By Request Collection April-June 2016. Оливия Гейтс
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that Patrick Lightman could now be connected to at least one of the RPK’s other victims.
She glanced at the other boxes. Maybe Lightman had left things behind more than once. Excitement had her surging to her feet. She had to tell Duncan. Thank heavens he was still in the clearing. Punching in the code, she disarmed the alarm and then raced onto the terrace.
“Piper, no. Go back.”
The shouted words had her freezing in her tracks. But only for a second. When she saw him crumple to the ground, she raced forward. There was a buzzing in her head as she dropped to her knees. “Duncan.”
He didn’t answer, and he was lying so still.
“What happened?” But when she glanced up at Deanna Lewis and saw the gun, she knew. “You shot him.”
“Not yet,” she said in a pleasant tone. “Too much noise. I used a very high-powered Taser. And I have to thank you for coming out. You distracted him just enough. I was having a problem convincing him to let me come into the library.”
Duncan wasn’t dead. That thought helped clear her mind, and she remembered she was wired. Daryl would have heard everything once she started speaking. He’d be on his way right now. She just had to stall.
Piper forced her gaze away from Duncan and away from the gun to meet the young woman’s eyes. The hate she saw there nearly had her taking a quick step back. “Why are you doing this?”
“Why? Because Eleanor Campbell MacPherson’s sapphires don’t belong to you. And you can’t find them before I do. So you have to be eliminated.”
Eliminated? For the first time the realization hit her that the woman she was looking at wasn’t entirely sane. Obsessed—that was the word Duncan had used. “You’re the person who was visiting the library, aren’t—?”
Piper broke off when she saw Deanna shift the barrel of the gun toward Duncan’s head.
“Stop talking. I’ll use the gun on him first and then on you unless you agree to come with me now. Your choice.”
No time to wait for Daryl. “Don’t shoot Duncan.” Piper rose to her feet. “Spare his life and I’ll take you to the sapphires. They’re what you want, aren’t they? They’re why you visited the library, trying to find some clue to their location?”
“They belong to us. They always did. And now it’s our mission to find them. Not yours.”
“I’ll do more than go with you. I’ll show you where they are. Duncan and I found a second sapphire earring in the caves. I can take you there.”
Deanna hesitated for just a moment. “I followed you and I looked. If it was there, you took it away.”
“We heard you following us, so we hid it well. To protect it.” It was such a huge lie that she wondered how her nose didn’t grow like Pinocchio’s. And Piper was pretty sure it wouldn’t stand up to logical scrutiny. Why on earth, if they’d found the sapphire earring, would they have left it behind? But Duncan’s theory was that the woman she was looking at right now was obsessed with getting hold of Eleanor’s dowry. And she was just as obsessed with getting her away from Duncan. “I can show you exactly where. The necklace may be there, too. We didn’t have time to search for it.”
“All right.”
Piper didn’t even allow herself a breath of relief before she turned and headed toward the cliff face.
TOO MUCH PAIN, DUNCAN THOUGHT. It swam in his head and streaked through his muscles with an intensity that nearly blocked out the fear. He couldn’t move. He could barely think. Piper. Each second that ticked by, Deanna Lewis was getting her farther and farther away from the castle. Eyes closed, Duncan put all his effort into getting control over his body.
He opened his eyes first, blinking against the blinding sun. But he knew that he was recovering when the fear began to push out the pain. The second time he opened his eyes, he was able to raise his hand to shade them. And he knew a brief flash of relief when he saw Daryl, Vi and Sheriff Skinner rush out through the sliding terrace doors from the library.
He’d managed to sit up by the time they reached him.
“Deanna Lewis,” he managed.
Daryl squatted down beside him. “Don’t try to talk. Piper let us know they’re headed to the caves.”
“Caves,” Duncan repeated.
“Piper told Deanna that you and she had left the earring hidden there. She even suggested that the necklace might be there also.”
Brilliant, Duncan thought. But when Deanna found out it was a lie, the strategy could prove lethal for Piper.
“You think she’s the person you saw running away wearing the hoodie,” Sheriff Skinner said.
Duncan managed to nod and didn’t like the way his head swam.
“When Piper asked her, she didn’t deny being the person who paid all those patient visits to the library,” Daryl said.
“She’s not patient anymore,” Duncan said. “Arbogast?”
“I got a man babysitting him and the two young photographers at the stones. They’re not going anywhere, and my deputy is on his way out here. He called me a few minutes ago to tell me that Lightman isn’t in his room. Seems the snoring that’s been going on for the last couple of hours has come from a mini tape recorder Lightman set up.”
“I’ll follow along the cliff path,” Daryl said, rising.
Duncan grabbed Cam’s boss by the ankle. “She won’t hesitate to kill Piper. If the profile I’ve been building is right, there’s a good chance she blames Piper because she didn’t find the jewels first. The kinds of risks she’s running—like revealing herself today—mean she’s very dangerous. She may not even be worried about being caught.”
He could talk again, breathe. He made his way unsteadily to his feet.
“What’s the plan?” Daryl asked.
“We’re going to the cave through an alternate route.
You got a flashlight?”
Daryl patted his pocket. “Always. Along with my gun.”
Duncan fished in his pocket for his own. “This way.” He could only pray that he and Daryl would make it in time.
DON’T PANIC. PIPER REPEATED the phrase in her head, keeping the pace fast as the path wound upward to the cliffs. The sun was behind them, casting long shadows in front of them, so she knew just where Deanna was without looking back. She’d given some thought to running. But as fast as she was, a bullet was faster. And if she did outrun it, crazy Deanna might decide to go back and shoot Duncan while he lay helpless on the ground.
Talk. That was her safest alternative, Piper decided. It might save both of them from panicking. At the very least, it would keep Deanna from wondering why she and Duncan had decided to leave a priceless earring in the caves.
“Why were you visiting the library?” Piper asked.
“Because there had to be something there. Some clue to the whereabouts of the Stuart Sapphires. Anyone could have figured that out once the Times ran that picture of Mary Stuart wearing them side-by-side with Eleanor Campbell MacPherson’s wedding portrait. And there hasn’t been a trace of them since Eleanor died. They have to be here. We just needed more time. Your sister found the first one and cut off our access to the library.”
“You’re sure that Eleanor’s dowry and the jewels Mary Stuart wore at her coronation are the same?”
“I’m