Page 49 of Absent Reason

This attack was only the beginning.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Colm O'Rafferty watched the woman with dispassionate eyes from the other side of the street. She was in her twenties, short, with long blonde hair and glasses. She was wearing a cream dress with a green cardigan thrown over it and was carrying a cream handbag.

Colm approached her carefully, not wanting to startle her. He made sure that he had his most pleasant, open expression on as he did it, knowing that his usual predatory look would send her running before he got anywhere near her.

Of course, it helped that Colm was blond-haired and good-looking, in a boyish kind of way, with an athletic body currently well-dressed in a sharp suit and expensive shoes. To Colm, laying his hands on money was just another kind of puzzle, and Colm was very good at puzzles.

Far better than even Amber Young.

“Casey? It’s Casey, right? Amber’s friend?”

Casey Doyle looked around at the sound of her name or perhaps at the sound of Amber's. That was the part that made it clear that Colm wasn't there to serve her with legal documents or try to sell her anything.

“Amber? Amber Young?” Casey was quite pretty in her way, but that was beside the point. The connection to Amber was what mattered. “I haven’t spoken to her in…”

“In a couple of years,” Colm said. “She told me.”

Actually, it had been in her diary. Part diary, part workbook, containing all the details that Colm needed for this.

“Sorry, you are…”

“Oh, I forgot. I’m Colm. I’m in town for a couple of days, and Amber said that I should look you up if I got a chance.”

He saw Casey frown, not quite understanding. The key with something like this was to keep moving, not give her too much time to think.

Colm fumbled almost theatrically at his clothes. He found that it was easier to control the ways people acted if they thought that he wasn't anything special if he hid how much better he was than all of them.

“She wanted me to give you something. I looked you up. I hope you don’t mind.”

Colm flashed his best smile. It was a smile that could disarm even the most pointed suspicions. Looks could be a weapon as easily as a blade, as easily as his mind.

“No, no, I don’t mind,” Casey said. “It’s just surprising.”

Colm took out a puzzle, a series of pieces to shift around to make the pattern of a globe, which would unlock the box it sat on when completed. It was one of Amber's designs, but he'd improved on it, of course.

“Amber told me that you liked this design,” he said. “She also says that you need to be careful about making mistakes with this one. Go on, try it.”

Casey stared at it, turning the small box over in her hands. Obviously, it would be a shock for her, something like this coming out of nowhere. Colm had bet that her curiosity would overcome her reluctance.

It did. She started to move the puzzle pieces around. Colm took a quiet step back.

It meant that when the click came when the poison flowed out from the container within the box, it didn't touch him. Only her. Colm stood there as she gasped, then clutched at her throat, then collapsed.

Colm took a quick step forward, making it look like he was trying to help but actually just setting an envelope down on the dying woman.

“I told you that you needed to be careful about the moves you made, Casey.”

Colm was much more precise about the moveshemade. He’d made one when he’d attacked the man Amber was seeing. This was the next move in the game.

He hoped that Amber would play a more interesting game than Casey had.

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