Page 8 of Sapphire Nights
“It’s a load of hokum,” Juan said in a tone indicating his agreement with hisboss.
“Some of the ladies are pretty influential. The mayor could be right.” Walker followed the mulch path the resort optimistically called a woodlandwalk. The uneven ground exacerbated his limp, but he’d deal. Up ahead, he could catch glimpses of the flowing drapery of Valdis and Daisy. He didn’t know why all that fabric didn’t catch on the prickly pear cactus growing all throughhere.
Before long, they veered off the mulch path and followed a rockier one. Sand slid from beneath his boots, loosening the stones they walked on. Layersof shale, sandstone, and volcanic rock from the tectonic shifts of the San Andreas fault formed these unstable mountains. In spring, mud slides shifted the geology with enough energy to take out atown.
In place of worrying about mudslides, he probably ought to worry that it had been a relatively dry spring. People weren’t as cautious with their campfires here as they were further southin the more aridhills.
He stopped on a rocky outcrop and gazed over a plateau too far north and east for a view of the town below. The area had once been covered in ancient redwoods, but they’d been logged long ago. It was mostly scrub brushnow.
The women had formed a ragged circle to his right. To Walker’s disappointment, the newcomer was with them. He’d hoped she was just visitingand not one of Cass’s coven, although he should have known better. She was sitting cross-legged, leaning against a tree, and studying whatever the hell was happening. Maybe she was an outside observer from some other town’scoven.
“There’s thirteen,” Juan said in disgust as Valdis and Daisy rejoined the group. “Superstitiousclaptrap.”
One of the women waved a smoking weed over thecleared center of the circle, while the others chanted. Were they huddling over hot coals? The day wasn’t cold, and he saw no flames, although the ground did seem displaced. Maybe they were raisingzombies.
“Think I’ll take a look,” Walker decided, not liking smoke in the dry scrub. The scene looked off to him, and Valdis and Daisy had talked about the death of agatekeeper. The Lucys wereinclined toward superstitious claptrap, as Juan said, but they also displayed a deeper concern and intelligence for the land than the Kennedys and their lot did, for all their money andeducation.
And Walker had reason to be concerned about mysteriousdeaths.
Juan shrugged, chugged at the water bottle he carried on his hip, and followed him down the crudepath.
The new girlin town—Sam—looked up the instant they hit the plateau. She rose and walked toward them with willowy grace—even in her totally impractical flip flops. He liked the way her hair flew wild and free around movie star cheekbones. What the hell was she wearing? A sweat suit? With nothing under it? Walker had to force his eyes to focus on her face. He wasn’t allowing any more crazy into hislife.
As they approached, he could see her forehead carved into worried lines. He expected to hear crows cawing three times any second—and that was his father’s Irish superstition coming to haunthim.
“You fall in with the wrong crowd fast,” he said gruffly as she came close enough for him to observe the pucker over her aquilinenose.
“They apparently needed thirteen people, and Iwas all they had. And I’m guessing your attitude is the reason they didn’t call you.” She said that without an ounce of disapproval, merely turning back the way she came. “But I’m relieved you’re here. Val and Daisy said they tried to warn you, but you didn’t believethem.”
“Val and Daisy talk in riddles. Next time, send someone coherent.” His limp easily limited his stride to match herslower one, while he kept his eye on the groupahead.
The women appeared to be keening now, huddled around an open...grave?
“I trust there will be no next time,” she said in what sounded like alarm. “If this happens often, I’m wearing shoes tobed.”
He snorted and glanced down at her dusty toes. “They dragged you out ofbed?”
“You think I go hiking like this regularly?There are probably rattlesnakes outhere!”
“Only the western rattlesnake survives in this climate. Try not answering the door,” hesuggested.
She shot him an azure glare that relieved some of his tension as they arrived at the circle of women—which parted to let himpass.
His gut knotted and his reliefvanished.
A fissure had opened in the dry earth, revealing a humanskull and what appeared to be a legbone.
He’d been afraid of this, but what was left of his heart split intwo.
