He raised dark brows a little, acknowledging the hit.
Alice looked faintly amused. Satisfied, even a little exhilarated by her successful parry, Celinda turned back to her.
“What is it you want from me, Detective?”
“Mr. Oakes is pursuing an investigation on behalf of his client,” Alice said, businesslike now. “This morning, in the course of that inquiry, he came across a dead body. We in the Cadence PD have an interest in that sort of thing.”
Celinda swallowed hard. The small sense of triumph she had just experienced evaporated in a heartbeat. Davis had discovered a dead person, and now he and the detective were sitting in her office. The situation was deteriorating rapidly.
“I see.” A fresh wave of alarm swept over her. “Are you here because you think I knew the victim?”
“Good question,” Alice said. “His name was Alvis Shaw. He was a longtime drug addict and small-time thief. Rez any bells?”
“Good grief, no,” Celinda said, shocked. “I assure you I’m not acquainted with anyone who meets that description. What in the world brought you to my door?”
Davis’s silvery eyes were as unreadable as mirrored sunglasses. “I found Shaw’s body in the alley just outside a small, low-end antique shop that specializes in cheap colonial knockoffs. The name of the place was Jackson’s Old World Finds.”
Startled, Celinda unclasped her hands. “I was in that shop yesterday afternoon.”
“I know,” Davis said. “The owner of the shop showed us a receipt for an object that you purchased from him.”
“I don’t understand,” she said. “What does that have to do with Mr. Shaw’s death? The item I bought wasn’t valuable. The owner couldn’t even remember when or where he got it. He said it had probably come in with some things he picked up in an estate sale. He only charged me five dollars for it.”
“There is a possibility that Shaw’s death is connected to the object you bought,” Davis said.
“What? That’s impossible.” Horrified, Celinda leaped out of her chair, seized her tote, and placed it gingerly on top of her desk. She rummaged around inside. “I’ll show you, it’s just a chunk of old red plastic. Probably a knob or handle from some Colonial-era machine. It’s pretty, but I don’t see how it could be valuable. I bought it as a toy for Araminta. She got very excited about it.”
“Who’s Araminta?” Alice asked.
A fluffy ball of tatty gray fur studded with two baby-blue eyes appeared from inside the tote. The small beast hooked a pair of paws over the edge of the bag and peered at Davis and Alice with great interest.
“This is Araminta,” Celinda said.
“A dust bunny,” Alice said in the tones of someone who is resigning herself to the inevitable. “Should have known, what with the way my luck has been running lately.”
“What’s wrong?” Celinda demanded, offended. “Are you allergic to dust bunnies?”
“Not yet,” Alice said with a long-suffering air. “But I’m thinking of developing an allergy to them.”
“Why?” Celinda picked up Araminta, lifted her out of the tote, and set her on the desk. “What can you possibly have against a sweet, innocent little bundle of fur like this?”
Araminta drifted across the desk to a glass bowl containing individually wrapped candies. She seemed to float because her six paws were concealed by her fluffy gray fur. She hopped up onto the rim of the candy jar and helped herself to one of the little bundles inside.
Alice watched her use her sharp little teeth to unwrap the candy. “Lately it seems there’s been a dust bunny involved in every screwy case I get. And from what I’ve heard, the little suckers aren’t all that sweet and innocent. They say that by the time you see the teeth, it’s too late.”
“Only if they’re provoked,” Celinda assured her.
Araminta blinked her blue eyes at Alice and then enthusiastically crunched the candy.
“I don’t understand how she can still be hungry,” Celinda said. “She just had lunch, a couple of them, in fact. She used to be a dainty eater, but lately she’s developed the appetite of a sumo wrestler.”
Araminta polished off the candy and tumbled across the desk. She stopped at the edge and leaned forward, balancing precariously on her hind paws. She chortled at Davis.
“Do you happen to have some snacks on you?” Celinda asked, embarrassed. “I think she smells food.”
“I’ve got some crackers left over from the lunch I grabbed on the way here,” Davis said. He reached into his pocket and withdrew a small packet. He removed the plastic wrapper and handed the crackers to Araminta.
They all watched Araminta take the offering in one paw and start munching energetically.
Celinda shook her head. “You’d think she hadn’t been fed in days, but she just swiped, ah, I mean she just ate two sandwiches, several olives, and a bag of fries. And that was after she helped herself to most of my salad.”
“About the item you purchased from Jackson’s shop yesterday,” Davis said, looking at the tote.
“Oh, right.” Celinda reached back into the tote and took out the small antique. She held it up so that Davis and Alice could see it. “It’s obviously just a chunk of old plastic off some Colonial-era gadget. It’s not like it’s a really valuable alien relic or anything. It’s not even made of green quartz.”
It was common knowledge that, with one notable exception—a substance called dreamstone—the relics and artifacts left behind by the mysterious alien civilization that had first colonized Harmony were all made of a nearly indestructible, acid-green quartz that glowed in the dark.
The aliens were long gone by the time the human colonists arrived, but they had left behind the ruins of at least four large, startlingly ethereal cityscapes and an unknown number of smaller outposts scattered around the planet. There was a lot of Harmony left to be explored. No one knew how many more archaeological sites remained to be found.
In addition to their walled cities and assorted outlying ruins, they had also constructed a maze of underground tunnels, most of which remained unexplored and uncharted. The catacombs, too, were fashioned of the green quartz.
Celinda tossed the small chunk of plastic into the air and caught it in her hand. “There’s no way this could be worth much.”
She watched Davis’s and Alice’s faces covertly, trying to tell if either of them realized that she was lying through her teeth.
The truth was, she was very certain that the red object was neither Old Earth nor Colonial in origin. She was almost certain that it was an alien relic of some kind. No Old World or Colonial antiques gave off a faint trickle of psi energy the way this thing did. The red widget was most likely a rare and therefore extremely valuable find. She had fully intended to contact some of the upscale antiquities shops as soon as possible to see if she could get a good price for it. She did not want to turn it over to the police unless there was no alternative.
The artifact was about three inches long and an inch wide. It was slightly curved, making it easy to grip in one’s palm. Although she sensed the energy coming from it, she had no clue to what it had been designed to do.
Alice frowned, head tilted slightly. “You’re right. It looks like a cheap plastic drawer pull. Are you sure that’s the only thing you bought at Jackson’s yesterday?”
“Yes,” Celinda said, relaxing a little because now she was telling the truth again. “I’m positive.”
Alice took out a notebook. “I’d like to ask you a few questions. Just routine.”
Celinda went very still. “You said you’re investigating Alvis Shaw’s death as a possible homicide.”
“Yes.” Alice flipped open her notebook.
“Then your questions are not going to be routine, are they?” She tightened her grip on the relic. “At least not from my point of view.”
Alice ignored that. “Can you tell me where you were between midnight and three AM this morning?”
A sensation of impending disaster swept over Celinda. Great. Just great. She was a suspect in a murder. In the matchmaking business, that kind of thing was a guaranteed career-ender. Cold perspiration formed under her arms. Thank heavens she had not removed the jacket of her business suit. With luck, they wouldn’t see that she was sweating.
“You think I killed Mr. Shaw?” she managed.
Alarmed by the sound of her too thin, too tight voice, Araminta tumbled across the desk and bounded up her
