Àìàíäà Êâèê - Quicksilver

Gabe leaned back against a large, empty wooden cask and folded his arms. "A simple plan."

"I have always found that they work best," Owen said. "Now, then, I am rather busy at the moment. If there is nothing else, I trust you will excuse me."

He turned and walked away through the deep shadows at the back of the warehouse. In a moment he was gone.

Gabe watched the darkness where Sweetwater had vanished. "I do not think that he told us everything he knows."

"You can place a wager on that assumption," Caleb agreed.

"He's one of us, though, isn't he?"

"A hunter?" Caleb said. "Yes, I'm sure of it. But he is not like any hunter-talent I have ever met."

"How do you think he hunts?"

"From what little I have learned about him, I suspect that he has the ability to discern what it is that compels the killer. Once he knows that, he can make some predictions."

"Such as the possible identity of the killer's next victim?"

"Yes."

"What if he's wrong?"

"Then I was wrong to employ him," Caleb said. "If another innocent glass-reader dies, I will bear a good portion of the blame."

"No," Gabe said. "You took the only step you could take to try to stop the person who is murdering the glass-readers. And as the Master of the Society, I authorized the hiring of Sweetwater for this venture. It was, I believe, a very logical move. We are sending a man who hunts monsters out to hunt his natural prey."

Caleb exhaled slowly. "What gives us the right to do such a thing?"

"Damned if I know," Gabe said. "But if J J doesn't go after the psychical villains, who will? It is not as if the police are equipped to track down killers who are endowed with paranormal talents."

"No."

"I would remind you this is not an act of pure altruism on our parts," Gabe said. "Our survival and the survival of those like us may well be at stake. Arcane has a great interest in protecting the public from the monsters."

"I am aware of that."

At the moment, the press and the public were fascinated by the paranormal. But if it became common knowledge that there were those who could use their psychical abilities to commit murder, the popular interest would transmute instantly into panic.

Gabe strode toward the door. "As long as I am Master, I will do everything in my power to ensure that we do not return to the days when those with even a scrap of paranormal talent were branded as witches and sorcerers. If that means occasionally hiring a psychical assassin, so be it."

Caleb fell into step beside him. "You have certainly become a good deal more obsessed with protecting the members of the Society and future generations of talents since Venetia delivered your firstborn last month."

Gabe opened the door and moved out into the fog-shrouded night. "It is astonishing how becoming a father focuses one's priorities."

Owen went up the steps of the modest town house in Garnet Lane, keenly aware of the sense of anticipation that had been whispering through him all morning. The prospect of seeing Virginia again energized him in ways that probably should have been deeply disturbing or at least mildly concerning. It was invariably a mistake to allow himself to give free rein to any strong emotion when he was on the hunt. The Sweetwaters were a notoriously passionate lot. A side effect of their talents, some said. But indulging in strong passions while hunting violated all of the family rules.

Virginia Dean was proving to be the exception to every rule he had lived by for all of his life.

The door at the top of the steps opened before he could knock more than twice. Mrs. Crofton, the housekeeper, stood before him. She was a tall woman in her late thirties, garbed in a gray housedress trimmed with a white, crisply starched apron. A neatly pleated white cap covered most of her tightly pinned blond hair. There was a mix of curiosity and veiled assessment in her blue eyes. He knew from their initial encounter that she was not accustomed to finding a man on her employer's front steps. The knowledge that Virginia did not, apparently, receive a lot of gentlemen callers pleased him more than he wanted to admit.

"You're back, then, Mr. Sweetwater," Mrs. Crofton said.

Her voice was laced with the cool, professional accents of a woman who at one time or another had served in a far more exclusive household. He wondered how she had come to work for an employer who was obliged to go out into the world to earn a living. Housekeepers and others in service were as concerned with their social status as everyone else. The social standing of one's employer mattered.

"I believe I am expected." He gave her his card.

"Yes, sir. Miss Dean said you would be calling today, sir. She will see you." Mrs. Crofton stepped back and held out a hand for his hat and gloves. "I'll show you into her study."

When she closed the door, a heavy gloom descended on the front hall. It took him a moment to realize that there was no mirror on the wall over the console as was commonplace in many homes, to add the illusion of light and space.

He followed Mrs. Crofton down a narrow corridor and into a snug, book-lined study. The window at the far end overlooked a small, attractive garden. There was a mirror in this room, he noted. It looked new.

Virginia was seated behind a compact rolltop desk. She looked up, pen in hand. For a heartbeat, he just looked at her, fascinated by the way the morning light burnished her red-and-gold hair.

"Mr. Sweetwater to see you, ma'am," Mrs. Crofton announced.

"Thank you, Mrs. Crofton," Virginia said. She put aside the pen. "Please sit down, Mr. Sweetwater."

Mrs. Crofton hesitated in the doorway. "Will you be wanting tea, ma'am?"

Virginia looked suddenly uncertain. Having faced the same weighty question earlier that day, Owen smiled to himself. Offering tea was a silent way of inviting a guest to linger longer than might otherwise be necessary. Virginia's decision would provide him with a clue to how she viewed their association.

"Yes, please," Virginia said with an air of sudden decision. "Thank you, Mrs. Crofton."

He had his answer, Owen thought. Virginia was still wary of him, but she had accepted the fact that she could no longer avoid him. Serving tea did not mean that she would cooperate fully, but it was a silent acknowledgment that they were bound together, if only temporarily, by the events of the night.

Mrs. Crofton closed the door. Owen sat down in a chair facing the desk and the window.

"I must admit I'm curious to know how you explained your late return home last night to your housekeeper," he said.

"I simply said that I had been detained at the client's house longer than expected." Virginia indicated the copy of theFlying Intelligencer on top of the desk. "There is nothing on Hollister's death in the morning papers, so Mrs. Crofton has no reason to ask any questions."

"Do not be too sure of that. In my experience, housekeepers always know more than anyone realizes. The reason there is no gossip yet is because, as of midnight last night, no one except us and the killer was aware that Hollister was dead. For all we know the body is still down there in that chamber, waiting to be discovered. When it does appear in the papers, the death will no doubt be attributed to natural causes."

"Yes, of course. The family will make certain of it. They will not want the scandal of a murder investigation, especially if the killer was the wife, as we suspect."

"No."

Virginia clasped her hands on the blotter. "Given that no high-ranking family wants to become involved with the police, I cannot understand why someone tried to arrange matters so that I would be found at the scene of the murder with a knife in my hand."

"I'm almost certain that was not part of the original plan. I think it is far more likely that something went very wrong with a carefully set scheme last night."

"Do you think it was a coincidence that Lady Hollister commissioned a reading last night?"

"When it comes to murder, there are no coincidences. But in this situation there are other possibilities."

"Such as?"

"Perhaps you were the intended victim all along."

Virginia stilled. "Me?"

"If you had been found at the scene, you would have been arrested and very likely hung for murder."

"Good grief."

"Do you have any enemies or rivals, Miss Dean?"

She drew a breath. "No outright enemies that I know of, but there is always a great deal of competition among practitioners. So yes, I have some rivals, but I cannot think of any who would go so far as to implicate me in the murder of a high-ranking gentleman just to get me out of the way."

"It is only one possible explanation for events. I'm sure there are others."

"What a cheerful thought. You must have spent some time thinking about the case last night, sir. Is that the best you could come up with?"

"I will admit that my thinking last night was not terribly productive. There are too many unknowns at this stage."

She raised her brows. "Did you get any sleep at all?"

"Very little."

"Neither did I." Virginia sighed. "I spent most of the night trying to make some sense of events. I am absolutely baffled."

"There is a great mystery here. The one thing I am certain of is that although we succeeded in destroying someone's carefully laid trap, you are still in danger."

"But why?"