The janitor took a small packet out of one pocket. 'I think you've been set up to take the fall for dealing the crap they call enchantment dust.'
'What in the name of green hell?' Ormond held out his hand. 'Let me see that.'
The janitor tossed it to him without comment.
He caught the plastic bag and unsealed it cautiously. There was no need to taste or sniff the powder inside. His parapsych senses were very acute. This close to the drug, he could feel the faint tingle on the paranormal wavelengths to which he was attuned.
So much for the possibility that the janitor was bluffing.
'Where did you get this?' he asked, buying some time to think while he resealed the bag. Visions of his hard-won personal empire crumbling before his eyes flashed through his head. He had not come this far only to lose it all now.
'Found it down in the old basement. Place leaks like a sieve, by the way, water and psi energy. Got a rat hole down there?'
Ormond ignored that. 'I don't sell drugs.'
'Going to be tough to prove if the cops raid this place and find the stash that I just found.'
'There's more of this junk down there?'
'Three large cardboard boxes filled with little packets like that one.'
Ormond went to stand behind his desk, trying to collect his thoughts.
'You really think someone is trying to frame me?' he asked finally.
'That's how it looks.'
'Why not assume that I've gone into the drug-dealing business?'
'I did a little research before I came here today.' The janitor's smile was cryptic and cold. 'If you did decide to deal drugs, I don't think you'd pack them in nonwaterproof boxes and then stash them in an empty closet in a damp basement. You're smart, and you're a strong para-rez. You'd be far more likely to conceal them in the catacombs where the odds would be against anyone finding the stuff.'
'You sure about that?' Ormond asked. 'Maybe I was going with the hide-it-in-plain-sight theory.'
'A possibility. But there's something else that makes me think you're not involved in this.'
'What's that?'
'Like I said, I checked around.' The janitor gave the expensive room an assessing look. 'You've worked hard to build this place, and you've been damn careful to stay inside the legal zone. You're a risk-taker, but I don't mink you're the type to put all this on the line for the sake of some short-term drug profits. Not just my opinion, by the way. There's someone else who agrees with me.'
'Who?'
'Mercer Wyatt.'
Ormond went very still. 'This is Guild business?'
'Yes. Wyatt said you served on the Council here in Cadence for a few years.'
'What of it?'
'It means you're cleared to discuss blue freaks.'
'There's one involved in this thing?'
'Yes.' The janitor indicated the mop in his hand. 'Wyatt asked me to clean up the mess before it becomes a major PR problem for him.'
'Well, hell.' Ormond exhaled and lowered himself slowly into his chair. 'You're not the janitor. You're the librarian.'
Chapter 24
ELLY PUT ONE HAND FUST INSIDE THE OPENING, GROPED for and found the lights.
Two overhead fluo-rez tubes came on, illuminating the scene in a cold blue light. Masses of flowers and bunches of decorative greenery filled the room. Arrangements in vases of various shapes and sizes lined the shelves behind the glass doors of the cooler. The effect was funereal.
The body of Stuart Griggs, sprawled facedown on the floor, provided the finishing touch.
There was no sign of blood, she noticed, no indication that the florist had been attacked. Perhaps he'd had a stroke or a heart attack.
She reached into the tote for her phone and punched in the emergency number.
Instinctively she started to turn away from the body on the floor. But the sight of a strip of white bandage sticking out from under Griggs's rolled-up sleeve made her hesitate.
She forced herself to move closer to the body, ignoring Rose's warning grumble.
Holding her breath and fighting her roiling stomach, she leaned over, caught hold of the sleeve with the thumb and forefinger of her right hand, and twitched the fabric back a couple of inches.
There was a wide, white bandage wrapped snugly around Stuart Griggs's lower left arm.
'Oh, damn,' Elly whispered.
Chapter 25
COOPER SAW THE FLASHING AMBER AND RED LIGHTS OF the ambulance when he turned the corner onto Ruin Lane. They created an eerie, strobelike effect in the fog.
An uneasy sensation gripped his insides. The emergency vehicle was almost directly in front of Bertha Newell's shop. There was a police cruiser in front of it.
He had been driving slowly because of the fog, but now he lowered the Spectrum's speed to a crawl. When he got closer he could make out the small group of figures gathered on the sidewalk. His tension eased slightly when he realized that they were watching the open door of the floral shop.
He spotted Elly immediately. She stood with Garrick Lattimer and Phillip Manchester.
He brought the Spectrum to a halt at the curb, got out, and walked back down the sidewalk to join Elly and her friends.
Rose was perched inside Elly's tote, watching the action. Her head swiveled around abruptly. She rumbled a greeting when she noticed Cooper approaching.
Elly and the two men turned to look at him, too.
'There you are,' Elly said. She had a strained, shadowed expression on her face. 'I was getting worried.'
He nodded at the two men. 'What's going on?'
Garrick angled his chin toward the front door of the floral shop. 'Stuart Griggs, the owner of that business, died sometime this afternoon. Elly found him a short while ago.'
Cooper looked at Elly's withdrawn, unreadable face. 'How did you come to find the body?'
'I was taking a note to Bertha's shop to hang in her window.' She gave him a meaningful look. 'People have been wondering where she is.'
'Got it,' he said quietly.
'When I went past Griggs's back door, Rose started making odd little noises. I think she sensed that something was wrong. So I tried the door. It was unlocked. When I opened it, I saw the body on the floor.'
Two medics emerged from the front of the shop. They carried a stretcher with a draped figure on top.
'I heard someone say they think it was a heart attack,' Phillip volunteered.
'The cop came over here to talk to us for a few minutes,' Garrick added. 'Actually, it was Elly he wanted to speak with, because she was the one who found Griggs. He said there were no obvious signs of violence except for a bad cut on the florist's arm that was mostly healed.'
Cooper frowned. 'A cut?'
'The cop figured Griggs had probably injured himself sometime in the past couple of weeks with one of the
