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“Oh, I think he probably just wanted to go over a few things. She’s his only lead, after all.”
This reply seemed to satisfy Josie, because she nodded and drank some more iced tea. Then she said, “Well, this Athene person is going to stick out like a sore thumb here in Globe. I’m sure someone will spot her soon enough.”
Normally, I would have agreed with Josie’s rosy outlook on the situation. I knew how cagey Athene could be, however, and so I had no way of knowing if she’d simply decided to relocate to another Airbnb or hotel in town, or whether she really had gotten Travis to drive her to the airport.
No, strike that. I had lots of ways of finding out things — none of which I could employ while Josie Woodrow was hanging out in my apartment.
“Probably,” I said. “Luckily, she’s Calvin’s problem, not mine.”
Those words made Josie tilt her head and give me a curious look. “Are you sure of that? Because if she’s really a murderer…and the jealous type….”
I knew I had to cut off that line of thinking before she allowed it to go any further. “Athene Kappas is not the jealous type,” I said. “Imaybecould see her killing Lucien over a business disagreement or something like that, but she wouldn’t have cared if there was anything going on between him and another woman. In fact, there were things going on between him and plenty of other women, come to think of it.”
“Playboy type,” Josie remarked, disapproval clear in her voice. “I can’t see why. Betsy said he wasn’t an attractive man atall.”
No, feature for feature, he wasn’t. Since I’d been immune to his particular brand of charm, I could see why Josie’s friend would have made such an observation about him. I shrugged and drank some of my iced tea. “For some people, it’s about power and money, not looks.”
The “hmph” sound Josie made told me all I needed to know about her opinion on the subject. I had to agree with her. Or rather, a man’s personality and looks in combination were what I found attractive, not how much money he had or his influence over other people.
And although I’d done my best not to think about him, I couldn’t quite keep my thoughts from straying to Calvin Standingbear, to the beautifully secluded property he called home. Not so long ago, I probably wouldn’t have been able to see the charm in a place so perfectly suited to both its landscape and the man who lived there, but once I’d seen Calvin at home, I honestly couldn’t imagine him anywhere else. He seemed one with the place, comfortable with where he was in the world.
Was there anything more attractive than that?
“Anyway,” I went on, pushing aside the image of him leaning up against the counter in his kitchen, the flash of the moon-phase tattoo on his forearm as he lifted his mug of Lemon Zinger to take a sip, “none of us knows for sure if Athene is the only suspect. Besides me,” I added, as Josie’s eyebrow took on a tilt and she looked as though she was about to protest.
“Oh, you’re notreallya suspect,” she said, voice firm with conviction. “Anyone can see you’re not capable of such a thing. I’m sure Calvin only considered you at all because you’re the only person here in town who knew the victim.”
Since he’d said basically the same thing to me already, I just nodded. “I hope he can find Athene. I’m not sure what she was thinking — taking off like this only makes her look more guilty.”
To my surprise, Josie looked almost sympathetic. “She was probably feeling desperate. Alone in a strange town, the man who was her business partner murdered…I have a feeling she couldn’t have been thinking straight.”
If it had been anyone else, I might have agreed. However, Athene Kappas seemed like one of the last people who would lose her cool like that. Nothing ever seemed to ruffle her.
“I hope that’s all it is,” I said, and decided to leave it there. After all, we could spend the entire afternoon speculating and wouldn’t be any closer to the truth.
Josie seemed to realize I didn’t have much more to say on the topic, because she excused herself a few minutes later, saying she had a pre-listing inspection she needed to do. I walked her to the front of the apartment and said goodbye, then closed the door behind her while I released a silent sigh of relief.
Now I could get to work.
10
On the Ball
Archie wasasleep in his bed when I entered the office. He cracked an eyelid as I made my way over to the table that held my altar, but didn’t seem otherwise inclined to pay much attention to what I was doing.
Good. I could work with an audience, but I preferred not to.
Because the pendulum had worked so well for me when I was looking for evidence along the San Ramon River, I figured I’d go ahead and start there. If that didn’t work, there were my Tarot cards, or my rune stones. If neither of those provided any illumination, then I’d have to bring in the big guns, but I had to hope I wouldn’t be pushed to that resort.
I went to the closet and got out the pendulum cloth I used for this sort of work, then lifted a clear quartz pendulum from inside the carved box where I normally kept it. For a moment, I stood there quietly, letting it dangle from my hand as I adjusted my energies from the level required for gossiping with a friend to what I needed in order to pursue a slightly more esoteric goal.
Next, to fix my intentions. I wasn’t trying to hunt down Athene Kappas to bring her to justice. That was Calvin’s job, not mine…if she was even guilty in the first place. No, what I really wanted to know was whether any harm had come to her, or whether she was even still in Globe at all.
Show me Athene,I thought. Not literally, of course; a pendulum wouldn’t grant me any visions. But it could spell out clues that would guide me to her.
For a second or two, the pendulum hung straight down, without even a hint of any movement. Then it began to swing in a circle, slowly at first, then faster and faster until it became almost a blur.
I’d never seen it do that before. In fact, I had to reach out and grab the thing before it tore itself from my hand and went flying across the room.
