Mistress of Magic (22 page)

“You’ve been up to maligning my brother and the park. What do you want from me?”

He shook his head. “Not much, I guess. All right, no one is haunting the park. So what is going on?”

Reggie shook her head. “I don’t really know. But I’ll tell you something—I don’t think that my brother could possibly be guilty of Daphne’s murder.”

“And why is that?”

“I don’t believe that Daphne’s dead.”

His left brow flew up. Was it an act? Or did he know that Daphne was alive and well? Had he been in on this with her?

After all, he was the one who had discovered her missing.…

He was either innocent, or a very good actor.

He lifted his root-beer bottle and drank from it. “You should have seen her apartment.”

“I did.”

He shrugged. “Well, who knows. So what is going on in the park?”

“Just a prankster, nothing more.”

“Would you care to go on about that?”

She shrugged, as casual as she could possibly be. “Someone was dressing up like one of the robotronics. It was silly, really.”

“See, the way that I heard it,” Ozzie told her, “Daphne came flying out of the darkness—after you. Or Daphne’s ghost.”

“No ghosts were after me.”

“Just cute little snuggly dinosaurs, right?”

“I told you—”

“You called the police.”

“Of course. We frown upon pranksters in the park.”

“You’re not giving me anything, Reggie.”

“Yes, I am. I’m giving you the truth. Want to try to print it for a change?”

To her surprise, he glanced at his watch instead of pressing her. “Did you like the picture of your boyfriend?” he asked her suddenly.

Her fingers tightened around her soda bottle. She hoped she didn’t give anything away with her expression. “Wes is a handsome man,” she said softly. “He always photographs well.”

“And Daphne was—is—beautiful.”

“Daphne is very beautiful.”

“Maybe they’re in this thing together.”

“For what?” Reggie asked him.

He smiled. She had given something away. He touched her fingers where they lay on the table. “Wes Blake discredits your brother. He’s got big bucks. Your brother steps aside, Wes Blake steps in. Then he’s got it all, lock, stock and barrel. He even has the boss man’s wife.”

“Gosh. And I had rather thought you were busy coveting Daphne yourself,” Reggie said lightly.

“Ah, but then there’s Rick Player.”

“Yes, there is.”

“So?”

He left the question open, grinning. Then she noticed that he glanced at his watch again. He did have another appointment. Well, so much about being concerned for her virtue. She could have picked any spot to meet him.

“I’d better get going,” she said, baiting him.

“Yeah. Yeah, well, me, too. I’m glad you met with me, Reggie. I appreciate it. And I’ll try to print what you’ve told me.”

She nodded and watched him walk out, puzzled. Then she jumped up suddenly, determined to follow him.

He was leaving the parking lot as she reached it. She hopped quickly into her car and drove onto the highway, following him.

For some reason, it didn’t surprise her terribly to find that he was headed toward the park.

Reggie did likewise.

She was able to keep almost directly behind him until she began to come to the lanes for the park. There was one for parking, one for employees, one for the hotel and one for buses. Reggie swore softly as she realized that she had lost him.

She pulled to the side of the road, frustrated for a minute. She leaned her head back. She had met with him. She had told him all kinds of stuff—with and without words. And she hadn’t learned a thing about Wes and Daphne.

With a sigh she brought her motor to life, ready to turn around and go home. She knew that she was going to have a real live argument with Wes, the kind she couldn’t walk out on.

Either that …

Or he wouldn’t be there at all. Not after the way she had acted today.

She realized suddenly that she had started the car and that she was driving very mechanically into the employee parking lot.

She was about to turn around when she realized that Max’s car was still in the lot.

So was Wesley’s.

She drove up beside Max’s car and parked.

When she approached the entrance to the park, she noticed that there was no guard on duty there.

Was security slipping?

“Hello!” she cried out.

Even the cleaning crews were gone. Her voice echoed eerily in the stucco cave. Where was everyone?

Reggie slipped through one of the turnstiles. Where were Max and Wes? Her heart was thumping, and she tried to assure herself that there was certainly no reason for either of them to be at the front of the park, expecting her.

Reggie tried the door to the front offices. It was locked. She had her keys and could have opened it, but if Max or Wes had been upstairs, the door wouldn’t have been locked.

Maybe they were in their private offices.

She tried the next door. The downstairs doors were open, and her brother’s computer terminal was on. Max was nowhere in sight.

Reggie frowned, but she definitely felt more relaxed. Max was somewhere near her.

She closed her eyes for a moment, just because she was weary. Imagine! She had thought that she should go home.

She’d even thought that Wes might be worried.

Wes had never even gone home. Wes was here somewhere.

Wes … and Max.

What was it that no one was telling her?

The costume shop.

The idea entered unbidden into her mind. That’s where Max was. She knew it, just as she sometimes knew that Max was in trouble. It had to do with their being twins, even if he was five minutes older.

She left the offices and started across the park for the costume shop. She glanced at her watch. It was nearly eleven o’clock. She’d had no idea that it had gotten so late. The cleaning crews had probably finished.

Still …

She suddenly had a very uneasy feeling as she moved through the empty park. Figures of dinosaurs that loomed big and friendly during the day seemed eerie and menacing in the dimmed, artificial light of the night.

The sound of her loafers against the cement walkways echoed with a chilling ring as she moved along.

“Max!” She meant to call his name out. Loudly.

It was little more than a croak.

She was glad a moment later.

For she heard another set of footsteps. They weren’t loud against the pavement.

They were furtive. Someone was moving toward her. Toward the costume shop.

He or she was not using the pathways, but rather walking on the fringe of the foot roads, through the beautiful plants and shrubs.

Her heart quickened. Was she being followed? Or was someone else trying very hard not to be seen or heard?

She moved off the path and into the bushes. The costume shop loomed just ahead, the cave looking like a dark, squat opening to some strange pit.

In the night, it seemed to beckon.

Reggie bit her lip. She wondered if she shouldn’t just call out, let it be known where she was and what she was doing.

No. She shouldn’t give herself away to someone who hid in the darkness.

The darkness. The same darkness that frightened her had to be her protection. Wes had taught her that. An enemy couldn’t fire at her in the darkness.

With renewed determination, she slipped off her shoes and started moving beside the path. Her footfalls made no sound.

She came around to the entry to the cave.

Then she realized that someone else was also embracing the darkness. Not a single light had been left on. Some illumination was always left.

Her breath coming very fast, Reggie fought the desire to leap for light, any light. She knew the costume shop.

Others might not.

Following the wall, she moved carefully past the rows of shelves and costuming. In another few minutes, she would be at the desk. The Victorian love seat and the chairs would be in front of the desk.

Who would be in the love seat tonight?

She flattened herself against the wall, her heart thundering. Why had she come here? What was she doing?

Max. Max was here.

Wasn’t he?

Yes, someone was here. In the deadly darkness she could hear breathing, she could feel it. The place was silent, yet it was alive.

Then, suddenly, a voice burst out of the darkness. “Wes! Wes, where are you?”

Daphne’s voice. Reggie felt ill. Daphne had set up a secret meeting with Wes. She was alive. It was all some kind of a con, and she was in it with Wes.

“Daphne, shut the hell up!” came Wes’s voice in return.

Then Reggie knew exactly why he had warned Daphne. A shot rang out in the darkness, the flare at the gun’s nose visible for a second.

From where she stood, near the desk, she realized that Daphne had been standing just beside it. She could hear movement. The gun was about to be fired again.

“Daphne, down!” Reggie shrieked out, and she took a flying leap for Daphne, encircling her with her arms, bearing her heavily to the ground.

She didn’t know what had propelled her. She had never really liked her ex-sister-in-law, nor did she harbor any death wish of her own.

It just seemed like the thing to do at the moment.

She moved just in time. A second shot rang out. It grazed her temple, and for a moment, the world went black and spun. But she didn’t pass out. She was aware almost instantly of a burning pain at the top of her head.

Then bedlam broke out. Someone was racing toward them, reaching for her. Daphne screamed.

Reggie managed to look up. A large shadow was looming over her.

Then just as suddenly, the shadow was gone.

There was a loud thudding sound from the center of the room. “Touch her, and you’re dead!” she heard Wes call out.

Wes. Wes had called out those words.

Was he threatening anyone who might touch her … or anyone who might touch Daphne?

And then, at long last, the lights came on.

Reggie looked up.

Max was in one corner of the room, hurrying forward. Wes was on the floor, straddled over Rick Player.

Ozzie Daniels was standing just beyond Wes and Rick Player.

Daphne was beneath her. Reggie pulled her hand away from Daphne’s shoulder in horror.

Blood was soaking her shoulder blade.

“Dear Lord!” Reggie exclaimed. “Someone call an ambulance, quickly. Daphne, Daphne—”

“Reggie! You’re bleeding like a faucet yourself!” Wes exclaimed. He sounded furious. Was it anxiety, anger? And Max. Max had stepped forward and he looked pale.

What was going on? Who had fired the shot?

Rick was on the ground. Ozzie was by the door.

Max was carrying a gun. Wes, too, was carrying a gun. Oh, yes. The military man. The intelligence man. He would have a gun, and he would know how to use it.…

Reggie tried to stumble to her feet. “Get away from me, all of you!” she called out. She was sinking. She tried to pull Daphne up on her lap. She had to be breathing. She was. She could feel her ex-sister-in-law’s heartbeat. “What the hell is going on here!” she cried out in panic.

There was another gun, Reggie saw suddenly. It was on the floor. It had been dropped in the midst of a scuffle.

Had Ozzie been carrying it? Or Rick?

Or did it matter?

Was the real danger facing her the man who had stolen her heart?

Wes’s eyes met hers. They were a golden challenge. Did he condemn her for her fear of him, or simply dare her to interfere?

“Daphne, for the love of the God!” he whispered, low against her temple. “Daphne, you have to tell us who!”

Reggie could see Daphne’s lips moving, but she couldn’t hear what the woman was saying.

“Jesus!” Wes suddenly exploded, whirling around.

Rick Player was still on the ground, looking bruised and sick.

Ozzie Daniels was now the one with the power. His gun was in his hand. And it was aimed at Wes.

“I was right all along,” Wes said, standing. “It was you. It was you, because you were holding some stock. And Daphne was foolish and bitter about her divorce. So if you could make the stock plummet, you thought you could seize control. And then you’d be avenged. Against Reggie—for refusing to find you attractive. Against Max—for hating everything that you stood for. But you didn’t count on Daphne getting cold feet. When she did, when she wanted out, you decided to kill her. Only Daphne found out, and she was afraid of Max by then, afraid of everyone. And the poor woman believed that I could protect her. Damn it. Reggie, call an ambulance.”

“If she makes a move to call anyone, you’re dead,” Ozzie said flatly.

“Screw this!” Max exploded. “One of us can rush him. He can’t shoot both of us.”

“But I can shoot Reggie,” Ozzie said. “Ah, now that will give you both pause, won’t it? Poor Daphne, there on the floor, her life’s blood slipping away. I’m getting out of here. I’m not doing time for this. Reggie is coming with me, and if one of you moves a hair, she’s dead. Reggie—oh, do excuse me, Miss Delaney. You and your lousy crumbs of information. Get up. Get over here. Fast.”

“You sleaze!” Reggie said flatly. But she knew she was going. She still didn’t understand about Wes and Daphne, but she didn’t really care. She loved Max, and she loved Wes. She wasn’t going to let either of them die.

“Reggie, don’t do it!” Wes ordered.

But she was rising, ignoring his command.

“Come on, come on, faster!” Ozzie warned her.

“Oh, shut the hell up!” Reggie retorted. She was drawing his temper, she knew that. She didn’t give a damn. He was walking toward her. He was going to wrench her into obedience.

But suddenly, he didn’t.

A new voice called out. “Get him, Mr. Blake!”

And all of a sudden, Ozzie was tripping.

Wes didn’t need a second invitation. He leaped forward and brought an arm sharply down on Ozzie’s extended wrist.

Reggie heard a sickening crunch as bone broke.

Given a chance, Wes knew his business.

Ozzie’s gun went clattering to the floor. And suddenly, standing before Reggie in the center of the floor was the little boy from the show that afternoon. The young man with the big blue eyes and the shaggy blond hair. He grinned broadly.