“David…I’m sorry. I must have had a nightmare,” she said. “I’m truly sorry to have wakened you.”
“That’s all right. It’s all right, perfectly all right,” he assured her, climbing back in bed with her and taking her into his arms. “I’m probably the reason you’re having nightmares,” he said, smoothing her hair back.
She felt cold, chilled, and yet he was warming her.
She didn’t speak, she just curled against him.
He wasn’t the reason for her nightmares, she might have said. He was far more a dream of something real and wonderful.
But time here and now was suspended; she didn’t know where it could take him, and pride was a wonderful thing. Something that was great to cling to-when the warmth went away. If it went away. She just didn’t know what the future would bring.
She lay silent.
She drifted off, and it wasn’t until morning that she opened her eyes and really wondered about what had happened the night before. What she had seen in her mind’s eye, or in her soul, or with the strange gift/curse that was just part of who she was.
A sense of dread and pain filled her.
Danny Zigler was dead.
Coffee had already brewed when David came down the stairs. He was surprised; he’d never seen her set a timer the previous night, but the coffee was good.
He had come down quietly, trying not to wake Katie after slipping into Sean’s room for a shower. He didn’t dress, just put on a towel, but swept up his clothing, needing his cell phone, which was in the back pocket of his jeans.
It had seemed that Katie had tossed and turned much of the night. He didn’t want to awaken her until she was ready; she might want to sleep late. He didn’t want to leave the door unlocked, but he was also anxious to get to his house-they’d left the books there.
But he could at least make phone calls.
After he poured himself coffee, he called Liam.
“So?” he asked his cousin.
“So, we spent a couple of hours with Mike Sanderson. I have a bunch of computer geeks following all the information he gave me. He said that he wasn’t in Key West when Tanya was killed, that he had gone up to Miami, and he can surely find the charge-card slips to prove that he’d taken a room-and if he can’t find them, we can get them from the credit-card company. We found the one for St. Augustine, but not Miami, and he claims he had a bunch of student cards.”
“Even if he was in Miami, it’s a three-or three-and-a-half-hour drive down. You could easily book a room in Miami and come back down here.”
“It’s possible. But I’m not taking Mike Sanderson to be a boy genius. I just don’t see him renting a room, getting down here, killing Tanya and getting her into the museum.”
“Do you see Danny Zigler managing such a feat?” David demanded.
“Don’t know. We still can’t find hide nor hair of Danny Zigler,” Liam told him. “He didn’t show up for work as a tour guide last night. We’re getting a search warrant to go through his house.”
“Did you pick up the kid? Lewis Agaro?”
“Picked him up and questioned him. And I had the lab analyze the substance on the credit card. It was sticky, and might have given us a clue as to where Stella had gone once she took the card. Of course, the kid might have gotten the stuff on the card himself, but we can’t leave anything to chance. Have to follow up on everything.”
“It was chocolate ice cream,” David said.
“How did you know?”
“I just do. I think Stella was pretty tight with Danny Zigler, which, of course, doesn’t mean anything. She might have seen Danny, and she might not have,” David said. “But I believe Danny knows something.”
“Like what?”
“I went into his place. He was researching Key West, and had thousands of dollars in one of the books he was using. Liam, for now, let’s not let this get out to others, or to the press.”
Liam laughed. “I can’t! I’d have to admit my cousin was guilty of breaking and entering.”
“I didn’t break anything,” David assured him.
“Pete has called the D.A. about getting a warrant to get in there, but if Danny has been guilty of…something, he wants it all by the book. I’m assuming a warrant is coming soon,” Liam said. “But-you didn’t leave fingerprints anywhere, did you?”
“No. Don’t worry-I watch TV.”
“Great.”
“So how did it go with the kid? Was he able to give you anything?”
“No-I don’t believe he’s guilty of anything other than a wild crush on a wicked older woman,” Liam said. “Now that you’ve told me about Danny Zigler’s apartment and the money…what the hell do you think is going on?”
“I think that Danny is dead. He knew something. He was blackmailing someone, or someone was paying him off for his silence in some way, shape or form.”