Amaryllis

Lucas moved the light beam to another row of boxes and discovered more helpful labels. "Landreth: Personal Effects--Desk Drawer Number One." "Landreth: Personal Effects--Desk Drawer Number Two."

"I see what you mean," Lucas said. "Talk about a clerical mentality."

"Be grateful." Amaryllis shoved a box aside to gain access to the one behind it. "Professor Landreth always said that Mrs. Dunley had a talent for organization. It was one of the reasons they worked so well together."

Lucas flicked the light upward to get a closer look at the portrait on the wall. "Is that the great man himself?"

Amaryllis glanced at the picture. Her face softened. "Yes."

"Vivien was right. He looks like a guy whose underwear is two sizes too small."

"Don't be disrespectful."

"Yes, ma'am."

Amaryllis tugged another box forward. "Here we go. This looks like a good candidate."

Lucas moved closer to get a look at the label on the box she had uncovered. "Landreth: Miscellaneous Items from Desk."

Amaryllis started to lift the lid and suddenly hesitated. Lucas glanced at her. There was just enough light to see that she was nibbling uneasily on her lower lip.

"If you're going to search that box, then do it fast," he said roughly. "If not, let's get out of here. I don't like this situation one damn bit."

Without a word, Amaryllis gingerly removed the lid and set it aside. Lucas raised the light and aimed the beam into the open box. Neatly bundled pens, pencils, and desktop accoutrements were packed inside. A large, handsome desk calendar bound in what appeared to be very expensive Green Specter snakeskin lay on the bottom.

"Looks like being head of the Department of Focus Studies paid well," Lucas observed as Amaryllis removed the calendar. "Green Specter snakeskin doesn't come cheap."

"We took up a collection and gave him this calendar a few months before I left." Amaryllis touched the bronze-green snakeskin with reverential fingers. "It was in honor of his thirtieth year in the department. I picked this out myself. Professor Landreth was quite pleased."

Something in her voice sent a jolt of alarm through Lucas. "You're not going to cry, are you? Amaryllis, we don't have time for that. Save it."

"I'm not crying." She sniffed and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand as she carried the calendar to the desk. "Hold the flashlight so that I can see what I'm reading."

Guilt trickled through Lucas. He had to keep reminding himself that Amaryllis had actually been fond of Jonathan Landreth. "Sorry."

"Never mind." Amaryllis smiled wryly as she opened the calendar and started to flip the pages. "Mrs. Dunley and I seem to be the only ones who had any real affection for poor Professor Landreth. I hadn't realized until lately that most of the people in the department considered him a prissy, rigid martinet."

"I guess they just didn't understand him the way you did."

"He was brilliant, Lucas. He devoted his life to furthering the study of the principles of psychic synergism. He always said that there was so much more to learn, that the swift evolution of psychic talent in humans on St. Helens was unprecedented."

"Uh hub."

"What little information we have suggests that on Earth psychic abilities were either nonexistent or so undeveloped that they were frequently dismissed as manifestations of pure fantasy by most experts."

"Yeah, right." Lucas motioned with the light. "Could you save the lecture until some other time? I don't want to hang around any longer than absolutely necessary."

"Yes, of course. Sorry." Amaryllis concentrated on the calendar. "This section covers the last few days of his life. Let's see, he was killed on the thirteenth of the month. That was a Friday."

"Figures."

She turned another page. "Here we go. These are the entries for the thirteenth. I wonder if I should take a look at the whole last week, just in case."

Lucas glanced at the entries on the pages. They had all been penned in a painstakingly precise hand. "Why don't you just take the entire calendar home with you?" He was aware of a stirring sensation on the nape of his neck. "You can study it at your leisure."

Amaryllis gave him a shocked look. "I couldn't possibly remove the calendar. That would be theft."

"Excuse me, but I'd like to point out that you're already walking a pretty fine line just being in here tonight."

Her fingers clenched around the calendar. "I'm well aware of that. But I couldn't think of anything else to do. I told you that I had to act quickly because Mrs. Dunley said that one of Professor Landreth's relatives is going to collect the boxes first thing in the morning."

"Yeah."

"It was not an easy decision to come here tonight. But I finally decided that it was a question of priorities. I felt that the importance of the investigation of the professor's death outweighed--"

"Could you save that speech for later, too?"

"Lucas, is something wrong?"

"Other than the obvious?" Lucas let his senses float, widening his awareness the way he did when he was in the jungle. "Maybe. I don't have a good feeling about this."

"You're nervous. I knew I shouldn't have involved you." Amaryllis bent over the last entries in the calendar. "Most of these notes were made by Professor Landreth himself. I recognize his handwriting. He paid close attention to his schedule."

"Hooray for him. I let my secretary handle my calendar." He followed her fingertip as she read off the entries.

"Nine o'clock. Test Results Meeting." Amaryllis frowned. "That was a regular weekly event here in the department. Nothing out of the ordinary. Eleven o'clock, departmental budget review. Noon, lunch with Professor Wagner. Wagner is with the history department. An old friend. Three o'clock--"

Lucas glanced at the name that had brought Amaryllis to a screeching halt. Gifford Osterley. Before he could comment, a jolt of warning flashed through him. He switched off the light.

"Lucas?"

"Quiet. I think I heard someone. Security guard, probably." He took her arm and edged away from the desk.

Amaryllis did not argue. He heard her close the calendar very quietly. He plucked it from her hand and used his sense of touch to return it to the open box. Then, guided mostly by feel, he found the lid and replaced it.

He had good night vision, but even for him the secretary's office was as black as the inside of a cave. A light appeared through the frosted pane of glass in the door. Someone with a flashlight was coming down the hall. Whoever it was, he moved with the brisk, confident pace of a person who had every right to be where he was.

University security had finally put in an appearance.

With one hand wrapped around Amaryllis's arm, Lucas relied on his jungle-honed sense of orientation to guide him to the solid paneled door of the inner office. He had noted its location earlier, just as he had automatically made a mental map of the position of everything else in the room. After a lifetime in the Western Islands, a man got very good at that kind of thing.

A soft, scraping footstep sounded in the outside hallway. Lucas felt Amaryllis flinch. He drew her into the second office and gently closed the door.

There were windows in this room. A pale swath of moonlight slanted across the desk. Keeping his grip on Amaryllis's arm, Lucas urged her across the office. He set his teeth as he eased open one of the windows.

There was no squeak.

"Out," he whispered. "Hurry."

He bundled her through the window. She scrambled awkwardly but silently over the sill. He heard her land softly on the ground.

The door of the outer office opened. The beam of light appeared beneath the door of the inner office. Lucas put one leg over the sill. If the guard was the meticulous type, he would check the second office, too. Lucas figured he had about three seconds.