“Yes,” Abby said. She smiled. “Every psi-code is unique. It’s like a fingerprint in that it reveals a lot about the individual who set the encryption. You’ll have to take my word for it when I tell you that you do not want to re– create any of those recipes unless the code is broken first.”
“I believe you.” Sam put the book down on the desk. “What are you going to do with the herbal? Keep it?”
“No, I really can’t do that. The person who sent it was very gracious and very generous about insisting it was a gift, but I could never accept such a valuable item for services that haven’t been rendered.”
“How will you return it?” Sam asked. “You don’t know the sender.”
“I’m sure that won’t be a problem. I’ll give the book to Thaddeus Webber. He’ll find a way to return it to whoever sent it. Thaddeus has connections throughout the hot-book market. Unlike me, he works the deep end.”
“Do you think that the person who sent you the herbal is a deep-end collector?”
“Yes.” She placed the herbal carefully back into the box. “I do.”
“Think he knows you’ll arrange to return the book if you don’t accept him as a client?”
“Certainly.” She smiled. “I told you, I have a reputation in this business.”
“In other words, he didn’t take much of a risk when he gave you the herbal.”
“No. But it was a very elegant gesture, regardless.”
Sam watched her close the lid of the box. “You know, I had no idea until now how delicate business negotiations are in your world.”
“I thought I made it clear. In my line, reputation is everything. All my transactions involve an element of trust.”
“Well, that attitude explains why you aren’t yet ready to hold hands and jump off the edge of a cliff with me,” he said, without inflection.
She blanked for a couple of beats. Then she chuckled. The chuckles turned into laughter, and she was suddenly laughing harder than she had in some time.
“That’s hilarious.” She wiped the corners of her eyes. “You are a very unusual man, Sam Coppersmith.”
“You want to know the sad part? I wasn’t trying to make a joke. I need your trust to do my job, Abby.”
She sobered and blinked a few times to clear her eyes. “Oh. Sorry. I didn’t realize. Never mind. As you just pointed out, we have a deal, and I do trust you to honor your part of the bargain. I give you my word I’ll honor my end. I’ll do my best to find that lab book. Speaking of my little problem, just how do you plan to go about finding the blackmailer?”
Sam looked as if he wanted to pursue the topic of trust, but he must have concluded that the conversation was not going to be useful. He turned away and went to stand at the window, looking out into the night. Newton joined him.
“A chat with Thaddeus Webber would be a good place to start,” Sam said. “But I’d like to do it in person, not via email. Unlike you, he isn’t so easy to find. Think you can get him to agree to talk to me?”
“Yes, I’m sure I can. I want to see him, myself, in order to give him the herbal. I’ll email him tonight and set up a meeting. He’s quite security-conscious, though, so he’ll want to choose the time and place.”
“Fine by me, so long as he makes it soon, preferably tomorrow.”
“I doubt that will be a problem. Thaddeus is the one who sent me to you in the first place, after all. He’ll be as helpful as he can.”
“Good.”
She waited a beat. Sam did not say anything else. He and Newton continued to contemplate the night.
She cleared her throat. “So do you plan on returning to Copper Beach tonight? It’s a long trip.”
“What?” Sam sounded distracted, as if she had interrupted his train of thought. He turned around. “No, I’m not going back tonight. I thought I made it clear I’ll be sticking close to you until this is finished. Got a spare blanket for your sofa?”
“I really don’t think it’s necessary for you to spend the night here,” she said quickly. “It’s not like there is an immediate threat to my safety.”
“Sure there is.”
“I don’t see it.”
“Let’s review,” Sam said. “You are suddenly very hot, in more ways than one. Every time I turn around, someone else is either trying to bribe you or trying to blackmail you into working for him.”
“Just two people,” she said. “Three, counting you.”
“That’s two too many. Sooner or later, someone may decide to take more direct action. This place is not exactly a fortress.”
“I’ve got Newton,” she said. But she was grasping at straws, and she knew it.
“I’m sure Newton is a fine animal, but he’s not exactly a pit bull or a rottweiler. Tonight, I sleep here.”
She thought about the black leather duffel he had left in the entry hall. “I’m guessing that whatever is inside that bag you brought, it’s not your gym stuff.”
“Overnight kit, a change of clothes and some of the equipment I use in my consulting work. I never leave home without it.”
“You came prepared.”
“We’re in this together, Abby.”
“Right.” She took a deep breath. “Actually, there are three of us involved in this thing. You, me and Newton. And right now Newton has priority. It’s time for his late-night walk.”
“Please don’t tell me that you make a habit of going out onto the street alone at this hour every night?”
“No need for that,” Abby said. “The main reason I chose this particular condo building is because it has a lovely dog garden on the roof.”
Newton bounded toward the front door, claws skidding on the floor.
“He knows the word
“Maybe you’re right,” Sam said. “Maybe he is a little bit psychic.”
“All dogs have a psychic vibe,” Abby said. “But Newton has more talent than most. I knew that the instant I saw him in the animal shelter.”
Some time later, she closed her bedroom door, turned off the lights and pulled back the covers. The curtains were open, allowing the nighttime glow of the city to spill into the room.
Newton jumped up onto the foot of the bed and settled down.
“Feels weird knowing he’s out there in the other room, doesn’t it?” Abby whispered.
Newton regarded her alertly, his proud, intelligent head silhouetted against the city lights.
She pulled the down quilt up to her chin and contemplated the shadows on the ceiling. She should have been more uneasy about the situation, she thought. She was not accustomed to having a man spend the night. Her dates were never invited to stay until morning. Even with Kane, she had not taken that step. Maybe that had been a sign that the relationship was doomed, she thought. A woman should long for that kind of domestic intimacy with the man she was thinking of marrying. But she had never felt the need to have Kane stay. And in the post-Kane era, she had been living something of a cloistered life. There had been no other relationship that had even come close to being serious.
Her new home was her refuge, her fortress, her private, personal space. It was the first place that had ever truly belonged to her. She had filled it with things that had meaning to her. She had decorated it with the colors and fabrics and furnishings that she loved. And tonight a man she had known for less than a day was sleeping on her new sofa. She was still making payments on that sofa.
“I probably won’t sleep well tonight,” she said to Newton. “But what if I have that damn dream and go sleepwalking out into the front room? It would be so embarrassing.”
Newton put his head down on his paws.
Abby looked out into the night and thought about the lucid-dreaming advice that Gwen had given her.
