The Lady Has a Past (Burning Cove #5) - Amanda Quick Page 0,83
paraffin bath murder?”
“No, this heat is new.”
“I don’t suppose you can tell who went through that door last?”
“No,” Simon said. “Only that whoever did was enraged—ready to murder. Not in full control.”
“Bad combination. Billingsley?”
“Maybe. Or Guppy.”
Simon tightened his hand around the doorknob again and tested it. The door was unlocked. He opened it, picked up his briefcase, and moved into the storage room. Luther followed and closed the door.
They both stood quietly for a time, letting their eyes adjust to the gloom and listening for indications that they were not alone.
“What’s that smell?” Luther asked.
“Violet perfume,” Simon said. “It’s a little on the heavy side.”
“I’ll say. Smells like a funeral parlor.” Luther looked around. “Feels empty in here.”
“I agree.” Simon started forward. “Guppy’s office is close to the front entrance, but as I told you, I didn’t find anything in the safe except money and some financial records relating to the spa business.”
“I like financial records,” Luther said. “They are always useful. We’ll grab those first. After that we’ll search the place and see if you can find any hot spots.”
“Right.”
They walked slowly past several closed treatment rooms. Simon methodically brushed his fingertips across the doorknobs, each time bracing himself for a jolt.
The paraffin bath room was still hot, but the energy was not as intense as it had been hours earlier.
“That’s where Frampton was murdered,” he explained to Luther.
“The local paper is declaring it the work of a fiend.”
“A fiend, maybe, but not some random killer who happened to target the woman.”
“No coincidences in a murder investigation.”
“No.”
Simon stopped at Guppy’s office. The door was locked. He took out the lockpick and went to work. Thirty seconds later they were inside.
He crossed the room to the safe, set his briefcase down on the floor, and crouched next to it. Luther watched the hallway, gun in hand.
“There’s some hot energy on the combination lock,” Simon said. “It was opened recently. Whoever did it was anxious. Tense. In a rush. But it’s not what I felt on the service door.”
He opened the safe. Luther swept the beam of the flashlight around the interior. The only thing inside was a stack of receipts.
“This is interesting,” Simon said. “The last time I opened it there was a lot of cash inside. A couple thousand bucks, maybe.”
“Let’s check out the rest of this place. Where do you suggest we start?”
“The steam chamber,” Simon said.
He led the way down another hallway and opened the door of the dressing room where he had found Lyra in the shower. There had been no time to repair the window in the door that separated the dressing room from the steam chamber. He tested the handle. The scars on his hand burned. The energy was fading, but there was enough left to tell him that the person who had tried to murder Lyra was not the same individual who had opened the back door of the spa earlier that day.
He had to exert more than the usual amount of control to suppress his fierce response. The effort must have been etched on his face, because Luther looked at him with a curious expression.
“Are you okay?” Luther asked.
“I’m fine.”
“Just asking. You don’t have to bite my head off.”
“Sorry. I can feel the energy of the person who tried to kill Lyra.”
“I understand.”
Simon remembered the cold fire in Luther’s eyes when he had shot Billingsley.
“I know you do,” Simon said.
He opened the door, turned on the lights, and made himself walk through the steam chamber with his senses heightened. It was difficult to focus, because there were plenty of hot spots in the room—relatively fresh pools of energy—but they were tinged with panic, fear, and desperation. Usually he could only identify strong emotions, not the individual who had laid down the energy of those emotions. But he realized with a deep sense of certainty that he would know Lyra’s energy anywhere. There was a bond between them now. He’d never experienced anything like it.
“Simon?” Luther said quietly.
“Sorry. Got distracted. Lot of energy in here.”
He moved on, circling and crisscrossing the steam chamber. When he was finished he went back to the door where Luther stood.
“Nothing out of the ordinary,” he said. “Let’s try the gym. A lot of possible hiding places in a gym.”
They went down the hall to the gymnasium. The door was unlocked. Simon touched the handle and got hit with a flash of rage. There was something else, as well. An overlay of the anxiety and excitement.