‘What do you mean?’
‘She came to prominence in the early 1980s when she bought out the Haver Corporation. Bought it lock, stock and barrel. But I can’t get a line on her in the runup to that. I found an entry for her in the 1963 yearbook at Priestley High School in Connecticut but after that nothing until twenty years later when she arrived fully formed on Wall Street and started making huge waves in the financial circles of the day.’
‘But there must be something to show what she was doing with herself for those twenty years. College? University?’
‘I agree, there should be something, but there’s nothing documented. Maybe she left high school and went abroad to further her education. If that’s the case, then it could take days to pick up her trail.’
‘At high school she was listed as Celeste Toland?’
Martin nodded.
‘So that means she never married.’
‘If what you say about her relationship with Jessica Anderson is correct, then that’s hardly surprising, is it?’ Martin smiled the way men do when talking about women seemingly beyond them.
Crozier grumbled something under his breath that Martin didn’t catch. Then he said, ‘Surely there was some press when she bought out Haver? There must have been a curious journalist out there anxious to know who this woman was, where she came from.’
‘You’d think so, wouldn’t you? But I can find nothing, and I’ve trawled through every database I can think of. Why are you so interested in her anyway?’
‘I’m not…not her specifically. But the Sorority interests me greatly, and Jessica Anderson’s connection to it. This whole Kulsay Island thing has me rattled. I get the feeling the Department is being used and I don’t like that, I don’t like that at all.’
‘Have you heard from Jane? How are things going over there?’
‘I heard from her last night. Nothing today. I’m sure things are fine.’ He drummed his fingertips on the desktop. ‘Do another sweep and see if you can turn up anything at all on this Toland woman. Anything at all.’
‘But.…’ Martin started to protest.
Crozier cut him off. ‘Just try; there may be something you’ve missed.’
Martin got ready to leave the room. ‘It’s your call,’ he said. He was annoyed that his habitual thoroughness was being questioned.
Crozier watched the office door close, then picked up the phone again. ‘Just answer the bloody thing, Jane,’ he said.
Crozier sighed and cradled the receiver. It could be nothing more than atmospherics blocking the telephone signals. It might be something altogether more sinister. Either way it was too early to send in a helicopter to airlift them off the island. Jane Talbot needed time to get to the root of what was happening on Kulsay, and she’d be furious if he overreacted and pulled the plug before she had some answers. He just had to be patient.
But patience had never come easily to him. As a young man he’d been very much like Robert Carter; headstrong, impetuous. He’d been invited to join the Department by the incumbent director, Sir George Logan, but he and Logan had clashed many times over Crozier’s methodology. When the time came for Logan to retire the old man had tried to stop Crozier from succeeding him, but by that time Crozier had made some very influential friends in government and his appointment as Director of the Department was little more than a formality.
The directorship tempered his more impulsive tendencies, and over the years he’d watched himself turn into a clone of Sir George Logan. It was a fact that irritated him intensely, but the behavioral traits were too embedded now for him to do much about it.
He picked up the phone again and looked at it for a long moment, his fingers itching, anxious to punch in Jane Talbot’s number. With an effort of will he stopped himself, placed the receiver back on its cradle and swore savagely.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Jane’s head was throbbing. Blood trickled from the wound, tracing a crimson line down her cheek. Carter and McKinley were still holding her, but they had lain her down on the floor.
She looked at them blearily. ‘Did Raj get out?’
The two men exchanged looks. Jane read the message passed from eye to eye. She struggled to sit up. ‘You left him in there,’ she said angrily, shrugging her shoulders to free herself.
‘All that was Raj’s doing,’ Carter said, jerking his thumb at the closed door. He could still hear the wind whistling around the room and the splintering of furniture.
‘Don’t be ridiculous. Raj’s not a physical medium. His powers are strictly mental.’ She got to her feet, impatiently wiping the blood away from her face.
‘John, you tell her,’ Carter said. He knew McKinley had been as vulnerable as he was to what was in the room.
‘He’s right,’ McKinley said. ‘He was controlling everything. It must have affected him when he opened up to the forces in the house.’
Jane glared at him. ‘Well I’m not going to abandon him.’ She reached for the door.
Carter pulled her back.
Jane spun on her heel and slapped him across the cheek. ‘Get your bloody hands off of me!’ she said and lurched for the door again.
As her hand gripped the handle the noise stopped. The silence was almost as deafening.
Jane took a breath and turned the handle. The door swung open.
Raj sat on the floor in the middle of the floor, head bowed, one fist rammed into his mouth as if to stop himself from screaming. The library was devastated. Bookshelves were bare, the books themselves turned into confetti that littered every flat surface. Furniture had been turned into kindling, and the drapes, unmoving now, were shredded.
Jane glanced back at the others. ‘Wait here. I don’t want to freak him out.’ She stepped into the room. Raj didn’t move, not even to raise his head to acknowledge Jane’s presence.
‘Raj,’ Jane said softly, then spun around, sensing someone behind her. ‘I said wait outside,’ she said to Carter who had followed her into the room.
‘Jane, I really think…’
‘Just get out of the room, Robert, and leave this to me.’ She said it quietly, but her tone left no room for argument.
Carter’s shoulders sagged slightly in resignation and he returned to join the others.
‘Shut the door,’ Jane said.
He looked back over his shoulder. The expression on his face said,
‘Have we got a live video feed to the library?’ he said to Kirby who was sitting on the floor, hands still clasped to her bleeding face.
Kirby nodded.
‘Can you get it on your laptop?’ Carter’s voice was urgent; there wasn’t much time.
Kirby nodded her head again.
‘Bring it here. Now.’ His voice raised, the manner not allowing any discussion or argument. There could be no delays.
‘I’ll get it,’ Kirby said, casting a concerned glance at Carter.
Kirby returned moments later and flipped open the laptop, punching a few keys. ‘There you go,’ she said, handing the computer to Carter.
Carter studied the image on the screen. Raj was sitting in the middle of the floor, head bowed, Jane two paces away from him. Jane’s mouth was working.
‘Can you get sound as well?’ Carter said.
