by Lynsay Sands
"Yes." Jane smiled, and continued. "Then, because I was bored, I decided to see what the microphone had picked up when they entered the house. You know, while we were on the hill, then during the accident and stuff."
He glanced at her curiously. "Was there anything?"
Jane nodded. "Lydia and Dirk were talking. Lydia was saying she was going to go talk to their father. Dirk said he would go with her, but she said he'd better not; that their father wouldn't appreciate the state he was in. She suggested he might want to lie on the couch and rest, that she'd come back and tell him what was said afterward. Dirk agreed. There was a click, I heard her walking and a rustling that was probably Dirk lying down, then a hissing sound followed by silence. Then Dirk started snoring."
"Was it a really loud annoying snore?" Abel asked with glee.
Jane found herself laughing, some of the unhappiness disappearing. She knew that had been his intention. He was trying to ease her anger at Nurse Nancy's high-handed behavior. It was working. "Yes, it was a loud snore. But the thing is, I checked the camera images for that period of time, and the living room lights go out."
"So Lydia probably turned out the lights so her brother could sleep," Abel suggested, his expression serious again.
"That's what I figured, too, but no other lights went on in the rest of the house after that. I checked the images from the cameras on the hill, and those behind, and the house stayed completely dark."
"Hmm." Abel thought. "Maybe the father was already asleep and Lydia just went to bed."
"Maybe. But if so, wouldn't she have turned on a bedroom light? No lights came on," she repeated. "Not until an hour later."
"An hour later?" Abel's eyebrows shot up. He glanced over from the road to see her nod.
"The house was dark and the only sound was Dirk's snoring for more than an hour; then that hiss sounded again. I could hear Lydia's high heels on a hard floor, then rustling that faded away to silence as she went to her bedroom. The cameras show her lights coming on for a few minutes, long enough for her to get ready for bed. The lights went out and the house was silent for the rest of the night, except for the snoring. Well, until I fell asleep anyway."
"Hmm."
They were both silent for several minutes, considering. Then Jane said, "That hissing reminded me of something."
"What?" Abel asked.
"I'm not sure." She bit her lip, thinking. "Maybe a pneumatic door."
"A pneumatic door? You mean one of those sliding doors that swish open and closed?"
"That's it! It was a swish, not a hiss. It sounded just like one of those pneumatic doors at the grocery store." She nodded thoughtfully. "That could be it. The darkness and silence while she was supposed to be talking to her father didn't seem right, but what if they have a basement?"
"A basement? I don't know." He looked doubtful. "The Goodinov house doesn't have one. It's planted on rock, built around the existing shape of the land. This is mountain architecture. That's why the garage and driveway are on level ground and the rest of the house is planted on it and the hill. I'd expect it's the same with the Ensecksi house."
"Well, maybe they have a hollow that their house is built on. That would explain Dirk's comment about his father being 'in the mountain.' They could have a basement with walls made of the mountain itself."
Abel shook his head. "I don't know, Jane. I mean, if he was in the basement, I'd think he'd just say he was in the basement."
"Yes. Maybe. But if there is a basement surrounded by mountain rock, that could explain where the rest of the Ensecksi security people must be...and Edie. The rock would insulate it on all sides. All they'd have to do was insulate the ceiling to prevent transmitters from transmitting or to keep listening devices from hearing anything."
"You think Edie could be down there?"
"I think it's a possibility. I think it would also explain why Lydia didn't hear the police and ambulance sirens last night and come out to investigate. She told Colin that she'd been sleeping, but we know she was talking to her father at the time. Why didn't they hear the sirens and come investigate?"
He accepted that in silence. "Who are the other people you think might be down there? I mean, you sound pretty sure there are other people. Who?"
"Well, Dirk and Lydia don't seem like the brightest bulbs in the fixture. They're rather average in intelligence. They might make good businesspeople, but they don't seem the sort to be able to develop and run the kind of technology that could convince a whole town of women to wear yellow, while their husbands don Hawaiian shirts. There must be some technicians, a scientist or two, assistants, security even." Jane shrugged.
"It would have to be a big basement," Abel said. "And surely these people would come out once in a while. I mean, maybe they can force Edie to stay down there, but if these people are working for them..." A moment later he asked, "And why would they even be in the basement? Surely they'd be wherever the satellite is."
"Yes. Of course, you're right," Jane said, dispirited. The car ahead was slowing. They'd arrived at the flea market.
She and Abel fell silent as he parked, and then he offered her a grim smile. "More fun with the Ensecksis. We should have stopped and picked up some hockey pads to wear under our clothes."
Jane laughed. "Yes, it would be nice to have a barrier between Dirk's groping and my skin. But I doubt they have much hockey gear here in Sonora."
Dirk and Lydia were getting out of their car nearby. Abel followed her gaze to the red vehicle and said, "I wonder how he got that here. I mean, if he and Josh drove Edie down in that hearse."
"Hmm. Maybe he usually leaves it here and flies down."
"Could be," Abel agreed.
They got out. Jane and Abel met at the back of the van and started toward the others as the Johnsons and Luellen and Daniel exited the Jeep and moved to join them.
"All set to experience Sonora's shopping joys?" Brian asked lightly as the group came together.
"All set," Jane agreed. She smiled.
"You're not going to leave your poor grandmother in the van while we walk around, are you?" Lydia asked with a laugh, not moving when the rest of the group started toward the booths and tables set up in the large Mother Lode Fairground.
"Oh." Jane shook her head. "She isn't in the van. She stayed home."
"What? But she wanted to come. She said she was coming." Lydia didn't look happy at the news.
Jane would have understood Lydia's displeasure if it was Abel who had stayed behind, but she was a tad surprised at the woman's reaction to Maggie Spyrus's absence. "Her nurse finally arrived and Gran was really too tired to be bothered," she said. "She only agreed to go so that Abel and I could, but once her nurse showed up she said she'd rather stay home."
The glance Lydia and Dirk exchanged was definitely alarmed, but then Dirk pasted one of his arsenal of sexy grins on his face and took Jane's arm. He turned her toward the market. "Well, I guess that means I don't have to share you with her."
"No. Now I'm free to enjoy your attentions," Jane agreed. She fought off a shudder.
"And ours," Luellen announced, breaking in between them.
"It'll be a day of play." Daniel stepped over to slap Abel on the back, cutting off Lydia's effort to glue herself to his side. "How about those Sharks, huh? What a team!"
Jane almost laughed at the irritation on Lydia's face.
------
The flea market was fun, though it would have been more fun without Dirk and Lydia. Lydia spent the whole time putting down everything she saw, while Dirk followed Jane around, crowding her horribly. She couldn't seem to move without bumping into him, and she couldn't tell him to give her space either. She had to put up with it and smile happily. Being an agent rather sucked in some respects.
The other two couples were great, however. They also ran interference for her--which made her wonder if, despite her best efforts, some of her impatience and irritation were showing through. She supposed she'd never make a good poker
player, but Dirk's attentions could be overwhelming. The man had no concept of personal space. That, combined with his good looks, had rather thrown her last night. She suspected it was how he got all his women, pretty much steamrolling them into bed while they were confused by what they were feeling.
Abel wasn't doing much better. He had his hands full with Lydia. She was forever touching and leaning into him. He seemed to handle it easier than Jane, but was looking a bit frayed when lunchtime finally rolled around and they all headed to the historic section of downtown Sonora. They found parking in an open garage, then walked out in a group.
Jane paused for a minute and wished she'd brought a camera. A little red church at the end of the street caught her eye, and it was so pretty with its single spire and white trim that she found herself smiling.
"It's gorgeous, isn't it?" Luellen commented. "And look at that building."
Jane followed her gesture and found herself looking at what might have been the local tavern/brothel a hundred years before. It looked as if it had come right out of a John Wayne western.
Luellen sighed. "I have to come back and just play tourist after this assignment's done."
Jane glanced wildly about as that wistful comment slipped from the agent's lips, but the others had already started down the street and were out of hearing. Even Dirk had left them behind. It seemed food was enough to distract him from Jane's charms. Yay, food! she thought with amusement.
As if feeling her absence, Abel turned back and called, "Come on, you two. We can sightsee later. This man needs food."
They had lunch in a little restaurant called El Jardin. The three couples sat out in the open air on a tiny shady patio between the restaurant and the adjacent building, enjoying the peaceful burbling of a little fountain and people-watching through an iron gate facing the street. Jane wasn't used to Mexican food and looked over the menu with uncertainty. She ended up ordering the fiesta tostada at Melanie's suggestion, politely declining the fish tacos recommended by the woman's husband. It was almost too pretty to eat when it arrived, but it was also too yummy not to.
The food was delicious and most of the company wonderful, though Dirk managed to make a pain of himself. Jane had been relieved at the idea of lunch, thinking he could hardly be as bothersome there because she'd have a chair to herself and wouldn't have him pressing up against her, but she'd been wrong. While he wasn't able to share her seat, Dirk had moved his own directly next to hers and hung over her throughout the entire meal. He managed to taint what would have otherwise been a perfectly lovely lunch.
It was as they were leaving El Jardin that Melanie insisted Jane and Luellen visit a store called the Banyan Tree. Jane wasn't too enthusiastic at first. She expected rows of yellow dresses, and there were those. In every imaginable shade. From the almost-cream of the dress Melanie wore to an almost-black gold. But there were dresses of other colors as well, and Jane, who had glanced in the windows of several dress shops on the way to and from El Jardin, decided the Banyan Tree was the last bastion against yellow fashion fever. It was also a haven of good taste. Jane even found several things she liked in the store.
She would have walked out a completely happy camper if Luellen hadn't stopped at a rack and said, "Isn't this gorgeous?"
Much to her dismay, the dress the FBI agent was holding was dyed a hideous yellow. Jane very much feared that Luellen was beginning to be affected by the Sonoran mind-control satellite. Even more alarming to Jane, all these yellow dresses that surrounded them everywhere they went no longer seemed so awful. They were beginning to look bright and cheerful. Which couldn't be a good sign.
It was still early afternoon when the party broke up, but Jane was exhausted. She hadn't got much sleep last night and looked forward to lying down for a nap. Her fatigue disappeared under a jolt of adrenaline, however, when they pulled into the Goodinov driveway to find it filled with emergency vehicles. An ambulance was just leaving, but that still left the county coroner and three police cars.
"Gran!" Jane was out of the van before Abel had brought it to a complete halt. She flew up the stairs to the house at a dead run, then nearly tumbled back down them when she crashed into Officer Alkars at the top. Fortunately, Colin caught her arms and saved her.
"Gran!" Jane gasped.
"She's all right," Colin said firmly, still holding her. "She's fine."
"But..." Jane waved back at the driveway with its collection of vehicles.
"Someone broke in," he explained as Abel caught up to her.
"Broke in'" she cried. "I thought you had no crime here."
"Well, we have some crime," he snapped. "Not a lot. And certainly not two deaths in two days. At least not until you people moved here."
"What kind of crack is that?" Abel growled.
"Who's dead?" Jane asked, not caring about Colin's accusation. She'd already known he was suspicious. "Is it the nurse?"
"No. She's fine. A little shook-up, but fine. The fellow who broke in is dead."
Jane sagged with relief.
"Someone broke in and was killed?"
Jane glanced over her shoulder to see Dirk and Lydia Ensecksi on the stairs behind them. Apparently, they were investigating the police vehicles. The Johnsons had also stopped, and the foursome who were riding in the Jeep had just started up the stairs.
"How was he killed?" Lydia asked. She didn't sound pleased. Jane had a sudden flash of the blonde's face when she'd heard Gran had stayed home, and instinctively knew the supposed thief was an Ensecksi henchman.
"Ms. Ellison struggled with him on the deck. He fell off and broke his neck," answered Colin.
"Ms. Ellison?" Dirk asked.
Jane was glad he'd beat her to it when Colin explained: "Nancy Ellison. Maggie--Ms. Goodinov's nurse."
Nancy hadn't mentioned a last name, real or otherwise. She hadn't needed an introduction, Jane thought sourly. Ha! Wouldn't they have looked stupid asking who she was!
"Who was the man? Was he from around here?" Lydia asked far too casually.
"He has no ID on him. We're going to run his fingerprints."
"I'd better go see Gran." Jane left Abel to deal with their neighbors and made her way inside.
She found Gran and Nancy in the great room. The nurse/spy was seated on the couch weeping into a Kleenex while Gran patted her back soothingly. Jane just stood there, staring in amazed horror for several minutes before Maggie Spyrus spotted her.
"Did Officer Alkars leave?"
"Yes," Abel said from behind Jane. "He got rid of everyone else, then left himself."
Nancy 's sobs died abruptly and she sat back with a sigh. "Thank goodness. I thought he'd never leave. Are the Ensecksis back then?"
"Y-yes," Jane stammered, completely thrown by the woman's sudden change.
Nancy nodded and got to her feet. "I'd best go watch the monitors then. Those two might say something of value."
Jane watched her go with wide eyes, then asked, "What happened?"
Her grandmother explained: Nancy had seen a man come around the side of the Ensecksi house on the monitor. The cameras had shown him walk through the trees and make his way up the hill. He'd passed out of sight of the monitors then, and she'd stood to peer out the window to see him approaching the door of the very bedroom where she stood. The door wasn't locked. He'd opened it, started in, and got the surprise of his life when he found himself confronted. Nancy had a gun pointed right at him, so he'd tried to flee. Wanting to get information, Nancy had given chase. The two had struggled, and the man had broken his neck when she used a martial arts kick that sent him crashing into the railing that surrounded the deck. It had given way under the strain, sending him plummeting to the ground some twenty feet below. He would have survived the fall without difficulty, but he'd landed head-first on one of the large boulders littering the slope. His neck had snapped, killing him instantly. Nancy had climbed down to check on him, then had called the police.
And apparently sobbed her little heart out over t
he ordeal to convince Colin she was traumatized and horrified by the day's events, Jane realized. "Now I know why Lydia and Dirk were so upset that you didn't come with us. They must be suspicious," she commented wearily.
"Hmm." Gran scowled. "I'd like to know what tipped them off. I thought we'd covered every angle."
Jane was silent for a minute, then told her about Lydia's entering the kitchen that morning while Daniel and she were talking. She tried to edit what it was exactly they'd been talking about, but really couldn't do so. Knowing she was blushing, Jane avoided looking at Abel and recounted the end of the brief conversation.
"That's probably it, then," Gran agreed. "It was foolish of Daniel to talk like that with the Ensecksis here. You should have stopped him, Janie."
"Yes," she agreed miserably.
"Now. Is there?"
Jane glanced up blankly. "Is there what?"
"Something between you and Abel?"
"Yes," Jane admitted, deciding there was little sense in lying. She'd told Abel what she thought of him while under the influence of the truth serum anyway. That didn't stop her face from flaming, though. Clearing her throat, she stood up. "I'm rather tired. I think I'll go lie down until dinner."
Abel wasn't about to stick around for Gran's third degree, either. He stood. "I'll spot Nancy for a while. She could probably use a break."
Jane went to the room she'd used the day before. She hadn't thought to collect clothes from the master bedroom, so she wore only her panties. She slept deep and hard and it was dark out when she awoke. Jane hadn't expected to sleep so long; she'd expected someone to wake her for supper, so was surprised at the lateness of the hour. She was even more surprised to find she wasn't alone. Mr. Tibbs had curled up on her chest, and was snoozing happily. But Abel was also there, wide awake and seated on the edge of her bed. A soft smile was on his face.
Jane didn't know what to think when his first words were, "Do you trust me?"
Chapter Eighteen
Did she trust him? Jane stared at Abel Andretti and repeated his question to herself. The answer was simple. This was Edie's brother, the man who'd hesitated to make love to her because he felt she deserved more than a fling. This was the man who'd shown her pleasure like she'd never experienced. Did she trust him?