Lillian grabbed the phone and punched in the number.
“What have you got?” she asked without preamble.
“Where have you been? I’ve been trying to reach you since six o’clock this morning.”
Lillian glanced at Gabe. “Out. I was out.”
“Is that so?” Nella sounded amused. “Wouldn’t have thought there was enough going on in Eclipse Bay to keep a jaded city girl out all night.”
“Nella-”
“I found Witley,” Nella said, brisk and businesslike now. “He has a rock-solid alibi for the entire time that you’ve been in Eclipse Bay.”
“What is it?”
“He and a pal are down in the Caribbean doing some diving. They’re registered at a hotel on Saint Thomas. I checked with some of the local dive shops and I called his room. He was there, Lil. No way he could have flown back to Oregon, driven to Eclipse Bay yesterday and then returned to the island this morning in time to take my call.”
“I see.” Lillian looked at Gabe, who was listening intently to her side of the conversation. “I’m not sure if that’s good news or bad news because it means we have to start from scratch. But thanks for checking him out.”
“Sure. By the way, apparently whatever you said to him on the street that day made an impact. I had a long conversation with him. He said he realized that maybe you’d been right about how he needed an outdoor type, not one of those highbrow arty types.”
Lillian groaned. “He used the termarty?”
“Uh-huh. He now agrees with you that he and Heather Summers were not made for each other after all.”
“Well, what do you know.”
“Anything else I can do for you?”
“Not just yet, but stay tuned.”
Nella hesitated. “Can you think of anyone else besides Witley who might want to harass you? Any old boyfriends hanging around?”
“No.”
“You’re sure?”
“You know better than anyone else what my social life has been like for the past year, Nella. Boring doesn’t even begin to describe it.”
Gabe raised a brow. She ignored him.
“We in the investigation business have a saying,” Nella continued. “When the picture doesn’t make sense, draw a new one. Maybe you should look at these incidents from another perspective.”
“Problem is, I can’t see any other angle here.”
Nella hesitated. “You know, if it weren’t for the trashing of your studio yesterday, I’d say that someone had broken into your apartment and your cottage to look for something.”
“I can’t imagine what it could be. I told you, nothing was taken.”
“The pieces of this puzzle aren’t fitting well together, Lil. Be careful.”
chapter 22
The darkened hallway was lined with office doors fitted with opaque glass. Gabe could hear the din of muffled voices in the distance. The noise came from the large reception room in the intersecting corridor. The Leaders of Tomorrow open-house event was in full swing.
Lillian stood beside him in the shadows. Her hair was pinned into a sleek, graceful knot at the back of her head. She wore a close-fitting, midnight-blue dress made out of a stretchy, slinky fabric that moved when she did and a pair of sexy, strappy heels.
He could think of a couple of other things he would rather do with her tonight than hunt for frozen space aliens. But duty called.
He checked the bulky camera Arizona had given him. “We’re all set.”
“I still say this is a really bad idea,” Lillian muttered. “What if we get caught prowling through the new wing?”
“If anyone stops us, which is highly unlikely given that they’re all very busy with the reception, we’ll say we were curious about the new construction. Big deal. You really think anyone would arrest a Harte and a Madison who just happened to wander into the wrong hallway here at the institute?”
“You never know.”
“It’s a lot more likely they’d ask us for a contribution. Stop worrying. You’re a little tense tonight.”
“I’ve had a very difficult week and now I’m getting ready to look for frozen aliens. I’ve got a right to be tense. I’m supposed to be devoting myself to art, remember?”
“Take it easy,” he said. “Think of this as performance art.”
“Yeah, right. Performance art.”
“We’ll get in, take a few shots of empty offices and get out. Tomorrow we’ll turn the pictures over to A.Z. and she can weave whatever conspiracy theories she wants. That will be the end of it for us.”
“How do we explain the camera if we’re stopped by a guard?”
“No problem,” Gabe said. “We’ll say we wanted some souvenir photos of the reception.”
“It’s a high-tech spy camera, for heaven’s sake. No one’s going to buy that story.”
“Trust me. I can fake it if necessary.”
“All right,” she said with annoyance. “Let’s get it over with and get back to the open house.”
She started off down the hall toward the new wing with long, determined strides. He fell into step beside her, marveling at how well she could move in the sexy shoes. Together they prowled deeper into the bowels of the institute. The sounds of the open house faded into the distance behind them.
At the far end of the dark passage a temporary door fashioned out of plywood had been installed to separate the uncompleted wing from the main building. A band of loosely draped construction zone tape barred the way. Gabe ducked under the tape and found the partition unlocked.
“We’re in luck.” He eased the plywood door open and stood aside to allow Lillian to enter. “Ready to boldly go where no Harte or Madison has gone before?”
She moved into the unpainted hall and stopped.
“Shouldn’t you start taking pictures?” she said in a low voice.
“Right.”
He walked to the nearest door and opened it. There was enough light filtering through the window from the parking lot lamps to reveal the bones of an empty room that was clearly intended to serve as an office.
“No frozen aliens in here,” he announced.
“Big surprise.” She leaned around the edge of the door. “Hurry up and take a picture. We’ve got a whole bunch of rooms to cover.”
He raised the heavy VPX 4000 and snapped off a shot. The flash flared, brilliantly illuminating the small space for an instant. Darkness closed in again almost immediately.
“Great,” Lillian said. “Now I can’t see a thing.”
“This thing really puts out some wattage, doesn’t it?” He blinked a few times to get rid of the dark spots. “Next time close your eyes when I take the picture.”
He went to the door across the hall, opened it, and took another picture of an empty, partially painted interior. When he finished, he moved to the next door and repeated the procedure.
After a while, it became routine. Open a door, take a photo of a bare office, close the door. Go to the next room.
“I don’t think A.Z. is going to be real thrilled with these pictures,” Lillian said halfway down the hall. “She has her heart set on finding proof that the government has secretly moved frozen extraterrestrials here to Eclipse Bay.”
“Don’t worry about A.Z. She’s a professional conspiracy buff, remember? A pro can always find a way to spin the facts into a new theory.”
He opened the next door in line, raised the VPX 4000 and fired off a shot.
A woman yelled at the same instant the flash exploded. Not Lillian, he realized. Someone else. This room was inhabited. Not frozen aliens. Warm bodies.
Two figures were illuminated in the intense light. A man with a serious erection dressed in a pair of red bikini briefs and a woman in a black leather bustier and high-heeled black boots.
J. Anderson Flint and Marilyn Thornley.
“Holy cow,” Gabe said. “A.Z. was right. But it’s worse than she thought. Wait’ll she hears that they’ve thawed out two of the frozen alien life-forms.”
For two or three seconds everyone stared at everyone else. Marilyn, demonstrating the well-honed instincts of a natural-born politician, recovered first.