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“Are you sure they were actually glowing?” Peri demanded.
“I know. It sounds ridiculous.” Stella glanced down at her hands, which she’d knotted together. “Even more ridiculous, I started to think he’d been possessed by a demon.”
“It’s not ridiculous,” Peri assured her. She didn’t want the woman to feel embarrassed. They needed to know what she’d suspected was happening to her brother.
Stella glanced up, her expression hopeful that she wasn’t losing her mind.
“It’s possible, right? That creepy stuff he got from Greece might have contained an evil spirit that was set loose.”
Peri forced a reassuring smile. Inside she was trying to imagine how it was possible to dismiss witchcraft and voodoo as a scam but believe in demon possession. Odd the way the mind could bend facts to fit a person’s desired philosophy.
Besides, she was more interested in the collection Richard had received. It was possible the miasma had been buried for centuries and only recently dug up. It would certainly explain why it suddenly appeared.
“Did you see any of the artifacts?”
“I saw a few crystals and some tarnished medallions. The usual hocus-pocus stuff he sold at the auctions,” Stella said. “But he had several crates in the back storage room that he never opened when I was around.”
“Where are the crates now?”
Stella clenched her hands until the knuckles turned white. “I don’t know.”
Peri glanced at Valen. He gave a small shake of his head. She was lying, but he hadn’t managed to see where the crates had been taken. Peri hesitated. There was no use in pressing her for an answer. It would be like smashing against a brick wall. Better to go around the obstacle and approach it from a different angle.
“It sounds like the auction house was doing a good business. Why shut it down?”
“I have no idea.” There was sincere bewilderment etched on Stella’s square face. “He called a few days ago and said he was shutting down the Masque Salon and leaving town.”
“He didn’t give you a reason why?”
“He refused to answer my questions. He simply packed up and handed me the keys so I could give them to the real estate agent. I haven’t heard a word from him since that day.”
Peri leaned toward the woman. “Where do you think he’s gone?”
“I don’t know.”
Another lie. Hmm. Obviously, she didn’t know her brother was dead, so she had to have a place in mind where he might be hiding.
“Is it a secret?”
A muscle twitched in her jaw. “Not a secret, but I’m not supposed to go there.”
“Is it his hideout?”
“I…”
“Peri,” Valen breathed in warning.
Peri nodded, sensing that he had his own method of getting the information they needed.
“Tell me about Brenda Sanguis,” she instead asked.
Stella waited, as if expecting more information. “Who is that?”
“She was a customer at the Masque Salon,” Peri told her. “She bought a statue from your brother during his last auction.”
Stella shrugged with a hint of impatience. “I wasn’t involved in the business. I don’t know anything about his customers.”
“Richard never spoke her name?”
