Hidden Talents

  “I see.” Caleb eyed the big man in silence for a few seconds. “Mind if I ask what you were doing near Asterley's house the night he died?”

  “Just regular recon.” Blade looked down at the bottle of vinegar in his hand but he didn't appear to see it. He had the air of a man who is looking at something far away or very deep inside himself. “Got to tighten up security when the visibility's bad. That's when they're most likely to launch the first assault.”

  “I see.”

  “Reckon I'd better be on my way. Got things to do.” Blade set the jar of vinegar back on the shelf. “You really think this vinegar of mine will sell in Serenity's catalog if it has my name on it?”

  “Like hotcakes.”

  “Yeah, well, okay. I could use the money. See you around.” Blade strode down the aisle and let himself out the front door.

  George the sales rep sauntered out of Serenity's office at that moment. It was clear that he was a new man. His shoulders were squared and there was a definite spring in his step. He caught Caleb's eye and gave him a thumbs-up sign.

  “Piece of cake,” he said in a conspiratorial aside as he walked past Caleb. “You just gotta know how to handle her. Good luck with your tofu pitch.”

  “Thanks.” Caleb watched George disappear through the front door. Then he turned to look at Serenity, who was lounging in the doorway of her office. He remembered the way she had leaped to his defense when Blade had turned obnoxious a few minutes earlier.

  “I hear you're a piece of cake, partner,” Caleb said.

  “Depends on what you're selling.” Serenity grinned. “Partner.”

  6

  DID BLADE HAVE A PARTICULAR REASON FOR PINPOINTing you as the advance man for the invasion he's expecting or was he just being his usual suspicious self?” Serenity asked later that evening.

  Caleb frowned absently but did not look up from the papers he had spread out on Serenity's living room table. “He said something about having heard a car drive away from Asterley's cabin the night Asterley fell down the stairs.”

  “Hmmm.” Serenity thought about that briefly and then dismissed the problem. “That would have been Jessie, most likely.”

  “You said she was Asterley's significant other?”

  “Occasional significant other. I thought I smelled stale pipe tobacco in Ambrose's cabin that day when I found him. Jessie smokes a pipe. As I recall, there were also two empty coffee mugs on the table.”

  Caleb made a note on the edge of one of the papers. “When we talked to her this morning at Asterley's cabin, she didn't say anything about having been with Asterley the night he died.”

  Serenity watched Caleb with envious fascination. She didn't know many people who could do two things successfully at the same time. But he obviously had no problem concentrating simultaneously on both his business notes and the topic of Jessie.

  “We didn't specifically ask her if she'd been there that night,” Serenity reminded him.

  “You'd think she'd have mentioned it.”

  “I don't see why. We only chatted with Jessie for a couple of minutes. She had her mind on a lot of other things.”

  “Like the fact that she had just inherited a house and a small fortune in photography equipment,” Caleb said dryly.

  “What in the world are you getting at? I don't see—”

  The phone rang, cutting Serenity off. She put down the pen she had been fiddling with and reached for the receiver.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey, hey, hey, Serenity love. Long time no see. How's my favorite granola pusher?”

  “Lloyd. I wasn't expecting to hear from you.” That was putting it mildly. After the way she had lost her temper the last time she'd seen him six months ago, she hadn't expected to hear from him ever again. Serenity rarely lost her temper, but the rare occasions when she did generally proved memorable. Montrose, full-time musician and part-time operator of Witt's End's only service station, had once told her it was because of her red hair. “Where are you?”

  “Working late in my office here at good old Bullington College. You remember Bullington, don't you, Serenity love? You haven't been gone so long that you've actually forgotten those of us down here at the bottom of the mountain, have you?” Lloyd paused deliberately. “I sure haven't forgotten you.”

  Serenity's fingers tightened around the phone. Her eyes met Caleb's questioning gaze. “No, I haven't forgotten Bullington.”

  “Glad to hear it,” Lloyd said, relentlessly cheerful, as usual. “I've been making a lot of changes since I became assistant department head. I've even talked the Fordham people into giving me a little honest-to-God grant money. Can you believe it?”

  Incredible, Serenity thought. Lloyd was carrying on a perfectly normal conversation. Just as though they were old friends. Just as if he hadn't tried to use her as a research project. Just as if he hadn't once given her reason to think he might give her the real family she dreamed of having someday. “I'm glad for you, Lloyd. Look, I'm very busy at the moment. Was there something you wanted?”

  “Thought I'd drive up to Witt's End and pay you a visit soon. It's been what? Six months?”

  “Yes. Six months.”

  “I'm kind of curious to see how things are going for you.”

  “I'll just bet you are. Anxious to do a follow-up on your research project? Sorry, but I don't have time to fill out a detailed questionnaire at the moment,” Serenity said.

  “Funny you should mention my little questionnaires.” Lloyd chuckled engagingly. “I was just going to bring up the subject.”

  “Oh, no. No. Absolutely not.” Serenity flopped back against the sofa cushions in sheer disgust. She was aware that she had Caleb's undivided attention now. He was no longer doing two things at the same time. He was concentrating entirely on her. “We've already been through this. Forget it, Lloyd, I'm not going to play research subject for you again.”

  “Whoa, there. Hold your horses, Serenity love. Who's talking about using you as a research subject?”

  “You are.”

  “Not true.” Lloyd lowered his voice to a warm, persuasive murmur. “Hey, is it so hard to believe that I'd just like to see you again?”

  “Yes, frankly, it is. You made it very clear the last time I saw you that you only wanted one kind of relationship with me, the same kind a lab rat has with a scientist.”

  “Hey, hey, hey, love. Unfair, unfair.” Lloyd sounded grievously hurt. “You and I had a modern sort of relationship. We transcended the man-woman thing. We were friends.”

  “Friends? You don't know the first thing about friendship, Lloyd. Friends don't use each other.” Serenity gently hung up the phone.

  The silence in the room was palpable. Caleb eyed the phone with a thoughtful expression. “Friend of yours?”

  “Not any longer.”

  The phone rang shrilly. With a groan, Serenity reached for it. “This time tell me what you really want, Lloyd, or I'll unplug this thing.”

  “Listen, this is no bullshit, Serenity. I want to do a full-scale study of Witt's End.” Lloyd's voice was crisp and urgent now. All traces of ingratiating charm were gone. “This is very, very important.”

  Serenity scowled. “A study of Witt's End? Are you crazy? Forget it.”

  “I'm serious, Serenity. This is mega crucial to my career objectives. I want to come up there and do a thorough analysis of community dynamics in Witt's End. I want to map the entire social structure of that burg. You know, in-depth observations, detailed interviews, that kind of thing. I especially want to see those vision pools you told me about.”

  “And will there be secretly taped observations and interviews?” Serenity kept her tone deliberately bland.

  “Shit, are you going to hold that one little incident against me for all time? Come on, Serenity love, be reasonable. You used to teach this stuff, too, remember? You know how field research works. I wanted pure, unadulterated data. I couldn't let you know what I was doing. It would have influenced the
results and conclusions.”

  “Tell me,” Serenity said, “did we get published?”

  There was a distinct pause on the other end. “Ah, yeah, we did. This month's Journal of Social Dynamics. I called the paper ‘Private Codes: Outsiders and the Formation of Communities.’” Lloyd's voice warmed with pride. “I don't mind telling you that article is creating a lot of interest in certain circles. Hey, I'll send you a copy.”

  “Is my name in it or am I just referred to as research subject A?” Serenity asked.

  “I always respect the anonymity of my subjects,” Lloyd said gravely.

  Serenity didn't know whether to laugh or slam down the receiver. “I ought to sue you, Lloyd. If we had a lawyer here in Witt's End, I might just do it, too. As it is, I can't be bothered. Good-bye.”

  “Serenity, wait, don't hang up on me again. I'm on bended knee here. I need your help on this thing. None of those weirdos up there in Witt's End will even talk to me unless you tell them that it's okay.”

  “I'm not going to let you turn Witt's End into a research project.”

  “Serenity love, I need this study. If I get another paper published this year, I'll be first in line to get the nod for old man Hollings's position as department head.”

  “Aaaah. I get it.”

  “What's that supposed to mean?” Lloyd demanded.

  “I just wondered what was at stake for you. Now I know. Good night, Lloyd.” Serenity hung up the phone again. She leaned over and unplugged the cord from the wall.

  Caleb folded his hands behind his head, stretched out his legs and leaned back in his chair. He gazed thoughtfully at the ceiling. “Lloyd?”

  “Professor Lloyd Radburn, assistant head of the Department of Sociology at Bullington College. He wants to be named head of the department.” Serenity drummed her fingers against the arm of the sofa and studied the notes she had been making earlier. Verify delivery schedules for all products. Arrange catalog entries. Color or black and white photos in catalog? Cover art? Contact printer in Bullington.

  “This Radburn guy wants to study Witt's End?”

  “Yes. He thinks our little town is a quaint throwback, a living example of how the typical frontier community may have functioned.”

  “Think he's right?”

  “Uh-huh.” Serenity smiled. “But I certainly don't intend to help him prove it. I've got a business to get off the ground.”

  Caleb rose to his feet and walked over to the window. He stood looking out into the darkness, his gaze on the glass-walled hot tub room off Serenity's back porch. “Is this Radburn the reason you gave up the academic world and came back here to Witt's End?”

  “What?” Serenity looked up from her notes with a frown. “Oh, I see what you're getting at. No, he isn't. I never really left Witt's End. I commuted between here and Bullington most of the time, except for a brief period during my rebellious stage when I lived on campus.”

  “That didn't work out?”

  “Not for long.” Serenity smiled wryly. “I didn't really fit in down there in Bullington. At any rate, as soon as I figured out a way to make a living here, I quit my job in the sociology department and opened my grocery store. That was three years ago. Lloyd didn't even work at Bullington when I was there. He got hired by the department about a year ago.”

  “How did you meet him?”

  Serenity wrinkled her nose. “He started showing up around here on weekends early last spring. Hung around the store and Ariadne's café, trying to blend in with the scene. We sort of got to know each other.”

  Caleb did not turn around. “Sort of?”

  Serenity cleared her throat. “You may have noticed that there are not a lot of people my age here in Witt's End. That's one of the things I hope to change around here, by the way. I'd like to see Witt's End attract younger people again, the way it did in the beginning. We need kids and families here. I'm the only person who was actually born and raised here during the past thirty years.”

  “So Radburn was the first eligible male to hit town in quite a while, is that it?”

  “I suppose you could say that.” Serenity grew cautious. She had no idea of what was going through Caleb's mind. “He can be very charming company, and he and I had some things in common besides our age.”

  “Sociology. The world of academia.”

  “That's right. I was an instructor at Bullington College while I worked on my Ph.D. At any rate, Lloyd heard about Witt's End and got curious. He came up here to take a look around. He decided to study me. Only he forgot to mention that was the real reason for his interest in me.”

  “When did you find out that you were just a research subject instead of something more to him?”

  “I learned the truth the day I accidentally discovered his tape recorder.” Serenity smiled ruefully at the memory. “He was dictating into it at the time. Something about the role of myth in the social structure of Witt's End. He'd decided that I had somehow been woven into a local legend that was crucial to the structural dynamic of the community. It was a lot of nonsense, but I suppose it sounded interesting on paper.”

  “What happened?”

  Serenity shrugged. “I hit the roof. Threw his tape recorder on the ground and stomped on it. Told him to get out of town and to stay out. It was really quite a scene, if I do say so myself. I hadn't been that mad in a long time. This is the first time I've heard from him since the showdown.”

  “When you talked to him on the phone a few minutes ago you didn't sound as though you were still furious. Just a little irritated.”

  Serenity chuckled. “Well, it has been six months. I've had a chance to calm down. Besides, it's hard to stay mad at someone like Lloyd. I'll admit I was hurt at the time. Mostly my pride, I think. I felt like an idiot for having allowed myself to be used.”

  “Are you going to let him use you again?” Caleb asked softly.

  “No.” Serenity tossed her notes onto the table. “Even if I wanted to help him study Witt's End, it would be a wasted effort.”

  “Why?”

  “Do you honestly see anyone around here submitting to a detailed questionnaire and a highly personal interview for the sake of some outsider's sociological research project?”

  Caleb was silent for a few seconds while he contemplated that scenario. “Might be interesting to see Blade's reaction to being asked a lot of personal questions about his lifestyle and social interactions.”

  Serenity grinned briefly. “You've got a point. Maybe I should let Lloyd come up here, after all. He didn't get an opportunity to meet Blade last time. Blade usually sleeps days, you see. I could introduce the two of them and then stand back and watch the explosion.”

  “But you won't do that, will you?” Caleb asked.

  “Nope. I've got more important things to do.”

  “You're trying to save a town.”

  “Right. And you said something about helping me, as I recall.”

  “Serenity?”

  There was a new element in his voice. It made her wary. “What is it?”

  “Do you know what I'd like to do tonight?”

  “No.” A rush of excitement whipped through her. The adrenaline made her fingers tremble. What would she say if he asked her to go to bed with him? she wondered frantically. A part of her had been dreading this moment. Another part had been longing for it.

  “I'd like to get into your hot tub.”

  Serenity felt like a balloon that had been stabbed with a pin. Everything went flat. “My hot tub?”

  “I've never been in a hot tub.”

  “You're joking.”

  He shook his head. “No, I'm not joking.”

  Serenity was at a loss for words. She had been bathing in hot tubs, after all, ever since she was a youngster. People in Witt's End considered it a routine form of relaxation, akin to meditation. She frequently invited Ariadne and Jessie and some of the other women in town to join her in the hot tub on her back porch.

  “I see. Well, you're we
lcome to use mine, if you like,” she finally managed politely.

  Caleb turned around. His face was stark and unreadable. “I'd like.”

  “Uh-huh. Okay, then.” Still nonplussed by the strange request, she got to her feet and walked toward the back door. “I'll show you how to turn it on.”

  Caleb followed her outside onto the porch. “It's cold out here tonight.”

  “It will get a lot colder before long.” Serenity opened the glass slider of the darkened hot tub room and stepped inside the humid atmosphere. She didn't bother to turn on the lights. There was enough of a glow spilling from the cottage windows to enable her to see what she was doing. “Give me a hand with the cover, will you?”

  “All right.” Caleb went to work on the fastenings that secured the cover. It didn't take him long to figure out the hooks.

  Serenity showed him how to roll back the heavy vinyl sheet and stash it on a nearby bench. Then she switched on the mechanism that caused the hot water to churn and pulse gently in the large, deep tub. She opened a cupboard and removed several thick towels. She stacked them beside the tub.

  When everything was ready, she looked at Caleb. She couldn't see his expression clearly in the shadows, but she could tell that he was watching her with the familiar dark intensity that so often characterized him. A new, different chill of tingling sexual awareness shot through her. This time it wasn't just in her imagination; it was coming from him. She felt dangerously energized.

  “It's all yours.” Serenity said. “Help yourself.”

  “Will you join me?”

  Not a good idea, she thought. Definitely not a good idea at all. She opened her mouth to tell him that she had work to do.

  “Why not?” Serenity heard herself say. She could hardly believe her own words. This was stupid, really stupid. “I could use a little relaxation therapy.”

  She peeled off the gauzy green dress that she had worn over her knit jumpsuit and hung it neatly from a brass hook. Her fingers went to the zipper of the jumpsuit. She paused, trying to remember where she had stored her old swimsuit. Normally she never used a swimsuit in the hot tub.