“I can sense that they’re hot. Anyone with a scrap of talent could figure that out.” She stopped a short distance away. “But I don’t see fireworks, rainbows and lightning.”
“That’s because you’re not looking at what I’m looking at.”
“What are you looking at?”
“You.”
She took a step closer, and then another, until she was only a foot away. She raised her hand and brushed her fingertips across the phoenix tattoo that covered his shoulder.
“Why couldn’t you sleep?” she asked.
“A dream woke me.”
“A bad one,” she said. It was not a question.
“A recurring one.”
“Was it about the woman you were dating? The one who was killed here in this room?”
“Cassidy Lawrence. Good guess.”
“Not a guess,” Abby said. “Intuition. What really happened that night?”
“Damned if I know.” He exhaled slowly. “I was on an assignment with that private contractor I told you about. I finished the job earlyand got the feeling that I needed to get back here to the Copper Beach house as soon as possible. I arrived sometime after midnight. Knew something was wrong immediately.”
“Bad energy?”
“There was definitely some of that, but the really big clue was that the alarm system had been turned off.”
“By Cassidy?”
“I don’t know. I never gave her the code. Maybe she had some good hacking skills. But my theory is that it was the killer who deactivated the system. I entered the house. Nothing appeared to be disturbed, but I could feel the psychic residue that murder always leaves. Same thing I sensed today at Webber’s house. Death leaves a calling card. I found Cassidy’s body in here. There was no obvious sign of violence. The authorities and everyone else concluded that she had taken an overdose of some exotic club drugs.”
“Suicide?”
“No. I’m sure of it. Trust me, Cassidy was not the type.”
“But you never found the killer.”
“No.”
“What do you think happened that night?” Abby asked.
“I’ve gone over and over all possible scenarios, and I keep coming back to the only one that works. It was a setup right from the beginning.”
“What do you mean?”
“Cassidy must have helped engineer the whole thing. I don’t want to believe it, because it makes me look so damned stupid, but there’s no other explanation that fits. Serves me right for breaking the rules.”
“What rules?”
“Never date the employees.”
“Where did you meet her?”
“At a gem-and-mineral show in Arizona. I hit most of the big events each year, because you never know what might show up. Once in awhile, there’s a hot stone. At that show, one of the dealers had a very interesting chunk of psi-infused quartz. It was obvious that he didn’t realize what he had. In fact, the only other person in the vicinity who clearly recognized the nature of the quartz was the spectacular-looking woman standing next to me.”
“Cassidy.”
