“Yeah, all right. I’ll probably be in the Dragonslayer later,” Roger muttered. “Might see you then.”
They watched him walk to his car. “That was good of you,” Abby told Malachi. “It was really kind of you to speak to him the way you did. I know he was afraid he was a suspect.”
Malachi looked at her. “He is a suspect,” he said.
Abby frowned.
“Everyone’s a suspect right now,” Jackson explained. “Let’s go into the Dragonslayer. We’ll see what Will’s managed with the cameras so far.”
Abby walked slowly toward the restaurant. She had a sick feeling inside. She believed in Roger; they’d gone to high school together!
But she believed in Dirk as well, and their other customers and Macy and...
It didn’t have to be anyone close to her. Maybe the Dragonslayer had been used, just as, perhaps, the Black Swan had been used.
She took a deep breath and entered the restaurant.
It was after lunch but before dinner. Will Chan was at the bar talking to Dirk, Aldous and Bootsie.
Malachi walked over as if he’d known the four of them all his life. “Hey, Dirk. How are you? Have you heard that our Mr. Chan’s a fine actor and magician?”
Dirk nodded absently. “I’m all right,” he said. He didn’t look all right. He was parchment-white. He turned to Malachi anxiously. “According to the TV news, another body was just found in a tunnel. A woman.”
“It wasn’t Helen,” Malachi assured him.
“But how do you know?” Dirk asked.
“Poor girl was dead long before Helen disappeared,” Malachi told him. He rested a hand on Dirk’s shoulder. “The bad news is that a number of young women have lost their lives. The good news is that the local police and the feds are working hard on the case. The streets will be full of police and agents who know what they’re looking for and I’d bet money that, with these combined efforts, the truth will come out and the killer will be caught.”
Dirk nodded. “Did you work today?” Malachi asked him.
“I took the first tour group out. I let the guys handle the second. My other actress was back so...I’m okay.”
“Yeah, he’s doing fine,” Bootsie said.
“I was telling him that if he wanted, I’d head out with him tomorrow,” Will put in. “I’d love to play pirate.”
“The tours are fun,” Abby said. She felt as though she was playing a part at that moment. Pretending everything was normal. Pretending that the Dragonslayer would go on as it always had, and that Gus would be there in spirit. Women were not dead and missing—and Gus had not been suspicious of anything before he died.
Malachi’s phone rang and he answered it, stepping aside. When he hung up, he and Jackson seemed to share some kind of intuitive exchange.
“I’ve got to run out,” Malachi said.
“We’ll show Abby the cameras we’ve got set up.” Jackson nodded to Will, who nodded back.
“See you all later,” Malachi told them. He offered her a strange smile. She sensed that he was trying to tell her he wasn’t avoiding her, but that he didn’t want to be heard by anyone else. That the connection between them was private. She smiled in return.
As he left the restaurant, Macy came up to her. “Have you eaten anything?” she asked.
“I’m not hungry right now. I’ll eat soon, Macy, I promise,” Abby replied.
“We’re going to show her what I’ve been up to all day,” Will explained to Macy. He slipped an arm around Abby’s shoulders. “Come and see your new security system. We’ll start upstairs.”
He headed up the stairs, Abby behind him and Jackson at her heels. “First camera,” Will said, “covers the hall here, in front of the apartment. It’ll show up on computer screens in the parlor area of the apartment, and in the living room at your house.” He opened the door to the apartment. A large screen, divided into eight sections, was set up on a portable table with a chair in front of it. “Down at the bottom—with the strange light filter—that’s the tunnel. Here, upper left, you have the hall. Then you have the storage room and the employee lockers and lounge area. Below that you’ve got the bar and the front entry, and the two back-to-back dining rooms. Your last camera covers the outside, the whole structure of the building. I want to make sure we can see anyone trying to get in through any other entrance.”
“That’s fantastic. Very high-tech,” Abby said.
“Thanks. I do love computers and cameras,” Will told her. “But I plan to be on Dirk’s ship tomorrow. We’ll have Kat and Angela manning these cameras, just watching what’s going on—and trying to see if anything is going on. Frankly, I think this guy moves around. I think he uses different routes to get to the river.”
“You’re right,” Abby murmured.
“The cameras will help.” Will smiled at her. “I guess you have a guardian angel of sorts.”
“Oh?”
Will looked at Jackson.
“The pirate,” Jackson said, smiling, too.