But he hadn’t found the real reliquary.
He gave himself a shake. He could hear their voices. Kelsey knew where the real reliquary was, she had to, or she would. He would wait. Patience. So long, and just a little longer, then. And stalking Kelsey… Well, it was fascinating to consider what the end might finally be.
10
Despite the discovery of the decomposing body of Gary White, her grandfather’s funeral and Liam’s theory of the events surrounding her, Kelsey woke feeling rested, strong and ready to face anything that came her way. She stretched a hand out over the sheets, found that Liam’s side of the bed was empty and sat up and stretched. She forgot sometimes that he was a cop, high in the city pecking order, with a great deal of responsibility.
She rose and headed to the bathroom to shower, then paused. If he wasn’t in the room, the door was unlocked. She couldn’t get over the need to lock her bedroom door. It was as if a sixth sense kept telling her that she needed to do so.
She obliged.
Last night, Liam had teased her.
“Okay…Avery doesn’t have nightmares and decide to come crawling in, does he?”
They’d both been able to laugh, and she shook her head, and he humored her, as he had all along, and she had locked the door, fallen back into his arms, felt the breathless, heart-pounding emotion of being with him, and then the glorious, starkly carnal, wild and raw wonder of letting the world go away in his arms, lost in sensation, knowing nothing but the earthly force of their bodies. Surely she slept so well, so beautifully, so peacefully, because she was so replete, and because she was in his arms still, flesh damp and touching his, limbs entangled.
Showered, she unlocked her door and went downstairs. Liam was in the kitchen, dressed and ready for work, coffee cup in his hand as he read the paper.
“No way out, I guess. I tried to control the media, but there’s always going to be sensationalism. Don’t take it to heart,” he told her.
She poured her own coffee and came to stand beside him, reading the headline.
Death Strikes Again at Cursed Merlin Estate.
“Hey,” she said, sighing softly. “At least it’s an estate. I’m so sorry for that poor fellow. Is he going to need help…being buried?”
“Probably.”
“I’d like to take care of it—or Cutter would, more exactly,” she said.
He set his coffee down and pulled her to him. His chin rested against the top of her head, and there was something wonderfully intimate and tender in the gesture. “That’s nice,” he whispered softly. Then he looked at her. “Hey, I just thought about something. Last night, when I was talking about the book that was missing from the rare-book room at the library and mentioned Richter, it seemed there was something you were going to say, but didn’t.”
“Oh, he’d said something about not having seen Cutter for a while, but his secretary told me he’d been out recently. But I still can’t see how Joe Richter could be responsible for anything…or that he would kill over anything in Cutter’s house. He did have free rein here.”
“After Cutter was dead,” Liam said.
Kelsey studied him for a minute. “How do you know that the people who registered in the rare-book room might have anything to do with this?”
“I don’t. I have to start somewhere.”
“But you don’t even know all the people.”
“I know the names—I’m going to run traces on the people I don’t know. I don’t have evidence, but I have a really good hunch, and I believe I’m right. Jaden really cast a light on things. A million-dollar diamond can create obsession, and an obsession can create a complicated case.”
“Satanism—and diamonds,” Kelsey said.
“Connected somehow,” he assured her.
He was whispering, and they were close together. Touching. Kelsey started at the sound of Avery’s voice.
“All right, all right, enough already,” Avery said, entering the kitchen. He walked past the two of them, heading for the coffeepot. “So, you know, I have to admit, this is an amazing place. I’m a West Coast boy, but this is pretty cool. You’ve got a dolphin that hangs around by your dock, did you know that? Cool creature. I walked out, and it followed me, watching me. I was talking to it, and it’s as if it listens to me.”
Kelsey turned and leaned back against Liam. His arms were around her waist, and she set her arms and hands on his, basking in the comfort of the moment.
Liam said, “Dolphins are incredible creatures. I have a friend at one of the facilities just a few islands up, over the Seven-Mile Bridge. They’ve done amazing research with them. They can count, they know colors and they definitely have personalities. This one may have escaped captivity. I’ll make a few calls.”
“And lock him back up?” Avery asked.
“If he was born in a facility, his life will best be spent in his—or her—home. You didn’t check out the sex, did you?” Liam asked.