St Helens 03 Orchid

by Jayne Castle

  "The only reason I know it is because he came by my place a couple of days before he drove his car off that cliff. We had a few drinks. He said he wanted to talk to someone, but in the end the only thing he told me was that he had been going to a syn-psych doctor."

  "Did he tell you why?" Orchid asked.

  "No. I got the impression he was under a lot of stress because of his new job at that university lab."

  "Theo didn't handle stress well." Orchid pursed her lips. "But I wouldn't have thought it would make him suicidal. He would be far more likely to just quit the new job if it bothered him that much. He was always changing jobs."

  "He needed the money this time, he said. He mentioned some crazy plan to start his own focus agency. One that would specialize in ice-prisms. He was trying to get financing for it but he wasn't having any luck."

  Orchid sighed. "I can't see a bank giving Theo a pile of cash. He wouldn't have looked like a good risk."

  "No," Morgan agreed.

  Rafe contemplated Morgan with a surprisingly thoughtful expression. "Did Willis mention the source of his stress?"

  Morgan shook his head. "No. But he was always under stress. He was sort of paranoid."

  "How did the three of you meet?" Rafe asked.

  Orchid wondered why he was so interested in the subject of Theo Willis. "Three years ago we were recruited for a study of ice-prisms. The researchers at ParaSyn wanted to see if prisms like us could be used to treat violently disturbed mental patients. They wanted to test a dippy theory Dr. Bracewell, the head of the lab, had concocted."

  "What was the theory?"

  "Bracewell thought that if criminally insane talents could be properly focused, the syn-psych shrinks might be able to realign the synergistic forces of their para-profiles."

  "Regular prisms can't work with talents who are really over-the-edge crazy," Morgan explained. "There's just no way to get a good focus. Besides, it hurts. The usual result is temporary burnout for the prism."

  "Probably just as well," Orchid put in. "Another one of nature's little tricks to keep dangerous talents from becoming too predatory. Synergy in action."

  Rafe gave her an unreadable look. "What happened with the study?"

  Morgan grinned briefly. "They didn't learn much. Orchid led a revolt right in the middle of the project. Got pissed off when they tried to make us focus some really bent talents. She had one session with a guy named Calvin Hyde and that was the end of it. Walked out of the lab. Theo and I followed right behind her."

  "Calvin Hyde?" Rafe repeated. "He was one of the violently disturbed talents?"

  "Bracewell said he was normal." Orchid shuddered, recalling the predatory hunger she had sensed in Calvin Hyde. "He claimed Hyde was one of the control subjects. And I think he believed it. Hyde could be very convincing. But as soon as I saw the energy waves of his talent, I knew he was a very dangerous, violently inclined man. The last thing I wanted to do was give him a focus."

  Rafe watched her with unwavering intensity. "What did you do?"

  She shrugged. "Pretended I couldn't get a sharp focus. Told Bracewell that Hyde was just too powerful for me and that I couldn't take anymore. I think Hyde really liked the idea that he was so strong I couldn't handle him. He was incredibly arrogant. Always had to be top, uh--" She broke off before she uttered the words wolf-hound.

  "What kind of talent was Hyde?" Rafe asked.

  Orchid hesitated.

  It was Morgan who answered the question. "Calvin Hyde was a high-class exotic. A strat-talent. You know, one of those hunters. Very rare."

  Orchid did not look at Rafe but she could feel him watching her.

  "How strong?" he asked quietly.

  She could not think of a diplomatic response to that query so she kept her mouth shut.

  "She never did find out what his actual rating was," Morgan said. "Did you, Orchid?"

  "No." Orchid refolded her small cocktail napkin with great precision. As diversions went, it was not much, but it gave her an excuse not to meet Rafe's eyes. "I didn't stick around long enough to find out. A class seven, maybe."

  "I see," Rafe murmured.

  "Bracewell was always running experiments with weird talents, as well as ice-prisms," Morgan explained. "Orchid said it was because he envied them."

  "The talents?" Rafe glanced at Orchid.

  "Yes. He's only a class-two hypno-talent."

  Morgan chuckled. "Folks at the lab used to refer to him as Two-Watt Bracewell behind his back."

  Anxious to change the topic, Orchid looked at Morgan. "Speaking of ParaSyn, did you get a letter from the lab recently asking you to come back for a follow-up study?"

  "No." Morgan looked surprised. "Why? Did you?"

  "Yes. I ignored it."

  "If I get one, I'll do the same." Morgan lounged in his seat and raised his glass. "Well, here's to Theo. A fellow ice-prism. May he rest in peace on the other side of the Curtain."

  Orchid hoisted her glass. "To Theo."

  Rafe said nothing but he swallowed some of his coff-tea when the other two sipped their wine.

  Morgan put down his glass and looked at Orchid. "Let's go on to a more cheerful subject. Any word from your marriage agency recently?"

  "You call that cheerful?" Out of the corner of her eye, Orchid saw Rafe blink in what in another man might have been startled surprise. She ignored him. He had been acting weird all evening.

  "All right, make that a more interesting subject," Morgan said.

  Orchid wrinkled her nose. "Funny you should ask. I had lunch with my cousin, Veronica, this afternoon. She brought up the very same question. The answer is no. I still can't get a date."

  Morgan whistled. "Sheesh. What is it now? A year since your last agency date?"

  "A year and three days," Orchid said. "But who's counting?"

  "Your folks, I imagine," Morgan said dryly.

  "Don't remind me. I hate guilt trips."

  Rafe folded his hands very tightly around his coff-tea cup. "You never mentioned that you were registered, Orchid."

  Morgan's mouth curved faintly. "She postponed it as long as she could but a little over a year ago her family finally applied enough pressure to get her to a matchmaking agency. She's only had one date, though."

  "And he doesn't count," Orchid said.

  Morgan sighed. "Everyone knows ice-prisms are extremely hard to match."

  "Try impossible," Orchid said.

  "Still, I'd have thought your agency would have introduced you to more than one potential candidate by now." Morgan's eyes widened. "Hey, maybe Affinity Associates lost your registration paperwork."

  "Not likely," Orchid said.

  "You never know. Maybe you ought to give your counselor a call," Morgan urged. "It's possible there's been a screw-up."

  "I doubt it. They're a very reputable agency."

  "Things can happen in any office."

  Orchid grinned. "You're telling me. I work for Psynergy, Inc., remember?"

  The flaring light of the jelly-ice candle rendered Rafe's face into a saturnine mask. "Why haven't you called Affinity Associates to see what's going on?"

  As if it was any of his business. Orchid decided it would be easier to slide out of the discussion with a small, white lie. "Okay, okay, I'll call this week."

  Rafe's brows rose at that but he made no comment. The brief, knowing look that flashed in his eyes worried Orchid, however. She got the distinct impression that he did not believe her.

  She recalled Byron's question. Is it true what they say about strat-talents? Can they really sense it if you lie to them?

  Myths, she told herself. Nothing but rumors, gossip, and outdated speculation based on early, faulty, syn-psych research test results. Strat-talents were not human lie-detectors. There was no such creature.

  Theoretically it was no more difficult to lie to a strat-talent than it was to anyone else. But some people, regardless of their paranormal abilities, had an instinct for discerning the truth. Rafe might b
e one of those people. And she was not the most accomplished liar in the world, she reminded herself.

  But what did it matter if Rafe believed her tonight? After all, her love life or lack thereof was none of his affair.

  Orchid gave both men a determined smile. "I suggest we abandon the subject of my marital prospects before we all expire from boredom."

  "I don't find the subject boring," Rafe said softly.

  Orchid glared at him and decided to turn the tables. "Are you registered?"

  "Yes. Synergistic Connections."

  For some reason the information hit her like a solid wall of jelly-ice. Rafe was actively looking for a wife. And he was doing it in the proper, appropriate, socially approved manner. Who would have guessed? She wondered why the news was so deflating.

  "Good agency," she managed in what she hoped was a breezy tone.

  "So I'm told. But I haven't been introduced to a single potential candidate yet."

  Morgan gave him a commiserating look. "Sounds like you and Orchid have something in common. Neither one of you can get a date."

  Chapter 5

  Orchid leaned forward to peer through the windshield when Rafe halted the Acer at the front gates.

  "Where are we?" she asked.

  "My place." He activated the remote control to open the gates. "I brought you here so that we could discuss our new job. You do remember that contract I signed in your boss's office this afternoon?"

  "I remember."

  The gates swung wide. Orchid sat beside him, wrapped in silence, as he drove through the trees that shielded the front of the big house.

  He had not realized that he had braced himself for her reaction to his home until she spoke.

  "Good grief. This is where you live?"

  "Yes." He brought the Acer to a stop in front of the broad steps and deactivated the engine.

  "It's incredible." She gazed at the dark, looming mansion with unmistakable delight. "What a fantastic place. I spent the entire amount of my first book advance on a genuine Later Expansion period sofa. You've got a whole house from that period."

  He had been afraid this would happen, he told himself as he cracked open the Acer door and got out. She not only loved the damned house, it felt right bringing her here. Very right. All of his senses were pulsing in tempo with the invisible rhythms of the night.

  He looked back through the open Acer door and watched Orchid as she watched his house.

  "I'd give anything to live in a house like this," she whispered.

  "Funny you should say that."

  "But why would anyone want to steal an alien relic?" Orchid swirled the ridiculously expensive moontree brandy in her glass and watched Rafe as he stood in front of the fireplace.

  She had found herself reluctantly fascinated by the tale he had just outlined. A stolen artifact, a mysteriously dead thief, and the client's request for absolute discretion. It sounded like one of her own plots.

  "People steal things for a wide variety of reasons," Rafe said quietly.

  "Yes, but there usually is a reason. I don't understand what it would be in this case. From what I've heard you can't do anything with the alien relics. No one knows what their tools were used for, if they were tools. None of them function any more. The experts don't even know how they were powered. All anyone seems sure of is that they're very, very old and that they aren't native to St. Helens."

  The first small cache of alien artifacts had been discovered by Lucas Trent. He had found them in the course of a jelly-ice prospecting venture in the jungles of the Western Islands. Trent had given his finds to the New Seattle Art Museum which had, in turn, formed a research partnership with the science and history faculties of the University of New Seattle.

  Another, much larger cache of relics had actually been located by the third Chastain Expedition several years earlier. The records of the find had been lost because all but one of the expedition team members had been murdered by a mad spec-talent before the reports could be filed. The "alien tomb," as the cache was referred to in the press, had been rediscovered by the fourth Chastain Expedition last year.

  The huge collection of artifacts had caused a sensation.

  Speculation ran rampant in the tabloids. Stories featuring women who claimed to have given birth to space alien babies were popular fare at the supermarket checkout counters. The Return cults, predictably, wove the relics into their ludicrous, quasireligious notions regarding the Curtain. Novels and films featuring the artifacts were popular.

  But when all was said and done, Orchid knew, the experts had learned virtually nothing about the alien relics. They remained a fascinating enigma.

  "You've worked with me often enough to know that people steal for some strange reasons," Rafe said. "Collectors are a unique breed."

  Orchid thought of Elvira Turlock. "Do you think there's actually an underground market for alien artifacts?"

  "It would not surprise me." Rafe took a thoughtful sip of his brandy. "But there are other possibilities."

  "Such as?"

  "The Return cults. Some of them have seized on the discovery of the alien relics to expand their crazy claims about the Curtain. It's conceivable that one of the more off-the-wall cult leaders arranged for the theft in order to get his or her hands on a genuine alien artifact."

  "I see what you mean. Be great for show-and-tell at the next meeting of the believers, wouldn't it?"

  "Yes." Rafe paused. "But the fact that the cult leader would have to display the stolen relic to his followers in order to get any mileage out of it makes me think that's a less likely scenario than it appears."

  "Why do you say that?" Orchid waited expectantly. She knew that Rafe would have a reason for his deduction. He always backed up his leaps of strat-talent intuition with cold, hard logic.

  "Because as soon as the cult leader starts to flash his own, personal alien artifact around at the temple meetings, he or she runs the risk that someone in the audience will mention the relic to outsiders. And sooner or later, someone will. It's inevitable."

  "You're right." But then, he was always right, she thought. It was one of his less endearing traits. "People, even devout cult members, are bound to talk about something like that. Once the word got out that the leader had the artifact, everyone would know what happened to the stolen lab relic."

  "All of which does not mean that some cult leader did not steal it. Crazy people do crazy things. But most of the leaders in the Return cults are businesspeople, first and foremost. They're in the racket to make a profit. They're not stupid or crazy. I doubt if any of them actually believe their own drivel. Why do something that would jeopardize the scam?"

  "So, I take it you're leaning toward the theory that the relic was stolen by an eccentric collector?"

  "At this point, it would seem to make the most sense." Rafe hesitated. "But I'm not sure. There's something about this that doesn't feel right, yet"

  "Okay, you've got two possibilities so far, an eccentric collector or a mad cult leader. Any others?"

  Rafe raised his gaze from the flames. His eyes were as enigmatic as any alien relic. "No. But I may come up with some after we pay a visit to the lab that lost the artifact."

  "When are we going to do that?"

  "Tomorrow evening after the staff has left for the day.

  I've made arrangements with the lab's director, Dr. Alexander Brizo. He'll meet us there."

  "We're going to visit the lab after hours?"

  Rafe's mouth curved faintly. "I do my best work at night."

  "Yes, I know, but I would have thought time was of the essence in this situation. If you wait until tomorrow night to start on the case, you'll have wasted a whole day."

  "I've already started work and tomorrow won't be wasted, either. There's a lot of basic investigation to do before we go to the lab."

  "Such as?"

  "I contacted one of my sources on the street. A man named Whistler. He's got contacts into the underground art world. If there a
re any rumors about the artifact going into a private collection, he'll hear them."

  "Sounds like a good start."

  He arched one brow. "Thank you."

  She blushed. It occurred to her that the remark had been the verbal equivalent of a pat on the head. "You know what I mean."

  He ignored that. "I also spent today talking to some people who knew the lab technician Brizo believes stole the relic."

  Orchid brightened. "There's a suspect?"

  "Yes. But he's dead."

  "Dead." She stared at him, astonished. "I don't understand. Who is this suspect?"

  Rafe hesitated. "Theo Willis."

  For a few seconds, Orchid could not even get her mouth closed, let alone speak. When she finally overcame her dumbfounded reaction, she slammed the glass of moontree brandy down with such force that several drops splashed on the table.

  "That's impossible," she declared.

  "It's what Brizo believes."

  "Why didn't you say anything earlier?" Orchid leaped to her feet "You let Morgan and me blather on about Theo all evening and you never once mentioned that he was a suspect."

  "Be reasonable, Orchid. I didn't know the name of the person for whom you and Morgan wanted to hold your little wake until we got to the Volcano Club. By then, it was too late. I couldn't say anything in front of Morgan. This is a highly confidential case."

  "That's no excuse. You should have said something earlier."

  "I wanted to lay out the whole case before I did that I knew it would upset you to learn that a friend was involved."

  "I'm not upset, I'm pissed off." She leveled a finger at him. "What's more, I've got a big clue for you, Mr. Investigator. You're headed down a dead-end bail if you think that Theo Willis was a thief. He was a trifle wacko, but he was not dishonest"

  "All I'm saving at this point is that Brizo thinks he was involved in this thing."

  "I refuse to believe that Theo stole that artifact And I'm certainly not going to help you prove that he did."

  "Orchid, wait--"

  "I quit Find yourself another prism. I'm going to call a cab. And then I'm going to call another private investigator."