Star Bright

by Catherine Anderson

  “Really? Congratulations.”

  “It’s not for sure yet. I’ve just been feeling queasy the last few mornings, and my brain doesn’t seem to be tracking half the time. If I’m not busy with family things, I’m working cases. My husband, Clint, says it best: The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.”

  Rainie wondered what kind of cases Loni handled. Though her creased taupe slacks and precision-pressed silk blouse would be suitable corporate attire with the addition of a blazer, she didn’t have the look of a woman on the fast track. There was a quiet serenity and softness about her. She seemed more suited to artistic pursuits or possibly social services, although Rainie could also envision her as a lawyer who worked pro bono for little old ladies who couldn’t afford her fees.

  “Cases, huh?” Rainie raised her eyebrows. “Are you an attorney?”

  Loni laughed and rolled her eyes in a delightfully girlish way that made Rainie like her even more. “Good grief, no. And trust me, that’s probably a blessing. If I were an attorney, I’d aim for a judgeship so I could sentence serial killers, kidnappers, and child molesters. Not a good thing. I don’t have a very forgiving heart.”

  Searching the woman’s gaze, Rainie thought just the opposite was true, that Loni Harrigan had an extremely sensitive and loving heart. It was strange. Since marrying Peter, Rainie was usually suspicious of strangers, but something about this woman instantly breached the barriers that Rainie had erected around herself. Tucking Mojo under her left arm, she stepped forward, offering her hand.

  “It’s lovely to meet you. I’m Rainie, Parker’s bookkeeper, but I assume you know that already.” She grinned. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t be here. Right?”

  “Right.”

  Loni regarded Rainie’s outstretched palm for so long that Rainie began to think she would refuse to shake hands with her. But then she smiled and finally clasped Rainie’s fingers. The next instant, her pretty face drained of color, her eyes went oddly blank, and she swayed on her feet. Recalling that the woman might be pregnant, Rainie quickly put Mojo down and moved in to grab Loni’s arm.

  “Are you feeling faint? Come over here and sit down. I’ll get you some water.”

  Loni sank gratefully onto Parker’s desk chair. “I don’t need water.” She flapped a limp, trembling hand in front of her white face, attempting to smile but failing miserably. Then she bent forward to put her head between her knees. “Oh, sweet heaven,” she whispered. “Oh, God, Rainie, I’m so sorry.”

  “Don’t apologize. It’s not your fault you feel faint.” Rainie crouched by the chair. “Is it the baby, do you think? I can run get Parker.”

  “No, no.” Loni breathed deeply, and then slowly lifted her head. “I’m fine. It’s you who needs help.” Her sky blue gaze clung to Rainie’s. “He’s searching for you,” she whispered. “If he locates you, you’ll be in terrible danger.”

  “What?” A chill crawled up Rainie’s spine. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Lips chalky, face shimmering with sweat, Loni replied, “You do know what I’m talking about, and you’re in far too much danger to pretend otherwise. Peter Danning doesn’t believe you’re dead. He’s hired a professional investigator. He’s trying to find you. If he does, he’ll kill you.”

  Rainie felt as if the floor had vanished from under her. She pushed erect so quickly that the blood drained from her head, making her dizzy. Grasping the edge of her desk for support, she circled to her chair and sank weakly onto the cushioned seat, only vaguely aware of Mojo tugging on her skirt again. Frozen and incredulous, she stared stupidly at Loni’s pale face. Now, when it was too late, she remembered the story Parker had told her last night about his sister-in-law, that she sometimes invaded his privacy by revealing details about his past. At the time, Rainie hadn’t focused on that information, but now, as she searched Loni’s dazed, frightened eyes, she realized that there was something extraordinary about this woman. It was crazy and totally bizarre—but with a mere touch of their hands, Loni had somehow learned things that Rainie never would have revealed to her by choice.

  As that realization sank in, Rainie’s first thought was that her goose was cooked. All it would take was for Loni to make one phone call, and Rainie’s new life would be destroyed. Peter Danning doesn’t believe you’re dead, she’d said. That meant she somehow knew almost everything, including the fact that Rainie had staged her own demise.

  Mouth dry, throat burning, Rainie managed to ask, “Are you going to turn me in?”

  “For heaven’s sake, no.” Loni attempted another smile, only with more success this time. “I would never do that. I know what he did to you, Rainie. I know why you ran. And thank God you did.”

  This isn’t happening. The thought swirled through Rainie’s mind like a leaf eddying on the surface of a whirlpool.

  “Peter Danning meant to kill you during that cruise,” Loni continued. “You never would have made it back to Seattle. But, of course, you knew that. It’s why you vanished.”

  Are we really having this conversation? Rainie heard Loni’s words, ascertained their meaning, but all of it seemed like a bad dream. She made a fist in her hair. “I’m sorry, but this . . . this is freaking me out.”

  Still pale, but visibly regaining her composure, Loni replied, “I’m the one who’s sorry. I’m clairvoyant, and I often see things when I make physical contact with strangers. I shouldn’t have shaken hands with you. I normally don’t touch people when I meet them. It’s always chancy. I never know when it’ll give me a nasty jolt.” She lifted her slender shoulders in a shrug. “I’m sorry for getting inside your head that way. I know it must be horribly unsettling. I just . . .” She shrugged again, looking as upset as Rainie felt. “You held out your hand, and I didn’t want to offend you by refusing to take it. How rude would that be?”

  Rainie would have preferred rudeness to this.

  “It mostly happens only when I touch someone who has been through something terrible,” Loni went on to explain. “I used to hate it, and deny it, and even tried to run from it at one point, but now I’ve come to accept that it’s a gift, something I’m supposed to use to help others.” Her larynx bobbed as she struggled to swallow. Her eyes went misty with heartfelt appeal. “Not everyone accepts; not everyone believes. I hope you aren’t going to be one of those people, Rainie, because you are in desperate need of help.”

  Rainie shook her head. “I’ve never believed in clairvoyants. But you know things about me—things you couldn’t have found out any other way. You’re obviously very gifted.”

  Loni looked away, a distant expression entering her eyes as she gazed out the window. “Oh, I’m gifted, all right. My gift is so powerful that it nearly ruined my life. Until I met Clint, I thought of it as a curse.” She took a deep breath and slowly released it. “When I touched you, I linked in with Peter.”

  Still struggling to accept that this woman was a genuine psychic, Rainie said, “With Peter, did you say? I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

  “I got inside his head,” Loni expounded. “I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how evil the man is.” Shivering as though she were chilled, she turned her gaze back to Rainie. “Tapping into his thought processes made me feel as if I were immersed in ice water. I’ve felt that kind of evil only once before, when I looked into the eyes of a serial killer.”

  Rainie lowered her gaze to her lap, remembering the madness in Peter’s eyes when he grew violent.

  “He’s a heartless and very cunning predator,” Loni said shakily. “He seeks out young women who’ve inherited money and lures them in like hapless little fish.”

  Rainie winced. The similitude of that description rankled, and yet she couldn’t deny its truth. Peter had thrown out the bait, and she’d stupidly allowed him to lure her in.

  “You mustn’t blame yourself for being duped by him. He’s a master of deception.”

  Rainie glanced up, feeling as if her every thought and emotion had been la
id bare. “How can you possibly know that I blame myself?”

  Loni looked quickly away, her expression chagrined. “I know everything. I’m sorry. It’s an unforgivable invasion of your privacy. Just please believe I didn’t do it on purpose.” She turned up her palms, the gesture one of abject apology. “Have you ever downloaded software onto a really fast computer?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, that’s what happens, sort of, little files of information transferring into my brain in the space of a nanosecond. That’s why it shakes me up so badly. Too much, too fast—feelings, thoughts, memories, pummeling me from all directions. It takes a few seconds for all of it to settle in.”

  Rainie couldn’t imagine such a thing. “So what exactly do you know about me?” she couldn’t resist asking. “You say ‘everything,’ but that covers a lot of ground. Surely some of my memory folders remained inviolate.”

  Loni laughed softly. “Sorry. For a hacker like me, your firewall has a hole in it the size of a semi truck. I know that Peter has made you doubt yourself, and you’re terrified of getting involved in another relationship. You really aren’t a rotten judge of character, you know. You’ve got good instincts about people, and you need to learn to trust in them again.”

  Rainie passed a trembling hand over her brow.

  “Peter is very handsome,” Loni went on, “almost princely with that golden hair and aristocratic face. He’s also extremely charming and adept at assuming whatever mask he must in order to make a young woman fall in love with him. You weren’t his first victim.” Her eyes got that blank look again, and her face lost color. “There were two others, smart, beautiful, and wealthy. He lured them in, got control of their money, and then murdered them in cold blood, the first with small amounts of poison administered over a period of weeks, the second in a car accident, which he orchestrated by hiring a thug to tamper with her brakes.”

  The room seemed to tilt. Rainie gripped the arms of her chair, afraid she might topple from her seat. “Oh, God, it’s really true that he killed them, then?”

  Loni searched Rainie’s gaze. “You know he did. For you, that’s one of the hardest things for you to accept, that you can never resurface and bring him to justice for what he did to them.”

  “I hoped . . .” Rainie shook her head. Her throat felt vapor locked. When she could finally speak again, her voice came out as little more than a whisper. “Even knowing firsthand what he’s capable of, I still hoped he might have told me the story about killing them only to frighten me, an attempt to make me stay with him. I did Internet searches and verified that his first two wives did indeed die mysteriously, but a part of me couldn’t accept that he’d actually murdered them. They were so young. How could he do that to them?”

  “He did it for their money,” Loni answered. “He ended their lives and walked away with every cent. No remorse, no trace of conscience. Some people are born with no compassion, and the evil in their natures takes over. Peter Danning is a very sophisticated, highly intelligent serial killer. You weren’t his first victim, and unless he’s stopped, you won’t be his last. He feeds on the thrill of it. Pulling it off without getting caught makes him feel smugly superior. He honestly believes he’s a cut above ordinary people, and everyone, in his opinion, is ordinary except him.”

  In that same resigned tone, Loni continued. “He searches long and hard for his victims, you know. When he finds a likely candidate, he digs up every tidbit of information he can about her past to compile a profile on her. He wants no unexpected surprises. His favored targets are young, lonely women without any immediate family. Your profile suited his purposes perfectly, and he set out to become your dream man.”

  Rainie had suspected for a long while that Peter had scammed her from the start.

  “You interviewed on campus career day with a scout from Barrestol International,” Loni droned on. “But you never in a million years thought you might get an offer from such a huge, sought-after company. You couldn’t believe it when you answered your cell phone one afternoon a couple of weeks later and Peter Danning introduced himself. When he offered you an internship as his personal assistant, you thought it was the opportunity of a lifetime.” Loni pressed her fingertips to her temple, her gaze growing unfocused again, as if she were eavesdropping on a distant conversation. “When you got off the phone, you grabbed your friend Maggie and danced around the room, so happy and excited that you could barely talk.”

  Rainie remembered that moment. It had seemed like a dream come true, only it had been the beginning of a nightmare instead.

  Loni still had that distant look in her eyes. “You went for the interview. Peter charmed you. He was so handsome and polished. You were already falling a little in love with him before you even accepted the job.” Loni sat back on the chair. “Now, when wonderful things happen to you, your motto is, ‘If it seems too good to be true, run like hell.’”

  Rainie’s chin trembled. Since meeting Parker, that motto had been a singsong in her mind numerous times. He was too good to be true on all counts.

  “What are you going to do with this information?” Rainie forced herself to ask again. “No offense or anything, but I can’t help but feel terrified, not only for myself, but also for my friends.”

  “The ones who helped you escape?”

  “You know about that, too, then?”

  Loni nodded.

  “They put their necks on the chopping block for me,” Rainie pushed out. “I won’t plead for myself, but I will for them. If you turn me in, please don’t mention their involvement. Please.”

  Loni held up a hand. “Rainie, I told you that I won’t turn you in, and I meant it.”

  “If you don’t, and Peter finds me, you could be charged with a crime yourself. Have you thought of that? You’d be protecting a criminal.”

  “You’re a victim, not a criminal, and getting in trouble for protecting you isn’t a huge worry for me. I work with several law enforcement agencies, including the FBI.”

  “What?” Another wave of dizziness washed over Rainie. “Oh, God.”

  “Don’t panic. I’m not a cop. They utilize my gift to help them solve crimes, mostly child abduction cases. Trust me when I say that they’ve come to believe in my abilities. If I were to give them the dirt on Peter Danning, they wouldn’t hesitate to take it as gospel, and they definitely wouldn’t come after me for trying to help you.”

  Rainie was shaking now. How could she trust this woman to keep her word? She was in contact with the authorities, possibly on an everyday basis. With one slip of the tongue, she could destroy Rainie’s life.

  “I know it’s difficult for you to let your guard down again,” Loni said, “but if ever I’ve known anyone who needs friends, Rainie, it has to be you. What if Peter finds you?”

  “You’re a psychic, and you don’t know for sure if he will or not?”

  “I can’t always see into the future. Sometimes I see things that are happening right now, sometimes things that are going to happen, and sometimes things that occurred in the past. I’ve gotten better lately at controlling the visions, but they can still come to me willy-nilly. So, no, I’m not yet sure if Peter will find you. Having said that, though, I will warn you that he’s obsessed and trying his damnedest.” She paused, smoothing her palms over her knees. “You can’t run again, Rainie. Please promise me you won’t. You’re safer here with Parker and, by extension, with the rest of us. The Harrigans are wonderful people. If you come clean, they won’t hang you out to dry. Go to Parker. Tell him everything. Trust him to come through for you.”

  Rainie pushed to her feet so suddenly that Mojo’s teeth caught in her skirt, making him yelp. “Oh, sweetie.” With shaking hands, she picked up the puppy. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

  Mojo gave her an injured look and then buried his nose in the hollow of her neck. Stroking his soft fur, Rainie went to stand at the window. The very thought of coming clean made her quake with fright. Parker. She knew that
he was developing feelings for her. He’d be furious when he found out that she’d told him so many lies, either flat-out or by omission. She also needed to think about the consequences for him if she told him the whole story and he tried to protect her. Knowingly harboring a criminal was a serious offense.

  “I need some time to think,” she told Loni. “What seems simple to you isn’t so simple for me.”

  “It might be easier if you could turn loose of all that self-doubt. Just because you trusted the wrong person once doesn’t mean that you’re doomed to misjudge people again and again. Parker is one of the most loyal, kind, and honest men I’ve ever known. You haven’t made a mistake by letting yourself fall in love with him.”

  Rainie turned and held up a hand. “Hold on. I care about Parker as a friend, but that’s as far as it goes.”

  “Love is the most powerful emotion on earth,” Loni replied with a smile as she stood up. “You can’t fight it, so don’t try. He loves you, too, you know.”

  “He may think that right now, but how is he going to feel when he finds out I’m married? That isn’t to mention that I’ve broken the law and will go to prison if I ever resurface. What have I got to offer him but trouble and complications?” Rainie drew Mojo closer and rested her cheek against his softness. “Parker detests liars. When he finds out the truth about me, he’ll be absolutely furious.”

  “Wrong. He’ll do everything in his power to help you. I know he will.”

  “At what cost to himself?” Still clinging to the puppy, Rainie began to pace. “Where I come from, it isn’t okay to hurt your friends. Peter is my problem, not Parker’s.”

  Loni’s eyes went soft with understanding. “Caring for him that much, how you can tell yourself that you’re not in love with him?”

  Rainie wanted to argue the point, but she was too exhausted and drained. Besides, Loni was right. Rainie was coming to care very deeply for Parker Harrigan. She just wasn’t quite ready to bring the feeling out into the sunlight and examine it. “Caring for him only strengthens my resolve to leave. If I stay here, I might ruin his life.”