“I came partway out on one of the whale-watching charters,” Sam said. “Figured Knox wouldn’t be overly concerned if he happened to catch sight of a boat full of sightseers in the distance.”
“I understand,” Dawson said. “But how did you get the rest of the way to the island?”
“Kayak,” Sam said. “They make almost no noise. I came ashore on the far side of the island and walked the rest of the way. I stayed out of sight and kept an eye on things from the trees. The plan was for me to move in as soon as Abby started to unlock the psi-code. We knew that even if she couldn’t take him down with encryption energy, she would probably be able to distract him long enough for me to get on board.”
Dawson shook his head. “I still don’t understand this whole code thing. Knox kept talking about how he’d need Abby not just to get the book for him but to unlock it. At first I assumed he meant a real code, one with secret meanings for certain letters and numbers. When I realized he thought the book was encoded with some kind of psychic energy, I figured he was just flat-out crazy.”
“I think he was, in a way,” Abby said.
“But you aren’t.” Dawson looked at her. “You never were. The family is wrong about you. There is something to this whole paranormal thing, isn’t there?”
Abby smiled. “What makes you believe that?”
“I felt something weird happen when Knox turned that strange gun on me, and again when you gave him the book. It was as if there was some kind of invisible storm inside the cabin. The air seemed somehow charged.” Dawson looked at Sam. “When you came in, the sensation got a thousand times worse. I’ve never experienced anything like it. Except maybe once.”
“When was that?” Abby asked.
“The day you burned the book in the bathtub and Mom decided that you had tried to set fire to the house.”
“In hindsight, I have to admit that she had some reason to be concerned,” Abby said. “I was just coming into my talent. I had no idea what I was doing.”
“What really frightened Mom was the fact that you seemed to believe you had set fire to the book with some kind of mental energy. But that’s exactly what happened, wasn’t it?”
Abby sighed. “Pretty much.”
Elias looked at Sam. “We need to find the missing crystals. We’ve got one lab book, a good shot at getting the second one if it’s with Frye’s things, and we’ve got Knox’s crystal gun. That will give us a lot to work with.”
“Still got a long way to go,” Sam said. “We’re going to need Judson’s and Emma’s help. They are the only ones we can trust, the only ones who have a sensitivity to the Phoenix crystals.”
Willow picked up her coffee cup. “What did you do with Lander Knox’s body and his yacht?”
“I made sure there was nothing on board that tied any of us to the boat, and then I sank it,” Sam said. “The water is very deep off that island. I doubt that the wreckage or the body will ever be discovered, but if they are, it won’t cause much of a stir. Just one more tragic summer boating accident in the San Juans.”
Abby looked at him over the top of her cup.
“What?” he asked.
“I was just thinking of what Dixon told me about you the first time he brought me here to the island.”
Sam raised his brows. “That would be?”
“I was given to understand that if you ever had to get rid of a body, it would disappear for good,” she said. “Something to do with all the deep water around these parts and the cleverness of Coppersmiths in general.”
“Damn straight,” Elias growled.
Sam let that go. He turned back to Dawson. “Are you going to tell your grandmother that she was giving out details about the family finances to a killer?”
“I don’t think that I’ll mention that he was a killer.” Dawson tapped one finger on the arm of the chair. “That gets complicated.”
“Yes,” Sam said. “It does.”
“I doubt that she’d believe me if I did tell her the whole truth, anyway,” Dawson continued. “But I do plan to let her know that the guy she was doing lunch with on a regular basis for the past few months was the architect of the Ponzi scheme that she insisted I invest her money in. I’m also going to make it clear that it isn’t Abby’s fault that Knox was a fraud and a scam artist.”
Willow exchanged a look with Elias. Abby was sure she saw some unspoken message pass between them. Willow looked at Dawson.
“It might be possible to recover whatever is left of the money that you invested with Knox, assuming he didn’t spend all of it,” she said.
“He didn’t have time to go through that much money,” Sam said. “He was focused on acquiring the lab book and getting the encryption broken. Depriving the Stricklands of the family fortune was merely a means to an end, collateral damage.”
“In that case, I’ll see what I can do,” Willow said.
Elias grinned proudly. “My wife has a real talent for following the money,” he said to Dawson. “If your grandmother’s fortune is out there, she’ll find it.”
Dawson looked at Willow. “That’s very kind of you. I might be able to help. I’ve got a little talent in that arena myself.”
“Excellent,” Willow said. “We’ll work the project as a team.”
They finished the coffee in silence. The flames crackled cheerfully on the hearth. Outside, the long summer day came to a close. Darkness settled on the island.
“I told Knox that he had miscalculated,” Dawson said to Abby. “I explained that he had misjudged the family dynamics. I said you had no reason to risk your neck for me. But he was convinced that you would come. For a smart psychopath, he sure had a blind side. He actually bought into the image in that photo on the back cover of Families by Choice. Thought the happy Radwell family was the real deal.”
Abby smiled. “Like Dad always says, family is everything.”
48
ABBY STOOD WITH SAM ON THE BLUFF ABOVE THE SMALL COVE. Sam was on his phone. Newton was exploring some nearby rocks.
Sam concluded the call and slipped the phone into the pocket of his leather jacket. “That was the lawyer I had looking into the status of Thaddeus Webber’s estate. Turns out there is a will.”
“So Thaddeus did take steps to make sure his most valuable books went to a library?” Abby smiled. “That’s great.”
“He didn’t leave his collection to a library. He left everything, including the contents of his book vault, to a single individual.”
“He had some family after all?”
“According to his will, he left his collection to the person he looked upon as a daughter, although, given the age difference, maybe he should have said granddaughter. He left it all to you, Abby.”
“What?”
Sam smiled.
It took her a few seconds to find her tongue. “But some of the volumes in that collection are worth a fortune.”
“They’re all yours now. The lawyer is making certain that the collection is guarded until it can be packed up and transported here to Copper Beach. You’ll have to open Webber’s vault, though. You’re the only one who knows the code.”
“This is amazing. I can’t believe it. First your mother and Dawson track down the bulk of the Strickland fortune in that offshore bank and arrange to get it back. Then one of your fancy lawyers manages to spring Grady Hastings, who is scheduled to start work in the Black Box facility on Monday.”
“Good talent is hard to come by,” Sam said. “Don’t like to see it wasted.”
“And now I find out I’m inheriting all of Thaddeus’s books. On top of everything else, I actually got a phone call from Orinda Strickland today, informing me that she intended to make provision for me in the Strickland family trust.”