Page 32 of Killing Time

Some tea to wash it down, and another of those innocuous conversations tailored for a public place like this, especially one so small and intimate. Crowded, too, with all the tables filled with people he guessed were locals, since they addressed the waiter by his first name, and he seemed to know a good deal about their families and their businesses.

He’d just come by and laid down the check when he turned to greet the two newcomers who’d just entered the café. Idly, Seth glanced over…and froze.

The two men were Jasper and Adam Wilcox.

Although he didn’t dare look Devynn in the face — probably because he knew either or both of them would wear some kind of betraying expression — he could also see the way she stiffened.

Then, very deliberately, she reached into her purse and extracted the gold compact she’d purchased at the five-and-dime the afternoon before and began to powder her nose as though she didn’t have a care in the world.

Jasper’s gaze slid toward her…paused for what felt like a thousand years…and then moved away, going back to the waiter as he returned the man’s greeting, and he and Adam went over to a table in a corner opposite from the spot where Seth and Devynn were sitting.

Willing his hand not to shake, he picked up the check and then removed a five-dollar bill from his wallet. As the waiter passed by, Seth handed both items over, thanked the man, and then stood.

Devynn took the cue and rose as well, not hurriedly, but the way anyone might when they were finished with their meal and ready to get on with the rest of their afternoon. She waited for him to come over and loop her arm in his, and together they walked out of the café.

Although she certainly appeared calm enough, her arm against his felt stiff as a rock, and she walked a little morequickly than she otherwise might have as they headed down Leroux Street toward the hotel. The whole way, Seth kept having to fight the urge to look over his shoulder and see whether Jasper Wilcox was following them, his long legs eating up the space between him and his prey.

But when they finally got to the entrance to the Weatherford and paused so he could push the door open, Seth saw that no one was behind them at all. No, Jasper was still back at the café, enjoying a late lunch.

Thank the Goddess.

They both remained silent as they rode up the elevator and walked down the hallway to their third-floor room, as though they feared that speaking would break the protective spell that had somehow shielded them from the Wilcoxprimus.Once they were inside, though, Devynn let out a little gasp.

“Oh, God, that wasawful!”

“It was,” Seth agreed. “Or at least, it could have been. But it sure seems to me that the amulet and your gift did their job.”

“I suppose they did,” she said, still looking pale…or maybe that was simply the fresh powder she’d applied back at the café. “I guess I never thought I’d have to put that magic to the test in such close proximity, though.”

Neither had he. True, he hadn’t known exactly for sure what was going to happen while they were in Flagstaff, but both he and Devynn had shared a tacit understanding that they weren’t going to spend any more time near the Wilcoxes than they absolutely had to.

But, frightening as that brush-by had been, at least now Seth knew they wouldn’t have to worry about what Jasper Wilcox might be doing for the next half-hour or so.

“We’re never going to get a better chance than this,” he said, and Devynn gave a reluctant nod, not even bothering to ask what he’d meant by the comment.

“You’re right. I guess we’ll just have to hope the housekeeper isn’t out there dusting Rebecca’s cello or something.”

Seth thought the odds of that happening were fairly low, so he only smiled.

“I’m willing to take that chance. Let’s get going.”

At once, Devynn stepped over to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. As much as he would have liked to bend down and kiss her, he knew this wasn’t the time to get distracted. He called to mind the blueprints again, thinking of the studio, which was mostly one large space with a door to the bathroom at the back and a fireplace on the west wall, a comfort he supposed Jasper had added so his wife wouldn’t be cold when she was out there practicing on a bitter winter afternoon.

It was hard to imagine theprimusbeing so solicitous when he must have known that any marriage to him was a guaranteed death sentence, but Seth would be the first to admit that he didn’t fully understand the Wilcoxes’ thought processes.

Well, except maybe those of the woman who had her arms wrapped around his waist.

Time to go.

Within a split second, they stood in the center of Rebecca’s music studio. In real life, it was much more impressive than the blueprint could have shown, the fireplace cold and dark but with a handsome oak mantel and handmade blush-colored tile surrounding the firebox, and substantial beams crossing the white plaster ceiling overhead.

For some reason, Seth had expected the place to be dark, the curtains closed tight to conceal whatever lay inside, but they were pushed away from the windows, letting in the cool afternoon sunlight and allowing him to see bare oaks to one side and a pretty stand of young pines to another, as well as the corner of a huge dark structure that he guessed must be the main house.

And it was painfully obvious that the studio was empty, the only living beings here Devynn and himself.

Her expression as she looked around wasn’t precisely disappointed, as though she’d known all along that they wouldn’t find Ruby here. One wall held a bank of low, lawyer-style bookcases with glass doors, while one corner had an upright wooden chair and a large instrument case leaning against the wall. Not too far away was a matching chair, as though intended for a listener to sit there and enjoy the music Rebecca Wilcox had made.

Did Jasper used to come here and listen to his wife practice?

---