“You must be Lander Knox,” Abby said.
“So you figured that out, did you?” Lander looked amused.
“Sam Coppersmith is the one who worked out your real identity.”
“I see. Well, no harm done. When this is over, I will disappear again, just like I did a few years ago, when I wanted everyone to think that I was dead.”
Dawson shook his head. “You shouldn’t have come, Abby. He’s a total psycho. Now he’ll kill both of us.”
“No,” Lander said. “I’m not going to kill either of you, not unless you force me to take extreme measures.”
“Bullshit,” Dawson muttered.
“Why should I kill you or your sister?” Lander asked, in a voice of perfect reason. “She followed all the rules today. She came alone, as instructed. Paid a private charter service to drop her off at the cabin. She knows what will happen if I hear or see another boat or if there’s any sign of a floatplane, don’t you, Abby?”
“Yes,” she said. “You’ll kill Dawson.”
“Exactly right.” Lander gave her an approving smile. “But if everyone sticks to the plan, you both will walk away from this meeting, and I will sail away. You won’t ever see me again.”
“Why the gun?” Abby asked. “You’ve already murdered at least two book dealers by paranormal means, and I’m betting that you’ve killed others the same way.”
“I have discovered that people tend to take guns more seriously than they do the paranormal. A gun concentrates the attention.”
“Sam said something similar.”
“And those people you say I murdered were all victims of cardiac arrest. There is nothing to tie me to their deaths.” He glanced at the gun. “Certainly not this device.”
“Device?” Abby took a second look at the weapon in his hand.
“It looks like a gun, but it isn’t a traditional pistol. It’s crystal-powered. Kills without leaving a trace.”
“He’s lying about letting us go,” Dawson said wearily. “He’s a damned psychopath. He lies as easily as he breathes. He’s been stalking you for months, using Grandmother and me. He’s the one who set up the Ponzi scheme and suckered Grandmother and me into investing in it.”
Lander gave Abby a warm, charming smile. “I don’t want to have to kill anyone. All I want is the lab book. Once you’ve broken the encryption and I’ve verified that it’s the right book, we’ll take a short cruise. I’ll put you and Dawson ashore on one of the uninhabited islands here in the San Juans. It may take you a while, but sooner or later you’ll manage to flag down a passing boat. Plenty of time for me to disappear.”
“What if we go to the police?” Abby said.
Lander shrugged. “They wouldn’t believe you. There was no ransom paid. No money changed hands. At best, the kidnapping story will be viewed as a publicity stunt designed to help your father sell more books. Speaking of books, let me see Willis’s notebook. I want to be sure you brought the right one.”
“Afraid of being scammed the way you scammed Dawson?” Abby asked.
“You wouldn’t take the risk,” Lander said. “You know that it would cost your brother his life, and your own as well. But after going to allthis trouble, I want to be certain that the book you found is the right one. You know how it is in the collectors’ market, so many frauds and forgeries out there.”
“True.” Abby put the package down on the desk and started to peel off the tape she had used to secure the wrapping paper. “How will you know if this is the right lab book?”
“I’ll know,” Lander said. He moved closer to the desk to get a better look at the package. “In fact, I can already sense some energy around it.”
“Encryption energy.” Abby finished unwrapping the book. The atmosphere inside the cabin heated a little, but she knew that it wasn’t all coming from the lab book. Lander had heightened his talent. He was powerful. The strange gun in his hand was suddenly a luminous green. A new chill went through her.
“You used a crystal from the Phoenix Mine to power that weapon,” she said.
He followed her gaze to the gun and gave her another approving smile. “Very good observation. My father thoughtfully kept one crystal as a souvenir. I ran a lot of experiments on it before I finally realized what it could do.”
“That’s what you used to kill Thaddeus Webber and the other dealer.”
“Yes. I know the East Coast hot-books market quite well. I’ve been dealing in it anonymously for some time now. But sadly, I lacked connections here in the Pacific Northwest.”
“But your contacts back east knew how to find Thaddeus.”
