Kat to disagree.
“It’s not that I believe for a minute that…” She waved a hand through the air as she looked around the room, wondering what she was doing here.
“Please sit down,” Cassandra said as if Kat hadn’t spoken. The fortune-teller settled into the wide overstuffed chair in front of a tiny table, looking at home in this small, bright room. She picked up the worn cards and began to shuffle them with great care.
Kat told her legs to get her feet moving toward the door, but they stubbornly lowered her to the chair on the opposite side of the table, directly across from Cassandra.
Without a word, Cassandra handed her the surprisingly large deck of cards. They felt awkward in her hands and oddly cool to the touch.
“Ask the cards a question that can be answered with a yes or a no. As you shuffle the cards, think only of your question,” Cassandra instructed in a singsong voice.
Kat found herself nodding as she mixed the cards, only one question on her mind this morning.
“Now cut the cards into three piles,” the fortune-teller instructed. “Pick them up and give them to me.”
As Kat handed her the cards again, she saw how serious Cassandra seemed, as if concentrating as well. Maybe on a question of her own?
Slowly, Cassandra turned over the first card. The Two of Cups. “This is your present situation concerning the question you asked. It has to do with love and passion and trust.” She flipped over another card, the Six of Cups, and laid the card sideways across the first one. “These are past influences, memories from your childhood, that are hindering you and keeping you from what you want.”
She flipped another card—the Three of Swords—and looked up at Kat, sympathy in her gaze. “You have been hurt in the past and have known great sorrow and disappointment.” Kat cringed as Cassandra went on to describe the horrible, dangerous relationship Kat had been through.
Shaken, she leaned back in the chair.
The next card, the Page of Swords, depicted a person from her recent past, Cassandra said. The meeting of a young man. A man with a message for her. A person adept at perceiving the unknown. A person alert to unknown dangers. Jonah.
“This card is your possible future,” the seer said. “Remember, the future is not set in stone. You can still change it.” She turned over the card. The Falling Tower.
Kat stared at the people falling from the tower in terror. “Do not despair,” Cassandra said. “It is only a change card and signifies unexpected events. There are no bad cards.”
Right, Kat thought. Tell that to the two figures depicted falling from the tower on the card, one a man and the other a woman.
The next card was the Ten of Cups. Kat stared at it, needing no explanation of its meaning. A woman, a man and a child held hands under a rainbow of cups.
“This represents your hopes and dreams. A home. Happiness. Love,” Cassandra said, and turned over another card. “This is your immediate future.” The card was the Knight of Swords. “It symbolizes bravery, heroic action, an impetuous rush into the unknown without fear. And, the final outcome.”
Cassandra dropped the Seven of Wands. “You must overcome obstacles in your way, surmount overwhelming odds, but ultimately you can win.”
Kat stared at the images on the velvet in front of her, wanting to believe. “How much do I owe you?” she asked, her voice sounded small, scared.
“Twenty-five,” Cassandra said. “Cash.”
Kat forked over the money as another woman came up to the booth to have her fortune told. Somehow, the money put it all into perspective. She had been a fool to come here. No one knew the future. And it was better that way.
As Kat got to her feet, the seer folded the bills and stuffed them down into the neck opening of her caftan. “He loves you. That is the question you wanted answered, yes?”
Kat stared at the woman for a shocked moment, then told herself that it had been an easy guess. Wasn’t that what most women wanted to know? That, and how it would end?
“He would give his life for you,” Cassandra continued. “But he cannot give you children.” Her dark gaze came up to meet Kat’s startled one. “As much as he loves you, he cannot bear to pass on the gift. And yet, if he does not, he will be cursed from the grave, never to know happiness.”
The words, as ridiculous as they were, sent a chill through her. Hadn’t Jonah told her just last night that he could not give her what she wanted. And what she desperately wanted was a family.
KAT WORKED THE REST OF the day finishing up the paperwork on cases, answering phone messages and running credit checks for several of her clients, trying to keep her mind busy. Anything but thinking about the future—and what Cassandra had told her.
She had tried to reach Jonah at the bar but was told Brody had sent him out on business. She left a message, but by the end of the day he still hadn’t called. She was starting to worry about him, something she knew would do neither of them any good.
It was late when she finally quit working and let herself think about what had been happening to her the last few days—and what to do about it. Unlike Jonah she had no ESP or any paranormal abilities. She had to deal in hard evidence and in what she knew to be true.
She’d heard the footsteps behind her, two sets the night she met Jonah. That meant whoever had followed her home that first night had seen her with Jonah. Was that why th
e daisies had shown up on her office doorstep the next morning? Had the person decided to make himself known with the bouquet?
Following that line of reasoning, she could only assume the crushed daisies today and the tipped-over motorcycle indicated his unhappiness at seeing Jonah’s bike parked in front of her house early in the morning. The anger she’d seen in the destroyed bouquet scared her. And what about the perfume on her mother’s old vanity? A present? Or another warning that he could get to her at any time?
Unfortunately there was no way to trace the daisies. They grew wild almost everywhere. But the perfume…Kat opened the phone book to the local drugstore and dialed the number, hoping it was still open. It was a long shot he’d bought the scent locally and she knew it. But maybe he’d wanted to move quickly once he thought Jonah was in the picture.
“Do you happen to carry a perfume called Essence of Woman?” Kat asked when the clerk answered.
“Essence of Woman?”
“It comes in a small lavender bottle with a cork top that’s shaped like a rose.”
“Oh, that’s from the Reminiscence Collection. I know which one you mean,” she said. “Let me check. I remember we had one bottle. We normally don’t even carry that brand, it’s so expensive. I’m not sure if the person who ordered it ever came in and picked it up.”
Kat held her breath. “It was a special order?”
“Yes, but I remember seeing it on the shelf,” the clerk was saying. Kat could hear her rummaging around. “We put it out if it isn’t picked up.”
Kat waited, trying not to get her hopes up too high.
“I thought it was here…. Ethel, did you sell that bottle of Essence of Woman? You know, the cute little round one with the flower on top?”
“Sold it just yesterday,” a woman called from somewhere in the store.
“She said—”
“I heard,” Kat said, her heart racing. “Was it the person who special ordered it?”
The clerk called back the question.
“Nope. Gad, it’s been so long since we placed that order I can’t even remember who ordered it. Do you?”
The clerk said she didn’t.
“Does she happen to remember who came in and bought it?” Kat interrupted.
“Who finally bought it?” the clerk called back.
Kat heard a laugh. “That Cavendish boy. There’s so many of them I can’t remember his name.”
“The sullen fifteen-year-old with the blond spike haircut?” Kat suggested, and the clerk forwarded the question to Ethel.
“That’s the one. Guess he’s got himself a girlfriend,” Ethel said with a cackle. “A girlfriend with expensive tastes.”
“She said—”
“I heard. Thank you.” Kat hung up, her hand trembling as she picked up her purse and went to find Tommy.
At the Bait & Tackle, she found Marley Glasglow closing up.
“I haven’t seen the kid,” Glasglow said with obvious disinterest. “Ernie’s out on a charter, won’t be back in until tomorrow evening.”
She thanked him and left, feeling his gaze burning into her backside until she moved out of his range of sight. Pulling out her cell phone, she called the Wharf Rat. Still no Jonah. She asked to speak to Brody. He, too, was gone. She asked the bartender on duty if he’d seen Tommy Cavendish.
“Tommy Cavendish!” the bartender hollered out across the bar, forgetting to cover the phone’s mouthpiece. “Sorry, doesn’t look like he’s here.”
She tried Tommy’s house. Neither he nor Claire was home. Then, on a hunch, she tried Alyssa Castor’s number, the girl with the major crush on Tommy.
“Hello?” The voice was tentative and mouselike.
“Alyssa? It’s Kat Ridgemont. I’m looking for Tommy. Tommy Cavendish?”
Silence.
“Have you seen him today?”
Still not a sound.
“Alyssa?”
“Why would you think I’d seen him?” came the frightened response finally.
“I thought you two were friends.”
A small gasp. “Me and Tommy.”
“If you should see Tommy, would you call me?” She gave the girl her cell phone number.
When Kat walked through the door of her house, she was almost surprised to find Emily at home, sitting in the living room, watching TV.
Emily picked up the remote and turned off the television as Kat came in. She looked guilty enough that Kat figured Angela or Angela’s mother had told her that she’d been busted.
“Look, I know what you’re going to say,” Emily began.
“I don’t think you do. Yes, I know you didn’t spend the night at Angela’s last night. But what has me upset is that you lied to me. Where were you last night? No more lies. You’re going to be eighteen in a few months. By this time next week, you’ll have graduated. Your life will be your own—with no interference from me.”
“Hallelujah,” Emily said under her breath.
“But until then, at least be honest with me.”
“I was with Zachary Pierce,” she blurted out, sounding close to tears. “I didn’t want to tell you because I thought you’d make a big deal out of us dating.”
Zachary Pierce? A boy from the most influential family in town? “You’re dating Zachary?”
“Don’t sound so surprised,” Emily said. “I knew what you’d think. How could a Pierce ever be interested in a Ridgemont? You don’t think I’m good enough for Zach, do you?”
“I didn’t say that,” Kat denied. “I just don’t want him taking advantage of you.”
“See, you think the only reason he’d date me is for sex,” Emily snapped. “Well, you’re wrong about him. He isn’t like that and neither am I.”
“Emily, you lied to me and spent the night with this boy—”
“We didn’t do anything but talk!” Emily cried. “Zach likes me, Kat. He likes me.”
Kat realized what she was saying. She went to her sister. “Of course he likes you. Who wouldn’t?”
Em shrugged and smiled shyly. “You think?”
“I know.” Kat hugged her, wishing she wasn’t always suspicious—especially of men.
“I was with Zach,” Em said, “the night someone broke into Dr. Manning’s lab and vandals painted the side of Mr. McDougal’s bait shop.”
Kat couldn’t hide her relief. “When I saw that red jacket—”
“I guess I left it at the arcade, but I didn’t want to tell you that either. Not after I begged you to buy it for me. I knew you’d kill me if you thought I’d lost it.”
“Don’t worry about the jacket,” Kat said. “It will turn up.”
“It already has,” Emily said, and looked up at her, a look Kat recognized too easily.
“Angela.”
Emily nodded. “Her mother found out about the vandalism and grounded her.”
“And the boys who were with her?” Kat asked, already knowing the answer.
“Razz and Dodie.”
“They took the cadaver from Dr. Manning’s lab?” It still surprised her they would do something like that.
“I guess it was just supposed to be a dare, breaking in, taking something,” Emily said. “It was Angela’s idea to take the cadaver. They were going to leave it on the school steps as a joke, but someone stole it.”
“Is that the story they’re telling?” Kat said.
“No, it’s true. I guess they were offered a reward to return it and were going to take it back, but when they went to retrieve the body, it was gone.”
Kat felt a chill. If they hadn’t put the cadaver in the gazebo, then who had? The same person who’d left crushed daisies on her doorstep this morning as a warning? Had the cadaver also been a warning?
UNDER A MOON, swollen gold, and just a day away from full, Jonah drove out to Dr. Manning’s, not sure what kind of reception he was going to get. Manning had had enough time to get rid of any evidence that might have been found in the lab. Any sign that the FBI agent befo
re him might have gotten into the lab.
Nor did Jonah expect he’d find out what was coming into the country by boat.
Maybe Dr. Manning had nothing to hide. Or maybe Manning wanted his blood so badly that he’d slip up and show him something. Or tell him something he wouldn’t mean to.
The gate opened before his motorcycle reached it, and closed swiftly behind him, making him a little uneasy. He couldn’t help but remember what had happened to Kat after her visit here. What did Manning have planned for Jonah? After spending the entire day doing grunt work for Brody, Jonah was in no mood for games.
“Mr. Ries,” Manning said, greeting him from the front door.
Jonah climbed off his bike and walked toward the house. “Dr. Manning. This place is too much, really.”
Manning seemed to find some satisfaction in the fact that everyone thought his house was haunted. Jonah wondered if Manning knew about the vampire and mad scientist rumors—and helped perpetuate them.
Jonah only got a glimpse of the interior of the house—at odds with the outside, that was for sure—before Manning led him around to the back where the laboratory stood like a prison complex behind an electric fence. It appeared that a triple strand of razor wire had recently been added—no doubt after someone had stolen the cadaver found on the town green.
“You haven’t changed your mind about being part of my research, have you?” Manning asked as he unlocked the complicated system going into the lab. Fort Knox should have such a system.
“Sorry, Doc, but I have a fear of nooses,” Jonah joked.
Manning glanced toward the moon, then at Jonah. His look said he knew exactly what Jonah had to fear.
The inside of the lab was just as Manning had said it would be: boring. The doctor talked about his research. Jonah asked questions, getting the stock answers he had expected. Nor did he see anything suspicious, but then he didn’t really know what he was looking for. It would take another scientist to recognize something amiss.
Other than getting the lay of the land, Jonah just hoped to leave a listening device. The last agent had been successful in leaving a bug in the house—but not the lab. It appeared Manning didn’t do regular checks for listening devices—considering how long the one in the house had been in place.
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