“Huh.”
“Trust me,” Fallon said, “there’s no trace of physical evidence in situations like this. It will look like Craigmore’s heart just stopped. Which is pretty much what happens at the end, anyway, regardless of what kills you.”
“Craigmore was a wealthy man,” Luther said. “Whoever inherits his financial empire may have a few questions about the manner of his death.”
“A few years back Craigmore informed the previous Master that he intended to leave his entire estate to the Society to continue funding its research. Under the circumstances, I doubt that the Council will ask too many questions.”
“Craigmore and I didn’t exactly have a lengthy conversation in the garage,” Luther said, “but in view of his admission that he was Nightshade, he may have changed his mind about who gets his money.”
“Yeah, can’t wait to see who comes out of the woodwork to collect,” Fallon said. “I’ve got people on the way to Craigmore’s home and his office to see what they can dig up. The good news is that I don’t think Craigmore ever found out that you and Grace stumbled into those four other Nightshade talents on Maui. As far as he knew, you were interested in Eubanks only because J&J was investigating him for murder.”
“Craigmore was on the Council. Why didn’t he learn that we stumbled into the Nightshade connection?”
“Because I didn’t enter anything into the computer files about the link to Nightshade and because Zack chose not to inform the Council about what you and Grace discovered,” Fallon said.
Luther whistled softly. “You two really are worried about a spy, aren’t you?”
“I told you, Zack sensed that there was a Nightshade plant somewhere very high up within the Society. He had even begun to think that the spy might be on the Council. Guess the big sixty-four-dollar question now is, How many other members of the organization are members of the Society?”
“Any idea why Craigmore wanted Eubanks taken out?”
“Not yet,” Fallon admitted. “Just starting to work on that. Probably some kind of competitive thing. Maybe he and Eubanks were both going after the same promotion within Nightshade.”
“Why the hell did he come after me?”
“Because you’re guarding Grace,” Fallon said with his customary devastating logic.
Luther suppressed the icy chill that slithered through his veins.
“The only reason he would have been worried about Grace is because she can identify the singer,” he said quietly.
“Right. Craigmore must have been convinced that if we found the singer, we would uncover a connection that would lead straight back to him.”
Luther thought about that. “Wonder why he didn’t just take out the singer and cut the connection that way?”
“I keep telling you, she’s a pro like Sweetwater. She wouldn’t be all that easy to find, let alone remove.”
Fallon clicked off the way he usually did, without bothering to say good-bye. The way you knew a chat with him was over was when the phone went dead in your ear.
THIRTY-FOUR
Grace watched Luther close the phone and sink down onto the sofa. Absently he rubbed his right leg, weariness in every line of his body. The aftermath of the confrontation with Craigmore was having its way with him, hitting him on every front. She remembered the sensation all too well.
“Fallon says Sweetwater is still looking hard for the Siren,” Luther said. “He’s sure it won’t take long to find her.”
“That’s good to know.”
She got up, went into the kitchen and took the whiskey down from the cupboard. She poured a healthy shot into a glass, carried it back into the living room and gave it to him.
He looked at the glass for a moment as if he didn’t recognize the contents. Then he drank some of the whiskey.
“Thanks,” he said. “I needed that. Or something.”
Grace sat beside him. Together they looked out at the night through the open lanai windows. She put her hand on his thigh and began a gentle massage. He hesitated, as though he didn’t know how to react. Then, without a word, he let her continue. After a while he drank some more whiskey.
“Fallon sounded strange tonight,” he said.
“In what way?”
“I don’t know. Different. Tired. Worried. Depressed, maybe. Or maybe just a little overwhelmed. Hard to explain. Never heard him quite like he was tonight. He’s always been . . .”
“Fallon?”
“Yeah, that’s it. Long as I’ve known him, he’s always been Fallon. A force of nature, like a thunderstorm or a tsunami or a shark. But not tonight.”
“J&J is all we’ve got to stop Nightshade, and Fallon Jones is in charge of J&J,” she said. “That means the outcome of this battle is on his shoulders. He needs someone.”
“Who?”
She thought about it. “Someone he can talk to. Someone he can trust. Most of all, someone who can take over a portion of the responsibility. An assistant, maybe.”
Luther shook his head. “He’d never go for an assistant. He works alone. Like me.”
“You didn’t work the Maui case alone. I was there, too, remember? And I’m still around.”
“Because I won’t let you go off on your own as long as it looks like you need a bodyguard,” he said. He drank some more whiskey.
“No,” she said quietly. “I’m still here because I want to be here.”
He contemplated the darkness. “Living in the moment?”
“That’s all any of us really has, isn’t it?”
“No,” Luther said. “We’ve also got our pasts.”
She sighed. “Yes, I suppose that’s true.”
Luther swallowed some more whiskey.
After a couple of minutes she tried again.
“I know what it’s like,” she said.
“Living in the moment?”
“No, killing someone with your aura. I’ve done it, too, remember?”
He looked at her over the rim of the glass. “For what it’s worth, Fallon says that, technically speaking, we didn’t actually kill anyone. We used our own energy to reflect the violent energy of our attackers. The process set up a dissonant wave pattern that shattered their auras. He said it was like they were killed by a ricochet from their own weapon.”
She contemplated that for a long moment. “Interesting but I’m not sure it changes anything. The bottom line is that we are responsible for the deaths of those people, and no matter how bad they were or how much they deserved to die, you and I still have to live with it.”
“Yes,” he said. “We do.”
“He was trying to kill you, Luther. You were fighting for your life.”
“His aura winked out like that damn laser. Like someone had turned off a switch.”
“I know what it’s like to watch that happen, too. It’s terrifying to realize that you have it within you to take a life without even using a weapon.”
He gazed into what was left of the whiskey. “Makes you feel like there’s something inside you that’s not really human.”
“Oh, we’re human, all right,” she said. “Humans have always been very good at killing. But we pay a heavy price when we use that talent. I don’t think anyone is the same after they’ve gone down that path.”
“I know you and I and Petra and Wayne have paid a price. What about guys like Sweetwater?”
“I expect that, in their own way, the members of the Sweetwater family pay, too,” she said. “Maybe that’s why they’re such a tight-knit clan. They need each other to survive what they do for a living. One thing’s for sure, I’ll bet none of them has any real friends outside the family, not even when they were children. They can’t afford to trust outsiders.”
“Yeah, I guess you would have to keep the truth about what Daddy does for a living from your kids. Kids talk.”