The Spiritist Read online

  Cole didn’t drink. He ordered a beer, as was his custom, but took only a few, small sips. The men were soon too drunk to notice that he was merely staring at the frothy brew in his glass. Steve and his friends were happy drunks. They were familiar with many of the people in the bar, and on occasion were joined by other customers as well as the bar owner, a stocky, middle-aged man named Louis Wellstone.

  Louis was busy at the bar today. Cole exchanged a hand wave, a typical Alby greeting. It was amazing how easy it was. Within days, he had settled into the rhythm of this town, almost as if he was one of them. Of course, one of the reasons for their ready acceptance was his relationship with Aerilyn. To their eyes, they were a couple – and as long as he was with her, they would give him the same respect that they showed her.

  He wondered what their reaction would be if he managed to get her killed on this job? Would they forgive him? Would he be able to forgive himself? With every ticking second of the clock that hung at the bar, his heartbeat increased as he drove himself crazy with endless worry. He should never have agreed to this plan of hers. It was madness. How could he have allowed her to put herself at risk?

  His eyes were trained on the door as he tried to match each unknown face to Robin’s face. He’d stared at the pictures that Damon had sent long enough for him to be sure that he would recognize him even if he were in disguise. But tonight was a busy night in the town. It was Saturday night and the bar was hopping. Tourists mingled with locals. People came and went. The music pounded. The square-shaped dance floor was packed with bodies.

  It was nearly ten at night. Cole considered leaving. If Robin was coming tonight, he would have dropped in at the bar to make sure that Cole was there. Perhaps he wouldn’t make an appearance tonight. But if that were the case, he still needed to establish his routine of staying at the bar until midnight.

  He resisted the urge to call her, to check if all was well. His team had the cabin under surveillance. They wouldn’t miss anything. He trusted them to do their job – but it had never been so nerve-wracking before. Maybe because the stakes for him were never so high before.

  If he lost Aerilyn…

  As the clock hand ticked towards eleven, he couldn’t help himself. He called his associate who was staking the cabin. “Anything?” Even to his own ears, his voice was terse, and anxious.

  “Nothing. No one has come here,” Sona informed him.

  What was Robin waiting for? Why was he not making his move? He had Aerilyn alone and vulnerable in the cabin. What was stopping him from doing what he’d come here to do?

  Something, an instinct born out of years of experience, or perhaps a sixth sense, propelled him to an action he would have considered foolhardy under different circumstances. “I’m coming back,” he announced and cut the line.

  Throwing a note on the table for the drink he hadn’t finished, he sprinted out of the bar, narrowly avoiding a couple who was just entering – and raced up the pavement, making his way to her cabin. Despite Sona’s assurances that all was well, it felt as if he was racing against time.

  Something was wrong. Something they hadn’t accounted for, factored into their plan, was at work here. His perfect plan had a flaw – and if he wasn’t fast enough, he would have to pay the price of that mistake with Aerilyn’s life.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Aerilyn sipped her tea as she scanned the news on her tablet. She was too tense to read or even to watch TV. Her eyes kept darting to the door and to the windows, her ears alert for the slightest sound that would betray the presence of an intruder.

  How would he come in? Jeremy had come in through the backdoor to the study. Robin would most likely use the same entrance. They had debated if Aerilyn should pretend to be asleep. It would lull him into false security, but the mere idea of her being in bed made her feel too vulnerable.

  Better to sit here and wait. Nothing could go wrong, she assured herself. They were too well-prepared. It was like leading a rabbit into a trap. Once he was inside the cabin, there wasn’t any way he could hurt her – but still the idea of talking to him, leading him into the conversation she desired, brought on a bout of anxiety.

  What if she failed to get a confession?

  As she shifted slight, her eyes caught a movement. Without as much as a breath of a whisper, he materialized towards her left. Slowly, with great care, Aerilyn put the tablet down. Her eyes were focused on the sinister, black gun clutched in his hand.

  “Do not scream. If you do, it will be last thing you ever do.” His voice was calm and quiet, with a tone of authority.

  She’d seen his pictures, but nothing prepared her for the feral gleam in his hazel eyes as he stared down at her, seemingly at ease with the weapon he trained at her. His face was narrow, his cheekbones prominent – but his eyes were a true window to his soul, cold, calculating, and remorseless.

  This was a dangerous man, not because he wouldn’t hesitate to kill her, but because he wouldn’t feel the slightest twinge of doubt before doing it.

  His eyes scanned the room. “Is there anyone else in the house? Your boyfriend? Where is he?”

  “At the bar. I am alone,” she said, surprised by the tremble in her voice. Despite it being expected, his presence unnerved her. Her finger found and pushed the button on the small devise held in the palm of her right hand.

  Didn’t he go to the bar to check on Cole’s whereabouts? Did Cole’s people stationed outside see him come in? She knew two of them were monitoring the cabin, one in the front and one in the back.

  “Who are you?” she said, feigning innocence. He mustn’t know that was he expected. If he suspected something, he might not confess.

  His smile was humorless. “I thought you would know that. Aren’t you a psychic…or something like that? Didn’t you see me coming in your dreams?” His short bark of a laugh echoed in the room.

  “Robin,” she breathed out the word, trying to remember the script Cole wrote for her. Each question was supposed to lead into the next, designed to keep him talking. “How did you find my address?”

  “I’ve my sources.” He waved the gun. “Now, where is the USB that contains the information?”

  “What information?”

  The anger was quick and unchecked. His hand tightened on the gun. “Don’t play me for a fool. The USB Thomas passed to you before we killed him. Where is it? I know you have it. You’ve been bargaining with the police for it. Where is it?” He took a few threatening steps forward.

  Aerilyn didn’t move a muscle. She didn’t want to give him a reason to shoot her. Not now. Not before she got the details.

  “Why did you kill Thomas? What had he done to you?”

  He snorted, his eyes darting to the door, to the windows, as if searching for an escape route. “That boy was a fool, a budding reporter. He had it in his head to do an investigation into his roommate’s death. As if he could catch me. He should have left it alone. I warned him when I found him in my bar. I told him to stay away, but he wouldn’t listen, and he paid for it with his life.”

  “And it was so easy to make it look like a suicide?”

  “The police are a bunch of blubbering idiots. Don’t know shit, now, do they? It was too damn easy to slip a pill in his drink while he was in another bar. Knew he would crash at home. We already had a key to his apartment, thanks to Simon who gave me one so I could leave the stash for him when he was doing some pushing for me. But you know all this. What is your connection to Thomas? Were you doing some psychic readings for him, and he decided to pass on important information for safekeeping?”

  “Something like that,” she admitted.

  “Must be a handy talent. To be able to peep into other people’s life. Can you read minds also?” He put a finger on his temple, a sleazy smile on his lips. “Can you tell what I am thinking right now?”

  “I can’t read minds. How did you kill Simon?” She turned to her next question. Time was running short. The twitch in his fingers told her that he was gettin
g impatient.

  He curled his lower lip. “Simon was a mess. He couldn’t pay for the drugs, and he didn’t want to push them anymore. Too bad for that dude. He was too unstable. We couldn’t afford to have him blurt out secrets of our business to anyone. Had to kill the bastard. It was his fault, really.”

  “So you and James gave him pure coke?”

  He shrugged, moved a step closer. “At least he died happy. Now, where is that USB?”

  It was strange to look down into the barrel of a gun. Aerilyn told herself that he couldn’t hurt her. She was too well-protected – but still, a shiver of fear ran up her spine. A half-smile hovering at the corners of his lips, a gleam on his face alerted her to an ominous possibility. He was too cocky, too prepared. Something was up. Something she hadn’t anticipated.

  He had some trick up his sleeve. Did he know that she couldn’t be harmed?

  It took her a moment to realize that he was pulling something out of his pocket with his free hand. It was a blood-red ruby, the size of a pigeon’s egg. Light glinted off its perfectly smooth, rounded surface. It shimmered with glints of silver lights, almost as if lightening was trapped within its depths. Seeing it, a memory bubbled to the surface – but before she could make sense of it, he threw the ruby down on the ground.

  Thin, smoky silver lights shot out of the ruby and hit her. Her invisible, protective shield burst open with a loud pop. Aerilyn jumped. It took her only a moment to realize that she was now exposed. How had it happened? The ruby was clearly a well-designed instrument of magic. How did he get it?

  And how did he know that she would be protected with magic?

  “So now we will see whether you survive a bullet or not?” Lunging forward, he pushed the gun right under her throat, his face inches away from her. “A witch, aren’t you? Didn’t see this coming, sweetheart? Well, I know all about your talent – and bought a counter just in case you were protected.”

  The cold barrel of the gun pressed into her skin brought on a new onslaught of fear. “How did you know?”

  “As I said before, I have my sources.” He grinned, his eyes gleaming with an unholy light. “You’re a rare witch, aren’t you? Well, I’ve access to magic that can demolish your plans.”

  The magic wasn’t his. He wasn’t a wizard. If he was, she would have known. But somehow, he knew about her power. He’d come prepared to bring her down. What else did he know? Did he know about Cole and the others?

  A hard knot of fear formed in her belly. The hair on the back of her neck rose. This wasn’t going as planned. Now, she was in real danger.

  Did he know about the cameras?

  It seemed that he didn’t. His eyes didn’t dart away from her face to look for any cameras. Maybe he didn’t know everything. That gave her a small advantage. She could turn this situation around. She could. She had to if she wanted to survive.

  “You’re not going to gain anything by killing me,” she managed to say, despite the cold steel that was pressed into the side of her neck.

  “That’s debatable.”

  “The USB will go to the police if you kill me.” She tried to think on her feet. Any wrong move, one wrong step, and he would press the trigger. If she tried to hit him with a spell, his finger could slip on the trigger and kill her.

  The barrel of the gun pushed harder into her throat. “Oh, sweetheart. I’m not a fool. Way too confident, weren’t you, that you would be able to stop me. Thought we were idiots, didn’t you? There is no USB, no hard evidence…it’s all you. You are the one who is communicating with Thomas’s spirit and giving information to the police. If you die - and you will when this gun goes off - the police will have no more reason to investigate Thomas’s death.” She shifted slightly, and he yanked her head back, pushing the barrel harder into her throat. “Now, sweetheart, don’t try anything naughty. Your magic won’t work on me.”

  She already knew that. Aerilyn had detected the faint hiss of the protective shield that surrounded him. He was protected against a magical spell. But how strong was the shield? She would probably be able to puncture it if she hit him with a forceful spell – but would she get the opportunity to do so? He had been schooled well on the ways she could put her magic to use. Unless he removed the gun, she couldn’t do anything because to do so would be risky for her.

  If only she could gain a few feet between them, she would be able to use her magic against him.

  Where was Cole? If he walked in while Robin was holding a gun, he could be shot. Fear coursed through her veins like molten lava. She had to do something to defuse this situation before it got out of hand. But he would shoot her in an instant if she tried to break free. What she needed was a distraction. All she needed was one moment…

  Without any noise, Cole stepped through the sliding door into the living room. The expression on his face was furious, and the gun in his hand held in a strong grip. It was aimed at Robin. Robin turned quickly. A short scream burst out of Aerilyn’s mouth as he hauled her in front of him, holding her against his chest as a human shield.

  Aerilyn suppressed a moan of pain. He’d nearly dislocated her arm as he shifted her. Her shoulder throbbed brutally but she would not give him the satisfaction of knowing that he was hurting her. She feared for Cole. What if he shot him?

  “I’ll kill her,” stated Robin.

  “It’ll be the last thing you do because my bullet is going to hit you square in the middle of your forehead.” Cole’s voice was steady, and as cold as ice. His eyes gleamed with a furious intensity. “You can’t kill us both at the same time. If you kill her first, you will be dead long before she hits the floor.”

  What the hell was he doing? Aerilyn’s mind worked furiously. Was he goading Robin into shooting him? The fool! He was risking his life to save hers.

  Robin ground his teeth. “Put the gun down. I’ll let her go. No one needs to get hurt.”

  “You should’ve thought of that before you came in here. We know everything. You and your brother James can’t get away with the double murder of Thomas and Simon. You’re going to the jail for a long, long time. I’m personally going to hand you over to the police, and when they interrogate you, I am going to stand there and watch you cry like a baby.”

  Robin’s voice wavered. “No one is going to the jail.”

  Cole’s eyes met Aerilyn’s. “I beg to differ. You’re a worthless, spineless man, and I am going to see to it that you spend the rest of your life behind bars for killing two innocent, young men.”

  His words had the desired effect. Robin whipped the gun around to shoot Cole. The moment Aerilyn felt the pressure of the barrel off her neck, her arm shot up. With her elbow, she hit his hand that held the gun. The weapon flew into the air. Before it landed on the floor, she barreled her elbow into his stomach. As he doubled over with pain, she dived for the gun, picked it up, and scooted over to stand by Cole’s side.

  Cole stared at her with an astounded expression on his face. “Well done, darling. Thought you might use some other means to disable him but that worked for me.”

  “He is magically protected,” she hissed the words. “But he confessed. It’s all on tape. I’m going to switch off the cameras now.” She went into the storeroom and deactivated the cameras and the recording device. She needed answers and preferred that they not be viewed by the police.

  When she came back out, Robin was sitting, one hand on his stomach. He was glaring at Cole with malevolence in his eyes.

  “What the hell happened to your magical shield?” Cole asked.

  “He had help.” Aerilyn stared at her nemesis. “Who told you that I would have a shield? Who gave you the magical protection?”

  Robin wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “I’ve friends who can do all kind of amazing stuff. And don’t you worry, sweetheart, I will be out soon enough.”

  “Not when the police hear your confession. We recorded your conversation on tape.”

  “Cameras?” he jerked, his eyes darting to check if t
hey were telling the truth.

  Cole fished out his cell phone and placed a call. “Sona, come in. And call the police.”

  Minutes later, the bell rang. Aerilyn opened the door. A woman stepped inside. “The police are coming,” she informed Cole. “May I?” Aerilyn realized she was pointing at Robin’s gun. She handed it over, glad to have it out of her hand.

  Things hadn’t gone as expected, but it ended well.

  “You have his confession on tape? How did he get past Ress?”

  “I found Ress unconscious.” Cole’s eyes met Aerilyn’s. Clearly, Robin had managed to knock out Ress with magic. He’d come prepared. If it wasn’t for Cole, she would have been dead before anyone even realized that he was in the cabin.

  “You’re going in for a long time, pal! It’s going to be hard for your lawyers to pull you out of this one. Added to that, you tried to kill Aerilyn. There is no way you’re going to walk free from this.”

  Robin gnashed his teeth, but didn’t say anything else.

  “I’m going into my room,” said Aerilyn, feeling drained now that it was all over. Leaving Robin on the floor, she went to her room. She sat on the muted yellow rug and brought her body into the lotus position. Clearing her mind, she concentrated on each deep breath. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. As her breathing settled, she found herself feeling a bit relaxed.

  After about ten minutes of this exercise, she realized that she was being watched. She turned her eyes and met Cole’s intense gaze. He looked amused.

  “So this is how you deal with intended murder?”

  Aerilyn untangled her legs, and sat with her back against the bed. “What’s he doing?”

  “The police are here. They want to talk to you.” He came inside and knelt beside her. “What do you want to tell them?”