The Presence Part 22

"I told you, he is a hottie," David said, watching her with keen interest now, a curious light in his eyes.

"Yes, yes, he's attractive," Toni murmured. "Shall we go down?"

He agreed, and rising, he took her hand and escorted her toward the door. When they reached it, he turned back, looking around the room. "Hmm. The bed is way too neat," he said. "And there I was, thinking that... But wait! There is another room, right? Through the bath?"

He started to walk back into the room, but Toni caught him by his shirt. "Out! You--we--are not going snooping into his room!" she said, trying to put some indignity into her tone.

"Snooping? I don't think you were snooping earlier!" David teased.

She groaned aloud. "Downstairs. Food, dinner, remember?"

"I want details!" he teased.

"You're not getting any."

"Aha! So there are details to be gotten?"

"Dinner!" she insisted.

"That's okay, I'll make up a better story than you could give me," he said.

She paused for a minute, aware that he was making her squirm--and laugh. He really was the world's best friend.

"There is no better story!" she said, putting up a hand. "And that's all you're getting! Let's go down."

Laughing, he followed her as she hurried toward the stairway.

"There's really a lot of activity in the forest," Thayer said, taking a piece of the meat and pa.s.sing it on. He watched Bruce MacNiall, and the new man, Robert Chamberlain, with interest.

He'd heard of Chamberlain, of course. The man was ostensibly with the Edinburgh police, but had been called around the country often enough, and was held in high esteem by the government and his fellow law enforcement officers. From what Thayer had read about the fellow, he'd thought the man a better diplomat and politician than detective. That evening, he felt as if he might have been wrong. There was something about the bloke.

"And judging by the number of cars, they've called in people from all over. It's funny, but I got the impression that the constable is a little proprietorial."

"Jonathan is all right," Robert said, glancing at Bruce.

"There is simply no way for a village such as this to have the kind of technology available in the larger cities, obviously," Bruce said.

"So," Thayer continued, "the folks out there now combing the forest are specialists? Forensics fellows, la.s.ses, whichever?"

"Yes," Robert said.

Bruce nodded. "I think they were contacting the university, hoping to get out some anthropologists and specialists."

"Aye, then, that's good," Thayer said. "Maybe, while they're digging up old bones, they'll find out more about the fellow killing girls now, and be able to put a stop to the bloke."

"We will put a stop to him," Robert said.

"Pity that Toni didn't stumble upon Annie O'Hara," Thayer said.

They all stared at him.

"Sorry! I didn't mean that I'd wish such a thing on my own kin, or that we should give up hope that the girl is alive. But...if she'd been found, it may have helped the effort to catch the killer, right? It's bad business. No one even knows if Annie O'Hara is only the third victim."

"We don't know that she is a victim," Robert said.

"Has this guy been at it for such a long time?" Ryan asked with a frown. He flushed slightly as he looked over at Bruce MacNiall. "That sounds so callous. I'm sorry. I guess I just didn't really realize how long it's been going on. I don't know why it surprises me-- we've had serial killers at large for years in the United States. Nowadays we're always hoping that they're... well, caught quicker. If you watch CSI back home, you get the feeling that a crime can be solved in a night."

"Sadly, it doesn't often work that way," Bruce murmured.

"The first woman disappeared over a year ago," Robert said, glancing at Bruce. "She was found in a sad state of decomposition. The second, just a bit more than six months ago. She was also found in a very serious state of decay. We've had little, if nothing, to go on."

"Dead men do tell tales," Kevin murmured.

"It's definitely true that the dead can speak, through medicine and science," Robert said. "But to make comparisons, you have to have a suspect."

Kevin set down his fork.

Bruce MacNiall stared at Thayer. "Surely, Thayer, you might not have heard my name--or known anything about the castle or the forest here--but you must have heard about this killer? When the first girl went missing, there was barely a notice, until her body was found in the forest, by me. But there was national coverage when the second girl went missing, and then when she was found in the forest, this time by Eban."

Thayer was alarmed by the strange chill that snaked down, his spine. What did MacNiall think this was, a b.l.o.o.d.y game of Clue? "Aye, I've heard about the killer. I do read the papers. But we've had other crimes, as well, about the country."

"But you didn't remember the name of the forest?" MacNiall persisted.

"This was advertised as Castle Keep," Thayer said, trying hard not to sound defensive. "Nothing in the doc.u.ments we all read and signed mentioned anything about Tillingham Forest."

"I see," MacNiall murmured, not sounding convinced.

Toni walked into the kitchen then, followed by David, who was grinning broadly, until he sensed the tension in the room. "Is everything all right?" he asked.

"Yes, absolutely," Thayer said, thankful for the interruption. He lifted his gla.s.s. "We should be toasting Kevin's fine meal. And our host, Laird MacNiall, and his good friend, Detective Inspector Chamberlain."

"A toast!" David said. "Yes, indeed." Still standing, he lifted his winegla.s.s. "To Kevin, great meal."

Gina cleared her throat.

"To Gina," David said, laughing. "Great veggies, as always! To Detective Inspector Chamberlain, with our deepest thanks, and to our host, more grat.i.tude and admiration than he can ever imagine!"

"Here, here!" went around the table.

Then Thayer watched as Toni took her seat next to Laird Bruce MacNiall. He saw the flash in her eyes and the smile that curled her lips. And he saw the way that MacNiall looked back at her. Though it was subtle, it was still one of the most telling exchanges Thayer had ever seen.

Something had changed between the two. It wasn't a great mystery. His muscles clenched and tightened. His stomach hurt. So.. .they'd slept together.

Toni, with her huge, deep blue eyes, generous, sensual lips, d.a.m.ned plethora of blond hair, lithe height, supple curves, intoxicating laughter and scent...

Thayer could be nothing but her cousin, her friend. They were far too close, she said. Like h.e.l.l. He remembered when they had met. He could have told her the truth--the real truth. Instead, he had tried to emphasize just how many times "removed" they were as relations. But it had done no good.

Face it, fellow, he told himself. She just didn't find you attractive. You might as well have been a eunuch -- or of another persuasion, like Kevin and David. You fool. You've dreamed, you've drooled. You thought you'd give it time. And there she is, sleeping with the bloke after only forty-eight hours?

His fingers knotted around his winegla.s.s.

He could see the two of them, Toni, with those eyes on him, his eyes somewhere else. h.e.l.l, the great MacNiall, the fellow with the castle, the t.i.tle, the f.o.o.kin' bulging biceps and cast-iron chest.

Suddenly the gla.s.s snapped in his hand.

"Thayer!"

Toni was the first to jump up with alarm, running to his side, her napkin in her hand.

"It's all right, it's all right!" he said quickly.

Her eyes were on his, deep with concern. "Must have picked up the handle wrong!" he muttered.

"You're bleeding. Let me make sure there's no gla.s.s in it," Toni said.

"I'll get the first aid kit," Gina said.

"No!" he said, standing.

It had been a bark, he realized, for everyone in the room was staring at him. And was there suspicion in the eyes of the great Detective Inspector Chamberlain, and those of the even greater Laird MacNiall?

He forced a wry grin. "Sorry, I'm feeling the worst fool, such an oaf," he muttered.

"Thayer, it's all right," Toni said, still concerned. "But you are bleeding."

"A scratch. If you will excuse me, I'll just see to it. Ach, I hope I didn't get gla.s.s in any of the food," he said, causing them all to look at the table.

"None of it even near any food, old chap!" David said cheerfully.

That d.a.m.ned David, always working to make everything f.o.o.kin' copasetic! he thought.

"Thayer, are you sure you're not cut deeply?" Gina asked, concerned.

He shook his head. "Embarra.s.sed is what I am," he said. "I'll be back in a moment."

Gina and Toni were picking up shards of gla.s.s.

"I really don't think we have to worry about any of the food," Gina murmured. "I think we're getting it all."

"Aye, don't worry none," Robert said. "If there's a shard there, your host will be seein' it."

"Good eyes, eh, Bruce?" David said.

Thayer found himself pausing just beyond the doorway, ignoring the blood that dripped from his hand.

"His eyes are the best," Robert informed them all. "h.e.l.l, when he was with the force, Bruce was run ragged. We dragged him in on everything."

There was a startled silence.

"You were a cop?" Ryan said to Bruce.

"Aye, for a time," Bruce said. There was a slight edge to his voice, as if he hadn't particularly wanted the information known.

Thayer remained in the hall, feeling as if he was very nearly baring his teeth. Aye, the fellow was a copper! You never knew, you fools. Never suspected.

But how would they have known? Only a Scotsman would have read all about it.

*11*

Gina tidied up the business area in the bedroom she and Ryan had chosen. She'd liked it especially because of the large expanse of window it offered, looking out on the valley. Probably, at an earlier date, the room had been the domain of a chief guard, or something of the like. The window--evidently put in sometime after the turn of the nineteenth century--looked out over the hillside. From this vantage point, any invader seeking to come upon the castle would have been in clear view.

She stacked the copies of their doc.u.ments and at last turned off all the machines.

Ryan was already in bed. She gazed at him with a deep and abiding love. She had known from the moment she met him that he was all she wanted in life. He could be fun, sweet--and aggravating at times. And though it appeared he deferred to her, it was only because she really did have an incredible business sense. But beneath it all...Ryan ruled the roost. He always had.

His hands were folded behind his head as he lay on his pillow staring up at the ceiling. The white sheets of their bed were drawn to his waist. His shoulders and chest were bronze, and she felt the thrill that she always did when looking at him. She truly loved everything about him.

It should have been their day for total relaxation, but it just hadn't gone that way. She was tired, anxious to crawl in beside him. He was pretty d.a.m.ned cool beneath the sheets, as well.

She walked to the doorway and turned off the main light. With the moonlight that filtered in, there was just enough light to...

She paused at the foot of the bed, feeling the need for intimacy, and ready to play with it. In that mood, she slowly shed her shirt, then her bra, and made a real act of shedding her jeans and panties. Ryan should be both amused and t.i.tillated.

Coming around the bed to crawl in, she realized that he hadn't even glanced at her--not once.

He turned to her then, frowning.

"Just what the h.e.l.l are we going to do?" he demanded.

"Do? We're 'doing' it," she reminded him.

He shook his head.

"What the h.e.l.l are we going to do about Toni?" he demanded.

She felt her blood grow cold.

"What do you mean.. .about Toni?" she said with a swallow. "She's--she's just Toni. There's nothing to do about her at all."

"There has to be!" he insisted angrily.

"Why?" she whispered, frightened by his tone, knowing it all too well.

"Because she's dangerous," he said flatly, harshly.

The chill in her bones deepened, and it seemed that her blood turned to ice.