“We’ve come to wish Rupert a happy birthday,” Temple added.
Ethan waved us in. “Perhaps you can persuade him to come out and join the festivities,” he said on a note of irritation. “He’s being as petulant as a child about this whole thing.”
“I’ll do my best.”
While Temple went in to find Dr. Shaw, I remained in the hallway to have a word with Ethan.
“Is everything okay?” I asked.
He looked annoyed. “He’s been in a state for weeks now. One of his former assistants is publishing a book using Father’s research without giving him credit.”
“That would be upsetting, particularly if this assistant stole the material.”
“How did you know about that?” Ethan asked in surprise.
“Last time I saw your father, he said someone had been slowly leeching his life’s work.”
“Yes, well, as I said, he’s got himself all worked up about it. He wants to sue, but lawsuits are expensive. Father’s never had to worry about money so he doesn’t have a clue. But enough about that.” His smile seemed to take a bit of effort. “How’s your mother?”
“Her treatment is going well and she’s in good spirits. Much better than I’ve been, actually. I’m trying to remedy that, though. I thought an outing might do me good.”
“You do look more rested than the last time I saw you.”
I tried to remember when that was. At Oak Grove, hours before we’d discovered Camille’s body. He’d told me about the day Mariama and Shani had died. And later Devlin had come to my house and kissed me, but I tried not to think about that.
Now that the office doors were open, a steady stream of people filed in to see Dr. Shaw. “I should go say hello.”
Ethan nodded. “Like I said, he’s in a mood, but I’m sure he’ll be happy to see you.”
But Dr. Shaw seemed fine to me. I saw nothing of the disheveled, suspicious man who’d been convinced someone was stealing his life’s work. I wanted to ask him about that, but a celebration was hardly the place to bring up something so obviously distressing.
He watched me with keen eyes as he swirled brandy in a glass. “How have you been, Amelia? Any more events that I should know about?”
“Thankfully, no. No more shadow beings, no more psychic vampires. My life is pretty uneventful at the moment, paranormally speaking.”
Someone had come up beside him, and when Dr. Shaw turned to shake hands, I saw the silver spark of his ring. I’d never been able to make it out before, but after seeing Daniel Meakin’s drawing, it was so clearly a snake coiled around a talon.
The same symbol that Devlin wore around his neck.
I tore my focus from the ring and studied the faces of those gathered around Dr. Shaw. They were of all ages, welldressed, educated, intellectuals. Emerson’s finest. I wondered how many of them secretly wore that same symbol somewhere on his or her person.
Murmuring my excuses, I slipped out of the office and wandered down the hallway, feeling strangely claustrophobic in that house and inexplicably paranoid. No one there had any reason to want to harm me, but I couldn’t help remembering what Dr. Shaw had said about the killer that day. He could be someone in our midst. Someone we least expect—
A hand fell on my shoulder and I whirled, hand to my heart. “Ethan! You startled me.”
“Sorry,” he said contritely. “You’re not trying to sneak away already, are you?”
“I’m afraid so. Unfortunately, I have to be up at the crack of dawn so I can beat the heat.”
“Well, that’s too bad. But I do understand. I have an early day, as well.”
I glanced at him with interest. “Are you working on a new case?”
“Yes. Some remains were uncovered just today.”
“At Oak Grove?” I asked anxiously.
“No, not Oak Grove. Nothing new on that front, thankfully.”
“I’ve been wondering…have you been able to identify the skeleton Devlin and I found in the chamber? I’ve read nothing about it in the paper.”
“We don’t have a name, but I have identified some interesting characteristics.”
“Can you tell me what they are?”
He leaned a shoulder against the wall. “I can do better than that depending on how squeamish you are.”
I made a face. “As long as it doesn’t involve spiders, I should be okay.”
“No spiders, I promise. Drop by the morgue at MUSC tomorrow afternoon and I’ll show you what I’ve found.”
The morgue. Maybe I was just a tad squeamish after all.
“Is that allowed?”
“You’re a consultant on the Oak Grove case, right? It said so in the paper.”
“That’s a very loose interpretation.”
“It should suffice. Call me when you get there and I’ll come out and let you in. In the meantime…” He straightened. “If you’re set on leaving so early, let me at least walk you to your car. There’s something I’d like to talk to you about.”
I went off to say good-night to Temple and then met back up with Ethan at the door. He seemed preoccupied as we walked around to the parking area, and I wondered if he was still upset by the argument with his father.
“You wanted to talk to me?”
“It’s about John.”
That was unexpected. And the very mention of Devlin’s name took the wind right out of me. “What about him?”
Ethan propped a hand on the car door. “Have you seen him lately?”
“No, not in days.” He hadn’t called me and I hadn’t called him. I was still trying to convince myself it was for the best.
“He looks terrible, Amelia. I think the investigation is taking a toll. And this time of year is difficult for him, anyway. It’s coming up on the anniversary.”
I felt a little catch in my throat. “I didn’t know.”
“That’s probably why you haven’t heard from him. The guilt…” He made a helpless gesture with his hand. “He spends far too much time in his own gloomy company. I worry about him. He needs to get out more.”
I thought about the feminine voice I’d heard in the background that night on the phone and wondered if Devlin got out more than Ethan realized. Still, I didn’t want to minimize his concern, especially now that I knew the guilt Devlin carried with him.
“I tried to get him to come here tonight,” Ethan said. “But this is the last place he’d want to be.”
“He doesn’t seem to have much regard for the work done here,” I said carefully.
“It’s not just that. This is where he met Mariama.”
“At the Institute?”
“It wasn’t the Institute then. It was just our home. Mariama lived with us for a while. And John was my father’s protégé.”
“Protégé?” I stared at him in shock. “As in…
“Not now, maybe. But there was a time when he was an avid investigator.”
I couldn’t even wrap my head around that notion. “We are talking about the same man.”
Ethan smiled. “We are.”
“What happened? He’s so dismissive now.”
Ethan shrugged. “He gradually grew away from it, as most of us did back then. We had graduate school and careers to think of. It really did begin to seem like a game we were playing. Except to my father, of course.” I heard a shade of bitterness in his voice that made me wonder again about that argument. “On the night of the accident, John came here to see Father. He wanted help contacting Mariama’s and Shani’s spirits. He pleaded with Father to help him open a door so that he could cross over and see them one last time.”
