The Prophet

Chapter Thirty-Three

Clementine pulled to the curb in front of Isabel’s house, and my gaze went immediately across the street to the Charleston Institute for Parapsychology Studies. The lights were still on, and I wondered if Dr. Shaw was there alone or if Layla might still be around.

I hadn’t thought much about her since my conversation with Temple, but the fact that I’d seen the woman in the blue Victorian house on America Street had to mean something. I didn’t trust her nor the circumstances of her employment at the Institute, particularly if she had close ties to Goodwine. I still couldn’t forget that Dr. Shaw’s first episode had occurred right after she’d brought him the tea.

Clementine turned off the engine. “Is something wrong?”

“No, sorry. I was just lost in thought for a minute.”

We went through the front garden and up the porch steps together. Clementine let us in, then led me down a dim hallway toward the back of the house. The door to the bathroom stood open, and I caught a glimpse of Isabel at the sink washing her hands. She looked up as we walked by, and my heart gave a little jerk as our gazes met briefly in the mirror. Then she reached over and closed the door. The eye contact lasted no more than a split second, but I felt unnerved by her stare.

At the end of the hallway, Clementine opened a door through which a soft light spilled. The blinds had been drawn to shut out the night and a lamp glowed from one corner. Candles had been lit, too, which struck me as an odd touch for this occasion.

Clementine stepped aside for me to enter, and I saw that Devlin waited for me in the room. He turned when he heard the door, and I caught my breath. He was shirtless, and the play of candlelight over skin and lean muscle ignited an unwise impulse. I couldn’t tear my gaze from him.

He reached for his shirt and I noticed then the bandage on his left forearm. Isabel’s handiwork, I thought, and wondered briefly if the blood that Fremont had envisioned on her hands had, in fact, been Devlin’s. I didn’t want to resent her. She’d patched him up, according to Clementine, and I knew I should be grateful, but her first aid was yet another intimacy between them.

Clementine backed out of the room and closed the door softly behind her. I went straight to Devlin. “Are you all right?”

“It’s just a cut. Nothing serious.”

A dot of blood had already seeped through the bandage. “Are you sure you don’t need to see a doctor?”

“Isabel went to medical school. She knows what she’s doing.”

“And now she’s a palmist.”

He gave a careless shrug. “That makes her no less skilled.”

“No, of course not.” I wondered if he felt camaraderie with her because of the choice she’d made. He’d gone to law school but instead of joining his family’s prestigious firm, he’d enrolled in the police academy. In that respect, the two of them had far more in common than he and I ever would.

Then I reminded myself sternly that this wasn’t a competition. Whatever his history with Isabel, he’d sent for me. He’d wanted me here, and that was the only thing that should matter.

He struggled into his shirt, but as he reached for the buttons, I made a choice. Putting my hand on his chest, I said, “No, leave it.”

Heat flared in his eyes, and he pulled me to him roughly, kissing me deeply. I clung to him for the longest time, shiver after shiver rocking me. His hand moved to my breast, his lips to my ear. A flick of his tongue, a dark whisper. My head dropped back as I savored the slow, perfect seduction.

Finally we broke apart and he cupped my face, dark eyes burning into mine. “Do you have any idea how much I want you?” he said on a ragged breath. “I can’t stop thinking about that night at my house. I can’t stop thinking about you.”

His confession both thrilled and terrified me. He wasn’t yet free of his ghosts, might never be free of them, so where did that leave us? With a life half lived before twilight?

I sighed. “I think about you, too.”

He pulled back. “Even when you were in Asher Falls?”

“Especially when I was in Asher Falls.”

“Good,” he said, and kissed me again.

Now it was I who drew away, searching for his ghosts. Had the candles kept them at bay? Or that faint scent of sage and incense? Where were they? I didn’t trust their absence.

“What are you looking for?” he asked.

He still held me loosely as I glanced over his shoulder. “Nothing. I was just wondering about all these candles.”

“Isabel lit them.”

I didn’t like the way he said her name. It reminded me of the way he said my name, and I wanted to believe he reserved that aristocratic drawl just for me.

“Isn’t it lucky that she was here to take care of you?” I said coolly, not at all proud of my jealousy.

“She’s always been good in a crisis.”

“I can imagine.”

“She reminds me of you in that respect.”

I sent him a frown. “I don’t think we’re at all alike.”

“But you’ve only met her once.” His eyes glinted as if my annoyance amused him. “You don’t know anything about her.”

“I know she’s very beautiful.” Then I added meaningfully, “And apparently good with her hands.”

“Hardly an undesirable trait,” he said.

I was glad that he could find humor in the situation, because I saw none. “How did you cut your arm?”

He sobered instantly. “I got careless.”

He was still staring down at me, and despite my momentary irritation, I knew those eyes might yet be my undoing.

And just like that, I found myself once again swimming in very dangerous waters, craving desperately what could never be mine.

“The kind of carelessness that comes from breaking the glass in a second-story window?” I asked.

He lifted a brow in surprise. “How did you know?”

I pulled out the silver medallion and placed it in his palm.

His fingers curled around the chain, as he said in disbelief, “You’ve had it the whole time?”

“I found it in Gerrity’s office. Is that why you were in the building? Did you return to look for the medallion?”

An emotion flashed in his eyes.

“Yes.”

“So you really didn’t get my message.” I glanced away, rattled by his confession. “Why did you break into Gerrity’s office?”

“He had something of mine and I wanted it back.”

“You don’t mean the necklace, I take it.”

“No. Something far more dangerous.”

My pulse accelerated at the hard glitter in his eyes. He was usually so stoic, but now I sensed a recklessness in him that wasn’t altogether unappealing. “So you broke in. Just like that.”

“I had no choice. I’d already searched his house.”

I shook my head. Reckless, indeed.

“Now I have a question for you,” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier that you’d found my medallion?”

“I was afraid to.”

“Because you thought I killed Gerrity?”

“It crossed my mind,” I admitted. “But only for a moment. All of your vague warnings about keeping our distance and remaining silent should you disappear and now this clandestine meeting at Isabel’s house…” I spread my hands helplessly. “You must understand how confusing all this is to me.”

He turned to glance restlessly around the room. “I didn’t want to get you involved. I wanted to keep you safe.”

“It’s too late for that, I think. I burned that bridge when I didn’t report Gerrity’s murder.”

“But you did report it. You told me. So your hands are clean.”

“I’m not even worried about that,” I said with my own careless abandon. “I just want to know that you’re all right. Please tell me I shouldn’t worry.”

He seemed to consider the pros and cons of a confession, and then said tensely, “We should sit.”

We moved to a small sofa positioned in front of the windows and he drew me down beside him. He put an arm around my shoulders, pulling me close, and I settled in against him. Even after everything he’d been through that night, he still smelled so good. I closed my eyes and took a depth breath, committing that scent to memory so that I could savor it later in my dreams.

“You asked if I’d gone to see Darius after the accident,” he said.

“And you said that you didn’t remember anything about that night. Just vague memories that didn’t make sense.”

“That is what I said,” he agreed. “But the truth is, I did go see him.”

I pulled back so that I could study his face. “For gray dust?”

“Yes.”

“You must have been very desperate.” I mentally kicked myself. What a stupid observation. He’d lost his wife and daughter only hours earlier. Of course he’d been desperate. Desperate enough to demand that Dr. Shaw help him contact their ghosts. Desperate enough to take a drug that stopped his heart in the hopes of entering the spirit world to find them. This was a side of Devlin that I’d only ever glimpsed before, but it made me think that perhaps we had more in common than I knew.

“What happened?”

“I woke up sometime later in Chedathy Cemetery,” he said, watching the flicker of the candles with a brooding frown.

I wanted to ask him about his gray dust journey, but instead, I said, “And Robert Fremont. Did you see him as well that night?”

“Not alive. He was already dead when I came to. He’d been shot in the back.”

“But you didn’t report it. The papers said the body was found the next day.”

“No, I didn’t report it.” He glanced at me. “I’m not trying to excuse my actions. I did a lot of things back then that I’m not proud of. But I was still under the influence of the drug, operating in a dream state. None of what I saw or did seemed real.”

“Did you see…ghosts?”

He ran a hand over his eyes. “I’m not sure what I saw. It was all very disjointed. Surreal. Even so, some part of me must have had the presence of mind to realize that after a public argument with Robert Fremont, I shouldn’t be found in the cemetery with his dead body.”

“So you just left?”

“I don’t remember leaving. I don’t even remember driving home. But I woke up the next evening in my own bed, and my car was parked in the driveway. The previous twelve hours were completely lost to me. Ethan told me later that the police had been by that afternoon. They already knew about the argument with Robert. Someone had overheard me threaten him.”

“Did you threaten him?”

He stared grimly into the candle flame. “Mariama let it slip one day that she might be going away. Since I knew about the affair, it wasn’t hard to put two and two together. She mostly said it to goad me, but I lost my temper, which I’m sure was her intent. I told her, and later Robert, that I didn’t give a damn what they did, but if they ever tried to take Shani away from me, I would kill them both.”

“Oh, John.”

He didn’t try to excuse or soften. He merely shrugged. “You can see why the Beaufort County detectives were interested in me.”

It was a sordid tale, and I really didn’t want to hear any more. It was like peeking through the keyhole of Devlin’s past, and I didn’t feel right about picking apart his most painful and private memories. But I also couldn’t help him if I didn’t know the complete truth.

“They had no proof against you. And Ethan gave you an alibi.”

“Actually, there was proof. A smoking gun,” Devlin said. “They just weren’t able to find it.”

“What do you mean?”

“The ballistics report revealed that Robert had been shot with a .38. My service weapon was a 9mm Glock. But I also had a .38 registered in my father’s name. I kept the gun locked in a drawer in my office at home. After I heard about the report, I went to check. The gun was missing from the case.”

“You think it was the one used in the shooting?”

“I’m almost certain of it.”

“Who had access? Or even knew about it?”

“My grandfather knew about it. And Mariama.”

“But she died before Robert was murdered,” I said. “And, anyway, if she planned to go away with him, why would she kill him?”

“She could have told someone else about the gun.”

“Like who?”

“Darius.”

Another shiver crawled up my spine. “Why would she tell him?”

“They were very close. Like brother and sister. He hated me for taking her away from what he considered her rightful place. He wanted her to go back to Africa with him, but instead she chose to stay in Charleston with me. It was the only time she ever went against him. She was the most headstrong woman I ever knew, but Darius held some kind of power over her. If he wanted the gun, she would have given it to him.”

“Even if she knew he meant to murder an innocent man?”

“Yes.”

His blunt answer shocked me. How could he have stayed with such a woman for so long? What kind of hold did she have on him?

“Robert and I both knew that Darius was bringing in gray dust,” Devlin said. “It was hard to go after him because no one wanted to admit such a drug existed. And because he was—is—well connected. But people were dying from that stuff, and we were both determined to shut him down.”

“And yet, you, yourself, took the very drug that you knew to be potentially lethal.”

“Yes.”

I put a hand to my forehead, trying my best to process his story.

“I did warn you,” he said softly. “You don’t know me. You have no idea about my past.”

I was painfully aware of that.

“Should I go on?” he asked.

I nodded.

“It was only a matter of time before we collected enough evidence to make an arrest. Darius must have felt the heat, so he came up with a plan to kill Robert and have me take the fall. I was the perfect patsy. I had means, motive and opportunity. And that night, I played right into his hands.”

“But I don’t understand. How could he have known that you would come to see him? Or that Robert would be in Chedathy Cemetery at just the right time? That’s all too convenient.”

“Not if Darius arranged to meet Robert in the cemetery after he’d seen me.”

“Did Darius already know about Shani and Mariama?”

“Yes. Otherwise, he would have suspected a trap. He would never have given me the drug.”

“So, you were supposed to be found in the cemetery with Robert’s dead body and your bloodstream full of an illegal substance that may or may not be anything more than a powerful hallucinogen.”

“That’s what I think, yes.”

“But the .38 wasn’t found in the cemetery. If Darius was trying to set you up, why didn’t he leave the weapon?”

“That’s just it. I’m sure he did leave it. Someone else must have come into the cemetery and taken it.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know for certain, but I’ve always suspected Tom Gerrity.”

I felt my eyes widen in shock. “Gerrity?”

“He came to me after the shooting. He said he had proof that I was in the cemetery that night, and he could make things very difficult for me if I didn’t pay up.”

“Did he have the gun?”

“He didn’t come right out and say so, but in the two years since that night, no one else has made contact.”

“Did you pay him off?”

“I called his bluff. Gerrity had been on the take for most of his career. With very little effort, I could have dug up enough dirt to make things just as uncomfortable for him. He knew that. It became a standoff until Darius returned to Charleston.”

“And you decided to go after him again.”

Devlin was still gazing into the candle flame. “You said you followed Gerrity to a house on America Street. He was probably hoping to make a deal with Darius.”

“No wonder you were so desperate to find that gun. That is what you were looking for tonight, I assume.”

“Yes. But I was too late.”

“So, who do you think killed Gerrity?”

“Darius, of course. Probably with the gun he bought from Gerrity. There’s an irony for you.”

“But you didn’t see the body. How do you know he was shot?”

“An educated guess.”

I glanced at him fearfully. “If that gun turns up now, it can be traced back to Robert’s murder. If the police find out that you were in the cemetery the night he was shot and that you broke into Gerrity’s office on the day he was murdered…”

“Means, motive and opportunity,” Devlin said grimly.

“What are you going to do?”

“I have to find that gun before the body turns up.”

“That won’t be easy if Darius has it. Ethan said he has devotees all over Charleston.”

“I’m not without my own connections in this city,” Devlin said, rubbing his thumb over the silver medallion.

“So, this is why you didn’t want to go to the hospital,” I said slowly.

“There’s a broken window in a dead man’s office. Not a good time for me to be treated for a cut arm,” he said.

“And it’s why you said we should keep our distance.”

He put his hand on my knee. “I didn’t want Darius coming after you to get to me.”

“He already knows about me. And there’s no way to stop him because he can come to me in my dreams.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Devlin said. “The only power he has is the power you give him. Don’t let him get to you. Don’t let him in.”

“I think it’s too late,” I whispered as a draft blew out of nowhere to snuff out the candles.