Scarlet Nights (Edilean 3)

On the Cards of Coins, Shamus had drawn the faces of women—all middle-aged—who came to the dress shop. Since he often spent afternoons sitting in the town square drawing, he’d seen them all. On each card was a wheel with spokes leading outward to the face of a woman, the number depending on the card. The Nine of Coins had the pictures of nine women.

In the center of each wheel was Greg’s face—and Shamus had distorted it on each one so he looked greedy, angry, menacing. The portraits ran the gamut of the emotions of evil.

“It looks like Shamus heard us talking,” Sara said.

“You think?”

Sara shook her head. “This isn’t good.” Her mother was on the Card of Judgment, her father on the Hermit. “Who is this woman on the Devil Card?”

“Luke’s mother said it was Mike’s grandmother.”

Sara’s head came up. “Do you know what the big mystery is about that woman?”

“Don’t get me started. I’ve tried everything to find out that story, but no one will tell me. I can’t finish my book about Miss Edi until I know what happened, but I can’t get it out of anyone. Maybe Mike would …”

“You mean the Mike who spent the night making fabulous love to me—at my request—then ran off this morning? Some bride I am.”

Joce was silent as she gathered the cards. “I think Mike really and truly needs to see these cards.” She was looking hard at Sara.

“We could scan them into a computer and e-mail the whole deck to him.”

“That’s not the same as holding them in his hands, is it? And who’s going to tell him who each person is??

??

Sara was puzzled. “We could write notes on all of them.”

Her voice rose. “Don’t you think it would be better for Mike to actually see them?”

Sara finally understood. She stood up, still looking at Joce.

Luke came into the room. “Did you see those cards?” he asked, then when he saw the women’s faces, he said, “What’s going on?”

Joce and Sara were still staring at each other. Joce spoke first. “The keys to my car are on the table by the front door. It’s faster and safer than yours. Get on 95 and head south. I’ll text you the rest of the directions. You’ll have to stop for the night on the way down. Don’t try to do what Mike does and drive it all in one day.”

Nodding, Sara ran toward the door. She had to pack.

“Sara!” Luke said. “Mike told me to watch over you. You can’t—”

She turned back to him, and everything she’d been through—Brian, Greg, and now Mike—was in her eyes.

Luke loved her too much to say no. “Be careful,” he said and Sara ran out the door.

21

CAPTAIN ERICKSON LOOKED at Mike and regretted asking him to take on the Vandlo case. In the eleven years they’d worked together, Mike had always kept his distance from his victims. While it was true that Mike sometimes got more involved than he should, and there were a few times when some of the women should have been prosecuted but weren’t, in the end, Mike had always been able to disassociate himself.

But this case seemed to have taken something out of him. That he’d married a victim, while not unheard of, was certainly outside the requirements for the job.

On Sunday evening when Mike called and told the captain his plan, he’d tried to talk Mike out of it. “I know I told you to do whatever you had to in order to protect her, but you need to come up with another way to deal with this.”

“I don’t see one,” Mike said and proceeded to tell the captain about Brian Tolworthy. “And right after that, Stefan Vandlo appeared in town and went after Sara with a vengeance.”

“But now you’re planning to marry this girl just to keep her safe?”

“Yes,” Mike said.

“And what about later? After the case is over?” The captain wanted to ask whether this marriage was Mike’s idea or the girl’s, but he didn’t.