by Jayne Castle
"We need to talk," the janitor said, leaning on his mop. "Better have your assistant hold your calls for a while."
"Who are you?"
"At the moment I'm the only thing standing between you and an extended stay in prison."
"Not my vacation destination of choice. What's going on here?"
The janitor took a small packet out of one pocket. "I think you've been set up to take the fall for dealing the crap they call enchantment dust."
"What in the name of green hell?" Ormond held out his hand. "Let me see that."
The janitor tossed it to him without comment.
He caught the plastic bag and unsealed it cautiously. There was no need to taste or sniff the powder inside. His parapsych senses were very acute. This close to the drug, he could feel the faint tingle on the paranormal wavelengths to which he was attuned.
So much for the possibility that the janitor was bluffing.
"Where did you get this?" he asked, buying some time to think while he resealed the bag. Visions of his hard-won personal empire crumbling before his eyes flashed through his head. He had not come this far only to lose it all now.
"Found it down in the old basement. Place leaks like a sieve, by the way, water and psi energy. Got a rat hole down there?"
Ormond ignored that. "I don't sell drugs."
"Going to be tough to prove if the cops raid this place and find the stash that I just found."
"There's more of this junk down there?"
"Three large cardboard boxes filled with little packets like that one."
Ormond went to stand behind his desk, trying to collect his thoughts.
"You really think someone is trying to frame me?" he asked finally.
"That's how it looks."
"Why not assume that I've gone into the drug-dealing business?"
"I did a little research before I came here today." The janitor's smile was cryptic and cold. "If you did decide to deal drugs, I don't think you'd pack them in nonwaterproof boxes and then stash them in an empty closet in a damp basement. You're smart, and you're a strong para-rez. You'd be far more likely to conceal them in the catacombs where the odds would be against anyone finding the stuff."
"You sure about that?" Ormond asked. "Maybe I was going with the hide-it-in-plain-sight theory."
"A possibility. But there's something else that makes me think you're not involved in this."
"What's that?"
"Like I said, I checked around." The janitor gave the expensive room an assessing look. "You've worked hard to build this place, and you've been damn careful to stay inside the legal zone. You're a risk-taker, but I don't mink you're the type to put all this on the line for the sake of some short-term drug profits. Not just my opinion, by the way. There's someone else who agrees with me."
"Who?"
"Mercer Wyatt."
Ormond went very still. "This is Guild business?"
"Yes. Wyatt said you served on the Council here in Cadence for a few years."
"What of it?"
"It means you're cleared to discuss blue freaks."
"There's one involved in this thing?"
"Yes." The janitor indicated the mop in his hand. "Wyatt asked me to clean up the mess before it becomes a major PR problem for him."
"Well, hell." Ormond exhaled and lowered himself slowly into his chair. "You're not the janitor. You're the librarian."
Chapter 24
ELLY PUT ONE HAND FUST INSIDE THE OPENING, GROPED for and found the lights.
Two overhead fluo-rez tubes came on, illuminating the scene in a cold blue light. Masses of flowers and bunches of decorative greenery filled the room. Arrangements in vases of various shapes and sizes lined the shelves behind the glass doors of the cooler. The effect was funereal.
The body of Stuart Griggs, sprawled facedown on the floor, provided the finishing touch.
There was no sign of blood, she noticed, no indication that the florist had been attacked. Perhaps he'd had a stroke or a heart attack.
She reached into the tote for her phone and punched in the emergency number.
Instinctively she started to turn away from the body on the floor. But the sight of a strip of white bandage sticking out from under Griggs's rolled-up sleeve made her hesitate.
She forced herself to move closer to the body, ignoring Rose's warning grumble.
Holding her breath and fighting her roiling stomach, she leaned over, caught hold of the sleeve with the thumb and forefinger of her right hand, and twitched the fabric back a couple of inches.
There was a wide, white bandage wrapped snugly around Stuart Griggs's lower left arm.
"Oh, damn," Elly whispered.
Chapter 25
COOPER SAW THE FLASHING AMBER AND RED LIGHTS OF the ambulance when he turned the corner onto Ruin Lane. They created an eerie, strobelike effect in the fog.
An uneasy sensation gripped his insides. The emergency vehicle was almost directly in front of Bertha Newell's shop. There was a police cruiser in front of it.
He had been driving slowly because of the fog, but now he lowered the Spectrum's speed to a crawl. When he got closer he could make out the small group of figures gathered on the sidewalk. His tension eased slightly when he realized that they were watching the open door of the floral shop.
He spotted Elly immediately. She stood with Garrick Lattimer and Phillip Manchester.
He brought the Spectrum to a halt at the curb, got out, and walked back down the sidewalk to join Elly and her friends.
Rose was perched inside Elly's tote, watching the action. Her head swiveled around abruptly. She rumbled a greeting when she noticed Cooper approaching.
Elly and the two men turned to look at him, too.
"There you are," Elly said. She had a strained, shadowed expression on her face. "I was getting worried."
He nodded at the two men. "What's going on?"
Garrick angled his chin toward the front door of the floral shop. "Stuart Griggs, the owner of that business, died sometime this afternoon. Elly found him a short while ago."
Cooper looked at Elly's withdrawn, unreadable face. "How did you come to find the body?"
"I was taking a note to Bertha's shop to hang in her window." She gave him a meaningful look. "People have been wondering where she is."
"Got it," he said quietly.
"When I went past Griggs's back door, Rose started making odd little noises. I think she sensed that something was wrong. So I tried the door. It was unlocked. When I opened it, I saw the body on the floor."
Two medics emerged from the front of the shop. They carried a stretcher with a draped figure on top.
"I heard someone say they think it was a heart attack," Phillip volunteered.
"The cop came over here to talk to us for a few minutes," Garrick added. "Actually, it was Elly he wanted to speak with, because she was the one who found Griggs. He said there were no obvious signs of violence except for a bad cut on the florist's arm that was mostly healed."
Cooper frowned. "A cut?"
"The cop figured Griggs had probably injured himself sometime in the past couple of weeks with one of the tools he used to trim flowers," Phillip explained.
Elly turned back to watch the stretcher being loaded into the back of the ambulance. She did not speak.
He touched her arm. "Let's go home."
"Yes. Good idea." She spun toward him, clearly relieved to have an excuse to leave.
He bundled her into the car. As soon as she was settled Rose elevated out of the tote and drifted up onto her favored perch on the back of the seat.
Cooper got in on the driver's side, rezzed the engine, and pulled away from the curb.
"You okay?" he asked.
"Yes. What about you? Did you find the drugs? I've been worried sick all afternoon."
"I found the stash. I also had a conversation with Ormond Ripley."
"The owner of the casino?"
"He's a former member of the local Guild
Council. I can't rule out the possibility that he's the dealer, but I'm inclined to agree with Wyatt that it's very unlikely. I'll tell you all about it later. What exactly happened back there? I'm getting the feeling I haven't heard the whole story yet."
"Very perceptive of you." She cleared her throat. "It's a little more complicated than it appears."
"How much more complicated?"
"Do you remember me telling you that there had been an attempted burglary in the neighborhood about ten days ago?"
He found a parking place in front of St. Clair's Herbal Emporium. "I remember."
"Yes, well, I left out one tiny little detail."
He de-rezzed the engine and turned in the seat. "What tiny little detail?"
"The shop that was broken into was mine."
His insides clenched. "You never said anything about a break-in to your folks. Your dad would have mentioned it to me."
"I'm sure he would have," she said dryly. "And he and Mom would have gone bonkers. I could just see my father picking up the phone and calling Mercer Wyatt, himself, to demand a full-time bodyguard for me. Mom would have started in again, pressuring me to return to Aurora Springs. I'd be getting lectures from my brothers on the dangers of the big city."
He closed his eyes and scrubbed his face with one hand. "Okay, I get the picture. You didn't tell your family because you didn't want to deal with the fallout."
"Do you blame me?"
"Hell, yes. But that's another issue. Much as I hate to say it, I think we'd better stay focused here."
"Cooper—"
"Tell me why you're bringing up the subject now."
She drew a deep breath. "You're not going to like this."
"I already don't like it."
"Brace yourself. Rose and I were home when the burglar broke into my shop."
He felt as if he'd been kicked in the gut.
"Neither of us was hurt," she added hastily. "Rose scared the guy off."
"How?"
"She sensed him the instant he was inside the shop, of course. I woke up when she did, realized something was wrong, and jumped out of bed to lock my bedroom door. But before I could stop her, Rose went flying out of the bedroom, teeth and eyes blazing. She shot down the hall to the top of the stairs. The next thing I know, the burglar's screaming green murder. He sounded panic-stricken. He ran back down the stairs and out into the alley."
"What about the cops?"
"I called them, of course. But by the time they got there, he was long gone."
"Naturally," Cooper muttered.
"I filled out a report, but they made it clear that in cases of that sort there wasn't much hope of turning up a suspect."
"So you went out and bought new locks."
"I also alerted my neighbors, and we set up the block watch program."
"Nothing like a good block watch program, I always say." He ran his fingers through his hair. "Damn. All right, let's keep on track. You're bringing this up now because…?"
She cleared her throat. "When the burglar ran out, I caught a glimpse of him from the top of the stairs. I couldn't see his face. He was all wrapped up in a heavy, dark coat and some sort of stocking cap pulled down very low. But when he ran through a shaft of moonlight, I could see one thing very plainly."
"What?"
She reached up to touch Rose. "He was clutching his left arm. Later, when I turned on the lights, I found blood on the stairs. I'm sure Rose bit him quite badly."
Comprehension settled on him like an icy mist.
"On the left arm?"
She looked at him with big, serious eyes. "Right about where Stuart Griggs had a wide bandage covering a recently healed wound."
Chapter 26
"LET'S TAKE THIS FROM THE TOP," COOPER SAID, HALTING in front of the kitchen window. "Why would Stuart Griggs have tried to break into your shop? What was he looking for?"
Seated at the table, Elly watched him across the top of her mug. The first thing she had done when they had returned to her apartment was brew up a pot of Balance Tea to soothe her edgy nerves.
"I suppose," she said slowly, "that he might have been looking for money, but somehow, it doesn't seem likely, does it?"
"Given the really big coincidence we're dealing with here, no."
"Coincidence?"
"He's the owner of the shop next door to Bertha Newell's business, and he turns up dead only a couple of days after someone tries to murder Bertha."
She shuddered. "I see what you mean. I hadn't thought about that connection."
"When did Griggs open his shop on Ruin Lane?"
"I'm not sure. My friend, Doreen, across the street, mentioned that the floral shop has been around forever. But Griggs was a dour sort and very much a loner. None of us knew him well. He never got involved in any of the neighborhood activities."
"Looks like he may have had his reasons." Cooper shifted his attention back to the foggy alley below the window. "Did he buy herbal products from you?"
"He came in a few times and bought some moonseed tisane. But the only time I had what you might call an extended conversation with him was the day I took one of Rose's flowers to his shop to ask him if he recognized it."
She looked at the green flower on the windowsill.
Cooper followed her gaze. "When was that?"
"Just a couple of weeks ago," she said quietly. "As I told you, I'd had no luck researching the blossoms in my herbals. I'd hesitated to ask anyone else about the flowers because I was afraid that Rose was snatching them out of some local gardener's hothouse. But I finally got so curious I decided to take one to Griggs."
"You told him that Rose had brought it to you?"
"Yes." She winced. "And immediately regretted it."
"Why?"
"Just a feeling. I had Rose in my tote that day and I didn't like the way Griggs looked at her. I could tell that Rose didn't like him very much, either."
Cooper picked up the green vase and held the flower closer to the light to examine it. "Did you and Griggs ever meet again?"
"He came into the shop a few days ago and made a show of buying another tisane. While I was preparing it, he asked me if Rose had brought me any more flowers. Rose growled at him. It was embarrassing."
"What did you tell Griggs?"
"I lied through my teeth and said that there hadn't been any more flowers. But I don't know if he believed me." She gripped the mug a little more tightly. "Do you think Griggs came here that night to steal the flower? Why?"
Cooper shrugged. "He was a florist. Obviously he had a special interest in flowers, and you say this one is very unusual. You said orchid growers can be obsessive. Maybe Griggs became fixated on your flower."
A thought struck her. "Or maybe he was like me, sensitive to plant psi. The energy buzz off that flower is very strong. There's no reason to think that I'm the only one in the world who can sense it."
"No." Cooper looked at Rose, who was hunched over her food dish, munching on cheese and crackers. "But if he was obsessed with the green flowers, it's possible that he came here to get the one character in this mystery who knows where to find them."
"Oh, my lord." Elly sat up very straight, shoulders stiffening in alarm. "Do you think he came here to steal Rose?"
Rose batted her eyelashes at the sound of her name.
"What I think," Cooper said quietly, "is that I need to have a look around his shop. The sooner the better."
"Tonight?"
"Yes, but not until after your neighbors have gone to bed." He went back to the window to study the fog-shrouded buildings. "Folks around here seem to be just as nosy as the ones you had back home."
She got to her feet. "I'll come with you."
"No," he said, flat and final.
"You'll need Rose. She's an excellent watch bunny."
He gave Rose a thoughtful look. "You've got a point."
"Where Rose goes, I go," she said, closing the deal.
"Damn it, Elly, I said no."
She went to the refrigerator. "We'll need to fortify ourselves. I'm going to make some pasta with pesto sauce. Why don't you whip up a nice salad to go with it?"
"Not sure whipping up nice salads is in the Guild boss job description."
She opened the refrigerator and reached into the vegetable drawer for the lettuce. "A good Guild boss should be able to handle any challenge that comes along, I always say."
"That's strange. I don't recall ever hearing you say that."
"The lettuce is already washed. Olive oil and vinegar are on the counter. Don't worry, I'll talk you through this, big guy."
He smiled faintly. "Promise?"
"Yep." She opened a cupboard door and took out a package of pasta. "And while you're at it, you can tell me what would make an intelligent, extremely well-educated young boy from a respectable family of distinguished academics decide to pursue a career as boss of the Aurora Springs Guild."
For a few seconds she thought he was going to change the subject. Then, to her surprise, he went to the sink to wash his hands and started to talk.
"Growing up as a dissonance-energy para-rez predisposed me to want to become a hunter." He dried his hands on a towel and removed the lettuce from the plastic bag. "My parents were not keen on the idea."
"Of course not. Joining the Guild is not exactly at the top of the list of great careers as far as most well-educated, mainstream parents are concerned."
"I think they'd had a few hints," Cooper said, eyeing the lettuce. "Once the full range of my parapsych abilities came in, they realized there was something different about me, even for a dissonance-energy para-rez. I started sneaking out of the house and going down into the catacombs alone to experiment with blue energy. My father followed me one night and saw what I was doing."
"How did he react?"
"There had been a few hunters in the family over the years. Although he was a college professor, Dad knew enough Guild lore to recognize that I was working blue ghost light." Cooper paused. "Do I need a knife to cut this stuff?"
"No, you tear lettuce, you don't use a knife." She pushed a large salad bowl toward him. "Go on with your story."