"I don't think she killed Spyder. I think the evidence must have been
compelling. I can't imagine how Crandall could have slanted it so much
in her direction if it wasn't already pointing that way. Enter Smart
Willetts. Keller had to have been right between a rock and a hard
place with her story, because his co-counsel was already embroiled in
an affair--or at least an infatuation--with her."
Kiel watched the pedestrians passing by. All of them seemed to be
wearing designer clothes. A town for the very rich. "So where does
that leave you? If you believe Trudi didn't kill Spyder, can you
believe she would buy someone to make sure Keller was stopped?"
"I can't, Kiel. I don't know where this is coming from, or if I'm
losing my mind. I know she's lived in Aspen a long time and she has
connections out the wazoo but I just can't see her getting so
desperate, when she didn't do the murder, that she'd murder the
prosecutor, instead. And no matter how much was at stake for Smart
Wil-lett, I can't see him plotting Keller's murder, either."
Kiel ran his fingers back and forth over the fine leather grain of
Keller's Day-Timer, thinking, saying nothing. "Am I wrong, Kiel?"
He gave a quick shake of his head. "Your instincts are always clean,
Robyn." He reached for her hand. "I'm just concerned that you're
second-guessing your selL
"Just adjusting theory to fact. But even if I am, Kiel, it's because
even though I may believe her, I don't like Trudi Candelaria. She knew
she could wrap Smart Willetts around her little finger." She turned
her hand in Kiel's and held tight to him. "And that's exactly what she
set out to do."
"I'm not sure I get the connection."
"Michael Massie told me the only thing Trudi Candelaria cared about was
Trudi Candelaria. Is that enough to suggest she would murder
Keller?"
"Not necessarily... but--" he looked askance at her, teasing her "--I'm
still not following this tortured piece of reasoning, Robyn."
Her own brows raised. "If the logic seems tortured," she said, "it's
because things didn't stay simple for Trudi. She actually fell in love
with Smart, and that had to come as a surprise to her. If they are in
love, bully for them. But she used him first. I think she absolutely
was prepared to let Stuart sacrifice his credibility and his career and
flush his reputation trying to save her bacon. That's not what I call
love."
"Me, either."
"The problem is, all of this leads us back to square one--and I could
be dead wrong." She pulled a moue at her choice of words there, but
went on. "Smart had so much to lose that it makes sense, if anyone
killed Keller, if anyone had to kill him, it would he Stuart
Willetts."
"And the problem with that" Kiel said, still holding her hand, still
stroking his thumb along the life line carved in her palm, "is that
with all Trudi's money, what did he have to lose, really? With that
kind of backing, he didn't need his credibility or his career-and the
risk was minimal. Who was ever going to uncover all this?"
Robyn sighed in frustration and let her head fall back against the
headrest. "I keep thinking it's all too paranoid by half to believe
Ken was murdered, anyway."
Kiel understood her frustration, which paralleled his own. Angelo's
answer to his questions had never really satisfied Kiel.
If, as Angelo stated, he had been the mortal Keller Trueblood, and
there seemed little doubt of that as Keller's memories kept surfacing,
then why didn't Kiel know he'd been murdered, why didn't he have a
sense of evil having been perpetrated against him, why couldn't he come
into the Hereafter like Agatha Orben demanding that her death be
avenged--all remained unanswered questions.
So while RObyn was dealing with the lingering doubts and fearing
herself paranoid, he knew she had reason, if only because this case had
been brought to the Denver Branch of Avenging Angels. There must be
something to avenge.
He just couldn't tell her why, and that constraint was wearing very
thin.
Chapter Eight
The only thing to do was plunge ahead. He turned to look at Robyn.
"Are we going to find Lucinda Mont-bank at this cappuccino bar?"
She laughed, relieved, he supposed, for any excuse to stop the
ruminating and get on with what lay before them. "Maybe. Since she
owns the building, her cappuccino is free, which is exactly the way she
likes everything." Robyn pointed across the street to a renovated
structure from the 1890s. "But Lucinda Montbank's engineering firm has
the entire second floor of that building. That's why we're parked
here."
As it turned out, Lucinda Montbank was in the cappuccino bar Sipping a
rare blend of beans and holding court in her inimitable manner on the
state of the complex interactions between the precious metal and
commodities market, real estate and skiing tourism.
A natural blonde, Lucy wore her hair in an elegant French roll. Her
violet eyes, enhanced by colored contact lenses, widened with surprise
bordering on consternation when she spotted Robyn waving from behind
the back of one of Lucy's faithful-followers.
Caught off guard by her friend's brief flash of dismay, Robyn laughed
uneasily. "Lucy, you look like you've seen a ghost!"
Lucy gave a sigh. "Well, it's just shame on me not to have kept in
touch with you. I heard you were in town, but I didn't believe it."
She stepped off the stool wearing expensive leather pumps and an
exquisite dove gray pin-striped suit. At a negligent wave of her hand,
the crowd dispersed, all of them, even the twenty-fiveish young man
Robyn recognized as Lucy's leading minion.
Lucy reached for her and touched both Robyn's cheeks with hers, then
held her at arm's length. "Robyn, you look absolutely... well!"
"I only just ended my therapy, but I am much better these days. No
limp, no cane." Her eyes flicked to Kiel. None of that had been true
before he came along. "Michael said to tell you hello. Says you're
still the best."
"Ah, Michael. Of course he let me know how you were doing from time to
time. I understand it's been a terrible year for you. Come. Sit down
and catch' me up. I thought your memories of Aspen might be so vile as
to keep you away forever--and I feel responsible, of course. I
should've provided expert guidance for you in the Hallelujah. The
accident might never have happened if I had just done that one
thing."
"Lucy, you did offer. Keller and I refused. Please don't give it
another thought." Throughout their exchange, Lucy was eyeing Kiel.
:"I'd like you to meet a friend of mine. Lucinda Montbank, Kiel
Alighieri. Kiel is working with me now, and you're right. I should
have called you the minute we got into town."
Lucy offered her hand. Kiel's made-up surname seemed to go right by
her, as well. "You're working with Robyn?" she asked. "In what
capacity?"
"An investigator." He took Lucy's hand in both of h
is but saved the
winning thousand-candle smile. Robyn wanted instinctively to leap into
the silent standoff he-tween them--they reminded her of wild cats
circling and snarling, but she also knew it was Lucy's style to get a
man's measure through sheer force of will and intimidation.
The first time Keller met Lucy, he backed off the handshake and blew on
his fingers with a rueful smile, acknowledging her as a high-powered
woman. Keller's dry wit had won her over, losing the battle but
ultimately winning the war.
Lucinda Montbank lived for such metaphorical spitting contests.
Kiel, however, was not' backing off.
Tension crackled between Kiel and Lucinda like electricity firing down
high-voltage transmission lines. He'd left the word investigator out
there like a gauntlet Lucy could only take up at her peril. If she
cared, if investigating anything intersected with anything she cared
about.
Robyn held her breath.
The force of Kiel's will, the dominance of his compelling eyes, the
sheer magnetism of his strength and character, held her spellbound. She
had rarely seen anyone, man or woman, hold their own when Lucinda
Mont-bank chose to prevail. In Kiel, Lucy had met her match, and to
see him go toe-to-toe with her made Robyn's flesh tingle as it had not
donein all the months since Keller had died. Or, until Kiel had made
love to her and she pretended it was Keller.
The threat of feeling again made her throat close tight.
The reminder of what it was to be so deeply attracted to a man as she
was to Kiel, to an angel, now, left her mind numb and her body utterly
tuned to his every nuance. She fought to focus on the confrontation.
Choosing to sidestep his gauntlet, Lucy blinked first. Robyn sucked in
her first breath in several long seconds. She'd never seen her friend,
this formidable woman, come away so empty-handed.
"Well." Lucy was the one to offer the dazzling smile first. "A real
man What a pleasure."
Kiel answered with a sardonic grin. Robyn thought she understood its
meaning. A real man he wasn't, no more than Pinocchio was a real boy.
Her thinking intruded into his mind, startling him, triggering
amusement. He turned to Robyn, surprise and mock fire lighting his
eyes.
Time stopped in a spell he cast, like the one he had created the night
before. Robyn's thinking of Pinocchio made him realize the connection
between their souls was intact because, less than thirty-six hours
before, he'd thought to himself how lucky it was that old Gepetto was
not his creator.
Coincidence? No. Not between Keller and Robyn, not between Kiel and
Robyn. The awareness that sizzled between them was sexual, and more.
Far more. Lucy's smile remained unchanged, comical in its persistence
in the time warp Kiel had created.
"Pinocchio?" His expression bespoke sharp irritation, but his eyes
smiled.
"Yes. Pinocchio." They squared off over the nonsense issue, as lovers
square off for the heat of the battle and the thrill of the dare. A
wave of pure, intense pleasure moved through her. She lifted her chin.
"You know, the little wooden puppet boy who wanted more than anything
to be a... a real boy."
He could have no reason to wish to be a real man, except that he did.
He wished to kiss her like a man, to silence her smart mouth with his,
to answer her, to cross her battle lines and take her.
His eyes fixed on her lips. His throat tightened, his mostly human
angel heart sped. They got no closer than arms's length, but he could
feel the heat of her desire and she could smell the need in him to
throw off his angel cloak and be a man.
The moment stretched. The sizzle in the air invoked a smell only
lightning leaves behind. He broke off his gaze and instinctively
reached to cradle her cheek in his hand. When he touched her, he
satisfied her desire, and then he hid it from her, and then he left her
smiling at Pinocchio images. In physical pain just like a real man, a
frustrated man, Kiel ended his folly and closed the time warp.
LUcy's smile faded naturally, and Robyn's broadened. It was as if he
and Robyn had only shared a private joke, but never throbbed at each
other like a real and needy woman and a real and needy man.
He'd fooled this shark of a woman, this harridan and friend of Robyn's,
with a stand she was unused to facing. But that didn't lessen his
respect. Lucinda Mont-bank on their side was a far better thing than
Lucinda Montbank opposing them.
But his body still throbbed. A real man, she'd said. A pleasure. "A
pleasure," he agreed.
Robyn let her belated smile fade. Disoriented a moment, and confused
at all the times in Kiel's presence that she'd become so hazy, she
shook her head to clear it. "Lucy, could I... could we impose on your
time? If we could talk privately in your office..."
"Of course you can, Robyn." Turning to the cappuccino bar owner, Lucy
ordered up a carafe of coffee and a selection of pastries, then led the
way out, one arm looped through Robyn's, the other through Kiel's.
Robyn had no opportunity even to exchange glances with Kiel while they
crossed the street and went up via an antique cage elevator to Lucy's
offices.
Done in silver and brown, the decor was as upscale as any New York
firm. Lucy's display of artifacts added to the ambience. Roaring Fork
Valley historical mining heritage.
Rather than sitting behind her expansive glass desk, which rested on
pillars of locally mined marble, Lucy chose to sit in a conversation
grouping with her back to the window. Kiel took the deep burgundy
leather chair to her left, and Robyn sat across.
She poured the hot beverage, offered the plate of pastries around, then
sank back into her chair. "So. What can I do for you? Are you
interested in getting back to your story for the Smithsonian?"
"The historical murders?" Robyn shook her head. "I'm not even sure
they're still interested, so I can't rule it out, but this is something
much closer to home, Lucy." She frowned. Even though she had only
talked to Trudi Candelaria and Stuart Willetts last night, Robyn would
almost have expected Lucy to have caught wind of it. Her connections
and ties in Aspen were just that sophisticated-and that simple. "I
checked into The Chandler House yesterday--"
"As I said," Lucy interrupted, "I heard that you were here, but...
without a clue as to why."
"Where did you hear?" Kiel asked, sitting back, crossing an ankle over
the opposite knee. His voice was soft as warm butter, sharp-edged as a
knife. Lucy blinked at him. "I don't remember, Mr, Alighie-ri. I
hear a lot of things."
Robyffs friend still looked no older than thirty-five, but the concern
creasing her features betrayed her pampered skin by at least ten years.
Robyn sent Kiel a look. She could see these two were going to be at
each other's throats all the time.
Lucy turned away from Kiel. "Robyn, I am surprised you could come back
to Aspen
for any reason."
"I'm not sure I would ever have returned, Lucy. You're right about the
memories. If I had never come back here again, it wouldn't have been a
great loss to me." '
"Believe me, everyone here understands that--at least those of us who
knew you and Keller. So what was important enough to you to overcome
all that?"
Robyn took a deep breath and plunged ahead. "Lucy, I have serious
questions about the timing of Keller's death. The truth is, I don't
think the cave-in at the Hallelujah was an accident."
Lucy paled. "Dear God, Robyn, you can't be serious! Are you?"
"I am. I think someone set out to cause that collapse. Massie and I
were talking about it a few nights ago. I think someone had very good
reason to want Keller out of the way. I think someone knew we were
going to the Hallelujah that morning and took the opportunity to make
certain Keller never made it out alive."
Lucy's eyes widened in horror and disbelief. "Who could he so twisted?
So cruel? So... so evil?"
"Someone who had everything to lose," Kiel suggested softly. "If your
life was at stake, like, say, Trudi Candelaria must have believed hers
was," he went on, "wOuldn't you go to just about any lengths?"
"Including murdering the prosecutor?" Lucy asked. "I'm a hard woman,
Mr. Alighieri. You'll find those who swear I breakfast on nails. I
might even have entertained--for a moment--some similar notion had I
been in such circumstances." She leaned back, daring to be judged. "I
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