Copper Beach: A Dark Legacy Novel (38 page)

“Don’t be so sure of that.” Sam swallowed some of his whiskey and set the glass down on the arm of his chair. He gazed into the flames. “In a weird way, I think it was knowing that you were coming down the hall and that you would open the door that gave me the juice I needed to break through the trance.”

“You would have escaped from the dreamstate with or without me,” Abby said, with conviction.

Willow smiled. “You have a lot of confidence in my son.”

Abby raised her glass. “Another professional.”

Elias studied her with keen interest. “How did you know?”

“Know what?” Abby asked.

“That Sam was in danger?”

Abby rubbed Newton’s ears. “I just knew. And there was a huge sense of urgency about the knowing. I knew he had set a trap in the lab, so that was the logical place to go first.” She glared at Sam. “I thought you had set up cameras to photograph the killer when he went after the prism.”

Willow frowned. “Yes, that was the plan.”

“I changed the plan,” Sam said. He took his attention off the flames and looked at Abby. “Did you know that Frye was in the lab with me?”

“I wasn’t certain, but I had a feeling he might be there, because Jenny O’Connell was alone. Frye had been with her most of the day, but suddenly she was on her own. When I realized the door was unlocked, I flattened myself against the wall, just like they do on the cop shows,
and sent Newton in.” She smiled, not bothering to conceal her pride. “And it worked great. Except that you had already taken out Frye, so in the end, it was something of a nonevent.”

“Trust me, it was not a nonevent from my perspective,” Sam said. He drank some more whiskey. He was still riding a post-burn buzz, but he was going to crash soon.

Elias scowled at him. “Why didn’t you tell us that you suspected Frye was the one who would walk into your trap?”

“He didn’t tell you because he didn’t want to get it wrong,” Abby said quietly. “Sam knows what it’s like to be falsely accused.”

Willow sighed. “I understand. So does Elias. It’s just that you took such a risk, Sam.”

“A calculated risk,” Sam said. He drank some more whiskey. “What I did not factor into the equation was the possibility that Frye might have another prism weapon. Also, I didn’t factor in Abby.”

“Or Newton,” Abby said.

“No,” Sam said. He smiled and rested his head against the back of the chair. The exhaustion was starting to seep through him. “I didn’t make allowances for Newton, either.”

Elias shook his head in disgust. “There were a few things that I failed to factor in, too. All these years I’ve been watching for a single lab book to surface. Knox and I were aware of only the one notebook containing the record of the experiments. It never dawned on us that Ray Willis had filled up a second notebook with the results of experiments that he ran in secret.”

“The question now,” Sam said, “is where did Gerald Frye stash the other notebook?”

“With luck, it will be among his personal possessions,” Elias said. “We need to get someone inside his house as fast as possible to search the place.”

“I can do it after I’ve had some sleep,” Sam said.

“Forget it,” Elias said. “I’ll handle the search first thing in the morning. According to Frye’s personnel records, he had no close family. No one will think it strange if his employer takes charge of his personal possessions until someone arrives who is authorized to claim them.”

“Which may be never,” Sam said.

Elias shook his head. “I still can’t believe that we spent the past few days thinking that the threat was coming from Lander Knox. When all along, Gerald Frye was right there in the Black Box lab, plotting against us.”

“I think we’ve still got a problem with Lander Knox,” Sam said.

“You’re right,” Abby said. “There are a lot of unanswered questions here. Did Gerald Frye kill Thaddeus Webber and that other book dealer?”

“No,” Sam said. He steepled his hands and contemplated the fire. “He didn’t have the connections in the underground market to identify those dealers, let alone locate them. Someone else murdered those two people.”

“What about the thugs who tried to kidnap me? Do you think Frye hired them?”

“No. Whoever murdered Webber sent that pair to keep watch for you.”

“Lander Knox,” Elias said grimly. “He’s still out there.”

“I agree with you,” Sam said. “We’ll find him. But the process of connecting all the dots will have to wait until morning. I can’t think clearly enough to do that tonight.”

“You need sleep,” Willow said.

Abby nodded. “Yes, you do.”

“I’m not arguing.” Sam pushed himself up out of the chair. “If you will all excuse me, I’m going to crash.”

He started toward the bedroom stairs.

“One more thing before you leave,” Elias said.

Sam paused and turned back. “What?”

“You said Frye told you that his mother had an affair with Ray Willis and that Willis entrusted her with that other notebook.”

“Yes,” Sam said. “Willis didn’t want you and Knox to know about those experiments.”

“What about the missing crystals?” Elias asked. “The ones he used in the field tests? Knox and I searched for them after the explosion, but we never found them.”

“I don’t have the answer to that question,” Sam said. “All I can tell you is that Frye made it clear he did not have them. That was one of the reasons he was so desperate to get his hands on the Coppersmith crystals. He felt that he had been deprived of his inheritance.”

“His
inheritance 
?” Willow’s eyes widened. “You mean…”

“Of course,” Abby said quietly. “It all makes sense now, including the psychic genetics. Ray Willis was Gerald Frye’s father, the father he never knew.”

ABBY AWOKE TO THE KNOWLEDGE THAT SAM WAS NO LONGER
in the bed. She opened her eyes and saw him standing at the window. His strong, bare shoulders were silhouetted against the moonlight. His hard face was in shadow. He was not alone. Newton was beside him, front paws braced on the windowsill. Together, both males contemplated the darkness.

Abby sat up against the pillows and wrapped her arms around her knees.

“Did you have another one of your nightmares?” she asked.

“No.” Sam looked at her. “I woke up a while ago and couldn’t get back to sleep.”

“You had a rough evening. We all did, but you endured that dreamstate experience and nearly got killed. That kind of stress takes some time to get over.”

“That’s not why I couldn’t sleep. I started thinking about some of the missing answers.”

“You said they could wait until morning. The main thing to focus on tonight is that you solved Cassidy Lawrence’s murder. That should give you some closure.”

“Closure. Good word,” Sam said. He turned away from the window and moved back toward the bed. “It does feel a lot like a door has been closed somewhere, this time for good. But there is another door still ajar. I think your stepbrother is standing on the other side.”

“Dawson?”

“We need to find that investor, the one who is pressuring him to acquire the lab book.”

“You think the investor is Lander Knox, don’t you?”

“I think there’s a strong possibility of that, yes.”

“Even if you’re right, Knox has to know the chase is over and that he lost. The lab book is no longer on the market.”

“If he’s killed two people to get it, he’s unlikely to stop now. We need to find him.”

Abby shivered. “I can call Dawson in the morning, tell him what’s going on. Maybe he’ll believe me and cooperate with us to help find the investor.”

“Yes.”

Newton dropped his front paws to the floor and trotted to the door.

“He wants to go out,” Abby said.

“And then he’ll want to come back in.”

“It’s the way of all dogs.”

Sam went to the door and opened it. “Remind me to install a dog door this week.”

Abby watched Sam and Newton disappear into the darkened hallway.

Remind me to install a dog door.
She smiled. A gentle warmth spread through her. Installing a dog door sounded like a long-term plan, as if Sam was envisioning a future that included her and Newton.

She listened to the kitchen door open and close. Sam came back to the bedroom alone, got out of his pants and got into bed. He reached for Abby and drew her across his chest.

“Tonight, in the lab,” he said, “when I heard you coming down the hall and realized that I could not stop you, I think I went a little crazy.”

She framed his face between her palms and kissed him firmly on the mouth, silencing him. “No, that’s not what happened. You need to remember events correctly. What
happened
is that, in an emergency, you pulled on psychic energy that you did not know you possessed because you’ve never had to use that much of it before. You broke free of the trance in time. If I had been dumb enough to open that door, I would have been okay, because you clocked Gerald first.”

He put two fingers over her mouth. “You didn’t let me finish.”

She sensed his amusement and winced.

“Sorry,” she said. “So what were you going to say?”

“That when I went a little crazy trying to break free of the trance, I suddenly realized that I could use the ring to do it.”

“Really?” She pushed herself up on her elbows and peered at his ring. She could not see it in the shadows, so she jacked up her talent a little and studied the tiny aurora of energy that leaked out of the stone. “You figured out what it can do?”

“I think it acts as a kind of psychic laser.” Sam raised his hand and examined the ring. “At least that’s what happened tonight. I was able to channel my own energy through it and focus it in a way I’ve never been able to do before. I could feel the currents overwhelming Frye, setting his aura on fire.”

“You didn’t say anything to your parents tonight about using the ring.”

“Because I’m still not sure what happened. I’ll talk to Dad in the morning, though. We need to run some experiments.” Sam paused.
“Very careful experiments. And I need to contact my brother and sister, warn them that the rings appear to have laserlike properties and that they can be deadly.”

“Maybe you’ll know more when I break the code on the lab book.”

“Yes.” Sam thrust his fingers into her hair and wrapped them around the back of her head. “There’s something we need to talk about.”

“The lab book?”

“Not the damn lab book. The real reason I was able to pull the extra energy I needed to break the trance tonight was you.”

“Me? But I was out in the hall.”

“I knew you were there. And you were running hot. There’s a connection between us, Abby.”

“I know. It’s weird, isn’t it?”

“No, it’s love.”

She froze. Her mouth went dry.
“Sam.”

“I needed some additional power, and I drew it from the link between us.”

“I realize there’s some kind of psychic vibe going on here. But there might be a very straightforward explanation involving the resonating frequencies of our auras. Or something.”

He touched the corner of her mouth. “I’m the expert here. If I wanted a para-physics explanation for what’s going on between us, I’d have come up with it. But I don’t need one. I love you. I have from the moment you stepped out of Dixon’s water taxi. It was as if I’d been waiting for you all of my life and you had finally decided to show up.”

Warmth and wonder sparkled through her. “Oh, Sam.”

“You were like some fabulous new crystal, glowing with unknown fire and mystery. And you were in danger, and I had so much damn baggage.”

“Well, to be fair, I had a lot of baggage, too.”

“I know. Someone was trying to grab you.”

“That wasn’t the kind of baggage I meant,” she said. “I’m talking about more serious baggage.”

“What the hell is more serious than someone trying to kidnap you?”

She cleared her throat. “I have never been one to take risks when it comes to romantic relationships.”

“Oh, yeah, right. The commitment-and-trust-issues thing.”

“Yes. But I’ve always suspected that the shrinks and the counselors were wrong. I was pretty sure that I was just waiting for the right man to walk into my life. I knew I’d recognize him, you see.”

Sam traced her bottom lip with one finger. “Did you?”

“The instant I turned and saw you coming toward me along the dock that first day. I recognized you, but I told myself I had gotten it all wrong. There was so much drama going on all around us. Everything was happening way too fast. For Pete’s sake, we had sex the first night that we were together. I never do things like that.”