“Please have a seat.” Without offering a handshake to go with her strange greeting, JoAnna Hamilton sat across from us in a leather chair and crossed her ankles, her dress falling aside enough to reveal flat sandals on her brown feet.
I resumed my perch on the edge of the sofa. “You knew I’d be at the estate sale this morning.”
She inclined her head. “I wanted to see for myself if what I’d learned of you was true.”
“Because of the contract?”
Her gray eyes glittered. “Yes.”
“And what did you decide?”
“That I cannot allow you to touch that contract.”
“You plan on double-crossing Russo?” I glanced at Ace as I spoke, but he showed no reaction.
Ms. Hamilton shook her head. “If you’ve done your research, you’ll understand that I need this deal for my company, and I intend to abide by the contract. That’s all Russo needs to know. My word shouldn’t be dismissed lightly.”
“Then why not allow the reading?”
“Tell me, Ms. Rain. Would you like someone taking a peek into your life?” She gave me a derisive smile. “Maybe you wouldn’t care, but I have lived a lot longer than you have, and some secrets are meant to be kept.”
I felt exactly the same way, especially about those closest to me. I didn’t want to know their secrets.
“So to keep me from reading the contract, you cleared everyone out of that attic and had your goons roll me in that rug?”
“What are you talking about?” Her fingers dug into the armrests of her chair. “Why on earth would I do anything like that? I hadn’t even made you an offer—how could I make one before Russo actually contacted you? But now that you are here, I don’t think you’ll turn me down.”
That made even less sense. “You were going to bribe me not to touch the contract? You think I actually have a choice?”
She lifted her narrow shoulders in a half shrug that said my welfare wasn’t her concern. “You could simply pretend, couldn’t you?”
“It’s not that easy.”
She studied me, arching one brow. “No, I suppose for some it wouldn’t be. Still I must present my offer to you. A lot depends on it. Approaching you was the only solution my brother and I could agree on.”
“Your brother?”
“Ralph Shatlock. He’s a scientist.”
My intuition was kicking in major time. “What does he have to do with this contract?”
“You don’t know?”
I stifled my exasperation. “I may need to do this reading for Nicholas Russo, but I am not in his confidence.” I didn’t hide the distaste in my voice. I glanced at Ace to see if he’d volunteer anything.
“Don’t look at me,” he said. “I’m just paid to watch.”
Hamilton’s mouth pursed, increasing the wrinkles around her lips, despite the Botox injections I suspected she paid for on a regular basis. Whoever said the rich aged at the same rate as the poor didn’t know what they were talking about. Money didn’t eliminate the years of effort when you scraped and built a company from the bottom up, but it did buy the latest products and procedures to erase some of the results.
“My brother,” Ms. Hamilton said, “is an expert on nanotechnology. His team is working on a series of 3D printers that use a mix of hardware and software to copy pretty much anything that has ever existed or can be imagined—a fork, a book, a vase, and even human organs. Layer upon layer, the printer, using raw materials or even cells from a patient’s body, builds whatever you need. In the case of organs, the composition is scanned from the original organ still inside the patient’s body or scanning other similar healthy organs from a relative as a base. The flaws are fixed, the DNA matched perfectly. That means no rejection. Such technology, as you must realize, is earth-shattering. We’re not the only ones developing these printers, but we hope our partnership with Nicholas Russo will help us be the first to get them into the population on a large scale.”
I’d heard of people who talked about using nanotechnology to help an organ repair itself, but to “print” an entire new one? That sounded like science fiction.
Next to me, Ace was nodding. “Saw a documentary on TV. They printed a real metal wrench with moveable parts. Quite amazing.”
Hamilton didn’t look impressed. “That’s one of my competitors—not the most advanced, though. They have funds but not the vision.”
“Your brother is head of your research department?” I asked doubtfully. Since discovering my ability, I had learned to be less skeptical about a lot of odd things, but printing organs was over the top.
She smiled. “You still don’t believe.” There was a gleam in her eyes I didn’t trust. With a graceful movement, she came to her feet. “Come with me.” She left the room without waiting to see if we would follow. I scrambled after her.
She led us through a spacious hallway to a staircase going downward. Not as wide as the curving one in her entryway, but large enough to support four adults abreast. I glanced at Ace, feeling a tremor of anxiety, but his grin was eager.
We descended into a large family room and proceeded down a long hallway to a large metal door that seemed out of place in this residential setting. Hamilton punched in a code on a pad by the door. “A work of the finest engineering, this lab—the whole basement, actually—given that we’re so close to the water. Haven’t had one problem with seepage. This isn’t our main facility, of course, but it is unknown to my competitors, so my brother does a lot of his work here these days. Work he does alone or with only a couple of assistants. He’s not here now, or you could meet him, but I can show you something I think will impress you.”
The lab consisted of an impossibly large space filled with tables, machinery, and computers. There was too much to take in all at once, so I focused where Hamilton was pointing. “This is a printer,” she said of the large, rectangular machine that stood as tall as my waist. “Probably the fastest in existence. Of course, while we hope to see every home in the world equipped with one of these—a smaller, less expensive version, of course—the real money will be in nanofactories where anything a person desires will be created at almost zero cost from base materials, or even recycled materials. Need a new vacuum? Throw in the old one, click on a design, and out it comes. It’s the future.”
She went on, but I didn’t hear. I was staring at the two identical music boxes on a table next to the 3D printer. One of them had been in my blue shopping bag that morning when I set it down to check the rug for imprints. Now here it was—how could she claim not to have something to do with my abduction?
JoAnna Hamilton saw my stare and picked them both up. “Which is the real one? Can you guess? There wasn’t time to reproduce the music assembly, but since the real one is broken anyway, you wouldn’t be able to tell by that. Go ahead, examine them.” She replaced the boxes on the table.
I ran my finger over the mother-of-pearl roses and the maple exterior, hefting each in turn. Which was the real antique? Without my ability to read the imprints I knew were on the original, I really couldn’t tell.
“Where did you get them?” I asked.
She laughed. “When you disappeared so suddenly, I went back to the attic and took one out of a shopping bag I found there. I noticed you’d been carrying a similar bag, and I thought it might make a good gift for you when we finally had our chat. I had my brother scan and print a copy so you could see for yourself exactly what’s at stake with this contract.”
That meant she’d expected me to investigate her all along and had specifically prepared this demonstration. However, how she’d known about me in the first place was still a mystery. It had to be from someone inside Russo’s organization.
“You may keep it,” she said, tapping one of the music boxes.
I made no move to take it. “A bribe?”
“Of course not. Pay me for it if you wish, though it’s not necessary. I would simply ask you to consider rejecting Russo’s request to read his contract.
”
“I can’t do that,” I said slowly. “I have a family.” I held her gray eyes for a long minute, and in the end, she was the one who looked away.
She placed one of the music boxes in my hands, and my fingers curled around it only to prevent it from falling. “Very well. Then perhaps you’ll consider telling him only what is connected to the contract. Nothing else.”
“I don’t know that I can lie to Russo.”
She sighed. “If you don’t, people will die.”
What was that supposed to mean?
Ace snorted. “Even if you and Russo don’t develop this stuff, others will. Lives will still be saved. Hunger ended everywhere, etcetera, etcetera. Why do you think you are the only ones who can do it right? Why should you be the ones to profit?”
Anger flashed in Hamilton’s eyes. “I’m not talking about nanotechnology or these printers. You know absolutely nothing. And how dare you talk to me like that in my own house!” The ice in her voice would have cowed most intelligent men, but Ace stood there, another stupid grin plastered on his narrow face.
Time to leave while we still might get out in one piece. “Shut up.” I pushed Ace toward the door. To Ms. Hamilton, I added, “Don’t listen to him. He’s not really with me.” Perhaps finally becoming aware of his vulnerability, Ace moved across the room and out the door before us. I started to follow.
“Will you consider my offer?” Hamilton asked, the ice in her voice gone.
I paused in mid-step, glancing at Ace’s retreating back to make sure he couldn’t hear. “What offer is that exactly?”
“I will pay you a hundred thousand dollars to keep quiet about anything you find on that contract.”
“Anything that doesn’t have to do with a double cross, you mean?”
She inclined her head. There was a tenseness in her face, an all too human plea I couldn’t ignore.
“I’m not even sure why you’re worried,” I said. “Most people don’t believe I can read imprints.”
She gestured to the room around us. “I’ve seen the extraordinary. With a brother like mine, life is never common. Besides, if you weren’t on the level, Russo wouldn’t be using you.”
Using me. That’s what people like Russo did best. I sighed. “Look, you don’t have to pay me. I don’t use my ability that way. Financial gain isn’t my first priority, or believe me, I could make a lot more money than as a consultant for the police. If whatever you have to hide has nothing to do with your business with Russo, I’ll do my best not to tell him. Personal lives should remain personal.”
“What if it does have something to do with Russo but not with his business?”
It was an odd question. Was she nursing a personal crush for the man? No, she was far too old. Perhaps she had another business deal with one of his competitors. Or perhaps she had stiffed him in the past. “One thing I made clear to Russo was that the information I passed on couldn’t lead to any deaths. I meant it.”
She studied me, as though searching my depths to see if I told the truth. Finally, she relaxed. “I used to be like you. A very long time ago.”
I don’t think so, I thought. But I said nothing as I preceded her out of the room, up the stairs, through the sitting room, and into the entryway where Ace was opening the door.
I followed him onto the front porch and down the stairs, absently stepping over the line of ants. JoAnna Hamilton followed us. “I’ll be in touch,” she said.
Her eye caught on the ants. Lifting up her dress slightly, she stepped on them, crushing them into black smears.
Chapter 8
On the way back to my store, I pondered again how Ace had claimed to know nothing about JoAnna Hamilton or Russo’s business and yet had driven straight to her house. I wasn’t sure if that meant anything. He could have been watching her for Russo, or maybe as a private detective, he simply kept up on people his clients were interested in.
One thing for sure: Hamilton had a secret she wanted kept from Russo, and it was entirely possible she’d had me kidnapped that morning to scare me into keeping quiet once Russo made his request. Maybe she’d planned to make me disappear until Shannon and Paige stopped her men. In fact, unless employees from In Loving Memory had been trying to keep the rug away from discovery, there wasn’t another soul I could think of who might have an interest in me.
Wait. What about Russo and Hamilton’s competitors? Maybe they’d heard about the contract and my future reading and thought taking me would prevent the business deal.
Not likely.
What was I overlooking? Though my gut said Hamilton wasn’t responsible for the rug incident, she was still my main suspect—and Shannon was going to flip when he heard I’d gone to see her.
Of course, what he didn’t know couldn’t hurt me. I grinned.
“What’s so funny?” Ace asked.
My grin vanished. “Nothing. What was that attitude back at Hamilton’s anyway? You’ve got a chip on your shoulder the size of Vermont.”
“Just telling it like it is. These people aren’t even real. They pay to get whatever they want. The only people who walk away from them unscathed are those who have the same kind of power.”
“You going to tell your employer about this visit?”
“If it’s relevant.”
It certainly was. If Russo suspected Hamilton was paying me to withhold information, I’d be in big trouble.
“I’m going to give Russo what he wants,” I told Ace. “What I promised.”
“How are you going to do that?” Following directions I’d given him earlier, Ace pulled over to the side of the road opposite the little alley that would lead back through the music shop to my side of the block.
“What do you mean?” I froze, my hand on the door.
“You didn’t touch a single thing except that music box.” He pointed at the box I’d almost forgotten in my lap. “Why’s that, Autumn Rain? Whenever I used to see you in the police department, and that time we worked together, you were always touching everything. But not today.”
I knew my face betrayed me, but braving the insinuation, I lifted a hand. “No gloves. Do you know how tiring it is to always experience imprints? Of course not. You have no idea.” The words were the truth at least, which might help me look sincere.
“This is different. You’re on a case.” His voice was less sure now.
“JoAnna Hamilton knows what I can do. Unlike you, I’m not going to offend the woman in her own home. Besides, I almost died today, trapped in a rug with the ugliest imprint I’ve seen in months. That took a lot out of me.” I shook my head. “Look, I’m finished here. Thanks for the ride. Next time I’ll ask the cops instead.”
I pushed the door open and escaped. The heat on the sidewalk wasn’t as noticeable as before, and I checked my phone for the time. Almost six, and that meant nearly time to close up. If I hurried, I could let whoever might be manning Autumn’s Antiques go home or back to Jake’s store. Since we’d drifted apart, Jake had begun staying open an hour later, probably so we didn’t have that awkward moment when we both headed home at the same time. With my unreliable car, leaving before Jake often meant walking home, instead of on the back of his motorbike, but I didn’t mind. Of course, tonight I’d have a police escort.
My phone showed a text from Cody Beckett containing a phone number for Easton Godfrey, the scientist he’d told me about. As soon as I could find a snatch of time, I’d call and see if he had any ideas about fixing what was wrong with me.
I had to bang on the back door of the music shop for Stu to let me in so I could go through his shop to get to my store, but when I finally stepped onto the sidewalk, the police car was gone. I hoped that meant Shannon had pulled them off detail and not that they’d discovered my subterfuge. I paused to stare up the street, but the white van I’d seen with Ace was also gone. Maybe he’d been right about it after all.
The outside door to my shop was unlocked and Thera was at the counter helping a customer who was buying
more of Jake’s herbs than my antiques, but our connected computers were set up to sort out what funds belonged where. If Jake became involved with Kolonda, I wondered if we would be able to continue the system. I hoped so. It really helped on the days I went antique hunting, or when I went out with Shannon and Paige to work a case. Sharing our two main employees, both part-timers, also made sense since our rushes tended to come at different times.
Thera smiled at me as I entered. She was a large woman with stately white hair and a kind face, and as usual, she wore bulky blue beads around her neck that she claimed were calming. “You have a visitor in the back.” She reached for the music box. “That’s beautiful.”
“Thanks, Thera. I can close up, so unless Jake needs your help over there, you can head out.”
She set the music box on the counter. “Jake’s gone already, and he’s left only Randa, so I’ll stay in case she needs help. And before you ask, yes, I’m still planning on being here in the morning. Randa is, too, though I heard her saying something about leaving early for a date.”
Saturdays were my busiest day, so both our employees usually came in. Sometimes Tawnia as well, especially if I had an appointment. I also had a martial arts lesson Saturday mornings, but that was before the store opened.
“Oh, good. I’m glad you’ll both be here. I asked Tawnia to work too because I think I’ll be on a case with the police.” I paused before asking. “How are your grandchildren? Are you going to see them this weekend?”
“Yep, on Sunday. They’re growing like weeds. Just like your little niece.”
I groaned. “I can’t believe she’s almost walking. Tawnia walked at nine months, but I was ten and a half.” Summer had carried me everywhere, Winter had told me. I’d eaten with them, slept with them, and grabbed things from their hands as they worked. I could imagine them both, toting me around the Herb Shoppe, letting me play with empty boxes and picking me up the second I let out a peep. They had waited years for a baby, and to them everything I did was amazing.
Warmth filled me as I remembered my adoptive parents. I’d been very lucky. Tawnia had landed with good people too, but they’d been uptight and more than a little pushy. She was driven toward perfection and success from an early age. With Destiny, she was trying to strike a balance between my upbringing and hers. On the other hand, I was simply spoiling my niece rotten.
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