Father and Child Reunion Part 2. Christine Flynn

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СКАЧАТЬ pulled a breath, hating how susceptible he was to her when they talked about the investigation. Every time she asked a question, her eyes would fill with hope. And every time he saw that hope, it never failed to get to him.

      “There’s no new information. Stone accepts that Jessica can see things that have happened in the past. But it seems she’s had a couple of premonitions about things that haven’t happened yet, and that’s got him a little nervous. He knows I believe in psychics.”

      “You do?”

      His glance never wavered. “Why not? There’s all kinds of energy out there.” The songs and chants he’d learned as a child taught that people and nature were all inexorably joined in the sacred circle of life. At its most basic level, Rio figured a cursory study of the food chain bore that claim out easily enough. The elders also taught that nature was energy. The movement of the wind. The beat of a bird wing. The firing of a neuron in a human brain. “Who’s to say it can’t be transmitted telepathically? Or that the energy patterns forming to make an event happen can’t be picked up by a receptive source? But Jessica hasn’t had any new visions concerning your mom,” he had to tell her, hating how the hope dimmed in her eyes. “I already asked.”

      Hope might have been dimmed, but it hadn’t been defeated. “But she thinks a woman attacked Mom, right? When Detective Richardson explained what had led them to do the autopsy, what it was Jessica was seeing, I mean, he alluded to the attacker being female. Did anyone ever have her look at mug shots of women? Maybe if she did, that would trigger something.”

      Caution made Rio hesitate. It wasn’t unusual in an investigation for the police to withhold information from the public. Most often, the press didn’t know what that information was. In this case, it did. Rio did, anyway. But he was no more interested in jeopardizing the case than he was in breaking his word to his friend about what he’d overheard. That was why the paper had never reported all of what Jessica Hanson claimed to have seen in her vision of the attack. That she’d had no sense of a whole person. What she remembered was an impression of the attacker being female, an image of that person’s hands, a hypodermic syringe—and the overpowering scent of gardenias.

      The public didn’t have that particular information. But Rio knew that Hal Stuart, with his connections to the department, certainly would. He’d apparently refrained from sharing any of it with his sister, though. And Rio wasn’t in a position to say anything himself.

      Unwilling to let her think some avenue wasn’t being explored, the best he could do was remind her of what had been reported. “Stone would agree with you. So would I. But Jessica never had an impression of a face.” Once more, Rio heard a door closing in the back of the house. “What she visualized could have just as easily been a man in a wig.”

      The sound of footsteps drew his attention from the disappointment adding to the shadows in Eve’s eyes. The slim figure of a man was moving past the doorway leading to the kitchen.

      Hal Stuart seemed to catch himself mid-stride. In the time it took for the reporter’s commanding presence to register, Hal’s eyebrows had slammed together.

      “What are you doing here?”

      At her brother’s surprisingly inhospitable demand, Eve whirled around, her hand flattening over the pearl at her throat.

      “Hal? What’s the matter with you? This is Rio. Redtree,” she added, though she was sure her brother, being a public official, must have met the reporter on any number of occasions.

      Hal kept coming, the sound of his polished Italian loafers going from impatient to muffled when he moved from hardwood to Aubusson carpet. He’d loosened his red silk “power” tie from the collar of his tailored white shirt. With his hands planted at the waist of his perfectly pleated slacks, and his meticulously cut, dark blond hair silvering prematurely at his temples, he looked like a poster boy for a high-fashion executive ad. Or he would have, had he been smiling.

      The fact that he wasn’t puzzled Eve far more than she let on. Her brother usually treated everyone as if they were his best buddy.

      “I know who he is,” Hal muttered.

      Rio was no slouch when it came to being personable himself. Eve had seen his quiet charm at work on Millicent the day he’d shown up on her porch, his gentle patience with Molly only minutes ago. What Eve witnessed now was his absolute self-possession. With her brother staring at him as if he’d like to see him trussed and on a spit, Rio simply inclined his head in acknowledgment and, keeping his hands at his side since the other man had his hands planted on his hips, regarded him evenly.

      “How are things going, Hal?”

      “You never answered my question.”

      Eve’s glance bounced from the dark and compelling man at her side to her fair-haired brother. At a loss to explain his behavior, she reached for his arm to draw his attention.

      “Rio’s investigating Mom’s death,” she told him, catching the scent of tobacco clinging to his shirt. “We were just talking about the woman who had those visions. Apparently she won’t be of much more help.”

      “I know all that. What I want to know is where he gets off following me here. He’s been hounding me all day.”

      “I’ve only called you twice,” Rio countered, his tone as reasonable as Hal’s was not. “I don’t believe that qualifies as hounding. And just for the record, I didn’t know you were here. The only car out front—” Cutting himself off, his glance sliced toward the front door and the vehicle parked at the curb. “I thought you drove a Lexus. Is that your Mercedes out there? The silver SL?”

      “Am I going to see that on the front page tomorrow? Acting Mayor Buys New Car?”

      Hal’s scowl removed the natural affability from his even features. Rio was amazed by the man’s defensiveness. Hal Stuart usually covered himself better than this. The city’s acting mayor was a master at public relations. In the five years Rio had been on the paper, he’d seen the politician portray sincerity, outrage, sympathy and enthusiasm with the skill of an Oscar-winning actor. But the man wasn’t acting now. Noting the pallor beneath his tan, Rio couldn’t help thinking that Hal looked far too tense to make the effort. To him, he looked very much like a man who’d been stretched about as far as he could go and was about to snap.

      It also appeared that he wasn’t going to be real cooperative.

      “Since you are here,” Rio continued, too practical to waste the opportunity, “you could save me another phone call in the morning. All I want is your statement about the stock you owned in the mining company Olivia was fighting on its lease renewal. As it stands right now, the article that will appear in the morning paper says you couldn’t be reached for comment.” It could easily be changed to “refused to comment,” but he didn’t care to pose that subtle threat. Not with Eve uneasily watching them both. “I can still get your remark in before the paper goes to press tonight.”

      Closing his eyes, Hal raked his fingers through his hair, his expression moving from defensive to beleaguered.

      “The police have already questioned me about this. I did own stock, but it was a poor choice of investments and I’ve already unloaded it. It’s no secret Mom and I had philosophical differences over the impact of that mine on the environment and the economy here, but it’s ludicrous for anyone to think I’d want her harmed because of it. I wish to hell that someone in this town would use a little logic. Why would I be pushing the investigation of anyone involved with СКАЧАТЬ