Читать книгу The Face of Deceit - Ramona Richards - Страница 12

Twice in twenty-four hours, Karen’s world flipped upside down. As the two men sat in her living room and laid out their story, she couldn’t keep from blurting out, “But who would kill over a vase?”

Luke Knowles, a well-known auction agent, had purchased Lot 21, Karen’s vases, bidding the winning $8,000 for an anonymous client. The vases had been delivered to Knowles’s hotel room. Late last night, when Luke’s wife hadn’t been able to reach him, a manager had gone to check, finding Knowles dead and the four vases destroyed.

Karen stared at the two men, a crime scene photo in one hand and empty coffee cup in her other. “Who?” she repeated.

Tyler and Mason shifted uncomfortably and glanced at each other, then Mason touched her arm gently. “We were hoping you could help with that.”

Blinking, Karen looked down at the photo in her hand again, the details registering sketchily on her mind. A hotel room in chaos; in the center, ceramic shards and clay dust—remnants of four destroyed vases—were smeared across a dresser. At the edge of the image, a man’s leg protruded into the scene. The victim, murdered because of vases she had created from her imagination and a bit of raw clay.

The photo quivered as her fingers trembled, and Karen sat hard on her sofa. Her pottery, her art, was her heart, her livelihood and her life. Her vases, beautiful and distinct, sometimes felt like extensions of her very soul.

But they weren’t worth dying over.

Karen stared into her empty coffee cup as the two men sat and Tyler finished telling her about the death of Luke Knowles. She relished the security of the hard, cool ceramic under her fingertips as her eyelids stung and her vision blurred. Tyler sat across from her, his bulky frame wedged into one of her grandmother’s ancient, cane-bottom rockers, his hat clutched in one fist and a file folder in the other. Mason perched next to her on the edge of her fading rose-print sofa, his jeans a stark contrast to the feminine blossoms splayed under his thighs.

The morning sun had broken free of the tall trees of her backyard and now cast bright yellow streaks through the windows. The room seemed to glow, despite the somber mood of the three people clustered there.

“What about his family?” Karen’s voice was a strained whisper. “Did he have a family?” She peered at Mason, then Tyler. Her stomach felt tight, her chest constricted, but she wasn’t sure if she felt fear or grief. Or both. Hot tears leaked from each eye, and she wiped them away quickly.

The young police chief nodded. “A wife and a grown son.”

“I don’t understand.” Her soft voice cracked, and she swallowed again. “Why would anyone do this because of me?”

Tyler shifted in the chair, causing the cane to creak ominously. “Just like there was a note with your broken vases, there was a note at the crime scene.” He pulled a slip of paper from a file folder and held it out toward her. Mason stood quickly and helped the paper make the cross to Karen. He slipped the photo from her fingers and returned it to Tyler.

“That’s a copy they faxed,” Tyler explained. “The detective in New York thought you might recognize the handwriting.”

Karen wiped her eyes again and sat the cup on the floor near her feet. She unfolded the note, her fingers trembling a bit. As if scrawled and smeared with a pen too large for the writer’s hand, the letters swirled in an almost unreadable script in the middle of the page. She studied the note, her shoulders bowing slightly as a tight chill settled at the base of her spine. She recognized the handwriting…but not from anyone she knew. The clumsy block letters were the same as in the notes that had simply said, Stop! This one, however, was more specific.

Evil corrupts mind and soul.

Evil must be stopped.

All that is evil will be destroyed.

Her head snapped toward Mason, then Tyler. “So the killer thinks my vases are evil? Or me?”

Tyler shrugged. “New York thinks it could go either way. He could be a nutcase who has a fixation on your work, or maybe he has a problem with you personally. Or it could be a jealous—”

“But…evil?”

Mason cleared his throat. “Work or personal, this is about you.”

Tyler shifted in the rocker, his mouth pursed around a word that never made it out.

“But why?” Karen stood up and took the cup into the kitchen. Tyler caught the note as she passed by, slipping it from her fingers and returning it to the folder. She continued into the kitchen, her energy surging. She set the cup down with a solid thump on the counter that divided the two rooms. “They’re just vases.” She tapped her temple. “They just came out of my imagination and whatever I’ve learned about pots through the years.” She held her hand out toward Mason. “You know that. We talked about this!”

“I know.” He followed her into the kitchen. “But you’re trying to make sense of something that may exist only in this guy’s head. He killed because of something that makes sense only to him.”

Karen grabbed a dishcloth off the sink and began to wipe off an already spotless counter. “But if he thinks the vases are evil, then he thinks I’m evil.”

“Which is why we’re here.”

“Because evil must be destroyed.”

Tyler’s gaze bounced between the two, and he finally intervened. “Well, it’s clear neither of you is a cop.” He joined them at the counter. “Calm down.” He perched on one of the three bar stools that stood guard on the living room side of the counter. “First of all, New York does not expect you to figure out what’s going on with this murderer. That’s their job. Second, no one really thinks you are in danger. If whoever this is wanted to hurt you…” Tyler paused and shifted on the stool. “After all, he’s already proven he knows where you live.”

“But—”

“Which is why she needs protection!”

Tyler held up his hand to both of them. “And this is a small town. Everyone around knows the first thing you do every morning is make a pot of that fancy Hawaiian coffee you have shipped in and go out on your deck to talk to God. If the killer wanted you, he wouldn’t be wasting time and money buying up vases to shoot. Even a perfect stranger could sit at Laurie’s café for a couple of days and figure out what your schedule is.” Tyler shook his head. “We’ll add extra drive-bys on patrol, but the truth is, even a 24/7 guard probably wouldn’t help. Whatever his problem is, he wants to get rid of the vases, not you.”

Karen felt the heat slowly rise from her throat to her cheeks. “Every one?”

Tyler grinned. “My mom thinks it’s cute that you have a different robe for every season.” He stood, his mood somber again. “I do want you to take extra precautions. Make sure you lock the doors and set the alarm. Don’t wander around alone too much. And call me if you see anything strange—” he looked down at Lacey, who had suddenly started climbing his pants leg “—other than this cat—about the house.” He plucked Lacey off and put her on the stool. “In the meantime, I think you two should go for breakfast.”

Karen’s eyes widened. Food? “You don’t think I can eat now, do you?”

Tyler wandered toward the door, his eyes glancing casually around the room. “I certainly think you should eat. Mason has agreed to talk to you about the vases, see if you remember anything unusual about them. Maybe something about those particular vases strikes a chord with you.”

“But—”

“Protein. Eat some meat. Eggs. Lots of water.” He tapped the side of his head as he reached for the doorknob. “Helps you think.”

Mason followed him, an almost bemused smile on his face, and Karen wondered if the Delta boy thought their local police chief to be a dolt—or small-town clever. She walked out onto the deck again, staring, embracing the way the remaining mist seeped into her bones, as if the sting of it reminded her that she was still among the living.

“Lord,” she whispered, “what’s going on?”

Mason held the door for Tyler, who paused, glancing around him at Karen. Although Mason stood an inch or two taller than the young police chief, he admired the almost graceful way Tyler moved his larger, more muscular frame. Definitely not a man he’d want to oppose in a fight.

Tyler’s voice dropped in tone as well as volume. “You watch out for her. I knew she’d take it hard, but not this hard.”

Mason nodded. “She has a gentle soul.” A soul he had a sudden urge to protect.

Tyler’s eyes brightened a moment but he said nothing, and Mason twisted a bit under the police chief’s gaze. “You really don’t think she’s in danger? This has already escalated from broken vases to murder. That’s quite a leap!”

Tyler straightened. “I meant what I said to her. But let’s not forget something. Luke Knowles died because this guy wanted to be taken seriously—and not just as a crackpot who likes breaking pottery. He wants those vases to go away.” Tyler shifted his weight. “Karen may not be in danger right now, but that doesn’t mean this won’t escalate even more. We’ll do what we can, but watch your back. And hers.”

Mason watched, thoughtful as Tyler’s patrol car backed away, tires crunching on the narrow gravel drive. On the way over, Tyler had explained that since no threat had been made against Karen, he was limited in how much action he could take to protect her. He could add the extra drive-bys, but with only a five-officer force, no one could be there 24/7.

Inside again, Mason shut the door and turned, his eyes focusing on Karen’s back. Her shoulders slumped forward as she leaned heavily against the deck railing, and Mason wondered if she were praying again. She did that a lot, more than he was used to his friends doing, and it created an odd ache just below his sternum that he couldn’t quite explain. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe; he’d accepted Christ as his Savior fifteen years ago, at a youth rally when he was nineteen. His faith, however, was a closely held, private thing. Few of his friends even knew he was a Christian, and he was comfortable with that. He didn’t want to discuss his faith, definitely didn’t want to discuss theirs. His chosen profession, and his public image, didn’t lend themselves to outward shows of belief. Yet the highly visible nature of Karen’s faith left him with a nagging urge to ask questions.

And her faith was not the only thing that tugged at him, almost without explanation. From the moment he’d seen her vases in Jane’s shop, his imagination had been captured by her talent, her sense of color and shape, by how the vases seemed almost organic, as if they had been grown instead of formed from clay. Then, when she’d opened the door that day, covered in mud up to her elbows, hair wild and her eyes dazed, as if he’d interrupted a dream…

Mason rubbed his mouth. He didn’t like that he could not find the right words to the feelings that tightened his chest and made his mind whirl whenever he was around her…troublesome, since words were his business. He didn’t like it at all.

He did, however, like her. Maybe even more than like. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Being around Karen felt like…home. Mason had never quite believed that God had a chosen path for everyone, and that He could guide each person to it. Yet he’d been planning to go to a retreat center in Georgia when he got the call about the opening at Jackson’s Retreat. He’d never been to New Hampshire. The day he saw her vases in Jane’s window he had planned to stay in Boston, but his appointment had been canceled.

True, he could explain all that away, but not the way his heart had jumped when she’d opened the door. The way he longed to stand close to her, protect her. He tried desperately not to crowd or smother her; he’d already seen how carefully she kept people at a distance. Her aunt. Even Jane.

“Lord,” he muttered. “If this is Your path for us, You have a lot of work to do.”

Mason opened the door to the deck and approached Karen quietly, waiting until she raised her head again and turned toward him. Her eyes glistened, and she licked tears off her lower lip.

His heart twisted. “Praying for Luke Knowles?”

She wiped her eyes, smearing her mascara. “And his family. And for guidance.”

“Guidance?”

She nodded. “I suspect we’re going to need all the help we can get.”

“We?”

Karen’s eyebrows arched. “You don’t think we’re going to sit here and do nothing?”

A grin slowly crossed his face. “You? I can’t see you sitting still for much of anything.”

She waved a hand and marched past him. “Then come with me.”

Mason’s curiosity took over. “Where are you going?”

She kept walking, but pointed at the floor. “Down.” She headed for the far corner of her living room, away from the kitchen, where an elegant spiral staircase circled down to her pottery studio. Since he usually entered the studio from the outside, he took each of the narrow steps carefully, especially avoiding the coffee cup she’d left on a step about halfway down. The custom-built steps were barely deep enough for his size tens, and he arrived at the bottom long after Karen had disappeared from view.

Mason paused, looking around. The studio, which took up the entire basement, was Karen’s sanctuary, and she kept it pristinely clean. The house was set deep into a solid granite hillside, and three walls of the basement had been framed directly against the stone, which still protruded through the Sheetrock in places. Shelves lined almost every inch, clustered with baskets of paints, clays, glazes, molds, texturing tools and the round, flat bats for the three potter’s wheels that stood in a line in the center of the room. Every shelf was labeled and each basket neatly organized. At one end of the room stood an extruding table, where Karen pulled thin plates of clay for hand building. Next to the table stood a worktable stained with years of glaze, paint and old bits of clay. At the other end sat two kilns, one for her larger projects and one that wasn’t much bigger than a toaster oven, in which she made the smaller gifts and beads for local jewelry artists. The glass wall that overlooked the hill was spotless and dotted with sun catchers.

The potter, however, could not be seen. “Where are you?”

“Back here.” Her head seemed to appear suddenly out of a space of granite. Puzzled, Mason crossed the room to discover that there was a thin doorway in the rock, disguised by the gray stone directly behind it and revealed only by a yellow light now coming from the left.

Karen stepped out.

“A baffle?”

She nodded. “When the house was built, the owner wanted a darkroom, and the builder tried to carve this Z in the rock as a rough sort of light baffle. Rumor has it that it drove two of his workers completely crazy. Unfortunately, it was all for naught. The owner died before the house was complete. I like it.” She grinned. “When the light’s off, you can’t even tell there’s a room here.” She stepped back and Mason trailed her around the tight corner of the thin, Z-shaped baffle into a room of granite walls with high shelves along one side.

He looked up and around, his eyes widening. “This is amazing! Like a catacomb.” The cavelike room was barely four feet wide and extended back into the stone about eight feet. A bare bulb hung from a hook driven into the stone ceiling, small, but casting enough light that he could read the labels on the neat, clearly marked metal boxes that covered the shelves.

Karen’s smile broadened. “My secret hiding place.” She turned suddenly and pulled a file box from one of the middle shelves. “But this is what I came for.”

He took it from her, and a slightly surprised look crossed her face. “What’s wrong, chère?” he asked.

She blinked. “Guess I’m not used to having anyone help me.” She shrugged, then motioned for him to leave. “Let’s take it back out there.”

They exited the room, and she snapped off the light behind them, letting her private storage room disappear into the wall again. He set the box on her worktable and she flipped the lid up and back, letting it bang against the tabletop. Inside were stacks of small, five-by-seven photo albums. “That was the Wilhelms auction, right?”

When he nodded, her lips pursed. “The four in that catalog were old, earlier versions. I stopped using orange last year, went solely to streaks of green and red…and I don’t remember selling to a Wil…” Her voice faded a moment as her eyes closed. “A set of four. Not a private sale, must have been through one of the galleries. Haven’t sold four at once except…” another pause, then her eyes flew open and she attacked the box, digging through the albums “…2005. A dealer, but not in New York. Boston. Told me he’d sold four as a gift. A woman was giving them to her mother. She bargained him down to about a hundred dollars per.”

“She got a good deal.”

Karen clutched a red binder and pulled it out, plopping it down on the table. She opened it, pausing briefly at the first page, her fingers resting lightly on the first picture.

Mason peered at the yellowed photo. “What is it?”

Her childlike smile reminded him of a young girl caught in an embarrassing moment. “I’d forgotten this was here. These are the first four vases I sold.”

Mason gently pulled her hand back to reveal a shot of four vases in deep blues and vibrant emerald greens. No faces, yet the elegance of their simple lines enchanted the eye. “They’re beautiful.”

She sighed. “I adored them. Almost wish I had them back, but if I hadn’t sold them, I wouldn’t have known I could do this for a living. They were my breakthrough pieces.”

“Who bought them?”

“A dealer on New York’s Lower East Side.” She looked at the far wall of the studio, thoughtful, her gaze distant. “Tiny place. Brand-new. We were both trying to give each other a hand up. He bought them for thirty-five dollars, sold them for fifty dollars.”

Karen sighed as if she were savoring a favorite memory, and Mason touched her hand. “Do you know who purchased them from the dealer?”

She turned to him, her smile sad. “No. I wish I did. It would be like finding out what had happened to an old fri—” Her words faded, and as they continued to look at each other a few moments, Mason felt as if whatever it was between them had gently escalated. Mason felt her tremble, and the urge to kiss her, to hold her, washed over him. He leaned forward, his lips close to hers, but Karen suddenly tensed.

Karen cleared her throat and looked away, turning the album page quickly.

Heat shot into Mason’s cheeks and he released her hand. “Chère, I’m sorry.”

Karen stared at the photos. “No, don’t be. I mean…it’s okay. I just…” She glanced quickly at him, then back at the table. “Not the right time, with Luke Knowles and all.” She patted the photos. “We need to do this.” She faced him again, worry clouding her eyes. “Right?”

You idiot! Mason scolded himself. To Karen, he nodded. “Of course. You’re right.” He squared his shoulders and let out a deep breath. “In fact, we wouldn’t even have to do this if I hadn’t been a dolt and left the catalog in New York. Show me what you have.”

She then flipped several more pages, and Mason watched as the shots passed—pages of pots, plaques, vases, teapots, wall sculptures that flashed by under her fingers.

“You keep pictures of everything?”

“Yep. Polaroids of the older ones. Now I use digital shots, keep them on CDs. Helps me track ideas, sales, if I want to duplicate, or if I want to avoid duplicating…” She stopped and flattened her hand over one page. She took a deep breath, then pushed the album toward him. “Here they are.”

He peered at the picture, which had yellowed a bit with age, remembering the page from the auction catalog. There they were, indeed, identical, the swirling colors and the faces with the dark hair with white streaks distinctive even in this small photo. His bidding duel with Luke Knowles flashed through his head, and Mason swallowed. “They’re remarkable.” He didn’t want to think about what might have happened had he succeeded in buying the vases. Or if the killer decided to turn his sights on Karen. His throat tightened, making his voice more guttural than he’d expected.

She shook her head. “But not worth killing for.” Karen glanced at the picture, then focused on him, her hand closing on his wrist. “What’s the matter?”

Mason’s hand seemed to tingle from her touch, and he felt heat rising in his cheeks. Her eyes were so blue. Almost cobalt, like the Atlantic in the high sun. But he wouldn’t approach her again. Not today. He cleared his throat. “We should probably take a copy of this to Tyler.”

Those blue eyes gleamed. “Of course. But that’s not what’s wrong.”

There was no way…no…he would not talk about…One embarrassing moment a day was quite enough.

Karen broke the moment, pulling away and slipping the photo out of the album. She pointed to the address on the back. “That’s the dealer who bought them.” She paused, looking over him again. “Maybe Tyler was right. Breakfast might be a good idea after all. We could stop on the way to Tyler’s office.”

“Yes,” Mason said quickly. “Some of Laurie’s French toast might just do the trick.”

Karen grinned, then headed back toward the stairs, grabbing her cup as she went. “Absolutely.”

Mason followed her up the twisting steps, pausing briefly at the top. The sun, now slowly heating the living room to a comfortable toast, streaked her hair with gold, and the curls bounced as she walked to the kitchen, making him smile. She set the cup down, then pulled an envelope out of a drawer and slid the picture in. She flipped off the coffeemaker and grabbed her purse from a stool near the bar. “Did you drive?”

He shook his head. “Tyler drove us over from his office.”

“Let’s walk then. Work off a few of Laurie’s calories before we eat them—What?”

Mason hesitated. He didn’t want to say it, but all the girls he’d known would have killed him if he’d held back, especially with them going out. He reached out and touched her cheek, just below her left eye. “Your mascara…the tears…”

Her cheeks reddened, but her smile was one of delight. “You doll,” she said. “Thank you.” She bounded up the stairs, to return only a minute or so later, her face clean and eyelashes darkened again. “Better?”

He nodded, and she paused to set the alarm before shooing him toward the door. She locked it behind them, her key slipping easily in and out of the dead bolt. “By the way, how did you hook up with Tyler this morning?”

“The police contacted me in New York, after Luke Knowles was shot. They had asked the auction house about other bidders, and the auctioneer gave them my name. They said they’d leave contacting you up to the local cop, Tyler, and I called him, asking if I could come with him.”

Karen nodded. “Why did you want to come?”

He hesitated. “To be here for you. I thought you might take it pretty hard.”

She considered this a moment, then he barely heard her quiet “Thank you.”

The hillside cottage was three blocks downhill from the center of town, and as they plodded upward, Mason was glad there was still a slight chill in the morning air. They fell silent for a few moments, the only sound the solid padding of their hiking boots on the rough pavement. Mason shortened his strides to match hers, feeling far too much like a lanky colt next to her elegance. Karen barely came up to his shoulder, but she had a toned, athletic build and she moved with a smooth grace. Occasionally, she’d get focused or forgetful and experience a sudden klutziness, which charmed him even more.

Yet Mason’s enjoyment of Mercer, New Hampshire, extended far beyond the climate and Karen’s friendship. The tight-knit community, with its Revolutionary War history and art district ambience had totally charmed him. Most of the families had been in the area for almost three hundred years, with the exception of a cluster of artists who’d started flocking to the town in the late sixties.

Their presence had given rise to an active local arts society, a number of unique galleries and the writers’ colony, where he lived. There was a lot of encouragement for homegrown artists, including the one who now strolled at his side while he struggled not to stare.

Karen walked with her head up as they moved along the narrow lane toward Mercer’s main street. Her gaze darted along the scenery, as if recording and storing every detail of the morning. She paused occasionally to give an extra second to a squirrel, an unusual red flower or an odd shadow in the trees. After she’d stopped to finger a leaf left over from last fall, one turned to a lacey fringe by bugs and frost, Mason finally gave in to his curiosity. “What do you see in that?”

She held it in her palm, smoothing a bit of mud off the stem. “The pattern. I’ve been making some ‘nature’ trays for one of the galleries. Hand-built. I press plants, berries, grasses, that kind of thing, into the clay to create the pattern. When it’s fired, the foliage burns off but leaves the pattern. I paint the illustrations in and around the impressions.”

He stopped at the crossroad at the end of her street to check traffic, then took her elbow as they turned toward town again. “Is that what you did with the vases?”

Silent, Karen stared down at the leaf, lying featherlike in her hand.

Mason pulled her to a halt. “Karen?”

She continued to look down. “If I tell you this, you can’t ever, ever put it in writing. You promise?”

Mason reached for her chin and pulled her head up. “I promise.”

“I don’t want anyone to think I’m crazy.” Her gaze grew even more distant. “My aunt already thinks…” Her words faded.

He dropped his hand to her shoulder, tilting his head to look more closely at her. “Karen, you are one of the least crazy people I know. So tell me.”

She licked her lips. “Those vases…they’ve evolved. I kinda do my own thing now, trying to keep them new.”

“But?”

She finally met his eyes. “But the first ones came to me in a dream several years ago.”

Okay, so she could surprise him. “A dream?”

She sighed. “A nightmare, actually.” She pulled the envelope from her purse and slipped the leaf in as she pulled the photo out. She ran her finger over the image. “Several of them. This face.” Her eyelids lowered, shadowing her gaze. “It was not long after the first show at that little gallery on East Houston. Small, but I got good notices. Sold those pieces I showed you, and it looked as if I could truly do this for a living.”

Karen took a deep breath and opened her eyes, looking directly into his. “A couple of weeks later, I started having nightmares about being chased. I couldn’t tell who it was, but there was this face.” She tapped the photo again. “This face. So pale, with the white streaks in dark hair. The sharp nose, high cheekbones. And legs. Thick, running legs. Green legs. I woke up in such a panic that I…” She swallowed. “I’d never felt a fear like that. I did the first vase in an attempt to get rid of the nightmare. I never expected to sell it—or that it would be the start of dozens of others.”

“What about the nightmare?”

“It disappeared.” Karen returned the photo to the envelope and put it back in her purse. “I’ve always been able to work out things like that in the art. It’s as if all I have to do is to get it out of my head and into the clay, then things work out.”

“Any idea what the dream meant?”

She frowned. “You mean, like an interpretation?”

“Sure. It’s not as New Agey as it sounds.” He took a deep breath, remembering something he’d heard not long after becoming a Christian. “After all, the Bible is full of dreams and visions, and most meant something significant.” He took her hand. “There are a number of books out there…some people think dreams are one way God answers prayers.”

Karen stared at him a few minutes, then raised her head a bit. “I’ll have to think about that one.” She nodded. “And I know just who to talk to.” Grinning, she slipped her hand out of his and took his arm as they resumed walking. “In the meantime, let’s get some French toast.”

The warmth of her hand against his skin made Mason stand a little taller as they entered downtown Mercer. Laurie’s Federal Café occupied a tiny storefront about halfway between the granite city hall at one end of town and the millpond at the other. Her two “mission statements” hung near the register: Good Food Served Simply and We Trust In God; All Others Must Pay Cash.

The lanky blonde with a red face waved at Mason and Karen from the back counter of the restaurant as they helped themselves to seats near the door. Karen barely had time to drape her purse on the back of her chair before Laurie was at their side with a coffeepot and two cups. She touched Karen’s shoulder as she filled the mugs. “Just plain old coffee, but fresh and hot. Tell me you’re having French toast.”

Mason took a long sniff of the coffee, and his smile grew lazy and broad. “You know it, pretty lady. Your French toast makes life a little better.”

Laurie looked down at him, her eyes bright and flirtatious. “You need to bring your older brothers up here, if they talk like you.” As the heat rose in his cheeks, she laughed. “And especially if they blush like you.”

“French toast is not protein.”

Mason twisted in his seat at the sound of Tyler’s baritone voice to find the officer standing behind him. “No,” he agreed, “but it’s some mighty fine eating.”

“Following us, Mr. Madison?” Karen’s voice teased, but she pulled out the extra chair at the table and motioned for him to sit.

He did, removing his hat. “Not yet. We’re out of coffee at the station, so I came over to get some to-go cups. Mom won’t go to the grocery until this afternoon.”

“Mom?” Mason asked.

Tyler cleared his throat. “My mother is office manager for the police department.”

“Peg’s terrific,” Karen said. “She’s like a mom to the whole town.”

Tyler shifted in his chair, then focused on Karen. “How are you doing?”

She examined her fingernails. “I’m all right. I think.”

Mason touched her arm. “Show him the picture.”

Karen perked back to life. “Oh!” She dug in her purse, pulling out the envelope and handing Tyler the Polaroid. “Those are the four vases. I sold them originally to a dealer in Boston. The name is on the back of the photo, but they moved recently. I’ll e-mail you the new address.”

“Please do. You never know where a clue may pop up.” He held the photo close to his face, studying every detail. “Are they distinctive?”

She shook her head. “Not exactly. I do a lot of vases, many of them of a similar design. Each vase is unique, unlike the others in some way, but they are all of the same type.”

Tyler rubbed his thumb over the print. “What’s this face on them?”

Karen shot a warning glance at Mason and shook her head. “Just one of my trademarks. I do a lot of face vases. They’re my bestselling item.”

“Is it always the same face?”

“More or less. As I said, my trademark. It’s what people expect on a Karen O’Neill face vase.”

“That’s what drew me to do the article,” Mason interjected.

Tyler looked up at him. “What article?”

Mason explained about the magazine article he’d written and his own interest in “face vases.” “One of my grandmothers had a couple of ‘face jugs,’ which tend to be prominent in the South. But sculpting face masks on pottery artifacts is centuries old. Usually they’re stylized, even exaggerated or grotesque.”

Tyler peered at the picture again. “So this isn’t anyone in particular?”

Karen shook her head. “No. Like I said, it’s just out of my head.”

The young police chief squinted. “Looks familiar, though. Are you sure this isn’t based on someone you know?”

Karen’s curls trembled and her lips tightened. “Positive.”

Mason watched, his brow tensing. “It’s the same with writers.”

Tyler looked up from the picture, puzzled by the interruption. “Beg pardon?”

Mason spoke quickly. “Novelists, I mean. They don’t usually base a character on any one specific person. Too easy to get sued, especially nowadays. Characters tend to be composites of people they know, folks they think they know and stuff they just make up. Artists do the same sometimes, especially with abstractions or art like this. Not real. A representation of real.”

“Ah.” Tyler looked back at the photo, obviously not completely convinced. “Good job making it look familiar, anyway. Do you mind if I take this? I’ll get it scanned and get it back to you within a couple of days. And don’t forget to e-mail me that address. I’m sure New York would like to know how the vases got to that auction.”

Karen sighed, a touch of relief on her face. “Keep it as long as you need it. But would you e-mail me the scan? I’ve been meaning to get that done to the old pictures anyway.”

Tyler tucked the picture into his shirt pocket as Laurie brought his four coffees to go in a cardboard box. “Sure. I’ll send it over as soon as I have it.” He stood, put his hat on, then handed Laurie a five-dollar bill as he took the box. “Thanks.”

Mason watched him go, then turned to find Karen staring at him. “What?” he asked.

“You didn’t have to do that.”

He glanced up at Laurie as she set his plate in front of him. “Thanks, Miss Laurie,” he said, picking up his knife and fork. “It looks better than anything even my mama ever put in front of me.”

Laurie grinned. “Thanks, sugar,” she said, picking up on his accent. She placed Karen’s plate down and winked at her. “Don’t let him sweet-talk you into anything.”

Karen stifled a giggle. “I won’t.”

Mason looked from one to the other, his eyes carefully held wide in what he hoped was an expression of innocence. “I have no idea what y’all are talking about.”

“Oh, I’m sure you don’t.” Laurie refilled their cups and beat a discreet retreat.

Mason watched her for a second, then turned back to Karen. “I didn’t have to do what?” he asked, a bite of French toast crowding one cheek.

“Distract Tyler. Thank you for doing it. That was just weird, him looking at the vase as if it were someone he knew.”

Mason swallowed and looked her over carefully. “Karen, how long has Tyler been a cop?”

She paused. “Not sure. Since college, I know. We went to high school together, but he’s older and I didn’t really pay attention. Maybe ten years. Why?”

“All that time here?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

He leaned back in his chair. “I know how you feel about the vases and that face, but you need to think about something, as well. Tyler’s powers of observation are skilled. Trained. This is a small town. He’s going to know most people in this area. Has to—it’s his job. Cops I knew back home could tell you family histories for every kid at the local high school, including who their granddaddies ran around with when they were kids. If he thinks he recognizes the face, then he probably does.”

Karen stared at her plate. “I don’t want to hear this.”

“Why? What if he’s right? What if your memory is picking up on someone you really know and plopping it on those vases?”

She put down her fork and turned to him. “It can’t be.”

“Why not?”

She took a deep breath and dropped her voice so low that he had to lean forward to hear her. “Don’t you understand? That face was chasing me. I was running away because I was terrified. I was running because the person attached to that face was trying to kill me.” Karen leaned back, watching Mason closely, waiting for a response.

He took a deep breath, not wanting to say the words that begged to come out. But if her dreams were a memory trying to work its way out, they were the logical response, the only response. He swallowed hard, dropping his voice. “So has anyone ever really tried to kill you?”

Karen’s eyes met his, evenly, solidly. “Yes.”

From a car across the street, the cold eyes of Luke Knowles’s client watched Karen and Mason’s intimate conversation. “How cozy. Whispering sweetness to him?” The soft voice spoke in the smooth cadences of a practiced speaker, despite the New England edge it held.

The client had not expected Karen and Mason to leave the house so soon, but this provided an advantage, opening up the time frame for the plan by at least fifteen minutes. The client chuckled. A lot could be accomplished in fifteen minutes.

Those blue eyes finally looked away from the café, scanning the street, the mostly closed storefronts. Watching carefully each movement, each blown leaf or strolling citizen. Despicable little town, actually, with its pretentious quaintness and that laughable “arts district.” When this was all over, leaving would be a pleasure as well as a necessity.

But not yet. There was still much to be done, although the first parts of the plan were already in play. First Knowles, now…

The client watched as Tyler Madison bounded out of his office and ran up the street toward the arts district, more lumbering bull than sprinting elk. Even from this distance, the client could hear the rattle and squeak of the leather and metal belts and instruments hanging from the police chief’s body. An even younger—and substantially thinner—officer soon followed, and the client smiled and sat straighter, starting the car’s engine and slipping the car away from the curb. Time for the next step.