He was far from being a handsome man, Sara reflected. The planes and angles of his face had been carved with a dull knife, not finely chiseled. But there was a primitive strength in the aggressive nose and the austere cheekbones. He wasn’t the kind of man who would smile easily; the grim set of his mouth wasn’t shaped for such expressions. Sara guessed his age at somewhere between thirty-five and forty; probably closer to forty. She thought she saw something of the fundamental sureness and strength in him that her uncle must have seen before he decided to make Adrian a friend. Lowell Kincaid was sure of this man and therefore Sara knew she could be sure of him, too. She relaxed even more and took another sip of her wine. She sensed she had done the right thing by seeking out Adrian Saville.
She just wished he’d show a little more interest in her concern for her uncle. But then, a man who had just sold his first book probably had a right to be thinking of other things at the moment.
„What’s it called?“ she asked as he got to his feet and paced back to the couch.
„My novel?“ He seemed to have no trouble following her abrupt shift in the conversation. Adrian picked up a cracker with cheese on it and downed the whole thing in one gulp. „Phantom.“
„Is it a horror tale?“
He shook his head slowly, his eyes on the fire. „Not in the sense you mean. It’s what’s called a thriller.“
„Ah, secret things, espionage, plots and counterplots. That sort of thing. I read a lot of thrillers.“ She smiled. „Are you writing under your own name?“
„I’m writing under the name Adrian Saville.“
„Good, then I won’t have to jot down your pseudonym. You’ll have to autograph a copy of your book for me when it’s published. I’m sure Uncle Lowell will want one, too.“
„Lowell’s already seen the manuscript,“ Adrian said quietly. „Because of his, uh, background, I thought he might be able to give me a few ideas that would make Phantom sound more authentic.“
„Did he?“
„Umm.“ Adrian stared into the fire. „He was very helpful. You’re really worried about him, aren’t you?“
Sara resisted the temptation to say „umm.“
„Yes. My uncle doesn’t hunt. He doesn’t even like to fish. Why would he tell his neighbor he was going hunting and then drop out of sight?“
„Beats me.“ Adrian swirled the wine in his glass. „But don’t you think you may be overreacting? You should know your uncle can take care of himself.“
„He’s in his late sixties now, Adrian. And he’s been out of the industry a long time.“
Something close to amusement gleamed briefly in Adrian’s eyes. „The industry? You sound like an insider. Lowell uses words like that.“
Mildly embarrassed, Sara’s mouth turned down wryly. „That’s how he always referred to his government work. I guess I picked up the term.“
„And some of the skills?“ he asked too blandly.
She looked away, reaching for a carrot. Sara knew he was referring to the fact that he had found her prowling around his study. „Obviously I didn’t pick up the skills. If I had, you would never have caught me the way you did this evening. How did you sneak up on me so quietly, anyway? Must be those sneakers you’re wearing. But I was certain I’d hear any car pulling into the drive.“
„I walked back from the tavern. The car is still in the garage behind the house.“
„Oh.“ Chagrined, Sara chewed industriously on her carrot.
„You’d better practice checking out those sorts of details if you plan to follow in your uncle’s footsteps.“
„Don’t worry, as much as I like my uncle, and in spite of the fact that I happen to be in the market for a new career, I do not intend to go into intelligence work. I can’t think of anything more depressing and grim. Imagine living a life in which you couldn’t trust anyone or anything.
Besides, I like to limit my close association with violence to reading thrillers,“ she added with a small smile. „It’s okay on a fantasy level but I certainly wouldn’t want to make a career out of it.“
„If you feel that strongly about it, you’d better give up the habit of going through other people’s desks. You could have just as easily turned around and found yourself facing an irate homeowner holding a gun as a friendly, trusting soul such as myself.“
She eyed him thoughtfully for a moment. „Actually, you did take the whole thing quite calmly.“
„You didn’t look that dangerous,“ he informed her gently. „In fact, you appeared rather inviting standing there in the twilight, gazing into the apple. Besides, as soon as you said you had one just like it, I knew who you were.“
„You were certain I was Uncle Lowell’s niece?“
„When he gave me the crystal apple he told me he’d given a second one to you. He had them made up specially for us, you know.“
„No, I didn’t know. That is, I didn’t realize he’d had a second one made until I saw it sitting on your desk. When I spotted it, I decided I probably didn’t have any reason to go on being suspicious of you,“ she added apologetically. „Unfortunately, I came to that brilliant conclusion a bit late. You’d already snuck up and found me in what I guess qualifies as a compromising situation. You really don’t know where Uncle Lowell might have gone or why he would say he was off hunting?“
„No. But I do think Lowell can take care of himself. My guess is he’d want you to stay out of the way until he’s handled whatever needs handling.“
„Then you do believe something’s happened to him!“ she pounced.
„I didn’t say that,“ Adrian protested mildly. „I only meant that he probably had his reasons for disappearing. Maybe he just wanted to take off by himself for a while. Maybe he’s got a woman friend and didn’t feel like explaining all that to his neighbor. There could be a hundred different reasons why he’s not at home, none of them particularly sinister.“
„I don’t like it,“ Sara muttered, feeling pressured by the logic.
„Obviously, or you wouldn’t have taken the trouble to find me. So Lowell told you to look me up if you were ever worried about something having happened to him?“
„He said you’d want to know, or something like that. I wasn’t exactly certain what he meant. He doesn’t have a lot of close friends. I assumed you might be one of them.“
„But you weren’t sure where I fit in so you decided to take a quick look around my desk drawers while you waited for me to return. Are you always that impulsive?“
„It seemed prudent, not impulsive, to take the opportunity to find out what I could about you before I confronted you,“ she said cautiously. „Some of my uncle’s old acquaintances aren’t the sort with whom you want to get involved on a first-name basis.“
„You’ve met a lot of them?“ Adrian inquired politely.
„Well, no. But Uncle Lowell has told me about a few of them.“ Sara shuddered delicately, remembering one particular tale. „He’s got a great collection of stories and personal recollections, although he always changes names and locations to protect the guilty. I suppose he’s mentioned a few of the more colorful characters to you if you used him as resource material for Phantom.“
„We’ve shared a few beers and talked on occasion,“ Adrian admitted.
„You see a lot of my uncle?“
Adrian moved his hand in a vague gesture. „He doesn’t live that far away. I get out to his place once in a while and sometimes he makes it over here. What about you? See a lot of him?“
Sara grinned. „Not as much as I would have liked over the years. I’m afraid Uncle Lowell has always been considered the black sheep of the family. As you can imagine, though, I found him quite fascinating. He was the unconventional relative, the one who had the mysterious career, the one who showed up when you least expected him. He was unpredictable, and kids like that, I suppose. The rest of the family thought he was a bad influence on me and, of course, that made him all the more interesting.“
Adrian lea
ned back against the sofa, slanting her a glance. „Why did they think he was a bad influence?“
„Because he always encouraged me to do what I wanted to do, not what my family wanted. And he had a way of understanding me, of knowing what I was thinking. He told me two years ago, for instance, that I wasn’t going to be happy for long as a mid-level manager in a large corporation. Said I didn’t have the proper corporate personality. He was right. I think I knew it at the time but everything seemed to be on track and running smoothly in my life. I was living the perfect yuppie life-style, and to be honest, it had its moments.“
„Yuppie? Oh, yes – “ Adrian nodded. „ – Young Urban Professional.“
Sara gave him another laughing smile. „I was into the whole scene down in California. I had a lifetime membership in the right athletic club, dressed for success, had my apartment done in the high-tech look and kept up with the trends in food. I ground my own coffee beans for my very own imported Italian espresso machine, and I can tell you the precise moment when pasta went out and Creole cooking came in, if you’re interested.“
„No, thanks. I eat a lot of macaroni and cheese. I don’t want to hear that if s ‘out.’ So Lowell advised you to dump the yuppie life?“
„Macaroni and cheese does not count as real pasta,“ she told him forcefully. „Yuppie pasta is stuff such as linguini and calamari or fettuccini Alfredo. And, yes, Uncle Lowell did advise me to dump the yuppie life. Along with the yuppie males I was dating at the time,“ Sara confided cheerfully. „I think he thought they were all wimps. He said none of the ones I introduced him to would be of any use in a crunch. I explained I didn’t plan to get into any crunches but he just shook his head and told me to come visit him when I came to my senses.“
Adrian regarded her assessingly. „And that’s why you went to his place today? To tell Lowell you’d come to your senses?“
Sara stirred a little restlessly on the couch, tucking one jeaned leg under her as she shifted her focus back to the fire. „Something like that. I quit my job last week. I think Fm going through a mid-life crisis.“
„You’re a Utile young for that, aren’t you?“
Sara ignored the underlying trace of humor in his question. „Don’t patronize me. I just turned thirty. As it happens, I’ve been through several mid-life crises and I know them when I see them. I’m ready to make some changes in my life again.“
„You’re sure that change is what you want?“ Adrian got to his feet to throw a bigger log on the fire.
„Oh, yes,“ she whispered with great certainty, „I’m sure.“
She sounded quite resolute, Adrian decided as he fed the flames. He’d heard that quiet certainty in Lowell’s voice from time to time. Must be a family characteristic.
For some reason, Sara Frazer wasn’t quite what he’d expected, though, even if she did have some of Lowell’s iron-hard determination. Adrian toyed with the flames a moment longer, considering the female who was curled on the couch behind him. When a man had waited nearly a year to meet a woman, it was perfectly natural that he would have developed a few preconceptions.
The few expectations he had, however, had never been fully formed. Lowell had given him some vague, odd bits of information about his niece but little that was concrete enough to build a picture in his mind. Just like Lowell to deliberately leave a great deal to the imagination. He was, after all, a man, and he knew what a man’s mind could do when it went to work on a mysterious woman.
Adrian realized that he hadn’t expected Sara Frazer to be a flaming beauty and in that regard he’d been correct. Taken individually, her features didn’t add up to those of a beautiful woman. What surprised him was that the hazel eyes, long light-brown hair and slender figure somehow went together to create a subtly appealing combination.
On second thought, it wasn’t the collection of physical characteristics that made for that appeal. There simply wasn’t anything that unique about eyes that hovered between green and brown or about hair that was worn parted in the middle and clipped casually behind her ears. The red knit top she was wearing emphasized small, pert breasts rather than lush voluptuousness.
Adrian turned the matter over in his mind for an instant longer before he decided that Sara was somehow more than the sum of her parts. There was intelligence, ready laughter and more than a dash of impulsiveness in those hazel eyes. And when she had learned of the sale of his first book, her spontaneous enthusiasm had been very real even though he was a stranger to her. It was her inner animation that somehow pulled the ordinary together and made the total package strangely intriguing.
He’d been consciously and unconsciously anticipating her arrival for several months but the end result had still taken him by surprise. He simply hadn’t expected to feel such an immediate and compelling attraction. He hadn’t thought he’d react to the reality of Sara with such intensity. It was unsettling but he’d lay odds that Lowell would probably say „I told you so“ the next time he saw him.
Satisfied with his analysis, Adrian turned and moved back toward the couch. He’d long ago accepted the fact that for some things there were no answers, but he still preferred situations that could be taken apart, analyzed and understood. He liked to have a handle on things, Adrian told himself. No, it was more than that. He liked to know he was in control of his environment. Having everything accurately assessed and properly analyzed gave him the only real sense of security one could have in this world. Sara Frazer was a new and disturbing element in his environment and it was good to know he was already beginning to comprehend her. More importantly, he was comprehending and accepting his reaction to her. He rather thought Lowell Kincaid would be pleased at the progress of the situation.
„It’s getting late,“ Sara mused as she munched the last cracker. „I suppose I’d better be on my way. If you really don’t have any idea of where Uncle Lowell is, there’s no point imposing on you any longer.“
„Where were you planning on going tonight?“ Adrian sank back down on the couch, aware of an unexpected and totally irrational sense of disappointment. She had just arrived. It didn’t seem right that she should already be planning to leave. That wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. A part of him was disturbed that she seemed oblivious to the fact that things were different now. Clearly Kincaid had not given her any idea of what he’d had in mind when he’d set about engineering a meeting between Adrian and his niece.
He wondered how much to tell her about her Uncle Lowell’s plans for her. He wondered how she would take the news. She might be furious or she might treat the whole thing as a joke. Women were tricky. It occurred to Adrian that in spite of being nearly forty years old he didn’t know nearly as much about them as he should. It would probably be better not to bring up the subject of Lowell’s plans this evening. On the other hand, Adrian found himself fiercely reluctant to let Sara go without putting the first delicate tendrils of a claim on her. Something elemental had come alive deep within him, something hard to deny.
„There’s an inn on the outskirts of Winslow. It’s only about a mile from here. I’ll stay there tonight and be on my way tomorrow.“
Adrian frowned. „You’re planning on returning to California?“
Sara shook her head vigorously. „Not until I satisfy myself about Uncle Lowell. I’m worried, Adrian, even if nobody else is.“
Adrian rolled his empty wineglass between his palms. „I don’t think you have anything to be concerned about.“
„Maybe I’ve got an overactive imagination. People are always accusing me of it.“ She lifted one shoulder in careless disregard for the fact. „But Uncle Lowell’s former career must have contained some loose ends. And I know that at times he was involved with some dangerous people. There was one in particular he once told me about – “ She broke off abruptly, eyes narrowing.
„What do you think you can do about the fact that he’s not available at the moment?“ Adrian asked reasonably.
Sara gave the matter some thought. ?
??I think I’ll go back to his cottage in the morning and break in. Maybe he left some notes or something on his desk.“ Her eyes grew pensive with the plans running through her head.
Adrian looked down at the glass in his hands. „The last time you tried that trick you got caught.“
She laughed. „Well, no harm done if Uncle Lowell comes home unexpectedly and catches me in his house. In fact, it will be a great relief. The mystery will be solved, won’t it?“
Adrian experienced a flash of amused amazement. „You’re going to do it, aren’t you?“
„Why not? Maybe I’ll get some answers.“
„I think you’ll be wasting your time.“
Sara grimaced. „At the moment I have time to waste. As I explained earlier, I’m unemployed.“
„There are probably more productive things you could do with your newfound time,“ Adrian suggested dryly.
„I know. Such as look for another job. But I think I’ll see what I can find out about Uncle Lowell first.“
„Are you always this impulsive and stubborn?“
„Just since I turned thirty,“ she told him with benign menace, her eyes mirroring an amused challenge.
Adrian found himself smiling back at her. Her gaze went to his mouth, and be realized she was very interested in his expression. Did the smile look that odd on his face? „Well, if you’re intent on another act of breaking and entering, I suppose I’d better go along with you.“
She was startled. „Why? There’s absolutely no need for you to come with me.“
„You’re wrong,“ Adrian said gentry. „There are several good reasons why I’d better tag along, not the least of which is that Lowell Kincaid would probably nail my hide to the wall if I didn’t.“
„Why on earth should Uncle Lowell care?“
„You’re worried about him to the point where you’re willing to break into not one but two private homes. Lowell would expect me to take your concerns seriously, I think. He’d also want me to make sure you didn’t get into trouble. What if a neighbor saw you going through a back window and called the law? You’d have some difficult explanations to make. Messy. Lowell likes things neat and tidy.“ Adrian paused a moment. „So do I.“