One had only to listen and observe, and from there it was easy to drop a suggestion here, a question there, to find out who were those people attending. Never lingering long with any particular person, she ensured she spread the questions so lightly and off-handedly that no one would piece it together.
Slowly but surely she got information that Cole, listening through the communication device hidden in her bra, would use to research quickly. The information he’d feed back through the micro ear bud to her during the readings so she could amaze, thrill, surprise, and ultimately con the small, select audience.
All to ensure they came back to her bringing their friends, keeping her and Cole in business.
The brief bite of guilt she felt upon seeing Elspeth smiling at her from across the room was pushed ruthlessly aside. Business was business, as she’d painfully learned, there was no place for softness.
The party broke up gradually around midnight, people going to their lavishly appointed bedrooms. Standing on the top of the veranda, hidden by the shadows of the big urns, Shea watched as several limousines drove off, the couples choosing to make the long trip home rather than stay in the country mansion. From discreet positions Wells Security guards watched, unnoticed by almost everyone but the Premier’s private bodyguards and possibly herself. No one might see them, but she knew more security observed from the darkness, would be watching the driveway.
One plain black SUV swung in behind the Premier’s private security car, Wells Security providing extra force as the Premier and his wife headed back to the city, their visit short. Elspeth was important enough to warrant attending an opening like this but government issues still beckoned the next morning. Some things continued regardless.
Pose relaxed, she felt the tension in her tighten a notch. Centring herself by using the shadows of the night, she took deep, even breaths, allowing the slight cool breeze to clear and refresh her mind for the job still to come.
Feeling a prickle of awareness, she looked to her right to see a tall shadow at the far end of the veranda. He stood still, quiet, but she could feel his regard. Aaron Wells, she thought, was a threat regardless of what Cole might say.
And damned if she wasn’t going to see more of him. If I’d only known. Too late now. Besides, she was sure that she was small potatoes to him. He was in the business of protection, not small-time con-artists.
Con-artist. With an inward grimace, she returned her attention to the tail lights of the last car disappearing down the long, wide driveway to the main road hidden from sight by the curve of the driveway and well-placed trees lining it. How the mighty have fallen…and I wasn’t very mighty to begin with.
No time now for regrets, it was done.
Ruthlessly shoving down emotions, she waited for several more minutes before turning and walking back inside the mansion.
Truly, it was magnificent. A broken-down mansion reglorified in the days of old with the modern technological touches to ensure comfort. This hotel was going to do well, it didn’t take anything mystical to recognise that fact.
And one of those things, right now, was money in her pocket.
The huge entrance was empty except for the dark eyed, dark haired, silent security guard, Ryan, who was much more than he appeared. The dark, brooding air, the faint hint of cruelty in his handsome features, and even more telling, the danger that shifted subtly in the air around him as his gaze fell on her.
Yep, Ryan did not approve of her.
Rather than feel uneasy, she found it amusing and tossed him a wink. Trust me, boyo, your disapproval is nothing compared to what I’ve been through.
Neither his expression nor stance changed.
With a small grin, she crossed the huge entrance into the main room now empty of all but the waitpersons clearing the empty platters and glasses. Excitement sparkling in her eyes, Elspeth waited for her near the staircase.
Show time.
“We’re in the back room.” Elspeth led the way behind the right of the sweeping staircase. “It’s small and intimate just as you requested.”
Walking through the open door, Shea glanced around. Perfect. Elspeth had followed her instructions. No electrical lights, no lamps, nothing but scented candles here and there on side benches and tables, the flickering flames casting soft glows upon the faces of those already seated in a semi circle facing the front where she’d stand. In the background, so soft as to be almost inaudible, came the sound of music, soft, sad, a mix of violin and guitar. A strange mix but one she’d quickly claimed as her own unique ‘signature’. The candles giving the only light, the intimacy of a small gathering, the soft music, all combined to create a friendly atmosphere, an expectation, a touch of the unknown and darkness and otherworldly shivers. It also made it easier to reduce a few susceptible people to tears. Elspeth had even provided dainty boxes of tissues.
The chatter stopped as Shea entered. Smiling, she walked to the front of the room, turned to face the audience, and slowly let her gaze drift across the faces. Ten people, all wanting to know something about their future, their loved ones, their fortune. It was her job to give them what they wanted, to lead them, to use the skills she’d learned to make them work for it, give her the clues and make it seem as though she’d truly plucked the answers from the spirit world.
There were true mediums, clairvoyants and psychics. She wasn’t one of them but this group of people didn’t know that.
Elspeth sat in a chair right in the middle beside her red-headed niece, Mikki, and a hush fell over the audience as they waited.
“My name is Stella,” Shea said softly. “I’m here tonight upon kind invitation of Elspeth Arkwell to talk to you all and reveal what Spirit wants you to know.”
There was a smattering of approving smiles, some hopeful looks. Yep, this group desperately wanted to believe.
“I won’t go on about what I can do. Spirit is strong around me tonight, a sure indication that there are things some of you need to know.”
A woman to the right nodded, clutched her purse tightly.
Time to put out some feelers.
“Someone here has had some pain in their lives.” General term, most people had suffered one way or another at some time.
Several nods this time.
Closing her eyes, Shea clasped her hands loosely in front of her and hushed expectation filled the room.
“Come forward, Spirit. Come forward and speak to me.” Slowly, she raised one hand, palm out. “Come forward. I know you’re there, I can feel you.” She peeked through her lashes at the flickering candles lending the room a darker, otherworldly feel. The violin music peaked, swelled for a second before murmuring down to background sadness. “Yes?” She tilted her head, parted her lips slightly, then with a sudden snap she righted her head straight and opened her eyes abruptly. “Spirit is here among us.”
Almost immediately the more impressionable shivered, several glancing over their shoulders as though expecting to see a ghost right behind them.
“Speak to me, Spirit.” Un-focussing her eyes, she looked above the people to the far wall and elegantly, slowly, waved her hand from side to side.
Every set of eyes followed her hand, the black lace at the bottom of her sleeve that swayed with the movement.
“Let’s go with Rita Hershey,” Cole instructed through the micro ear bud.
“Lead me, Spirit. Who needs to know?” Moving her arm outwards to the side, she turned her head as though following something, her gaze drifting across the guests until she looked directly at Rita Hershey.
The woman was staring at her with bated breath.
“Engaged to a playboy,” Cole said. “Has two brothers, father dead, mother remarried. She crashed her Bentley four months ago while drink driving. Has a bit of a history of DUI.”
Okay, she could help do something about that.
Shea drifted sideways until she stood before a wide-eyed Rita. Taking a deep breath, Shea nodded, acknowledged a voice she didn’t hear. “Yes. Y
es, I understand. Yes.” Clasping her hands loosely before her waist in a pose she had adopted as one of her signature moves, she looked down at Rita. “Spirit says you know what you need to do.”
Rita looked bewildered. “Huh?”
“You survived. Something happened in the last year, and you survived.”
“Oh!” Her eyes widened. “I was in a car crash!”
“Your father was watching over you.”
“Dad?”
“He says you know what you need to do.”
Rita’s eyes filled with tears. “Dad’s really here?”
“A message,” Shea said softly. “He’s telling me there is something in your life you need to get under control before it’s too late.” When Rita didn’t appear to understand, she added, “Something you do regularly, that’s all he’s telling me. Something to do with the cause of the crash.”
Rita’s cheeks paled.
Strike.
Not wanting to linger, Shea gently smiled. “That’s all he’s telling me.” Time to hook. “For now.”
Before Rita could ask anything else, Shea moved back, walking slowly in front of the audience as they watched her avidly. Lifting one arm partway, she let her fingers drift through the air. “Speak to me, Spirit.”
The candles flickered, as candles do when the wax melts, but it was enough to make even a couple of the men dart a glance around the room.
“Let’s go for the blokes,” Cole suggested. “Fred Jessup. Rich fat cat, suspects his wife is cheating.”
Definitely didn’t want to go there. “Speak to me, Spirit.”
“Geez. Okay. Though that would have been interesting.”
Bloody Cole.
“Still on Jessup,” he said. “Worried his daughter is hanging with the wrong crowd even though she’s a straight A student and has plans to go to uni to study to be a doctor. He doesn’t want her going to remote places which is where she wants to work. Her name is Justine but he calls her Jussy.”
Okay, she could use that.
Stopping to the left of Fred Jessup, Shea said, “I’m getting a…Jessie? No. I’m wanting to say Jessie, I…” She frowned, turned her head slightly, closed her eyes. “It’s not clear…” Opening her eyes, she gave a small laugh. “This sounds odd, but…Jussy? Spirit is telling me a girl named Jussy?”
Fred Jessup gaped, his wife beside him grabbing his arm as she squealed, “Jussy! Fred calls our daughter Jussy!”
“Ah.” Shea smiled. “That explains that.”
“What about Jussy?” Fred demanded.
“I see healing around her. Studying. Is she studying to be a nurse?”
“Wants to be a doctor.” Fred snorted.
“You’re not happy about that.”
“You think?” His tone reflected it was pretty bloody obvious.
Time to reel him in a little. Looking towards the far wall, Shea put on her ‘faraway’ expression. “I see a yearning. Travel. Healing and travel. Flying. Wings.” She frowned. “A bird?”
Fred rolled his eyes.
“No, a plane. Definitely a plane. Royal Flying Doctors? It could be.”
“Not if I have my way,” he muttered.
Not showing enough respect. Time to give a revelation, however untrue it might be.
“Yes. Yes, I see now.” Shea smiled down at Fred and his wife. “Jussy’s life plan is to be a doctor and travel to remote areas.”
Fred’s jaw tightened, but his gaze flickered.
“I can’t see exactly where she’ll end up but I see distance, a lot of distance.” Not such a hard stretch seeing as she’d shared on social media that she was a straight A student who wanted to go to uni, become a doctor and work in remote areas.
Admiring expressions were on those who knew of Fred’s daughter’s plan. Time to wrap up old Fred and move on.
Shea looked down at him. “Spirit says you need to stop doubting everything.”
He jerked a little, glanced at his wife.
“Go for it, baby!” Cole crowed in her ear.
“Some things are true, some are not.” With that cryptic message, Shea moved onwards.
Let Fred think what he liked about that. He suspected his wife was cheating and while it seemed as though there was a secret message in Shea’s words, he wouldn’t be sure to what they meant. His wife was cheating, she wasn’t cheating, his daughter could and would do as she wished and succeed, maybe there was something about his business bugging him. Let it continue to bug him as he struggled to fit her words to his thoughts.
Shea moved onward, hooking each person with shotgun statements even though she had a running commentary of information from Cole in her ear. It paid to keep the practice up, to make a few shots in the dark.
As expected, the sitters gave her more information. She threw out a suggestion and as she got more and more correct - thanks to Cole - they believed her, became more transparent as they unknowingly worked to put her words to real happenings, giving things away by volunteering a name, a happening, to which she’d nod and add more details.
By the end of the readings every person in the room was convinced they’d had a truly amazing experience, that she was so correct, so spot-on with everything she’d said, and almost everyone took one of her plain little cards that sat on a small, elegant silver platter near the door.
“Sweetie, that was spectacular!” Elspeth kissed her cheek, drew back to clutch a wispy lace handkerchief to her barely-covered bosom. “I don’t know how you do it.”
“Spirit guides me.” Shea smiled.
“We must do this again.”
“Call me anytime.”
“I will. Oh, I will. Now, I’ll go and leave you to gather yourself, to - how did you put it? Ride the gentle waves of togetherness?”
“Putting mind and soul together, reflecting, bringing myself back to me and out of the spirit world.” Shea blew out the nearest candle, stepped back so the shadows touched her with a hint of mystery. “All those terms are true.”
Mikki, waiting by the door for her aunt, was watching her with a gaze both admiring and curious. Oh boy, that redhead obviously enjoyed the sitting but she was no fool. Nor was Elspeth Arkwell, but while Shea apparently pulled information out of thin air, they were both happy to believe that she was the real deal.
Just before the door shut behind Elspeth, Shea’s attention caught on another person standing as still as she herself, the bright light outside catching the gold highlights in his hair. She’d noticed it before, dark blonde with a golden tint. In the light reflected behind him from the chandelier it looked almost a light brown with hints of gold.
Shea sought the mysterious through subterfuge and tricks.
The man looking directly at her out of pale blue eyes that seemed at that moment to be dark, had an air of mystery with no effort.
Aaron Wells was a chameleon, seeming to shift and blend with the light, the dark, the room and people. Blending yet standing out. Watching her.
The door clicked shut cutting him from sight and she drew a deep breath of relief, fighting the urge to sag. No, there was no relaxing. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d been secretly filmed, both before she took up this con gig and after. She continued to play the game.
Moving around the room, she blew out the candles until only one remained before taking a seat in the darkest spot to sit straight, hands clasped lightly in her lap, closing her eyes and breathing deeply.
It wasn’t a lie, she did take this time to release the inner tension that rode her. Conning wasn’t something she was proud of, but she was good at it. She could even argue that she helped people, made them happy, didn’t tell them anything bad, even helped them on the road to recovery with her ‘spirit’ suggestions, such as Rita and her drinking problem.
But there was no denying she conned them out of money.
The guilt swept through her.
“Come on, sis.” Cole’s voice echoed through her. “Chin up.”
As usual, she didn’t answer.
/>
“You’ve got a case of the galloping guilts, haven’t you?”
Bloody oath.
“We’ve been over this, Shea. You’re not hurting anyone. It’s not as though you’re a shonky second-hand car dealer or jewel thief or anything. You don’t cause trouble, you soothe the worried brow, you plant sensible suggestions. Okay?”
She sighed.
“There you go. The night is almost over. You can come home in the morning, we’ll finish packing. Okay?”
Seeking to ease the tension, she rolled her head on her neck. Yeah, there were things to do, places to go. A new chapter in their roving life, something to look forward to, something stable for Cole.
The tension eased from her shoulders as she pushed the guilt down, shoved it away.
However much it had changed, regardless of decisions made and regrets, life beckoned.
Chapter 2
Opening the door, Aaron strode out stretching leisurely. The weekend was over, the Willock Mansion Hotel had officially opened, the VIPs had returned home, he’d wrapped up his job, herded his security team back to the city where they’d disbursed to their various homes, gone to his office and dealt with the emails and reports, checked in with the surveillance team and finally gone to his own home to shower and drop into bed where he’d slept until his internal alarm went off at 0600hrs.
Dressed only in a pair of board shorts he’d dragged on to save old Mrs Thorn’s sensibilities next door, and so she wouldn’t stare at him hungrily through her curtains, he strode down the path to pick up the newspaper. Standing there with the early morning summer sun beaming gently down upon his chest and shoulders, he unwrapped the plastic while glancing lazily around the street.
Brian up the road had his sprinkler going already, Susie Bustle’s roses were blooming like crazy, the Welts family had their bicycles, tricycles and basket ball lying abandoned on their shaggy lawn, and Harry Fitzgerald was already digging his verge lawn out to replace it with brown gravel. Next year he’d be putting the verge lawn back in because he was never happy with the state of his yard. Since Aaron had moved into the street eight years before, he’d seen Harry’s garden go through some pretty intense changes.
The Wells Brothers: Aaron Page 3