After Dark
Page 27
“You’re insane,” Denver whispered.
Tamara frowned. “Denver, is any of this true?”
“No, no, of course not, Mrs. Wyatt.” Denver swung around to face Mercer. “You can’t possibly believe this nonsense, sir.”
“I didn’t want to believe it,” Mercer said wearily. “But this morning after Emmett called to tell me that he suspected you were involved in the illegal excavation at the shelter, I had your house searched.”
Denver blanched. “You sent people into my home? But that’s illegal. You can’t do that.”
“We found the London family heirloom,” Mercer said. “The cabinet of curiosities, I believe it’s called. It was hidden in your basement storage closet. You stole it from Chester Brady’s shop after he was killed. And later you posed as the new owner in order to set Greeley up.”
Tamara touched Mercer’s shoulders. “Are you certain of this?”
“Yes, my dear,” Mercer said gently. “Quite certain.”
Right then and there Denver seemed to crumple. He sank in on himself as if suddenly too exhausted to stand. For a moment there was absolute silence in the study.
“How dare you?” Tamara’s patrician face twisted into a mask of anger and disgust. “You’ve ruined everything. Everything! For a year I’ve been working on the Guild Foundation. It was the first step toward changing the Guild’s image here in Cadence. And now this. If word gets out about the Guild’s connection to the illegal excavation at the shelter, we’ll be back to square one. The media will have a field day.”
“Don’t worry, my dear,” Mercer said soothingly. “Word won’t get out about any of this. It’s a Guild matter. It will be handled in the usual fashion.”
Lydia snorted softly. “Figures.”
Tamara glowered. “What about her? She’s not Guild. Who’s going to keep her quiet?”
There was a short, brittle silence. Everyone, including Lydia, looked at Emmett.
Emmett shrugged. He said nothing.
Lydia gave Tamara a cool smile. “You want to start changing the Guild’s image? Stop trying to police yourselves. Turn Denver over to the authorities. Take the hit in the press.”
“Impossible,” Tamara said instantly. “We can’t risk the bad publicity. The media already classify the Cadence Guild as little more than a very powerful mob. Turning Denver over to the police would only feed that negative image.”
Denver removed his glasses and began to polish the lenses with a cloth. “You can’t touch me, you know. My family will see to that. I don’t care how strong the Guild is, the Galbraith-Thorndykes can and will protect me.”
Mercer studied Emmett, who was standing at the window now, hands in his pockets.
“What do you say, Emmett?”
“Turn Denver over to the cops,” he said quietly. “His family can afford good lawyers. My guess is he won’t do any time. There’s very little hard evidence against him.”
“Then why go through the motions?” Tamara protested. “And the humiliation?”
“Because,” Emmett said, “in the end the big story won’t be Denver’s involvement in the dreamstone scheme. It will be the fact that the Cadence Guild went to the mainstream justice system about the situation. Lydia’s right. It’s a major step toward shaking the mob image.”
Tamara whirled to confront Mercer. “Listen to me! We can’t take the chance of destroying what we’ve been working for all year.”
Mercer looked thoughtfully at Lydia for a long moment. She had the feeling that she was being weighed and judged. Another little shiver went through her. She’d seen that same calculating intelligence in Emmett’s gaze from time to time. Perhaps power always revealed itself that way.
Mercer turned his head to smile gently at Tamara. They’re right, my dear. If we truly want to begin the task of reshaping the image of the Cadence Guild, it must start here. I will call the police myself.”
30
THE LINE OUT in front of Shrimpton’s House of
Ancient Horrors was three times as long as it had been the day following the news that Chester’s body had been discovered in the sarcophagus. The number of people waiting to see the first public exhibition of worked dreamstone was growing by the minute. Lydia had never seen her boss so happy.
“I got a raise,” she confided to Melanie.
“You deserve it.” Melanie grinned. “I still can’t believe you pulled this off. How in the world did you manage to convince the university authorities to allow the dreamstone to be put on display here, of all places?”
Lydia contemplated the crowd filing past the exhibits. “Let’s just say I pulled a few strings.”
Emmett walked out from behind a nearby display vault, where he had been studying a small dreamstone vase. “She means she convinced Mercer Wyatt to call in a few favors at the university.”
Melanie grimaced. “I won’t ask what kind of favors.”
“I didn’t ask either,” Lydia said cheerfully.
“Well, one thing is for certain,” Melanie said. “Shrimp will never forget this day as long as he lives. He’s positively glowing with pride. I wouldn’t be surprised if he leaves you the whole bloody museum in his will.”
Lydia held up a hand. “Please. Don’t even suggest it.”
Melanie laughed. “Just joking. My guess is you’ll soon be so busy doing private consulting work you’ll have to quit your job here at the museum.”
“We’ll see,” Lydia said. “It takes a while to build up a clientele.”
“Especially if you’re choosy,” Emmett murmured dryly.
She glared at him.
“Excuse me. I’d better go give Phil a hand at the front gate,” Melanie said smoothly. “I’m sure he’s exhausted from selling so many tickets.”
She waved as she plunged into the crowd.
Emmett stood quietly beside Lydia for a while. Together they watched the line of people wind through the exhibits.
“Melanie was right,” Emmett said eventually. “You probably won’t have any trouble attracting private clients.”
“We’ll see,” Lydia said again.
“Think you might need a partner on your next case?” Emmett asked conversationally.
“I doubt it. I mean, what are the odds?”
“Maybe you’ll require the services of a good ghost-hunter,” he suggested.
“Hard to say.”
“Well, then, how about a date tonight? Need one of those?”
“Thought you’d never ask.”