by Dale Mayer
"And you see too many people who do?"
She shot him a narrow look under her lashes. How did he mean that? It seemed like she was always looking for hidden meanings in everything he said. She hated that. But with her abilities, she found it instinctive to be self-protecting now.
"I've seen too many people put into the ground to find any solace in a funeral," Shay said.
The hostess motioned for them to follow.
He placed his hand on the small of her back and nudged her forward. He tilted his head toward her. "Interesting perception."
She laughed. "Not really. What about you? Are you a fan of funerals?"
He shrugged. "I see them as a necessary stage for the living and the dead."
She repeated his words. "Interesting. And what is your opinion of life after death?"
He looked startled. After studying her for a moment to make sure she was serious, he said, "I don't know that I have one. I guess I believe there is more out there than we know, but as I have no personal experience either way, I'm neutral on the issue."
It could be worse. At least he hadn't jumped down her throat or interrogated her for hours. That was good. They took their seats and ordered coffee.
"You do have an opinion, I presume?" He quirked a brow and studied her.
The curiosity in his voice made her smile. "Maybe. But you'll think I'm crazy."
"Not at all, but now I am curious."
"I thought I saw Bernice in her room that day she died. Then again at her funeral." She hadn't meant to say anything about that.
He sat back, one eyebrow raised. "Interesting."
She leaned back and stared at him. "You say that a lot?"
A lopsided grin slid out. And damn if that smile didn't just burrow a little deeper into her psyche and make itself at home. Funny how attractive acceptance was.
And how unexpected.
"Do you see ghosts often?" His question, so casual and so calm, made her study him over her coffee mug.
She leaned forward and whispered, "You do realize how ridiculous that question is?"
"Is it? Bernice mentioned that she thought you had some weird things going on along that line."
"Bernice did? Really?"
He nodded.
Shay laughed. "That old sneak. Maybe she was trying to warn you away from me. Make me out to be a nutcase."
He chuckled warmly. "No, not Bernice. She loved you."
"Yes, she did." Shay's eyes got a little misty. "I miss her."
"Does that mean she won't be staying around and haunting you?"
"I wish. But that would mean she hasn't crossed over the way she should have. I wouldn't wish that fate on her."
There was an odd silence. She glanced up from her plate to find him studying her. "You're serious, aren't you?" His smile deepened. "Of course I shouldn't be too surprised. Ronin has also dropped a few tidbits about you over the last year or two."
Shay put her cup down to give him her full attention.
"And he's worked with Stefan several times." Roman watched for a response.
"Stefan is a wonderful artist." Shay smirked.
"And a skilled psychic." Roman sat back slightly as if to put some distance between them. "Apparently."
She snorted. "You said you were open to it."
"Not quite," he corrected. "I said I had no opinion either way."
She waved her fork in the air. "Splitting hairs."
"I'm open-minded about many things I'd never consider a few years back. I have a friend who is a highly acclaimed healer." He sounded like he wanted to believe her.
"Healing is good." And it was. If Roman could be open on that score, maybe he could be open to more? "Who is it?"
"Her name is Dr. Maddy from The Haven," he said.
Shay laughed in delight. "I know Dr. Maddy. She's a good friend of Stefan's. I'd like to know her better, but we're all so busy."
"If it makes you feel any better, after seeing what Dr. Maddy can do, I’ve had to re-examine a lot of the things I thought I knew. Am I clear on them? No. Am I open? Yes." He sighed. "How well do you know Stefan?" His deep gaze pinned her in place.
A little more at ease, she said, "Well. He's a good friend. Why?"
He shrugged, dropping his gaze. "No reason. I've heard a lot about him from Dr. Maddy."
"Ah." Shay smiled. "They are good friends. And I know Stefan helps her with her special project. She's an incredibly strong psychic."
"Psychic?" He looked uncomfortable again.
"That word bugs you, doesn't it?"
With a sheepish grin he admitted, "I prefer to think of Dr. Maddy as a healer."
"She is, but she's also an incredibly powerful psychic and that helps with her healing work."
***
Tabitha Stoddard stacked up the files and carried them into her office at the animal sanctuary. She had a lot of catching up to do. There was never enough time to take care of things around here. She needed another assistant to just clear off the backlog. As she stared around at her small, overstuffed office, she realized she could really use a full time secretary too. Still, all was good. The new anesthesiology table had been ordered, and the plans approved on the new cat enclosure. Given the trouble they'd had getting this far, she should be delighted.
And she was. Now if only the rest of this work would clear up easily, she could get back on track.
"Tabitha!"
She looked out the window to Sue, one of the younger staff members who waved to get her attention. She opened the window. "What's up?"
"We need a signature." Sue motioned toward a large flat-deck truck backing up to the shed with a load of pet food. "Can you come?"
Right. She'd forgotten about that delivery.
If it wasn't one thing, it was twenty.
She skirted her desk and walked outside into the morning sunshine. She smiled at the gorgeous day. They really did live in God's country.
Sue walked over, a big smile on her face.
Tabitha matched it, opened her mouth to speak, and stopped.
A blast of energy shot from Sue's body at the same time something clamped down on Tabitha's heart and squeezed tight. She groaned. Then gasped. For air, for relief, for breath.
Something was terribly wrong. She'd heard about the couple of deaths connected to Shay's foundation projects, but she hadn't thought that she was in danger. And not from Sue, surely? She'd known her forever. No, the energy felt different than Sue's. Similar but not...quite...the same – and was oh so painful.
Stupid.
"Tabitha? Are you all right? Tabitha?"
"Shay. Contact Shay," Sue whispered. She had a good idea what this was. But she didn't know how or who caused it. She did the only thing she could think of doing. She sent out a psychic call for help, and she shut down, locking herself inside.
And fell to the ground – unconscious.
Chapter 10
Sunday afternoon…
Shay waited for Roman to pay the check. She walked out into the sunshine, wanting nothing more than to go home and think about the mess her life was in. Sigh.
Shay?
Stefan, what's up? Instinctively she looked around but knew Stefan couldn't be beside her.
It's Tabitha.
What? Shay stepped to the side of the sidewalk beside a large flower garden. What happened?
She's been attacked. Psychically. She's alive. She shut her system down. I'm at the hospital now.
Shit.
Don't come. You can't help. But you need to find out how these people are being targeted. If Tabitha wakes up, she might be able to shed some light on what's happening. I've called Ronin. He needs information from you.
"On it."
"On what?" Roman stood at her side, looking at her curiously. "What's going on?"
She ran her fingers through her hair, answering even as her cell phone rang. "A friend, someone associated with my foundation has been attacked."
"What?" Roman stared at her in shock
.
She held up her ringing phone. Then spoke into it. "Hello, Ronin. I guess you never get a day off, huh?"
His businesslike voice was sharp and rushed. "There is no day off for crime fighters."
Her stomach revolted as she realized why he was calling. "Stefan told me."
"About Tabitha Stoddard at Exotic Landscape?"
"Yes." Shay groaned. "She's a friend. A good one. I just saw her the other day. We were discussing the arrival of several new animals from a Canadian zoo. She applied to the Foundation for funding because she needed to build new enclosures and was hoping to expand the hospital facilities, including the purchase of a larger anesthetic table."
"How was she when you spoke to her?"
"Wonderful as always." Shay smiled through the tears gathering in the corner of her eyes. She felt overwhelmed, and appreciated the warmth of Roman's comforting arm as it slid around her shoulder. "Tabitha is…a very caring person. I know she always had the animals foremost in her mind when she made every request."
"And did you approve the money?"
"Yes. Definitely. And yes, she knew I'd approve the money. We had a great working relationship."
"This case is yet another connection to you and your foundation."
Her stomach roiled at the thought of these three people coming to an early end because of her. That Bernice could be another victim didn't bear thinking about. At least Tabatha was alive. She cleared her throat as the tears clogged her voice. "I didn't hurt them, if that's what you're suggesting. I called you about David Cumming's case because I just didn't feel good about sending the money if someone was killing to get it."
She stared blindly up at Roman. He shook his head and tightened his arm around her shoulders, tucking her up close. "Shh," he whispered against her hair.
"No. I'm not suggesting that at all," Ronin rushed to say, his voice booming above his brother's caring whisper. "Have you sent the money yet?"
"No. And I don't plan to until this is all settled." There's no way she could. "I don't want the media to connect the dots between these deaths and my projects. It would be a feeding frenzy if they were to find out."
"Yet, they are likely to anyway." His voice turned crisp. "I need access to your files for these cases."
Of course he would. "No problem. Can you come to the office on Monday, or do you want to meet me this afternoon?"
"Given that we have two deaths already and another person close to it, now would be best."
She sighed. Ronin was right. They couldn't afford to waste any more time. "I'll meet you at my office in say...half an hour?" Roman slid his hand down her back, stroking away some of the tension. She glanced up at him. He nodded and she felt better already. Not so alone.
"Sounds good."
Not to her it didn't. But she had no choice.
Someone was killing people she knew. Because of her? Were they targeting her, in a way?
She couldn't help wonder how many more people would die before this asshole was caught.
***
The office was empty and cold when she walked in with Roman at her side. And it felt even colder as she realized something really wrong could be happening. The dark wooden furniture and rich burgundy carpet now looked cold and austere instead of warm and welcoming. Her family's offices were two floors up and housed the various family holdings, although her brother resided in Europe and ran the business mostly from there with Pappy heading up the North American holdings. She had the only family office on this floor.
She kind of liked the independent feel of that. Walking to the side counter, she put on a small pot of coffee. Turning, she stared around the room with new eyes. She'd always viewed this office as a sanctuary. A business sanctuary.
She'd inherited business responsibilities almost ten years ago, when she turned twenty-one, in fact. Pappy had taken her out for dinner and had presented her with the papers as a gift. Not necessarily a welcome gift, but he'd felt she was the right person to handle this aspect of the family money. The Foundation’s money.
She hadn't been so sure. She'd worried about her ability to do the right thing. She'd made a lot of mistakes at the outset. Bernice had helped her and become Shay’s mentor. A friend.
Her brother, ten years her senior had been a big help, but too busy for the day-to-day problems she encountered.
She enjoyed her job and all her responsibilities but especially receiving and dealing with the applications for financial help. The process gave her a clearer understanding of what all kinds of people were trying to do and why. Even better, she loved handing out money to those that fit the parameters of the Foundation’s funding program.
It had been a joy to see the money go to so many good causes and playing a part to make that happen helped her feel closer to her deceased parents in some way. She hoped they would approve of her choices. There were so many other projects as well, and they were all close to her heart. She stayed in contact with the people and monitored the projects. Often knew what was to come next for them before they understood it themselves.
"We beat my brother here." Roman grinned as if he competed regularly with his brother.
She smiled at the quiet man at her side. She'd never seen the two men in the same room. Should be interesting. "Looks like it." She walked over to unlock the wall of files behind Jordan's desk.
"Good. I want to see your system. I can run some diagnostics and see if someone has hacked into your computer system. If they haven't, and the firewalls are secure, that would narrow the pool of suspects down to only a few people that would know about your projects."
She paused and turned to face him, hope firing inside. "Can you do that?"
"It's what I do." He nodded in the direction of her office. "Let me see."
Perfect. She couldn't get to her computer fast enough. He was an Internet security specialist, and an ex-cop, and damn she was glad to have his help. The Foundation's files should be secure, but she didn't know if their security had been updated regularly to combat today's hackers. In theory, if someone wanted in, it probably wouldn't be that hard to get there. "If someone did hack in, can you find out who?"
"Maybe." He sat down and started clicking away. A look of total concentration took over his hard features. For a moment there, she could see the internal focus, the cop inside the man, the hunter pursuing his prey. Grateful not to be his target, she headed back to the main office. At the doorway, she paused and looked back. "There are two other computers out here, if that makes a difference."
His nod acknowledged her words but nothing more. Shrugging, she turned back to the outer office.
As she’d noticed when they entered, the office had a different look. A colder look. No longer bright and open but rather shadowy and dark. Could someone have been trying to get the Foundation's money? Surely there was an easier way. Like sending in an application. Her gaze went to the large filing cabinet behind Jordan's desk. She didn't keep the unaccepted applications in this office but she knew they were kept for a few years, and then discarded. The ones that were accepted went into the system and were followed up on a regular basis. These files were now mostly electronic.
From Bernice, she'd learned to keep her finger on the pulse of the Foundation's money. As she thought about it, she saw that Bernice had had a bigger influence on her life than she'd realized.
Bernice had mentored Shay and spent time reassuring her until Shay had grown into the job.
They'd often shared stories about the applications. They’d discussed the duplicates – the ones that applied to both foundations for help and the ones that didn't fit one organization but deserved consideration from the other. In fact, they had often sent files back and forth before decisions were made about funding. As Shay stared around the empty room, she wondered if there was another connection between the two foundations, one she hadn’t recognized.
Had Bernice died because of that connection? God, she hoped not.
It was much easier to think that Bernice
had been an old lady who'd enjoyed life to the max and had died of natural causes.
But after the black energy Dr. Maddy had seen on Bernice, Shay was no longer sure. And then she remembered Bernice’s strange words at her funeral…
Could this perp be someone who'd been refused money? Someone angry enough to do something about it? That almost made sense.
A voice startled her.
"Can I come in?" Ronin stood in the doorway she'd forgotten to close. She started. The resemblance to his twin was uncanny. They weren't identical, but they were dynamite males. And very different in some essential way too.