Jayne Castle: Canyons of Night

Thelma smiled knowingly. “I do believe the town’s cunning strategy to keep Chief Attridge on the job is working nicely. He seems quite concerned about you, Charlotte.”

Charlotte felt the heat rise in her cheeks. “Slade and I are dating but that’s all. I am not a part of the local conspiracy.”

“I understand, dear,” Thelma said. “But that fact only makes it all the more romantic, don’t you think?”

Charlotte laughed. “You’re incorrigible.”

“I’ve lived alone for a long time but I haven’t forgotten what romance and passion feel like,” Thelma said. “I doubt if anyone ever forgets those things.”

“No,” Charlotte said. For better or worse, she was certainly going to remember Slade for the rest of her life.

The town’s small central core had come through the gale in remarkably good shape. The tourist-oriented shops were all closed but the grocery, hardware, and gardening supply stores were open and doing a brisk business.

“Shall I drop you off at Spindler’s Garden Supply?” Charlotte asked.

“No need for that. I’ll get out at Looking Glass and walk down the street to Spindler’s.”

“Are you sure? It’s no trouble, really.”

“I’m sure.”

“I’ll just take a few minutes to make sure everything is okay inside my shop. Then I need to pick up a few things at the grocery store. After that I’ll drive you home.”

“Perfect,” Thelma said. “I do appreciate this.”

“You’re more than welcome,” Charlotte said.

She drove down the lane behind the row of shops and parked at the back door of Looking Glass. She and Thelma got out of the car. Thelma waved and started off toward the walkway that separated Looking Glass from the neighboring shop.

Charlotte went up the back steps and rezzed the lock on the door. She really was going to have to get a new lock, she reminded herself.

She opened the door and stepped inside. The interior of the shop was heavily shadowed. Automatically she rezzed the wall switch. Ice shivered down her spine when the lights did not come on.

Thelma spoke behind her. “The power is out, remember, dear?”

Charlotte turned quickly in the doorway. Thelma was coming up the steps. She held a Baroque silver-and-gold hand mirror, the glass face aimed at Charlotte. Dark crystals glittered on the frame and handle of the old looking glass. Strange alchemical markings were etched into the metal. It was impossible to focus on the face of the mirror. It was like looking into a pool of mercury. The surface seethed with energy.

“The Quicksilver Mirror,” Charlotte whispered. The antiques dealer in her asked the first question that came to mind. “That’s supposed to be in an Arcane museum. How did you get it?”

“This isn’t the place to chitchat about such things.” Thelma reached the top step. “Inside with you now. Wouldn’t want anyone to see us.”

“Forget it.”

Charlotte moved forward, intending to shove Thelma off the step. But the Quicksilver Mirror flashed with a shocking radiance. The force of the short blast of energy jolted through Charlotte. For a heartbeat the world around her exploded with eerie ultralight lightning.

She gripped the doorjamb to steady herself and intuitively shut down her senses. It was the only move she could think of that might offer some protection. In the hands of a powerful talent, the mirror was a lethal weapon.

“That’s better,” Thelma said, her voice hardening. “Now go back into the shop.”

Still dazed from the stunning shock, Charlotte turned slowly and moved a short distance into the darkened room. Thelma followed quickly. She closed and locked the door.

“What is this about?” Charlotte asked. It took everything she had to keep her own voice calm.

“It’s about the Bridewell Engine,” Thelma snapped. “What did you think it was about, you silly woman?”

“What engine?”

“According to the old lab notebook, it looks something like a snow globe.”

Events came together with sickening clarity.

“You and Jeremy Gaines were working together,” Charlotte said.

“We were partners for more than three years until he decided to cut me out of the biggest deal of all.”

“You killed Jeremy?”

“We were going to split the profits from the Bridewell Engine. But Gaines got greedy.”

“I trust that didn’t come as a huge surprise,” Charlotte said.

“No, but I made the mistake of thinking that he understood that he needed me as much as I needed him.” Thelma snorted. “Unfortunately, he was too shortsighted to see that. He planned to grab the engine and sell it on his own.”

“Did you murder him with the Sylvester device?”

“Oh, no, I used the mirror on Gaines,” Thelma said. “I had to work quickly that night, you see.”

“I understand now. When I set out to find the snow globe for Jeremy I inadvertently led him to Mrs. Lambert. He realized that she was the collector who refused to sell.”

“He broke into her house one night but he couldn’t find the engine.”

“He wouldn’t have been able to find it even if he had known what it looks like because she kept it in a special vault.”

“He was going to break in again to look for it but by then Lambert had already made arrangements to give her glass collection to the Arcane museum,” Thelma said. “The staff packed up what we assumed were all of the objects. The glassware was taken away and stored in the museum’s vaults.”

“Then Mrs. Lambert suffered a heart attack and later died in the hospital,” Charlotte said.

“We tried to come up with a plan to break into the museum vaults but it looked impossible. J&J recently tightened security there. Then Gaines found a copy of the inventory of the items that Mrs. Lambert had given to the museum. There was no object resembling the Bridewell Engine on it. But he learned that some additional items had been bequeathed to you.”

“But by then the bequest that was coming to me was under lock and key in a vault at Lambert’s bank where it stayed until the estate was sorted out.”

“Gaines and I cooled our heels until you took possession of the bequest. During that time Gaines tried to seduce you.” Thelma looked disgusted. “He was accustomed to being able to charm women and everyone else. I swear, it was part of his talent. But he finally realized that you were not going to fall at his feet. So he sat back to wait for you to take possession of the Lambert bequest.”

“Then I screwed up his plans again by shipping the Lambert bequest along with most of the contents of my Frequency City shop here to the island.”

“He was furious,” Thelma said. “But that was when he finally decided to tell me about the side deal he had made for the Bridewell Engine. The customer had offered him a huge amount of money, more than either Gaines or I had ever made on a single sale. It was enough to retire on.”

“Why did he tell you about the deal he had arranged on his own?”

“When he found out the globe was here on the island, he realized that he would need my help,” Thelma said. “I’m quite sure he planned to kill me afterward.”

“But you murdered him first.”

“I came to the same conclusion he did,” Thelma said coldly. “I decided that I no longer needed a partner.”

“You killed him here in my shop so that if there was any sort of investigation, I would be the most likely suspect.”

“I wasn’t terribly worried about the new police chief,” Thelma said. “Attridge wouldn’t have wound up on Rainshadow in the first place if he was a good cop. But one does have to keep an eye out for Jones & Jones. Occasionally the agency insists on meddling. But fortunately everyone involved accepted the obvious cause of death. Heart attack. They also accepted the obvious reason for Gaines’s presence in your shop. He was supposedly stalking you.”