and money.
Third, he would have alibis. Anyone who could shift well enough to fly could make people believe he was drinking with them all night when in fact he could commit a quick murder and return to the bar by last call. She’d done it in college, party hopping through teleportation. Exhausting, but possible. The amazing thing was that Declan could fly at all. Barrie, for instance, was a very talented Keeper, but she couldn’t do birds well enough to become airborne. Declan must have an immense amount of shapeshifter in his DNA, which only added to the strikes against him.
Fourth, he was undoubtedly the one who’d shifted into Vernon Winter, deceiving her both then and after.
Add to that Charlotte being found near his beach house and Tamarind’s collar being in his house—not to mention the message not to trust the one who flies—and it was no wonder Darius’s words echoed in her ear. Would she ever learn?
Trust less.
Chapter 16
Storm clouds were gathering overhead as Reggie met Sailor at the end of a dirt road—little more than a path really—off Kanan Dume. He was visibly upset, his friendly face lined with stress. It sent chills down her spine, imagining what he’d seen to make him look like that.
“We’ll walk,” he said, when she’d climbed out of the Aventador. “The car won’t make it.”
“Really?” she said. “I could drive on that.”
“In your Jeep maybe. Not in this. And it’s starting to rain. If it turns to mud, you’re screwed. What are you doing with Wainwright’s Lamborghini anyway?” He took the keys from her to lock the car with the remote, prompting the reassuring beep.
“Stealing it, I guess,” she said. “Where’s your car?”
“Up on the hill. Let’s hurry.”
The light was rapidly fading, and she could sense Reggie’s urgency matching her own as they made their way toward the scene. The land was thick with springtime foliage, obscuring the view to the highway, and there was a curiously secluded feeling to the lot. There were no houses within screaming distance, she thought. It was a bad image to conjure, Charlotte screaming, and she pushed it away. “How on earth did you find this place?”
“There’s a property up there that I manage,” he said, gesturing to the hillside on their right. “A few weeks ago we were scouting a location for a TV show, and the director asked about this land down here. I didn’t know anything about it, so I looked it up and found out the property’s been on the market for years. And I noticed the shed.” He pointed again. “Then I started to see lights driving up Kanan at night, and I kept thinking, ‘I have to check that out.’”
“What do you mean you ‘were scouting a location’?” Sailor said, feeling a small frisson of warning. “Do you work in the industry?”
“One of my side businesses,” he said. “I have a company that rents out properties for movie shoots. So today, just now, I thought, ‘Time to check it out.’ I couldn’t believe what I found.”
In a voice she hardly recognized as her own, she asked, “What’s it called, your company?”
Reggie glanced back at her, pointing to the words on his baseball cap. In small letters. “Location, Location, Location.”
Sailor grew cold all over.
The strangest thing was the spark of joy she felt at the knowledge that Declan wasn’t the killer, that Declan was the good guy.
And then the terror overtook her.
Facts dropped into place. Reggie had an entrée onto movie sets, any set for which he was providing the location. Including, no doubt, Technical Black, Knock My Socks Off, Six Corvettes.
He turned, sensing her slow down. “You okay?”
She looked away. If she made eye contact, he would see her thoughts. “Yes,” she said, and wondered if she should just make a run for it. Back to the Lamborghini.
Except that Reggie had the car keys.
Keep talking, she told herself. Don’t let him know you suspect anything. “I’m just— Reggie, I think Declan Wainwright is the killer.”
“Wainwright? Are you serious? Why would you say that?”
“Charlotte was found near his beach house, you know.”
“All right, come on,” he said. “Maybe there’s something in here that will connect him to the murder.”
She stared at his back. He was big, six-four or more and rangy. What was she doing here with him? What was he planning to do with her? And how could she let anyone know that this was the man the entire community of Others was seeking?
She felt for her phone as Reggie