"What a pair he and Theo made, huh? The crazy treating the eccentric."
"And now they're both dead," Orchid concluded. "And the firm of Adams and Stonebraker is going to find the missing relic."
"Adams and Stonebraker?"
"She means Stonebraker and Adams," Rafe said from the doorway.
Orchid turned. "There you are. How did it go with the cops?"
Rafe shrugged as he walked into the room. "They think it's pretty open and shut. Crazed syn-psych shrink manipulates equally nutty patient. Arranges to have a valuable artifact stolen and then tries to cover up crime by killing people. Eventually goes completely bonkers from stress of committing murder and kills self. Valuable relic missing."
"Hmm." Orchid eyed him thoughtfully.
"Precisely my conclusion," Rafe murmured. He looked at Morgan. "I'm told you're going to be discharged today."
"Right."
"I want you to do me a favor."
"What's that?"
"Get lost for a week. Take a trip to the Western Islands. Pretend you just won a contest."
Morgan gaped. "The Western Islands?"
"All expenses paid by the firm of Stonebraker and Adams," Rafe said.
"You're lucky," Orchid said. "Second prize was two weeks in the Western Islands."
Both men stared at her.
She blushed. "Sorry. My great-great grandmother told me that one when I was very little. She said it was an old Earth joke."
Orchid gave Rafe a long look as she got into the leer. "What's wrong? Why are you still worried about Morgan?"
"I don't know," he admitted. "But something doesn't feel right about this case yet. It's not just the fact that the relic is still missing, either."
"Are the police satisfied?"
"Yes. The important part of the case, the murder of Mr. Amazing and the probable murder of Theo Willis, has been solved. That's all they care about."
"Don't they have any interest in the relic?"
"They assume that it disappeared into the underground collector's market. They'll keep an eye out for it, but it's not a big priority for them."
"So what's our next move?"
"I'm not sure yet, but we've still got a client. I talked to Brizo. He definitely wants us to find the relic." Rafe glanced at her as he drove out of the hospital parking lot. "In the meantime, we've also got a date to attend your cousin's wedding. It's tomorrow afternoon in Northville, right?"
Orchid groaned. "To tell you the truth, I'd almost forgotten about that."
"I haven't," he said a little too smoothly. "I owe you. I always pay my debts. Stonebraker tradition."
Orchid wondered why she was suddenly overcome with the old hunted feeling. "Rafe, I won't lie to my family. I won't introduce you as an agency date."
"Of course not. At this point I'm just a regular date. The kind of guy you go away with for the weekend."
Her face burned. "But I don't go away for weekends with guys."
"Until you met me." There was a wealth of satisfaction in his voice.
Chapter 16
It was a typical meta-zen-syn wedding, Rafe discovered. The bride wore yellow. The groom wore blue. The majority of the guests wore white. Seated next to Orchid in a pew near her parents, he felt extremely conspicuous in his dark suit and tie.
He had been aware of the meta-zen-syn tradition of wearing white but he just could not see himself in a white suit. He was luckier than the groom, he thought. After the ceremony both the bride and the groom would change into green, the color that resulted when blue and yellow were combined.
The change of attire was symbolic of the power of synergy.
Meta-zen-syn was a philosophy, not a religion, but here in Northville many of its symbols had been grafted on to the far more ancient religious portion of the wedding ceremony.
Rafe was amused to see that Orchid did have some white in her wardrobe, after all. The dress she wore today was a breezy thing that fluttered and drifted with every movement. It was very meta-zen-syn, he thought as he studied it out of the corner of his eye. It somehow managed to reveal and conceal at the same time. Very modest by any standard, it nevertheless managed to make him salivate.
This was no time to turn primitive, he reminded himself. He was trying to make a good impression here in Northville.
When the vows had been exchanged, Veronica and her groom vanished into separate antechambers. The congregation meditated in silence while everyone waited for the couple to change into the formal green clothes that symbolized the synergistic result of the chromatic union of blue and yellow.
Synergistic principles were symbolized everywhere in Northville, Rafe noticed.
On the way into the austere little chapel he had seen North's three basic tenets carved in stone on the outside wall. Not that he and everyone else on St. Helens did not already know them by heart, he thought. Every schoolchild learned them in kindergarten.
North's Three Principles, after all, were the philosophical bedrock upon which any understanding of scientific and natural phenomena on St. Helens depended. It was the discovery and acceptance of that intellectual framework that had enabled the first generation colonists to survive. The principles were paradoxically both simple and profound.
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
The struggle for balance and harmony governs all natural processes.
Balance and harmony are achieved only when the synergistic contribution of each element is equal to that of all other elements in the whole.
Rafe glanced at Orchid. She did not notice. Her attention was fixed on a tall, elegantly lean man dressed in a stylish white suit who was seated in another row. Preston Luce.
Rafe was relieved to see that Orchid's expression was thoughtful, not wistful.
At that moment Preston turned his head slightly and smiled at Orchid. She immediately switched her gaze, to the large, unframed canvas that hung behind the simple altar. The painting consisted of two lightning bolt slashes, one black, one white. Rafe recognized the picture as the work of Eldon Moss, a master of the Neo-Post Synergistic Abstract school. The minimalist approach of the painters of that school had made their work very popular with the meta-zen-syn crowd.
Rafe had been in Northville for only a few hours, but already he had seen a lot of art and architectural design that was clearly inspired by minimalism.
He had to admit that, in large doses, the austere style took on a bland, flat sensibility. He could understand why a young woman with a strong romantic streak might have had a little trouble fitting into the Northville milieu.
There was a small stir of anticipation in the crowd. Veronica and Terrence reappeared in their formal green attire and were introduced as husband and wife. The congregation rose to greet them with a solemn meta-zen-syn chant of welcome.
The new couple walked back down the aisle together. Row by row, the guests followed.
Rafe took Orchid's arm as she got to her feet "Do we get to eat now?"
She gave him a fleeting grin. "Yes, but don't say I didn't warn you. At a classic meta-zen-syn wedding even the food is supposed to symbolize the Three Principles."
"I'm hungry enough to eat green hors d'oeuvres."
The afternoon was warm and sunny. The reception was held in a serenely austere garden that overlooked the heavily wooded hills of Northville.
To Rafe's relief, the canapes were not all blue and yellow or even green. The small pastries, skewered tidbits, and assorted delicacies were, however, artfully arranged in classic meta-zen-syn patterns on the trays. Most were decorated with meta-zen-syn designs, but the symbolism did not affect the taste. The intellectual elite of Northville were a sophisticated lot. They relished gourmet food and wine.