Serafina and the Virtual Man - By Marie Treanor Page 0,27

is hardly a secret. And there has to be a reason you were hacked.”

“Then you think I was hacked by someone pretending to be Adam in order to get at company secrets, and that we have a poltergeist who is also Adam?”

Jilly looked rather wildly at Sera, who said, “Who else knows about the poltergeist? Besides us.”

“Trust me, it’s not the sort of thing I bandy about at work,” Dale said bitterly. “Or among friends who’d have me certified.”

Petra looked at her nails, saying nothing. Clearly the poltergeist was not a total secret. So, the Ewans really could have a hacker, and Jilly’s hacker surely had to be the same person.

And yet she’d almost convinced herself it was some shade, even some program representing Genesis Adam.

“The thing is,” Sera went on, “if I’m to get rid of this poltergeist for you, it would really help to understand how it came to be in the first place. We’re not here to judge you, or report you. You were promised discretion at Serafina’s, and you’ll always get it. I just need to know what happened the night of your break-in.”

Petra’s nails were just not that interesting, but she didn’t look up. Her husband, however, lifted his eyebrows in mild surprise.

“Break-in? God, I’d forgotten about that. What with this other stuff and Adam’s death, it went right out of my mind.”

Sera leaned forward across the glass table to touch his arm while gazing earnestly into his face. “Did you fire the shot?”

“Shot?” Dale frowned in bewilderment. “There weren’t any shots! We hadn’t switched the alarm on, and these two jokers had managed to wander into the house. When they heard our voices, they bolted. They weren’t even armed. Small-time habitual criminals, according to the police.”

Sera sat back again. “Was Genesis Adam here that night?”

“Adam? No, of course not, why would he be here? He was in Australia by then. Or at least on his way. To be honest, he wasn’t really welcome in our home by that time.”

“And yet he left you everything,” Jilly observed.

Petra glanced up at that, blinking as if she’d never seen Jilly before. “How do you know that?”

“It isn’t a secret.”

“No, it isn’t,” Dale agreed. “Maybe he forgot to change his will, which would have been just like him. Or maybe in spite of everything, he still knew we were his best friends. Which would also be just like him.”

There was honesty in that, Jilly thought. It was there in the odd frustration of his voice, the only half-annoyed flick of his hand through his hair. A genuine if much-tried affection.

“Okay,” Sera said. “I want to try this again with what we know now. But you have to leave the house, or it will feed off your fear. Even just for a few hours. Go to Edinburgh, have dinner, whatever. You don’t have to stay away all night if you don’t want to, but I don’t stand a chance of dispersing this thing with you here.”

The Ewans exchanged looks.

Dale stood up. “Excuse us for a few moments. We’ll discuss it.”

“Be my guest,” Sera said.

The Ewans moved away toward the arch, talking in low voices.

Jilly looked at Sera, who was watching them without blinking. “What do you think?” she murmured. “He seemed pretty plausible to me.”

“Yes,” Sera agreed, “but all the same, he was lying through his teeth.”

“Did you fire the shot?”

“Shot? There weren’t any shots!”

Sera had been touching his arm. She’d sensed the lie.

So was Exodus telling the truth or any part of it?

Dale strode back toward them. “How much access to the house would you need?” he demanded.

“As much or as little as you’re prepared to give. The important thing is that you aren’t in any of it.”

“You’re no doubt aware I keep very sensitive material in the house. Such as stuff relating to the new system.” His glance flickered to Jilly, who smiled beatifically and gazed back.

“We won’t need to be anywhere near that kind of stuff,” Sera soothed. “We just need access to the normal haunts of the poltergeist. Feel free to lock any doors you want off limits.”

“Lock and alarm.” Dale looked directly at Jilly, and she knew she’d been rumbled. She’d known too much, said too much that she could only have known by accessing files she’d no business to see. It was almost worth it to see that Petra’s supreme indifference to her presence had now changed to a distinct wariness.

****

Genesis Adam’s heart was lightened by the sight of his beautiful computer hacker