Page 52 of Killing Time

She nodded, an acknowledgment that eased the knot of worry in his stomach just a little bit.

“Mars Hill is the big hill just west of downtown. There’s an observatory that was built sometime in the ’20s, I think. That’s why it wasn’t there when we were in Flagstaff in 1884. Anyway, the road up to the observatory has a couple of places where you can park and look out over the city and almost all the way to Winslow or down to Sedona, if the air is clear enough that day. It looks like Adam wants to meet us at the overlook closer to the bottom of the hill.”

That’s what it sounded like to Seth, too.

Only….

“What if it isn’t Adam who sent that note? What if it’s a trap?”

Devynn had been in the process of refolding the paper so she could put the note back in its envelope. Now her brows lifted ever so slightly. “If Jasper and his goons really wanted to trap us, they probably wouldn’t want to do it in such a public place. There are almost always people up there taking in the view unless it’s snowing or raining or something. And at that time of evening, they might be there to catch the last of sunset or to watch the stars come out.”

It definitely wasn’t raining or snowing today. No, the weather had continued clear and cool, and Seth supposed it would be justthe sort of evening when people would want to wander up there and look down at the city. If that was the case, they wouldn’t be alone, but he assumed Adam had thought of that already.

“All right,” he said. “Six o’clock it is.”

They didn’t have too much time to kill, considering they’d gotten back from Winslow only a little before five. Having a drink didn’t seem like a very good idea, not when they’d both need to be sharp when they met with the Wilcox warlock, and even if they’d been hungry — which they weren’t, not after their late lunch at La Posada — they wouldn’t have had enough time for that, either.

Instead, they walked back to Wheeler Park, where Devynn told him about her cousin Jake and how he’d converted one of the houses across the street into his own office for tracking down witches or warlocks who weren’t connected with a clan, for whatever reason.

“I suppose there were a few more than he’d been expecting to find,” she said, “although after the first couple of years, that tapered off quite a bit. Still, it showed that there really were people who’d been conceived by a warlock or whatever and had absolutely no idea who they were and where their strange powers had come from.”

Seth had to admit he’d never really thought of such a thing happening, mostly because in his time, members of the various clans spent very little time outside their home territories and therefore didn’t have much opportunity to leave behind children they didn’t even know were theirs. But it sounded as though Devynn’s cousin Jake had done some good work, and onceagain, Seth had to marvel at how different the Wilcoxes of her time were from those now…or in his past.

Then it was time to drive to Mars Hill. The road leading up to the observatory began only a few blocks from where they were staying, and at first, Seth wondered why they hadn’t walked. But as the road continued to rise and it became clear that it was some ways before they would reach the first overlook, he realized that walking might not have been such a good idea after all.

As he’d feared, a few cars were already parked at their destination, but they were on the far side of the open space at the side of the road. Only one waited near the lower end of the overlook, a vehicle Seth recognized right away.

Adam Wilcox’s big green Buick.

In fact, he was already out of the car and stood leaning against the fender, gazing out over a dusky, purple-hued Flagstaff as though he hadn’t come up there for any reason except to get a good look at the view. As they approached, though, he stood up a little straighter.

“You got my note.”

“We did,” Seth said. He and Devynn paused a few feet away, close enough that they could hear one another but not so close that anyone at the other end of the overlook would have reason to think they were having a conversation.

“We found Ruby,” Devynn said, and Adam sent her a shocked look before he seemed to remember that he was supposed to be gazing at the view and not at her.

“You did? Where?”

Now she gave Seth a sideways glance, as though she wasn’t sure whether she should say anything more. Yes, they needed to tell Adam they’d had some success, just so he wouldn’t keep beating the bushes, so to speak, trying to shake loose some information about where theprima-in-waiting had been taken.

But if they’d trusted the man this far, then Seth supposed they needed to continue trusting him. After all, he’d had plenty of time to betray them if that had been his game.

“In Winslow, at La Posada. Did you have any idea that’s where she was?”

Staring straight ahead, Adam said, “No. Or rather, one of my cousins mentioned that her brother and one of the cousins he’s close with had left early Saturday morning to run some sort of errand, but she had no idea what it was.”

“Probably going to the cabin so they could move Ruby out to Winslow,” Devynn said. “We’re still not sure exactly why she’s there, but I assume it’s because most people wouldn’t think to look for her in a public place like that.”

“It seems like the kind of maneuver Jasper would pull,” Adam replied, his tone almost wry. “If people from your clan did come here, demanding to have Ruby given back, he’d be able to say in all truth that she wasn’t even in Flagstaff. Also, it’s not so far that it would be too difficult to bring her back here in time for the ceremony.”

“Right,” Seth said. “Was there something you wanted to tell us, though? That is, you must have left us that note for a reason.”

Adam glanced around, but one group of people had already gotten into their car and were beginning to back out onto the road, and another couple also seemed as if they were packing it in, with the man opening the car door so his companion could climb inside. At any rate, it didn’t seem as if anyone was paying much — if any — attention to them.

“At work this morning, I was trying to think of the best person I could talk to, someone who would have no reason to feel particularly loyal to Jasper, no matter how they might seem on the outside. And then I thought of my cousin Lana.”

“Why her?” Devynn asked.

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