Sapphire Nights (Crystal Magic Book 1)(24)

“Then charge me with a crime,” she said angrily. “I can’t go on like this.”

“I’ll find a free clinic. If you’ll go with me and have blood tests done, I’ll ask the sheriff if special circumstances warrant entering the database. It’s not likely to have anything much, but the DMV should have your social security number if you have one. That’s enough to get me your birth date and your full credit record.”

“Tell me the name of my parents,” she said. “Maybe their names will jog my memory.”

“This is just basic search engine stuff. You can look yourself up online or go into the university enrollment database.”

“Not without a computer,” she pointed out. “If I had one, it’s gone too. I can’t keep driving up to the lodge if I have no license.” She grimaced. Now he knew for sure she was breaking the law if she got into the car.

“Point taken, sorry. Their names were Jade and Wolf Moon. Ring any bells?”

She played the names in her head, searching for familiarity. But she’d probably called them Mom and Dad. “Nothing, not even the weirdness of their names,” she replied with a sigh. “Can you research them more? They’re dead. It’s not as if it’s an invasion of privacy. They’re not exactly common names, are they?”

“That’s a thought,” he agreed. “What if something in your subconscious about your parents is drawing you here? I can dig around into their background.”

She frowned skeptically. “Weird names do not necessarily mean they come from a weird town.”

He pondered possibilities and frowned as he did so. “They sound like hippy names, but the commune was two generations ago. Your parents might have been born here, but the commune was gone by the time you were born. And if they returned as adults, someone in town would have remembered you or them.”

“That’s for sure. I was hoping someone here would know me, but the whole town must pass through the café and not one recognizes me. But now that I have names, I can kind of ask around, so thanks for that. At least I know I’m not an alien from another planet. What about the skeleton? Has it been there long enough be related to the commune?”

He tightened his jaw and narrowed his eyes into his inscrutable expression. “The commune was gone thirty or forty years ago, and the skeleton hasn’t been there that long, so no. Mostly, I need to question people who lived here eighteen years ago.”

Wondering why his mood had changed, Sam watched a dust trail coming up the road. Someone was driving too fast. “And maybe you could ask if they remember my parents? This town is the only connection I have besides the university.” She didn’t let excitement build. There were too many unanswered questions and speculation was useless. “What about some of the people my age or a little older? Could their grandparents have lived up here? I mean, what else would draw young people up here?”

“The excellent company?” he asked, lightening up. “You have a point. The vortex is a draw, but we’re not famous like Sedona. Want to help me nose around looking for old-timers?”

“Might be better asking questions than answering them for a change,” she said with a grimace. “Where is this vortex?” She watched a white Escalade pull up at Cass’s house.

“You’re sitting right above it.” Walker gestured at the basin at the foot of the amphitheater. “Guess that means you’re not psychically in touch with the earth spirits or whatever nonsense they profess.”

Guess that made her a Null. She felt good out here, grounded, but not spiritually evolved in any way. They both watched the Escalade. “Who’s that stopping at Cass’s?”

“Carmel Kennedy. She’s been on the warpath ever since she arrived the other night. I just steer clear. Monty and Kurt are the ones who suffer. She owns the biggest share of the lodge and almost all the land around town, so they’re at her mercy.”

“They could find employment elsewhere,” Sam said callously. The passenger remained in the car while the driver loped up to Cass’s door, knocked, then pulled the old ringer. The chauffeur wore black and gold livery—quite a retreat to days gone by. “I hope her driver is paid well to wear that outfit.”

“Francois insisted on it is what I heard. He likes the military look. I wonder what they want with Cass? I’d heard there was a feud between her and Carmel.”

Sam broke off a grass stem and chewed on it. “My mind reading skills say she is furious about your skeleton, and she wants to blame it on Cass and demand she clean it up. Or take the fall.”

Walker snorted. “Good instincts. I understand the grave has been a major part of the ongoing discussions at the lodge.”

They watched as the driver returned to the car, backed out, and drove up to the cemetery. He stopped at the arch, and a tall woman with Viking shoulders got out. She wore a casual loose beige tunic and trousers that Sam could tell from this distance were raw silk. The color complemented Carmel’s tawny, sleek hair. Sam pulled at a strand of her own childish white-blond haystack. She would never look that sophisticated.

“Do you believe in evil?” Sam asked as the figure below picked her way up the partial gravel path to the enormous monument to the Kennedys.

The driver opened his window and a plume of smoke filtered out.