Page 80 of Sapphire Nights
“And maybe I can ask about crystals and art a bit.” She was still naked after their shower, running a dryer over her wethair.
Walker soaked up the sight and wondered how hard it would be to leave her here when his jobwas over. Pretty damned hard, he feared. He wanted to know everything about this witchy woman. He was thinking it might take a lifetime though, and neither of them had an inclination forthat.
“You could ask Daisy where she gets the shiny bits she uses on her statues,” Walker agreed, catching a glimpse of the stone butterfly reflecting sunlight from the windows. “I can’t see how they haveanything to do with anything, but if Valdis was speaking from some past memory, it must be a strongone.”
“That’s how I’d like to think about it—she’s calling up voices from her past. But that bit about Francois was pretty freaky. How will you go about finding hisboyfriendand questioninghim?”
“Carefully,” Walker admitted. “He’s been with the Kennedys forever. I don’t know howhe could have hidden a lover for long in this town,though.”
“Well, Valdis could have got the relationship wrong. It’s hard telling what she’s seeing or hearing.Old Frauddoesn’t tell us much. Lot of old people here, and I’m guessing half of them are charlatans.” After pinning her hair in a stack on top of her head, Sam shimmied into herunderwear.
Walker had to turn away to fastenhis belt or he’d never get out of there. “The only legal fraud I know would have been Geoff Kennedy, and he’s dead. I need to go over the attorney general’s old report and run the names of his cohorts through my files to see if anything matches. Nothing leapt out at me in the first read-through.”
“They would have all been eighteen or twenty years younger than they are now. Women could havemarried and changed their names. People who were merely assistants back then could be bigwigs now. Maybe their names weren’t even in thereport.”
He couldn’t resist kissing her again. “I’ll have intrepid Sofia look up the names of the lower echelons at the bank and mortgage company backthen.”
She kissed him with enthusiasm, then stepped away so she could finish dressing. “She mayhave to hack computers. That doesn’t sound like anything that would bepublic.”
“Payroll reports, human resources, employment agencies, there are always back doors if you know the right people. If we can find evidence that someone from back then was up here the night Juan died, I can have a judge subpoena the company files. I need to drive down and check in at the office. Should I dropyou off intown?”
She hesitated, then shook her head. A few recalcitrant strands of platinum hair fell and caressed her elegant cheekbones. “I want to walk down the lane. I haven’t met everyone here, and the ghost house fascinatesme.”
Walker felt his insides grind, but he nodded knowingly. “You’re planning on staying here, aren’tyou?”
“Maybe. The ghost house has this beautifulgarden... But I don’t know what I want yet.” Her sapphire eyes begged him tounderstand.
And he did, sort of. He understood they were two very different people, with different life experiences, different needs. He brushed aside the dangling curl and kissed her cheek. “See you when I see youthen.”
He skipped Dinah’s and drove down the mountain to change clothes and check in forrole call. The routine was starting to irritate, but he needed legal power to question people like the Kennedys. His usual work didn’t include active criminal investigations, until he uncovered a crime. Then he handed the case over to the authorities. He was enjoying having the ability to follow through on the cases, but he disliked the bureaucracy. Or maybe he just disliked not being his ownboss.
In a fresh uniform, Walker reported in at the office and went over the files. The blood analysis on Xavier was still incomplete, although the hospital’s staff had concluded an overdose of cocaine. Not knowing Xavier’s drug of choice, he couldn’t reach aconclusion.
The ballistics report on the gun from the Kennedy vault had proven it was the weapon used on Juan. Muttering acurse under his breath, Walker looked over the fingerprint report again—too many smudges and attempts to wipe it clean. Traces that matched those in Carmel’s bedroom, partials from Francois, but also some identified from Geoffrey Kennedy’s old files, and even one from a maid who had probably picked it up to dust under it. It was practically a publicgun.
He read through the homicide team’snotes. Francois claimed he’d never touched the gun. He’d lied, since they’d found a partial of his prints onit.
Walker needed more information on the Kennedys’ driver, as well as names of people who’d worked with Geoff Kennedy, the bank, and the mortgage company from twenty years ago—although that wasn’t part of the sheriff’sinvestigation.
He gave the detective a head’s up aboutFrancois, then called Sofia to start digging into mortgage and bank employees from twenty years ago. He was getting a jumpy feeling that he was leaving Sam alone toolong.
No one had attempted to harm Sam or Valdis yet, but Walker had a nasty fear that their land had a part in whatever was happening up there. Maybe that’s what Valdis was ranting about—she believed that land ownership wassomehowdangerous.
Nah, that was too rational for the oldwitch.
He stopped at the Baskerville hospital where both Xavier and Valdis werepatients.
As he drove his official vehicle into the lot and hunted a parking space, he noted Alan Gump of the garish blond hair and bespoke suits climbing into a Lamborghini. Real estate moguls had to stand out in a crowd, Walker supposed,but flashing that much wealth in a district predominantly occupied by people barely scraping a living seemed...offensive.
He rolled his eyes. That was his mother’s voice in his head, nattering about the evils of flashing wealth to impress. He was spending too much time with the tree-huggingLucys.
Walker checked on Xavier first, but he’d been moved to a drug rehab facility inMonterey.Damn.
He would compile a list of questions and see if one of his men could get in to see the oldgoat.
Then he stopped in to visit Valdis. She was hooked up to an IV and despite the scar, looking almost healthy without the grim black clothing. Tullah, the tall elegant woman from the thrift shop, and Amber, the tarot reader, were already there, shaking out clean dresses—allblack—apparently for Valdis to choose from. Walker grimaced and almost turned around rather than face a room full ofLucys.
But he gritted his teeth and entered. All three women looked at him as if they were ready for him to be gone before he even spoke aword.
