“There’s no point going in there.”
“I can go wherever I damn well please. I may not be involved with you but, like it or not, I am involved with this case and I plan to keep track of their progress.”
“Jordy—”
“This isn’t about you, Cai. It’s about the woman in those pictures. I’m worried about her. Is that so hard for you to understand?” Her anger seemed to blow over as quickly as it had come up. She sighed. “I see her face, Cai. I see it all the time. When I’m awake, when I sleep. I need to know she’ll be okay. Or … or that she won’t.”
Cai wanted—needed—to be mad, and he was mad, just not at her. He blew out a long breath, then let his hand drop. “Yeah, okay.”
“Thank you.” She pushed past him.
He was soaked, but he still had to get his bike to Dobs and maneuver the boat back to Crystal before the storm really set in. He should leave now, let her find out on her own who had the case and steer as clear of her as he could. He was discovering that there were a lot of things he should be doing where she was concerned, just as he was learning he wasn’t too good at doing any of them.
“The locals don’t have the case anymore.”
That stopped her. “What? Why?”
“They tracked the last e-mail and it originated in Wales. It’s officially a State Department case now.”
“I thought they were already in on it.” She stepped closer and leaned her umbrella over him to share her shelter.
Way too cozy. “They were, in a preliminary way. Now they’ve officially assigned it to some new agency task force. There’s a new investigator.”
Jordy tilted her head. “I take it you two didn’t hit it off too well.”
“You could say that.”
“Is this about the last e-mail?”
“Partly.”
“Can you just make an exception to our no-talking rule and tell me what happened?”
That was just it. Talking to her was easy, very easy. Too easy. “I had an idea on how to catch her, but Special Investigative Agent John Kuhn didn’t see it that way.”
She nodded, but he saw the little smile.
“I’m so glad this amuses you,” he said, parroting her earlier words.
“It’s not that—”
“Since you seem so worried about the victims, I’d think you’d be a little more concerned.”
“Victims? There’s more than one?”
Shit.
THIRTEEN
He wasn’t sure why, but ten minutes later he was sitting in a donut shop with Jordy, drying out, sipping hot coffee, eating sweet buns, and talking about the case. “Let me see the note.”
“I was asked not to show it to anyone.”
She put her cup down, wiped the powder from her lips, and stuck her hand out. “I’m not just anyone. Give it up.”
Cai gripped his coffee cup tighter. They were talking about torture and kidnapping and all he could think about was licking that powder from her fingertips. He pulled the note from his pocket. “I faxed it to Kuhn from the station. They’re tracking it.”
“Did they find out a last name? Any name?”
Cai shook his head. “No. No fixed address either. Every one of them was bogus.”
“How about the phone numbers? I mean, if they tracked down the call from when she signed on to send the mail, that had to give them something.”
Cai had hoped for the same thing. “Nothing. She may be nuts, but she’s not stupid.”
She read the printout quietly. “She’ll do it. What are we going to do?”
“We? We can’t do anything.”
“But you said you had a plan. What was it?”
“I thought we should respond by my finding the Dark Pearl and contacting her for a meeting.”
She leaned forward. “But there is no Dark Pearl.”
“She doesn’t believe that. It’s all fiction, so why not just create a ‘real’ Dark Pearl?”
“Kuhn says no?”
Cai shook his head. “No civilian input.”
“So what’s his big plan?”
“He didn’t say, other than to inform me they were handling it. He didn’t even listen to my idea. Officious type. A real asshole. Pardon me.”
She shrugged it off. “I’ve met my share.”
“I just want this nightmare over.” It was already interfering with his work. Eileen was treating him like one of her more neurotic writers, which he hated. She said he needed a distraction. He watched Jordy read the note again, watched her eyes, the way they tilted down in the corners when she frowned.
“What sort of assholes do you meet?” The question just popped out.
She looked up, startled. “What?”
“You said you’d met your fair share of assholes and I just asked where. Sculpting seems as reclusive as writing.”
She looked wary. “Haven’t we covered this ground?”
“No, we covered sexual attraction and decided it was best if we didn’t go there. I’m being a good boy and sitting over here keeping my hands to myself. But I want to know you better. You’re getting involved with my grandfather and I’m just looking out for him.”
Jordy laughed. “Oh, I see. How noble of you.”
Cai leaned back, relaxing a little for the first time all day. Maybe Eileen was right about needing a distraction, though he’d be the last to tell her so. And Jordy was proving to be that and yet so much more. “Exactly what I thought.”
She stared him down as she took another lengthy sip of coffee, but finally answered. “I used to own a business, or co-own it anyway.”
“Selling your work?”
She nodded. “I started in college. My roommate was majoring in business and marketing. She was the brains behind the selling part of it. I could never have gone out and pushed my work on people. She saw the potential, though, and she went after it. We opened a small shop in Warburg right after graduation. I concentrated on my work and she had a product she could sell. We were friends. The best of friends. It was a perfect partnership.”
“So what happened?”
“Suzanne was pushing for us to grow bigger, to branch out, but I knew with that kind of pressure, I’d never be able to maintain my creativity. I was perfectly happy with the way things were going. We weren’t rich, but we made out well enough.”
“What did she do? Sell out?”
“No. Suzanne had a lot invested in our business and she knew the clientele. We sold pieces to many prominent families and Suzanne enjoyed the spotlight moving in those circles afforded. She loved the wining and dining, going to gallery openings and the like, always drumming up new clients.”
“But you didn’t.”
Jordy shook her head. “I was relieved she liked all that stuff because it was great for business, but no, I was very happy staying behind the scenes.” She twisted her thumb ring. “I’m not exactly the socialite type.”
Cai thought she’d knock any crowd on their collective butts, but all he said was, “So, what did she do?”
“She started to work behind the scenes to expand our asset base without telling me. She did some investing without my knowledge, forging my signature, and when that started to go well, she did more.”
“She forged your name? Didn’t you know what was happening?”
Jordy kept her chin up. “I really didn’t pay attention to the books. Suzanne hired the bookkeeper and our accountant. I know it sounds stupid now, but I trusted her completely. I just wanted to sculpt, so I let her take care of business. Later on, when things started to go bad, I saw the signs, but I ignored them.”
“I take it the investments went south?”
“Pretty much. But she kept going, she was in too deep then and had to find her way out. So she started siphoning off what profit she could and investing it personally, leaving our creditors hanging. I didn’t want to believe that she would run out and leave me to hang. But that’s exactly what she planned to do.” Jordy stared into her cup.
“Listen, I didn’t mean to drag you through a bad time.”
“No, it’s okay. I mean, the whole thing was very not okay. I’ve never talked about it, though. Maybe it’s not so bad to get it out.”
“You had no one to talk to? No one on your side?”
She smiled a little. “You’re not the only recluse on the planet. But there wasn’t anyone I trusted at that point. Just me and Fred, and he doesn’t really count.”
“Fred?” Cai was totally unprepared for the sudden jab of jealousy that shot through him.
“My goldfish. He’s the short, fat, silent type.”
“A goldfish?” He was ridiculously relieved.
“He goes with me everywhere. Great listener, but not too good at dispensing advice. Still, he’s all I’ve got.” She laughed. “Well now, that sounds pathetic, doesn’t it?”
“I’ve never had a pet, not even a fish.”
“Really? Okay, that’s even more pathetic. But you do have your grandfather, and Dilys. That’s wonderful. I’d love to still have a family. It would have made the trial almost bearable.”
“Trial?”
“It was long, ugly, and complicated. I was forced to sue Suzanne and she counter-sued and in the course of that, we both came under indictment for criminal charges.”
“You, too?”
She nodded. “When it all hit the fan, she tried to twist it all around and blame me. She was pretty damn convincing. She’d made up phony records. I had nothing to combat them with.”
“Some best friend.”
“What was amazing to me, and really humbling, was that she actually convinced a good number of our clients that she was the wronged party. I wasn’t just behind the scenes, I didn’t exist. I was like the hired help or something. The whole thing lasted over two years. In the end, my business and my career were history. I lost everything I owned, including my house. But fight it I did. And I won. Two weeks ago today. Funny, but I didn’t feel victorious.”
“Just two weeks ago? Jordy, I—”
“But you know what hit me the hardest? It was realizing that I’d let someone else run my entire life. Actually, I let her have my life. I thought I could sit alone in my studio and create. I believed that this life she’d built around me was actually part mine. But it wasn’t. The only thing that was mine was my craft. I had no real life. It was all hers. The clients, the parties, the support, the friends, all of it. I had nothing. And you know whose fault that is? Mine. If you don’t participate in life, you don’t really have one. I’m thirty-one years old and it took losing everything to make me understand that.” She laughed without humor. “Now that’s pathetic.”
“No, it’s not. You’re lucky.”
“Excuse me?”
“Not everyone gets the chance to figure that out.”
“So says the man who lives on an island?”
Cai smiled wryly. “Yes, well, maybe that’s why I have this point of view. Some days I wonder how I ended up like I did, so removed from the world. Most days I like it, other times I wonder if we did the right thing.” He thought of Arthur and Dilys and the difficult road that lay ahead for all of them as aging took its inevitable toll.
“That’s just it,” Jordy said. “I liked my solitude. Still do. But I can’t just rely on the rest of the world to take care of everything else except what interests me. And if I do, then I damn well can’t complain if I get shafted. You have to pay attention to what’s important, whatever that is. I’m just starting to figure it all out.”
“It sounds like you’re doing just that. You have learned a great deal about life.”
“Oh, I learned. I learned not to trust people. I learned the legal system isn’t about who’s right and who’s wrong but who has the most well-paid shark in the courtroom.”
“You trusted your lawyers. You did win.”
“It had nothing to do with trust. I swam with the sharks. It was bloody and damned expensive. All to prove I didn’t do anything wrong in the first place. Except trust the wrong person.” She drained her coffee, crumpled her napkin up, and shoved it inside the paper cup. “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all. We came here to talk about the case, not about me.”
“Tell me one more thing.”
The wary look returned. “Depends.”
“You’d just walked away from the two-year battle from hell. You come down here to wash the blood off and I guess try and figure out where to start over again. Why on earth did you get involved with this case?”
She fiddled with her cup. “Because I was concerned about her. Because I know how it feels to not have anyone to turn to.” She finally looked at him. “And because I didn’t want to go home yet and I thought helping someone else might give me a clue as to how to help myself.”
“You were going to give up sculpting?”
“For a long time I didn’t think I had a choice. I thought it was lost to me.”
“Until the dragon.”
She suddenly stood. “Yeah, well, maybe that was a fluke.”
He caught her by the arm. “Wait a minute.”
“It’s really late and it looks like the storm finally let up. I should go.”
Cai stood, but didn’t let go. “Tell me about the dragon.”
She looked so vulnerable that he almost let her go. But he didn’t. She said she needed to talk. Well, this time there was someone interested in listening.
“Why did you give it to me?”
“I told you already. It was a gift. To us both. For you it was the perfect solution. To me it was.… It was hope.” She pulled her arm free. “Satisfied?”
“No, I’m not. I wasn’t trying to hurt you. I’m honored you wanted me to have it. I’m glad you took the contract. Gift or not, you deserved payment. And now Alfred wants to commission a piece. You should be happy.”
“Yes, everyone is happy.” She started to move away.
“I’d be terrified if I thought I couldn’t write, so I think I have some idea how hard this is for you.”
She faced him fully. “With all due respect, no, you don’t. I came here to sort out my life, and I stayed to help a complete stranger get hers back. I was given a chance to teach some kids about art and, in the process, I’m beginning to relearn a bit about my own. I met your grandfather, walked through his amazing garden, and for the first time since the courtroom battle, I wanted to work. I wanted to feel the clay under my hands.” She paused, then said, “I’ve never taken my talent for granted. I thanked God every time I came up with a new creation. But to just lose it, to lose your faith in yourself … There is this sense of being abandoned. By your own self. It’s the cruelest trick. Unless you’ve been through the hell of losing your gift, you can’t possibly know what it means to me to think I might get it back.”
Cai listened to her passionate defense and thought about the blank monitor screen he’d been staring at for a week.
“Oh, yes, I do,” he said quietly.
“Then you know it’s twice as terrifying wondering if it’s back to stay.”
He reached out to touch her, but she immediately stepped back. That hurt, but he didn’t blame her. He’d gotten his distraction, but he hadn’t intended this. Which was exactly why he should just stay on his damn island and not get involved with people.
She was at the door when he spoke. “I’ll pick you up to see Alfred whenever you want. Just call.”
She turned. She looked tired. Very tired. “I get done with the kids early on Wednesday, by noon at the latest. Any time after that would be fine.” She paused a second, then added, “Thank you, Cai. I appreciate it.” Then she walked away.
He sat back down and stared out the window. The parking lot was unlit, so he couldn’t see her climb in her car and leave, but he saw her just the same. He saw how she looked at him when he made her smile. He saw the smile shift to a frown when she was upset. He saw the vulnerability she hid behind bravado. He saw the concern and warmth that filled her eyes when she talke
d of Alfred. He saw those same eyes go dark with desire when he pulled her into his arms. He saw her spit fire at him when he set her off.
He saw her all right. With every breath he took, he saw her. He balled up his napkin and shot it hard into the trash, then stalked out into the night.
FOURTEEN
Jordy made herself comfortable on the stone bench and flipped open her sketch book. She smiled when she spied the dirt under her fingernails. Alfred had been right, it was better to sink bare hands into the soil. There was life there. Just as there was in clay.
She’d left Alfred behind in his hothouses and headed to the gardens. She chose a fountain pen with a fine nib, checked the ink cartridge, then focused on the small figures she’d chosen to draw. She’d decided to begin by sketching whatever caught her attention. Her pen moved swiftly and the small pond lily fairies came instantly to life on the paper.
She had no idea how long she’d been at it when Dilys suddenly appeared.
“Sorry to startle you,” Dilys said perfunctorily.
“No, no problem.” She noticed the older woman carried a silver platter laid for tea.
“I thought you might like to break for some tea.”
Jordy set aside the pad and pen and stood, reaching for the tray. “Thank you. You didn’t need to go to all this trouble, though.”
Dilys regarded her silently. The look on her face made it clear that she felt it would be an act akin to blasphemy to skip tea.
“I’ll bring this back to the house when I’m done,” Jordy said.
“No need. I’ll be back in one hour.” She turned and left as silently as she’d arrived.
Jordy sat there, bemused by the interesting woman, until another thought entered her mind. Perhaps Dilys’ sudden generosity had more to do with protecting Cai’s privacy by keeping her away from the house than with her overriding concern that tea time be observed.
Jordy had called and spoken to Alfred earlier that day, letting him know when she’d be at Dobs’ dock, once again offering to hire someone to make the short boat ride. He’d heard none of that and she had braced herself for the trip over with Cai. She hadn’t spoken to or seen him since she left the donut shop two days ago. To her surprised relief and perverse disappointment, Dilys had been the one waiting in the boat when she arrived. The trip had been quick, silent, and efficient. Dilys’ hallmark traits.
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