AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The following morningPallas got out of the car and tried to ignore the tingle of awareness that stirred the fine hairs on the back of her neck. She studied the small, badly weathered house crouched on the rugged bluffs above the isolated cove.
Ambrose climbed out from behind the wheel and came to stand beside her. When she looked at him she saw that he was absently rubbing the back of his neck and scanning the craggy, fog-shrouded landscape.
“I’m getting it, too,” she said.
“The feeling that someone is watching us?”
“Yep. I get tired of telling myself it’s just my imagination.”
He gave her a knowing look. “Get the sensation a lot?”
“Amelia and Talia and I have all been paranoid since we woke up in the Lucent Springs Hotel, but the vibe has been getting worse lately. Stress, probably.”
“It’s been the same for me since San Diego,” Ambrose said. “Maybe the paranoia is a side effect of our new abilities. Our senses are processing more information these days and we’re still learning how to interpret the data that’s coming in. Hard on the nerves.”
“You know what they say. Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean someone isn’t out to get you.”
“If it turns out someone did run experiments on us, it follows that same individual would want to watch and observe the results,” Ambrose said, his voice grim.
“Yes, it does.”
Ambrose looked at the fogbound house. “The question I keep coming back to is, why us? I’ve been writing for a while now. I’ve had some success but I’m not one of the superstars of the publishing world. Just a working writer. Why choose me for a guinea pig?”
“And I’m a successful interior designer, at least I was, but I’m not a celebrity in my field. I don’t do the homes of Hollywood royalty or sports stars or tech lords. Why abduct me for an experiment?”
“Were you paranoid before your amnesia event?” Ambrose asked.
“I used to worry about stumbling into hot spots, but it felt more like clumsiness,” she said. “I’ve always been easily startled. I guess you could say I was risk-averse, because I’ve worried about tripping over stuff I couldn’t see for years. But, no, I wasn’t flat-out paranoid, not like I am now.”
“We’re in Carnelian to get some answers.” Ambrose started walking across the graveled driveway, heading for the front door of the house. “Let’s see if there’s anything to be learned here.”
Pallas fell into step beside him. “Geddings liked his privacy,” she said, glancing around at the wind-and-storm-lashed landscape. “There’s nothing else near this place. If he was dealing drugs this would make a good location for maintaining a low profile.”
“A drug deal gone bad would explain Geddings’s murder,” Ambrose said. “But he wasn’t trying to sell me drugs that night. He said he had information.”
“He wouldn’t be the first person in the history of the world to bemurdered in order to keep him from sharing that particular commodity.”
“No,” Ambrose said.
He stopped at the bottom of the porch steps and waited for her. When she reached his side he took her arm without a word.
“I’m not delicate,” she grumbled. “I can manage my talent. Mostly.”
“Sorry.” He released her arm. “It’s just that Jodi Luckhurst said the house had been trashed. I thought that might have left some bad energy.”
“Maybe,” she admitted. “I didn’t mean to snap at you.” She took a breath. “Thank you for the offer of assistance.”
She knew the words sounded as if they had been dragged out of her.
Ambrose startled her with a quick, knowing smile. “That’s right, practice gratitude. It’s good for you.”
She glared and deliberately switched her attention to the door. “Had a lot of experience breaking and entering?”
“No, but how hard can it be? The good news is that if Jodi was telling us the truth, we won’t have to do any actual B and E work. Whoever trashed the place will have done the heavy lifting for us. Theoretically we shouldn’t have to worry about booby traps and explosives.”
“Theoretically,” Pallas said.
