Page 85 of A Seer and Present Danger

“You know I’m not.”

She paused, staring into the middle distance for a second, just long enough I thought about making a run for it. But she jerked the gun. “Go. That way.” She pointed at the dining area. “Away from the land line.”

“Land line?” I said innocently. “Is it even working? In this weather?”

“We aren’t going to find out. Move.”

I snuck a look at Vandre. His hand was flat on the floor, and I swear his fingers tightened. Was he conscious? Was he trying to manipulate the future?

For real, how could I get in on that action?

“Booth?” I asked angling toward the door.

“No. The table. There in the middle. Sit.”

I did as she said, mind racing for a plan. The rain was a torrent, an ocean above drowning us below. Wind gusted hard enough, I wondered how many roofing tiles Buzz would have to replace.

Than’s comment from the book club rolled through my brain. This is not the end.

Right. I refused to let my story end here. Vandre could do things to the future by pressing his palm against something. Why not give it a whirl?

I mean, if not when a woman was holding a gun to my head, then when?

But if I put my hand on the table, she’d notice. Instead, I put my hand on my thigh, over my apron.

“You’re going to tell me everything you know about Pandora’s box,” she said, walking backward slowly so she could lock the front door.

There went that quick escape.

“You know Hugo found it,” she said. “Where did he put it?”

“I don’t know if Hugo found it or not,” I said. “It was stored in a storage unit in Ordinary.”

“Yes.” She sounded excited now. “Yes. It was in Ordinary in the storage unit. Hugo got to it. He was going to give it to me. I almost had it. Then he lied! Dirty thief.”

“So, you stabbed him?”

“I only stabbed him because he wouldn’t give it to me. He wouldn’t tell me where it was! It was his fault. If he’d just told me, I wouldn’t have stabbed him.”

Okay, this was starting to make sense. Hugo contacted her to sell Pandora’s box because she could get big money for shady antiques.

But Hugo wasn’t new to the black-market game. He’d been smart enough not to bring Pandora’s box with him to their first meeting in case Aggie showed up with a gun. Or knife.

He’d also contacted Vandre so that another person would know what he had found.

Unfortunately, none of that had helped him.

“You knew there weren’t any security cameras behind the diner, didn’t you? Is that why you killed him out there?”

“It wasn’t…” She shook her head. “I don’t go around randomly killing people. Too messy. Leaves a trail.”

Hugo, Kenny, I thought. Maybe not random, but you killed them.

“Vandre was never stalking you, was he?”

She made a sour face. “He thought I stole from him.”

“An antique?”